PUSD: Building Empathy Project with Blair and Pasadena High School Students

Students from Blair and PHS explored Manzanar Historic National Park, its visitor center, barracks, and cemetery.

Last week, 18 PUSD students from Blair and Pasadena High School (PHS) took a four-hour bus ride to Manzanar Historic National Park, one of ten camps where the U.S. government incarcerated people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The visit brought to life the history of Japanese Americans that they have been studying since 2022 as part of the Building Empathy project, funded by grants from the California State Library’s Civil Liberties and California Humanities and administered by the Pasadena Educational Foundation (PEF). “After a long time of learning about the Japanese Americans and the camps, I was finally able to see it with my own eyes,” said a Blair ninth grader.

Students from both schools reenact a basketball game on one of the courts at Manzanar.

Blair High School and Middle School, 1201 S. Marengo Avenue, Pasadena, (626) 396-5820 or visit https://blair.pusd.us/.

Pasadena High School, 2925 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 396-5880 or visit https://phs.pusd.us/.