JOURNEY of CONSCIENCE
Visiting the WWII Japanese American Internment Camps
Places of Beauty – Pleasure Park
In a place faraway from home…where people were taken against their will and in utter violation of their Constitutional rights…still in that place, there were some who sought to make places of beauty. It was a tenaciously human act of creation. The largest such place in Manzanar was created by Mr. Nishi.
Kuichiro Nishi, a nursery owner and garden designer from Los Angeles, led the creation of what was first called Rose Park, then Merritt Park, and finally Pleasure Park.
“With its visually striking rock gardens, ponds, rustic bridge, gazebo, and diverse plantings—including roses that Nishi cultivated—the park became a sanctuary of tranquility for the Manzanar community.”
Manzanar Committee
Careful attention to detail is about more than precision. It is also about care for others. More precisely, it is taking care of the minute detail of design and construction so people will be able to appreciate and experience a place without thinking about it.
Here is a spot which seems like a portal to the world outside.
“Sometimes in the evenings we could walk down the raked gravel paths. You could face away from the barracks, look past a tiny rapids toward the darkening mountains, and for a while not be a prisoner at all.”
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Child at Manzanar, from Farewell to Manzanar
Grace and peace to you,
Art
JOURNEY of CONSCIENCE 