Virtual Manzanar

CyArk and NPS Previewed a Digital Reconstruction of Manzanar to the Public on July 23, 2012

by Elizabeth Lee
July 31, 2012
On the afternoon of Monday, July 23, 2012, I was at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, CA. Along with staff from Manzanar National Historic Site, CyArk unveiled its first draft of a digital reconstruction of Manzanar circa 1944. This digital interpretive effort is a part of CyArk's larger Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant project in collaboration with the NPS, Manzanar National Historic Site, the Tule Lake Unit of the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, and the Topaz Museum.

The digital model of the Confinement Site is a work-in-progress. This public viewing was held to invite comments from the public, experts in the history of Manzanar, and former internees.

The Manzanar Committee has provided a full outline of the event and some of the first reactions to the digital reconstruction in their blog.

Below, you can preview the Manzanar digital reconstruction in this video of Merritt Park, one of the internee-created parks within the confinement site.



Hospital complex at Manzanar, as reconstructed from historic information.
One of the small gardens located between barracks, as reconstructed from historic information.
Aerial view of the confinement site's reconstruction, created from historic information.