Of the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans interned at 11 military-style camps scattered throughout the country, not one was charged with espionage or sabotage.

The internment of this ethnic group turned out to be one of the darkest moments in United States history. It raised a national debate as well as frustration over suspension of civil liberties during war time. Nearly a half century elapsed before an apology was issued in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, who said then, "…we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was just that: a mistake."

One of the internment camps was Manzanar (Spanish for apple orchard) War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley, about 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The camp was home to some 10,000 internees, crammed into 504 barracks, which in turn were organized into 36 blocks. Stripped of privacy and the most basic human rights, these families lived at Manzanar for three long, painful years.

On Saturday, April 28 around 1,000 Americans and members of the California Muslim community made a pilgrimage to Manzanar National Historic Site, in what was called the 38th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, to learn about the experiences of Japanese American detainees. Among the visitors was the Southern California Muslim family of Barbara Serhal, whose Japanese American parents were incarcerated at Manzanar. The trip of Muslim community members was coordinated through the Los Angeles Area and Sacramento Valley offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations known as CAIR.

Speakers noted that the Japanese detainees’ situation is similar to the current debate surrounding the "War on Terror" amid mounting calls for profiling of American Muslims and Arabs.

"It is vital to visit Manzanar and other internment camps, not only for Muslims, but for all Americans especially after Sept. 11, so that people understand that war backlash has happened before," said Andy Noguchi, coordinator of the Florin Japanese American Citizens’ League Manzanar Pilgrimage. "It is important to bring a lot of concerned Americans together to spread awareness of what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II and how the Muslim community is now being affected in similar ways."

Throughout the day, visitors heard narratives from internees, family members and volunteers about dehumanization, subjugation, sorrow – and the human courage and resilience that followed such an appalling event.

Ten thousand lives were affected. Ten thousand stories were created.

In 1942, internees arrived at the camp with very little luggage. Most of their belongings, businesses and homes were destroyed, taken away or sold at a fraction of the original price. They came to a desolate desert area, where they learned to live in cramped corners, form lines, and exhibit new attitudes at gun-point.

Carol Hironaka arrived at Manzanar at the tender age of 17, and was freed when she was 20. At age 82, her memory is relatively foggy but she still remembers many details.

"It was a horrible experience," she recalled.

When Hironaka’s family first came, everyone was required to take a shot for typhus (or, perhaps, another medical ailment). Hironaka got sick from reaction to the shot and stayed in bed for several days.

She talked about eating unpalatable food, the kind she had never eaten before – liver, mutton, and herring. Initially, military-style utensils were provided that detainees used. They also would form lines to go to mess hall, where meals were served.

One of the most dreadful experiences was going to the latrine. Toilets had no stalls, and shower areas, although segregated by gender, had no partitions for privacy. Hironaka remembered her grandmother using the facilities late at night so she wouldn’t have to meet other women in the latrines.

At Saturday’s program, a son of one of the internees, Bruce Embrey, recalled the horrifying life at camp and drew parallels between the vilification of Japanese Americans during WWII and that of American Muslims and Arabs now.

"Not so long ago, our parents, our friends, our community was rounded up and incarcerated in internment camps, without any charges, where the guns were pointing in," he said. "Our legacy is to ensure that what happened to our families, our community, does not happen again, that there isn’t another pilgrimage."

Bruce Embrey’s mother, Sue Kunitomi Embrey was the driving force behind the movement to create the Manzanar National Historic Site. Manzanar was finally designated a historic site on March 3, 1992. Sue Embrey also served as Manzanar Committee Chair and founder of the Manzanar Pilgrimage. The theme of this year’s pilgrimage, "One Life…a Legacy for All," was in honor of the legacy of Sue Embrey, who passed away in May 2006.

"The camp experience taught her that in order to achieve rights, you had to participate, you had to struggle," Bruce Embrey told visitors.

The program also included an interfaith ceremony at the camp cemetery, featuring Shinto, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim prayers. CAIR-LA Area Executive Director Hussam Ayloush and Dr. E.M. Abdul Mumin, head of Riverside’s Du Bois Institute, led the Muslim prayer.

More than 135 internees died at the camp from 1942-45. Many were sent back home for burials but as many as 80 were buried at the camp cemetery. When the camp finally closed, family members of deceased internees took their remains to be buried somewhere else. However, according to historic accounts, at least six people, including three babies, were still buried at the cemetery in 1946.

Part of Saturday’s program also included viewing of a documentary, "Pilgrimage" after sunset. Later, participants split into small groups and engaged in discussions with internees.

Additionally at the site, the newly opened Manzanar Interpretive Center showcased exhibits, such as a model of the original internment camp. The camp was completely torn down after it closed. A rebuilt guard tower, internees’ daily utensils and furniture were also displayed. And perhaps the most powerful symbol of life at internment camp was the names of all 10,000 internees on display at the Center.

After the pilgrimage, Ayloush said, "Americans in general, and American Muslims in particular, must visit Manzanar and other internment camps to witness first-hand the kind of dehumanization and injustices that can occur when a country and its people are driven by fear and paranoia during war. Sadly, we find ourselves, yet again, wrestling with the very ideals our nation was founded upon."

For more information about Manzanar National Historic Site or next year’s pilgrimage, please visit http://www.manzanarcommittee.org/ or http://www.nps.gov/manz.