Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument

The Tule Lake Unit of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Modoc County, California, began as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center before it was renamed the Tule Lake Segregation Center in 1943, to communicate a fundamental shift that had taken place, distinguishing it from the rest of the American concentration camps for people of Japanese ancestry.

From 1943, Tule Lake Segregation Center operated primarily as the site designated to warehouse inmates who were deemed a threat to the authorities charged with maintaining order in the ten War Relocation Centers. The 'bad and disloyal' were duly removed from the 'bad but loyal' and segregated at Tule Lake.

Tule Lake Segregation Center was the largest (in terms of population) and most controversial of the camps, and did not close until after the war, in March 1946. Tule Lake was then registered as a California Historical Landmark. In December 2008, the Tule Lake Unit was designated by President George W. Bush as one of nine sites—the only one in the contiguous 48 states—to be part of the new World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

History

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'During World War II, nearly 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated without trial or hearing. Those who protested or resisted the unjust detention were segregated and imprisoned at Tule Lake. More than 24,000 men, women and children were confined here.'

After the forced removal and incarceration, imprisoned Japanese Americans and resident "aliens" of Japanese descent were expected to answer two questions to determine their loyalty to the United States. Question 27 on the questionnaire asked, "Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?" while question 28 asked, "Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?" Over 12,000 imprisoned Japanese Americans were defined as disloyal because of their responses to the ambiguously worded, misguided loyalty questions. Many of those segregated to Tule Lake found the loyalty oath's questions confusing, while others, certain that they were to be deported to Japan no matter how they had answered, feared that answering the questions in the affirmative would cause them to be seen as enemy aliens by the Japanese. Many chose to answer "no" to both questions in protest of their imprisonment.

Statements such as, "I'll serve in the Army when my family is freed," or refusal to answer the loyalty questions led to the government defining them as disloyal. Tule Lake segregation center was turned into a maximum security prison, the most repressive of the government's 10 concentration camps. Those who gave unqualified "yes" answers to the loyalty questions had the option of leaving Tule Lake to another WRA concentration camp.

Inmates transplanting celery at Tule Lake.

Some of the Tule Lake prisoners participated in demonstrations against the incarceration policy at other camps. Many residents had renounced their U.S. citizenship, often due to deception or coercion. Most of the Tule Lake renunciants later had their citizenship restored, largely through the heroic and tenacious efforts of civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins.

Unsanitary, squalid living conditions, inadequate medical care, poor food, and unsafe working conditions had prompted protests at several camps. In November 1943 a series of meetings and protests over poor living conditions at Tule Lake prompted the Army to impose martial law over the camp.

Victory for Tule Lake Draft Resisters

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Mr. Masaaki Kuwabara (1913-1993)

United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, was the only World War II era Japanese-American draft resistance case to be dismissed out of court based on a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution; and a forerunner of the Korematsu and Endo cases argued before the Supreme Court, later in December that year.

Judge Louis E. Goodman went out of his way to help fellow native Californian and lead defendant Masaaki Kuwabara by hand-picking his defense attorney, Mr. Blaine McGowan, who entered a Motion to Quash Proceedings based on the government's abrogation of his client's due process rights, guaranteed to every American citizen by the U.S. Constitution. Without explicitly describing Mr. Kuwabara as a victim of federal anti-Japanese racism, Judge Goodman viewed the plight of Mr. Kuwabara in this light, and ruled against the United States, which incarcerated the defendant in a U.S. concentration camp; categorized him as a Class 4-C Enemy Alien; and then drafted him into military service. Mr. Kuwabara refused to obey the draft until his rights as an American citizen were restored to him.

Recent events

Pilgrimages

Starting in 1974, Tule Lake was the site of several pilgrimages by activists calling for an official apology from the U.S. government. This Redress Movement culminated in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The pilgrimages (every even year, around the 4th of July), serving educational purposes, continue to this day.

Recent themes

• 2000 – 'Honoring our Living Treasures, Forging New Links' (7/1-4)
• 2002 – 'As We Revisit the Meaning of Patriotism and Loyalty' (7/4-7)
• 2004 – 'Citizens Betrayed' (7/2-5)
• 2006 – 'Dignity and Survival in a Divided Community'
• 2009 – 'Shared Remebrances' (7/2-5)
• 2010 – 'Untold Stories of Tule Lake' (7/2-5)
• 2012 – 'Understanding No-No and Renunciation' (6/30-7/3)

Federal grant program

On December 21, 2006 U.S. President George W. Bush signed H.R. 1492 into law, creating the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program that authorized the appropriation of $38,000,000 in federal grant money to preserve and interpret the system of Japanese American incarceration sites, including the temporary WCCA sites, the ten WRA concentration camps and the Department of Justice internment camps.

Notable inmates

• Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917–2007), a Japanese American poet. Also interned at Jerome.
• Yamato Ichihashi (1878–1963), one of the first academics of Asian ancestry in the United States.
• Harvey Itano (1920–2010), American biochemist best known for his work on the molecular basis of sickle cell anemia and other diseases.
• Hiroshi Kashiwagi (born 1922), a poet, playwright and actor.
• Mary Koga (née Mary Hisako Ishii, 1920 – 2001), a Japanese-American photographer and social worker.
• Tommy Kono (born 1930), a gold medalist weightlifter and world record holder.
• Masaaki Kuwabara (1913–1993), lead defendant in United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, the only Japanese-American draft resistance case to be dismissed out of court on the basis of a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution.
• Bob Matsui (1941–2005), a 13-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Tsutomu "Jimmy" Mirikitani (born 1920, Sacramento, California), artist and subject of "The Cats of Mirikitani," an award winning documentary film.
• Pat Morita (1932–2005), an American actor best known for his role in the Karate Kid films. Also interned at Gila River.
• Jimmy Murakami (born 1933), a Japanese American animator and director.
• George Nakano (born 1935), a former California State Assemblyman
• Alan Nakanishi (born 1940), a California politician
• James K. Okubo (1920–1967), a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
• James Otsuka (1921–1984), a conscientious objector during World War II and a war tax resister.
• Yuki Shimoda (1921–1981), an actor.
• Sab Shimono (born 1943), an actor. Also interned at Granada.
• Robert Mitsuhiro Takasugi (1930–2009), first Japanese-American appointed to the federal bench.
• George Takei (born 1937), an American actor best known for his role in Star Trek. Also interned at Rohwer.
• George T. Tamura (1927–2010), an artist.
• Jimi Yamaichi member of the 27 draft resisters of conscience, a Tule Lake survivor who shares his memories at the biennial pilgrimages, and promotes preservation of the site.
• Takuji Yamashita (1874–1959), an early 20th-century civil rights pioneer. Also interned at Minidoka.
• Kenneth Yasuda (1914–2002), a Japanese-American scholar and translator.

Terminology

Further information: Japanese American internment#Terminology_debate

Since the end of World War II, there has been debate over the terminology used to refer to Tule Lake, and the other camps in which Americans of Japanese ancestry and their immigrant parents, were imprisoned by the United States Government during the war. Tule Lake has been referred to as a "relocation camp," "relocation center," "internment camp", "concentration camp", and "segregation center," and the controversy over which term is the most accurate and appropriate continues to the present day.

Dr. James Hirabayashi, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, wrote an article in 1994 in which he stated that he wonders why euphemistic terms used to describe camps such as Tule Lake are still being used.

Let us review the main points of the debate. Over 120,000 residents of the U.S.A., two thirds of whom were American citizens, were incarcerated under armed guard. There were no crimes committed, no trials, and no convictions: the Japanese Americans were political prisoners. To detain American citizens in a site under armed guard surely constitutes a "concentration camp." But what were the terms used by the government officials who were involved in the process and who had to justify these actions? Raymond Okamura provides us with a detailed list of terms. Let's consider three such euphemisms: "evacuation," "relocation," and "non-aliens." Earthquake and flood victims are evacuated and relocated. The words refer to moving people in order to rescue and protect them from danger. The official government policy makers consistently used "evacuation" to refer to the forced removal of the Japanese Americans and the sites were called "relocation centers." These are euphemisms (Webster: "the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit") as the terms do not imply forced removal nor incarceration in enclosures patrolled by armed guards. The masking was intentional.

Hirabayashi went on to describe the harm done by the use of such euphemisms and also addressed the issue of whether or not only the Nazi camps can be called "concentration camps."

The harm in continuing to use the government's euphemisms is that it disguises or softens the reality which subsequently has been legally recognized as a grave error. The actions abrogated some fundamental principles underlying the Constitution, the very document under which we govern ourselves. This erosion of fundamental rights has consequences for all citizens of our society and we must see that it is never repeated. Some have argued that the Nazi Germany camps during the Holocaust were concentration camps and to refer to the Japanese American camps likewise would be an affront to the Jews. It is certainly true that the Japanese Americans did not suffer the harsh fate of the Jews in the terrible concentration camps or death camps where Nazi Germany practiced a policy of genocide. Although the loss of life was minimal in America's concentration camps, it does not negate the reality of the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese American citizens. Michi and Walter Weglyn's research concerning Nazi Germany's euphemisms for their concentration camps revealed such phrases as "protective custody camps," "reception centers," and "transit camps." Ironically, two Nazi euphemisms were identical to our government's usage: "assembly centers" and "relocation centers." It might be well to point out, also, that the Nazis were not operating under the U.S. Constitution. Comparisons usually neglect to point out that Hitler was operating under the rules of the Third Reich. In America all three branches of the U.S. government, ostensibly operating under the U.S. Constitution, ignored the Bill of Rights in order to incarcerate Japanese Americans.

In 1998, use of the term "concentration camps" gained greater credibility prior to the opening of an exhibit about the American camps at Ellis Island. Initially, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the National Park Service, which manages Ellis Island, objected to the use of the term in the exhibit. However, during a subsequent meeting held at the offices of the AJC in New York City, leaders representing Japanese Americans and Jewish Americans reached an understanding about the use of the term. After the meeting, the Japanese American National Museum and the AJC issued a joint statement (which was included in the exhibit) that read in part:

A concentration camp is a place where people are imprisoned not because of any crimes they have committed, but simply because of who they are. Although many groups have been singled out for such persecution throughout history, the term 'concentration camp' was first used at the turn of the century in the Spanish American and Boer Wars. During World War II, America's concentration camps were clearly distinguishable from Nazi Germany's. Nazi camps were places of torture, barbarous medical experiments and summary executions; some were extermination centers with gas chambers. Six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Many others, including Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals and political dissidents were also victims of the Nazi concentration camps. In recent years, concentration camps have existed in the former Soviet Union, Cambodia and Bosnia. Despite differences, all had one thing in common: the people in power removed a minority group from the general population and the rest of society let it happen.

The New York Times published an unsigned editorial supporting the use of "concentration camp" in the exhibit. An article quoted Jonathan Mark, a columnist for The Jewish Week, who wrote, "Can no one else speak of slavery, gas, trains, camps? It's Jewish malpractice to monopolize pain and minimize victims." AJC Executive Director David A. Harris stated during the controversy, "We have not claimed Jewish exclusivity for the term 'concentration camps.'"

On July 7, 2012, at their annual convention, the National Council of the Japanese American Citizens League unanimously ratified the Power of Words Handbook, calling for the use of "...truthful and accurate terms, and retiring the misleading euphemisms created by the government to cover up the denial of Constitutional and human rights, the force, oppressive conditions, and racism against 120,000 innocent people of Japanese ancestry locked up in America’s World War II concentration camps."

According to the Power Of Words Handbook:

From government documents and propaganda, to public discourse and newspapers, many euphemisms have been used to describe the experiences of Japanese Americans who were forced from their homes and communities during World War II. Words like evacuation, relocation, and assembly centers imply that the United States Government was trying to rescue Japanese Americans from a disastrous environment on the West Coast and simply help them move to a new gathering place. These terms strategically mask the fact that thousands of Japanese Americans were denied their rights as US citizens, and forcibly ordered to live in poorly constructed barracks on sites that were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Although the use of euphemisms was commonplace during World War II, and in many subsequent years, we realize that the continued use of these inaccurate terms is highly problematic.

References

Articles

• 'A request to be honored as patriots: World War II internees vote for recognition', by Lee Juillerat H&N Regional Editor, Herald and News (July 3, 2012).
• 'At Internment Camp, Exploring Choices of the Past', Tulelake Journal, by Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times (July 8, 2012).
• 'Former Tule Lake segregation camp prisoners make pilgrimage, recall lost years', by Alex Powers, Herald and News (July 4, 2012).
• 'Interest in Tule Lake Unit goes beyond Basin: Concerned public seeks monument's conservation', by Lee Juillerat H&N Regional Editor, Herald and News (8/19/2012).
• 'Photographer finds dignity in a dark time', by Ayako Mie, Staff writer for The Japan Times (8/16/2012).

Books

Nisei Draft Resisters

• Free to Die for their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II, 2001, by Eric Muller.

Renunciants

• "Native American Aliens: Disloyalty and the Renunciation of Citizenship by Japanese Americans during World War II," 1985, Donald E. Collins.

Tule Lake

Fiction

• Tule Lake, 2006, a novel by Edward T. Miyakawa.

Non-Fiction

• Kinenhi: Reflections on Tule Lake, by the Tule Lake Committee (1980).
• Tule Lake Revisited: A Brief History and Guide to the Tule Lake Concentration Camp Site, Second edition, 2012, by Barbara Takei and Judy Tachibana.

U.S. Concentration Camps

• Concentration Camps U.S.A: The Japanese Americans and World War II, 1971, by Roger Daniels.
• "Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism," 1987, Richard Drinnon.
• Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps, 1976, by Michi Weglyn.

Dissertations

• "Bitter Sweet Home," 2005 dissertation on the Japanese language literature of the wartime incarceration by Junko Kobayashi.

Documentaries

• The Cats of Mirikitani Documentary about artist and Tule Lake renunciant, Jimmy Mirikitani, 2006, produced and directed by Linda Hattendorf.

Film

• "From a Silk Cocoon" (A film about Itaru and Shizuko Ina and segregation at Tule Lake), 2004, produced and directed by Satsuki Ina.

Journals

• "A Question of Loyalty: Internment at Tule Lake," Journal of the Shaw Historical Library, Vol. 19, 2005, Klamath Falls, OR

External links

• [1] DENSHO Encyclopedia: History
• Tule Lake Committee History, photos, and VR panoramas.
• [2] NPS Tule Lake Unit of WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument visitor information
• National Park Service: Confinement and Ethnicity (Chapter 15) Camp plan and photos.
• PBS documentary
• 1944 "Aquila" Tri-State High School Yearbook The yearbook for the camp high school.
• Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument on Facebook
• Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument on Twitter