Tule Lake Concentration Camp Pilgrimage

littlek, Glad you stopped by to look at my travelogue. This pilgrimage was very special to me; learned a lot, and had the opportunity to talk with other folks about our experiences past and present.

Our family has done our share of integration with other cultures, and they include, but not limited to (because I'm not aware of all the people in our family tree): English, Irish, Dutch, German, Italian, Hispanic, black, Polynesian, Chinese, Okinawan, and even some Japanese. I met my Polynesian cousin for the very first time last year in February when my wife and son spent 12-days in Hawaii, although we've been corresponding for many years. I believe Japanese Americans are one of the most integrated in the US. I'm also proud to say I have friends all over the world with many here in the good ole US of A.

In my haste, I forgot to post the first part of the July 3 activities, so here it is! I came back to re-read what I have posted, and found this missing section from my original on OpenOffice. The first pictures on the dedication ceremony will now make some sense - I hope. Sorry about that!

July 3, Friday: This was a very full day, especially for those who opted to take the Castle Rock hike who had to be ready for the bus at 6:30AM with their bagged breakfast. I did this climb over 65 years ago, and didn't feel the need to re-experience this event at my age, so we enjoyed our leisurely breakfast in the cafeteria. We boarded our bus at 9:00AM for our one hour trip to the Tule Lake Segregation Camp (TLSC).

Our bus arrived at the prison site (the only building left standing at the site) for the dedication ceremony to recognize Tule Lake Segregation Camp as a National Monument. The man who supervised the making of this prison was an attendee of this pilgrimage. (This was the special event I mentioned earlier.) The MC for this event was Roy Ikeda, the brother of one of our close friends, and the member of the TLC. The Director of National Parks, Dave Kruse, spoke about the presidential proclamation of Tule Lake Segregation Camp by George W Bush, and why it was recognized as a national monument.

The other speakers were the District National Parks Director, County Supervisor, Council General of Japan (from San Francisco), District Manager of Fish and Game, and the mayor of Tule Lake. They had a plaque for the National Monument already made on a temporary stand, and the park service people told us about how they will promote this site as part of the national park program.

For Foofie. I have since learned from reading some materials shared at the pilgrimage that Jews were combined with Germans during the war, and were imprisoned in POW camps in this country. There's much information that have been recorded and documented about both the concentration and POW camps in the US that I look forward to reading.

It amazes me that our government completely ignored our Constitution when it came to the treatment of Japanese Americans, but tried in some cases to follow the Geneva Convention rules during the war.

This is a picture taken of the camp during the war from the cross on Castle Rock.

Here's a link for the San Jose Taiko: http://www.taiko.org/

If you ever have an opportunity to attend any of their concerts, I can highly recommend it. They travel to different venues frequently, so be on the lookout for them. They have both public freebies and paid concerts.

I just read the entire thread this morning. It was really good. We have some major issues in history that show everyone that , although , on paper, the US is a great concept, in practice though, its highly flawed.

There was a similar event in the WYoming Valley of Pa where hundreds of loyal GErman AMericans were rounded up as potential sabateurs. THis was a time of national paranoia . Now, its up to each of us to make sure that the lessons of history, learned in a act of national embarrasment arent forgotten by future generations.

I was working on a platinum claim about 20 years ago and was at the Manazanita (sp?) camp. It too was a derelict series of foundations and barracks that were originally painted in lead paint and were now spalling off the lead flakes all over. I recall the look of the place and its toxic legacy (Both historically and environmentally)

was there a sense of peace and closure that you saw from the people involved? You stated that there were only 2 people who were actually interred who came along on the pilgramage. Is your community (and I use the word community with greatest respect) , as you know it, satisfied with the eventual outcomes of the concentration camp era?

Now that I thought about it, our claim work wasnt at the Manzanita camp area, (that was something else), It was actually nearer to Fresno. I think there was an old camp near Fresno . We had a rel short drive from our prospect to the old collapsing camp.

I should have taken photos but we get very protective about random photography in claims work because any clues left on film can assist in pinpointing a site for any claims "jumpers" So we only do survey maps with no location keys. We always had a project code in which the lats and longs were listed.

Hi farmerman, Thought you would come back and ask "many" questions.

Yes, many of the participants felt some closure to their experiences living in a prison camp, but some were still quite angry at how we were treated as US citizens. It was helpful that the senior Bush signed an apology letter that some people framed and put on their walls with $20,000 of reparations. 80,000 people of us received it.

I think the camp near Fresno was called Pinedale; we heard it mentioned by several detainees who were sent there.

What was most evident for me from this pilgrimage was the information shared by the older prisoners who related their experience. The one I mentioned earlier about the man who went to Japan after the war, and his own family didn't want him in their home. A US general eventually got him introduced the the US Consulate General that subsequently resulted his return home. Many stories like this one from pe0ple who traveled to California from Japan, Hong Kong, Virginia, Arizona and many midwest states.

I was also glad to see the youngsters, the third, forth, and fifth generation children either born in camp or the children and grandchildren of the prisoners who learned for the first time what they and their parents really experienced at the hand of our government during WWII. They have become good advocates for other minorities in our country to make sure our government doesn't repeat the same mistakes.

It was only two days of programs, but I wished it was much longer. Many have already made plans to attend next year.

That was Manzanar.

Do you recall the routines of activities that were employed by the detainees to just keep their sanity?
Were there any people who left the camps and were hunted ?

How about the military guys, were they abusive or were they just there as a presence . I mean did the soldiers and govt people interfere with **** like "repatriation lessons " or lectures on the war .

Was there any evidence of intelligence personnel trying to extract any information from the detainees?

Did you have an elected government for the detainees? Did the people in the camps handle any discipline themselves? Like the guy who molested a girl, was he punished by a govt of the detainees.

Do you recall the routines of activities that were employed by the detainees to just keep their sanity?
We as children were not impacted by this imprisonment, because we had friends to play with, and as you know children acclimate very easily to our environment.

Were there any people who left the camps and were hunted ?
Even during the war years, some moved back east out of the camps; many to Chicago and New York. However, even in New York City, people found signs that said "No Japs Allowed" at business establishments.


How about the military guys, were they abusive or were they just there as a presence . I mean did the soldiers and govt people interfere with **** like "repatriation lessons " or lectures on the war .
As I related earlier, one boy was shot and killed at the camp, because the soldier, a pfc, claimed the boy became beligerant. The soldier was found not guilty, but was charged $1 for misuse of government property.

Was there any evidence of intelligence personnel trying to extract any information from the detainees?
Yes. We learned that some intelligence personnel were sent into the camps to spy on the prisoners. However, they didn't find one incidence of wrong-doing or espionage against a Japanese American.
We also learned that during the war, Germans were classified as Good Germans and Bad Germans. However, Japanese Americans were combined with the Japanese of Japan as enemy aliens.

Did you have an elected government for the detainees? Did the people in the camps handle any discipline themselves? Like the guy who molested a girl, was he punished by a govt of the detainees.
That woman was molested by a Japanese man before the war when she was ten years old. However, Tule Lake did have somewhat of a internal government made up from a majority of Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) members who were active before, during, and after the war.
The JACL was also a huge problem for the Japanese Americans, because they instructed us Japanese to follow the government's orders like sheep rather than challenge what they were doing to us. That's the reason why, today, the "no-no" people are seen as heroes. Our government trashed our Constitution, but the "no-nos" demanded our Constitutional rights returned as US citizens.

In awe, Tak. Thank you for sharing.

I was too busy to follow this thread, but I plan to make that up this weekend.

Hi edger, I posted this thread, because I know that many Americans still do not know about the US concentration camps during WWII, and I wanted to bring awareness to people that never heard of these camps.

Even people who know about these camps call them "relocation" camps, but that's not only misleading, but gives the impression that Japanese Americans voluntarily went to those camps. We were forced by presidential order, and soldiers made sure we were taken to those camps from the west coast. The camps had barbed wires and soldiers with machine guns to keep us inside. They were not merely relocation camps.

When we meet in Austin in September, we can discuss any questions you might have, and I'll bring along a booklet they passed out at the pilgrimage about the camps.

Years ago, I knew a man who lived in one of the camps. He was a kid at the time. I knew by then that the people had been forced in. I felt the injustice of it. This guy grew up to be a very kind man, and I always remember him fondly.

Based on CI's trip, I did some searching in the web archives about the various "Happy Camps" that were set up for Japanese-Italian, and German American detainees. I was amazed at the number of western US camps that were set up exclusively for Japanese Americans (turns out that over 100000 were held).

German AMericans of the Wyoming VAlley in PA were rounded up . Over 250 families were arrested as suspected "spies" and sabateurs who would attempt to blow up the Horshoe Curve. ( it turned out that the horshoe curve near Altoona Pa, was almost a "bottleneck" that, if destroyed, would stop the shipment of arms and materieal to the docks of the East Coast.

The Italians were arrested in 1941 and within a year , due to a deal cut between secretary Tydings and the "mafia" the Italian AMericans were taken off the list.

As it turned out, there wer 10 arrests made on spies working for Imperial Japan. ALl these spies were caucasians.

Ive found several web sites of interest CI, theres a lot of information out there

As a teen, I went past the Texas camp location at Crystal City many times. I was aware people were kept there against their will. I did not know at the time there were mixed races and nationalities there - German and Japanese - Italians. Latin Americans.

I just looked up this info from Wickepedia:

During World War II, Crystal City was home to the largest alien internment camp housing American civilians of German and Japanese immigrants, and, to a lesser extent, Italian ancestry, as well as enemy aliens of similar backgrounds. However, the majority of internees were South American citizens that were mixed in with a smaller number of German, Italian, and Japanese internees.

Latin Americans of Japanese ancestry were brought over to the US to be used for trading of prisoners with Japan. Many were held in concentration camps in the US, but when we received an apology and $20,000 from GHW Bush which was signed by then President Reagan in 1988, the Japanese from Latin America were not included. We met a young graduate student from San Diego State at the pilgrimage who is investigating this issue towards getting redress for them.