Sometime around 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, a giant windstorm hit Manzanar National Historic Site, located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains just north of Lone Pine. To Dan Kwong, the winds felt like they were blowing 80 miles an hour. The dust was gusting sideways, and he could not see 10 feet in front of his face.
When the dirt settled, Kwong was able to see that much of his and his fellow volunteers’ hard work was smashed to the ground. In 2023, the staff of Manzanar National Historic Site announced it would rebuild its WWII baseball field, which was used when more than 11,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated between 1942 and 1945. The newly finished announcer’s booth was still standing, but the storm had destroyed most of the fencing on the first base side.
“It was just heartbreaking,” Kwong said. “To watch it slowly give way and just, bam, smash down. It’s the third time we’ve had damage from wind, but this was just absolute obliteration. . . .
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Jessica Koslow 