Military Police Compound (site)

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This U.S. Army post was outside the perimeter fence of the War Relocation Center and separated from it by Bairs Creek. Technically speaking, the army's mission was to provide "external security" for the one square mile camp. What this ment was to prevent anyone's entering or leaving unless they they had proper authorization. Internal security would be left to the camp's civil police force.
First occupied by the 99 men of the 747th Military Police Escourt Guard Company from Fort Ord, California. They arrived 19 March 1942, two days before the first group of Japanese-American internees were brought to Manzanar.
In June of that year the 747th was replaced by the 322nd Military Police. Most of the troops in the 322th had been recruited in New York and New Jersey, and for many of them this was their very first sight of Japanese or of people who looked Japanese.
This U.S. Army compound was, strictly speaking, external to the Manzanar relocation camp, and within the U.S. military it was itself known as "Camp Manzanar."