On Feb. 4, the Manzanar Committee, sponsors of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1967, the accompanying Manzanar At Dusk program since 1997, and a new project targeting college students, Katari, announced the launch of their new website, https://manzanarcommittee.org
The new site combines the committee’s obsolete site and their blog into a single, modern site that will provide historical and educational information about the Manzanar Committee, as well as news about current committee activities, articles, statements on current issues, along with the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage and Manzanar At Dusk program.
“We had two separate presences on the World Wide Web,” said Gann Matsuda, director of communications and social media/web editor. “While our blog had all of our updated information about the Manzanar Pilgrimage, Manzanar At Dusk, our Katari project, our Student Awards Program, statements about issues affecting our community and a lot more, it was not our main website, which continued to be where many people looked first for information. Many didn’t know our blog existed. In any case, our website was old and difficult to keep updated. We never really had the resources or time to update it, let alone modernize it, until recently.”
Matsuda noted that the committee got a lot of complaints each year, especially in the weeks approaching the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage.
“Because of the difficulties with our aging website, people often complained about not being able to find the information they needed, especially about the pilgrimage,” Matsuda added. “Our new website, with its modern-day underpinnings, is easy to update and maintain, not to mention easy to navigate, and it’s mobile-friendly, too. We believe visitors to our website will be able to easily find the information they need, whether they’re using a computer, tablet or smartphone.”
Eventually, the new website will include historical and educational material from the old website that dealt with Japanese American incarceration.
“We’re in the process of reviewing, editing and updating much of the historical, educational and literary material from our old web site,” Matsuda noted. “That’ll take time, but once that project is completed, it’ll be easy to add that content to the new site, and it’ll be easy for visitors to find.”
In addition to manzanarcommittee.org, www.manzanarcommittee.org and blog.manzanarcommittee.org will continue to work and will take visitors to the new website. Visitors may need to empty their browser cache before the new site is available.
For more information, contact the Manzanar Committee by phone at (323) 662-5102? or by email at [email protected].