Background
Bill Manbo was born in Riverside, California in 1908.
Bill Manbo was born in Riverside, California in 1908.
After high school, he studied auto mechanics at Frank Wiggins Trade School.
As an adolescent, he lived in Hollywood and in Japan for nearly two years. He did not attend school in Japan and entered high school at the age of 17, graduating from Hollywood High School in 1929. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Mary"s father Junzo Itaya was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on March 13, 1942.
Bill, Mary and Billy were forced to leave their home on April 28, 1942.
The family was then sent to Heart Mountain. Manbo documented his family"s experience at Heart Mountain through Kodachrome photography with a 35mm Zeiss Contax camera.
He took approximately 192 photographs at Heart Mountain, which he sent back to Los Angeles for processing. He started working at the Heart Mountain motor pool in late October 1942.
They eventually returned to California and settled in Hollywood.
Manbo passed away in 1992.