The Manzanar Relocation Center was located in central California, about 220 miles north of Los Angeles. The site was first opened on March 22, 1942, as the Owens Valley Reception Center, an assembly center administered by the Wartime Civil Control Administration. On June 1, 1942, the War Relocation Authority took control of the center, and it became the first of ten camps used to intern those of Japanese descent during World War II. It closed on November 21, 1946.

Located in the barren, windswept Owens Valley, the camp had stunning views of Mt. Whitney and was nestled between the steep Sierra Nevada Mountains and the White-Inyo Range. But summers in the area can top 100 degrees, and snow falls in the winter. The harsh environment can be exacerbated by fierce dust storms. Manzanar, which means "apple orchard" in Spanish, was a farming community founded in 1910 but abandoned when the city of Los Angeles purchased the land for water rights in the late 1920s.

Construction of Manzanar began in March 1942, and 800 Japanese Americans volunteered to help build the camp. Manzanar's population reached its peak of more than 10,000 by the fall. Over 90 percent of the evacuees were from the Los Angeles area; the others were from northern California, and Bainbridge Island, Washington.

The camp covered 540 acres and was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and eight watchtowers. It had 67 blocks, including 36 residential blocks, two staff housing blocks, an administrative block, two warehouse blocks, a garage block, and a military police compound. Each of the 36 evacuee residential blocks had 14 barracks, a mess hall, a recreation hall, two communal bathhouses, a laundry room, an ironing room, and a heating oil storage tank. The hospital became the largest in the county, and later on there was a Bank of America branch and a Sears Roebuck catalogue store. Most of the buildings were flimsily constructed of wood frame, board, and tarpaper.

The camp’s churches, shops, canteen, beauty parlor, barbershop, and photography studio were all located in barracks and recreation buildings. By the fall of 1942, 18 nursery schools and seven kindergartens were organized. The elementary and high school classes were held in barracks, mess halls and laundry rooms, but the internees built an impressive 14,140-square-foot wood frame auditorium that still stands today.