FEATURE - TULE LAKE CAMP

The internment of Japanese Americans is a dark chapter in U.S. history. On February 19, 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (Read it here) allowing the detention of people to prevent sabotage and espionage.

It meant Japanese Americans could be detained without question and placed in Internment camps, stripping them of their constitutional rights and denying due process.

The West Coast was made into a military zone, and 120,000 men, women and children — first and second generation Japanese Americans — were interned. Limited to one trunk per person, 120,000 people were shipped to camps around the country leaving behind businesses, homes and belongings built over a lifetime.

The camp at Tule Lake in Modoc County, California, was built in the spring of 1942, complete with armed guard towers, barbed wire and searchlights. The first evacuees arrived on May 25, 1942. By December 25, 1944, the camp held 18,789 people.

The 26,000 acre camp was built on a dry lake bed. It proved dusty, windy and unbelievably hot in summer and cold in winter when temperatures dropped below zero.

Initially, the majority of the Japanese Americans at Tule came from the Sacramento, California area, Southwestern Oregon and Western Washington.

In 1943, the War Relocation Authority turned Tule Lake — which already had a reputation for dissent — into a segregationist camp.

The influx of new prisoners changed the camp. Protest occurred as prisoners fought for their constitutional rights and better treatment. Martial law was declared and tanks patrolled the perimeter. Not surprisingly, Japanese culture became more important, and was taught in addition to the standard curriculum.

But regular life went on. There were amateur baseball teams, high school football teams, camp bands that played popular 1940s dance tunes and sought to entertain.

There was also a small but vocal group of anti-American extremists who influenced some. More than 5,461 internees would renounce their American citizenship.

Tule Lake also was home to men who volunteered and fought in the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442d Regimental Combat Team. They were among the most decorated troops during the war, receiving more than 18,000 medals.

In December, 1944, the Supreme Court declared the detention of loyal citizens unconstitutional. Starting in January of 1945, internees were each given $25 and a train ticket to their former home and sent on their way.

Returning home these Japanese Americans had to rebuild their lives, in the very places they had been openly ostracized. Some immigrated to Japan but most returned to their former lives, where nothing could ever be the same, after years of the indiginity of living in the camps.

In 1988, the United States passed the Civil Liberties Act in an attempt to avoid the rights of Americans being transgressed ever again and officially apologized to survivors of internment camps (See the apology letter). The Act also provided financial compensation in the form of educational grants and redress payments of $20,000.

Today, Tule Lake looks just like the other farm land in this part of California. Some disused buildings — former barracks — are the only sign of this important, yet largely-forgotton chapter in American history.

To find out more about pilgrimages back to Tule Lake which are organized every two years, by formers internees, their relatives and interested outsiders click here.