April 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 37

Case Study: Fight for Manzanar

t was 1942 when more than 110,000 Japanese American citizens, including men, women
and children, were detained in military-style camps in remote locations across the United
States. They were held there for 2½ years until a few months after the end of World War II.
One of these camps was the Manzanar War Relocation Center situated in the Owen's Valley
of California. Annual pilgrimages back to Manzanar began in 1969 as a way to heal, and to
remember what had taken place. Starting with this initial pilgrimage, a group called the Manzanar Committee formed and continues, to this day, to work to educate others so this type of
tragedy never happens again.
One of the people interned at the camp, Sue Kunitomi Embrey, became one of the foremost leaders and activists with the Manzanar Committee. Many of those interned at the
camp would not talk about their experience, but Embrey was among a handful of those who
not only talked about it, but fought to teach others about the tragedy that occurred there.
In 2004, Embrey spoke at the National Park Service's Opening of the Manzanar Interpretive
Center: " People ask me why it's important to remember and keep Manzanar alive...my answer
is that stories like [these] need to be told, and too many of us have passed away without
telling our stories. "

Photos by Ansel Adams

In fact, many well-known landmarks
were initially protected through presidential proclamation: Zion (Taft, 1909 and
F.D. Roosevelt, 1927), the Statue of Liberty (Coolidge, 1924), Arches (Hoover,
1929), Denali (Carter, 1978), Grand Staircase-Escalante (Clinton, 1996) and World
War II Valor in the Pacific (G.W. Bush,
2008). Many were later expanded and renamed through congressional legislation.
President Obama's proclamations in
late December of Gold Butte, a 300,000acre national monument in southern Nevada, and Bears Ears in southern Utah
fired up a long-simmering dispute about
the Antiquities Act. Nevada's Republican Senator Dean Heller and Congressman Mark Amodei filed legislation in
early January, which, if passed, would
restrict future national monuments from
being created in Nevada without congressional approval. In Utah, the governor, federal and state lawmakers have
vowed to undo Obama's designation of
Bear's Ears or, at the very least, to drastically reduce the protected acreage.
While political posturing and legal
opinion about completely undoing a national monument seem in direct conflict,
reducing the size of a national monument
has been undertaken in a few instances.
Legal experts maintain that presidential
use of the Antiquities Act must identify
historic, cultural and scientific resources
and that the boundaries of the national
monument be adequate - but not far extended - to protect those resources.
Yes, Congress could overturn a president's decision to create a national
monument but that is highly unlikely.
According to Colorado law professor
Mark Squillace in a February article in
the Christian Science Monitor: " It turns out
that the designation of national monuments is very popular with the public. "
Top Down or Bottom Up?
The route to creating a national monument is typically arduous and often takes
years. To be considered, the site must be

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