Manazanar Free Press, Issues 6 through 10
Vol. 1 #6: April 29, 1942
Page 1: The camp population is now 7181; occupation interviews and registration of new arrivals; officials praise volunteers who worked with new arrivals; the Service Director was taken to the hospital with an intestinal ailment.
Page 2: A new arrival was rushed from the bus to the hospital for an appendix operation; six more post office stations are planned; schedule of activities; open forum; dance lessons set; visitors from nearby communities; open forum; social season starts; police will get new uniforms.
Page 3: A plan for a new hospital is being pushed; a fire extinguisher fell on a guy's foot (with cartoon); telephones will come to the camp; typhoid shots will be given; helpful hints on skin care; report all sicknesses; To the Ladies advice column.
Page 4: Sports, with a cartoon and articles on baseball and volleyball.
Page 5: Guayule plants will be transferred from planting beds to regular soil; social slate events; many residents have asked for their families to join them; a drama class will be held; an information office has been established; nurses will be available to care for the ill rather than family members caring for them; personal article about a minister; butcher knives, hatchets, fireworks and liquor have been confiscated by the Japanese on the police force.
Page 6: Study by mail plan; advice to mothers column; the assistant manager thanks for volunteers for their work; changes in living quarters have to be approved; two articles continued from page 1; a boy at the camp won a safety poster contest; the paper has been quoted by national papers.
Vol. 1 #7: May 2, 1942
Page 1: 3200 evacuees from Los Angeles will be sent to Tulare and Santa Anita. Block leaders draft local constitiution; there will be a new civic center; new sites are noted.
Eleanor Roosevelt seems to have been a very interesting and very intelligent woman.
Page 2: Horses will be coming for police duty; lost & found; the paper's staff has grown; article on registering for the draft; left-over lumber is being used to make tables, etc., plus a Caucasian writers view of the Manzanar Free Press.
An interesting editorial. The first red area I've marked takes the position that the evacuation was done “as a protective measure.” The second part I've marked notes that the “Army officials realize the importance of democratic institutions;” yet it goes on to say that “...the Army recognizes that our confinement is itself not democratic...” Those seem to be two statements that are not just contradictory but are almost at war with each other. How can a group push democratic institutions yet at the same time do something that they know is not democratic?
The police department can raid any apartment, but they have also had to dismiss five men due to negligence of duty.
There was a historian doing a study of the camp.
A very interesting article about block leaders not being willing to speak to the press.
Page 3: A history of the building of the camp; assemblies were held to orient newcomers; an article on the Poston (referred to as Parker) camp; residents are to separate government property from their own so an inventory can be taken; there will be an arts and craft show; plus a cartoon.
Page 4: Down the Main Stem column which is comments from residents; representatives of the Power and Water Commission have visited the camp; a library will open; more nurses have arrived; classes in needle work will start; a Soldier's Home received a plant nursery from some Nisei; women are to use the laundry room and not lavatory sinks to wash their clothes.
Page 5: Articles about the Santa Anita center; what to do about the snoring problem; list of church services; police beats have been enlarged; the Army may be buying cars impounded at the camp; city attorneys from Los Angeles have toured the camp, and Americanization classes will start.
Page 6: Sports page with articles on volleyball, baseball, badminton, and ping pong; also a couple of cartoons.
Vol. 1 #8:
I don't have this one.
Vol. 1 #9: May 9, 1942
Page 1: 7750 is the camp's population at the moment. Fair labor laws are enforced; 1/3 of the camp is employed in the camp; the evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry has reached the halfway mark; women form block council; farm seeds arrive.
Page 2: Editorial board; a poem; editorial on the “line cutter,” a rock garden will be built; nursery school; paints and other materials for signs have arrived.
Page 3: There are still some problems with moving and transfers; there will be comedies and dances at an entertainment extravaganza; a pet kennel is being set up; freight is piling up; adult English classes will start; article on a kid who accidentally got a double dose of the typhoid vaccine; cooks concoct musical feast.
Page 4: Typhoid and smallpox immunization is nearly done; linesmen light boomtown; article on dental cases; faucet uses are defined; people walking at night are running into low-hanging laundry lines.
Page 5: Articles on scorpions; students may be able to study by mail; list of church services; several articles on baseball; persons who have diarrhea should report to the clinic; the motion picture 'Spring Parade' will be shown; a way to prolong use of razor blades.
Page 6: Sports articles about baseball.
Vol. 1 #10: May 9, 1942
Page 1: Block leaders are putting a curb on the formation of unnecessary clubs; the evacuation is 2/3rds over; the Public Relations Chief in San Francisco is ill; Issei attended a series of dramas and various plays.
Page 2: Trout season is going to open; more art classes are going to open; posies will soon be blooming; guayule grounds are going to be expanded. vaccinations are to be checked-those who forget will be taken to the doctor by a policeman; personal articles on police and newlyweds; the health department is stressing sanitation.
Page 3: Boys are urged to join the Boy Scouts; listing of paper's staff; people who farm for a hobby will be given land to work with; a Santa Anita resident died; Harvard is running a course in Japanese for potential translators; articles on judo and dance classes; an article on jarambas.
Page 4: Articles on baseball, and girls' softball, badminton, volleyball and ping-pong.
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