In May 1942, while thousands of Japanese Americans were being forcibly removed from their homes under wartime orders, a 17-year-old Mexican-Irish American student from Los Angeles did something few could have imagined—he voluntarily joined them.
Ralph Lazo, neither Japanese nor related by marriage, chose to enter the Manzanar internment camp alongside his friends. What followed was a series of actions that made him the only known non-Japanese American to willingly live in an internment camp during World War II.
The Decision to Go
Ralph Lazo was born on November 3, 1924, in Los Angeles. After losing his mother at a young age, he and his sister were raised by their father, a house painter. In 1942, as a student at Belmont High School, Lazo saw his Japanese American classmates and neighbors rounded up for incarceration.
Outraged, he boarded the train bound for Manzanar with them in May 1942. No one at the camp questioned his background. He later told the Los Angeles Times, “Internment was immoral. It was wrong, and I couldn’t accept it.”
Life Behind the Barbed Wire
At Manzanar, Lazo enrolled in school and spent time entertaining orphaned children who had also been forcibly relocated. In 1944, he was elected class president at Manzanar High School. After graduation, he remained in the camp until August 1944, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army.
Serving as a staff sergeant in the South Pacific, Lazo helped liberate the Philippines and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism.
A Career of Advocacy and Education
Following his military service, Lazo returned to Los Angeles. He earned a degree in sociology from UCLA and later completed a master’s in education at Cal State Northridge. He taught at Los Angeles Valley College, mentored students with disabilities, and encouraged Latino students to pursue higher education and civic engagement.
He also helped raise funds for the legal battle that led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which acknowledged the injustice of internment and provided reparations to surviving Japanese Americans.
Recognition and Final Years
Ralph Lazo’s experience became the subject of the 2004 narrative film Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story. He died of liver cancer on January 1, 1992, at the age of 67. He remains the only known non-spouse, non-Japanese American who voluntarily entered an internment camp during World War II.
In May 1942, while thousands of Japanese Americans were being forcibly removed from their homes under wartime orders, a 17-year-old Mexican-Irish American student from Los Angeles did something few could have imagined—he voluntarily joined them. pic.twitter.com/18Pp6IPnUT
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