Japanese-Americans Went To The Internment Camp Where Their Relatives Were Detained And It Was Chilling
"It was a lot more emotional for me than I thought it would be."
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BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Staff
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Junior Social Media Strategist
In 1942, the US government detained more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans in incarceration camps. To learn more about it, a few younger Japanese-Americans decided to visit Manzanar, a former internment camp in California, to gain a deeper understanding of their ancestors' past.
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Mananzar was one out of ten incarceration camps across the United States. At its peak, it held over 10,000 detainees.
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Before heading to Manzanar, most people had little to no knowledge of what their families had experienced.
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And they hoped to gain a better grasp on what life was like during this time.
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They soon learned that people were given limited materials to live comfortably.
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And they were never told how long they would be living in the camp.
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During their visit, they were shown models of the entire camp that displayed how massive it was and how many people were kept there.
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A few of the visitors even found records of their families' time in the incarceration camps.
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Sean was even told that they had located his grandparents' exact block address.
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And when he visited the area where his grandfather was stationed...he was moved.
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Some expected the experience to be more informative and not as emotional...
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…and others were inspired to spread awareness about the injustice Japanese-Americans faced during this time.
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But they all learned how important it is to address historical events in order to create a better tomorrow.
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