The Manzanar Baseball Project

Nous is proud to be donating structural engineering services for a restoration at Manzanar, one of 10 internment camps where Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated during World War II. In a desolate valley of Southern California’s high desert, more than 120,000 of Japanese Americans were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sell their belongings, abandon their homes and report to 10 camps spread almost exclusively throughout grim and remote locales in the American West between 1942 and 1945, as World War II raged on two fronts. During their time in these internment camps, baseball became a form of expression and a proving ground and offered a modicum of dignity for these detained citizens.

In conjunction with Dan Kwong, Gwynne Pugh Urban Studios, and Telacu Construction, Nous is helping to restore the main baseball field at Manzanar to its wartime configuration. Upon completion this Fall it will host two baseball games, honoring the determination and unbreakable spirit of the Japanese American community and its ballplayers. See here for information about the following doubleheader that will take place:

• Li'l Tokio Giants vs. Lodi JACL Templars - the two longest continuously active teams in California

• North vs. South All-Star Game - with players wearing custom-made 1940s-style uniforms and using vintage equipment.