Merritt Park (site)

 park, garden, pond

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Named for Ralph Merritt, Manzanar Project Director, November 1942 - November 1945.
Also known as Pleasure Garden.
The U.S. Army designed Manzanar as an efficient military-style camp in the California desert of the Owens Valley. The internees made whatever improvements they could to transformed the monotonous conformity of camp into a community, including beautifying the landscape through gardening. Kuichiro Nishi was a 54 year old landscape gardner from West Los Angeles who used his experience as a nursery owner to make the desert bloom. Within two months of arriving at Manzanar in June 1942, he participated in the construction of a garden with pools and a fountain in Block 22.
Eventually Mr. Nishi perseuded camp director Ralph Merritt to donate supplies and equipment for the community garden that later became known as Merritt 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. Couples were married in the park which provided an attractive escape from the drudgery of camp life.
After Manzanar was closed in 1945 and the Nishi family returned to Los Angeles to rebuild their lives, their temporary home at Manzanar returned to the desert. As years went by, spring run-off from the Sierra Nevada snowpack periodically flooded the site, burying the camp’s gardens with silt and sand. Many clues in the landscape were rendered invisible under layers of dirt.