It was called the “Free” Press. Even though none of them were.
April 11, 1942: The first issue of the Manzanar Free Press is published inside a U.S. concentration camp.
Just days after Japanese Americans began arriving at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, a small team of incarcerees rolled out the first issue of the Manzanar Free Press.
The U.S. government had removed thousands of people from their homes and locked them behind barbed wire. But it still wanted them informed, or at least managed.
So it allowed them a newspaper.
The paper was produced by incarcerated Japanese Americans — writers, students, artists — many of whom had no formal journalism training. They reported on births, deaths, daily meals, camp rules, and government notices. They translated key information for Issei elders who could not read English.
Photo by Eliot Elisofon
The first group of Japanese-Americans arrive at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, one of ten major incarceration camps during WWII, March 21, 1942.
Photo by Dorothea Lange
Staff of the Manzanar Free Press printing the papers one by one on a mimeograph machine,
Manzanaar Free Press Vol.1 No.1 – Headline reads, "Manzanar Booms into Valley's Biggest Town" with all the incarcerees arriving
Manzanar Free Press, April 25, 1942 – Perhaps, there was sarcasm involved in calling Gen. DeWitt "most distinguished" since he was responsible for incarcerating all of them.
An illustration of a chef. We can see how the editors were trying to cheer people up.
Manzanaar Free Press, January 13, 1945. Some of the articles were translated for Isseis (1st generation Japanese Americans).
Staff of the Manzanar Free Press at work, July 2, 1942
Keeping The Community Connected
In a place built to isolate and silence them, they found a way to keep the community connected.
And yes, they were careful. The paper was monitored. Edited. Scrubbed.
Criticism was subtle, sometimes buried between the lines. Sometimes missing altogether. But the very act of publishing, of printing something, was a quiet form of resistance.
Photographer Dorothea Lange, hired by the U.S. government to document life in the camps, captured images of the Free Press staff at work: Fingers on typewriters. Ink-stained hands on printing machines. Faces bent over page layouts. Her lens caught what the headlines couldn’t say — dignity under surveillance.
The Ironic Title
The irony was printed right at the top of the page: Manzanar Free Press.
Not free to leave. Not free to speak freely. But still determined to be heard. They weren’t allowed to speak their minds. But they pressed on, nonethelss.
What they created was more than a newspaper.
It was a quiet record of life behind barbed wire — and a quiet act of resistance. The Manzanar Free Press was never truly “free.” But maybe the boldest resistance… was calling it that anyway.
Manzanar Free Press, December 22, 1943. It was a Chrismas behind the bars, but they tried to make the best of it.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Roy Takeno and others reading the Manzanar Free Press in front of the office, 1943, photo by Ansel Adams