Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 shelley cannady Tule Lake Today Internment and its legacies

n the surface, Tule Lake is not much to look at. Its natural scenery is austere and its two little towns, Tulelake and Newell, are forlorn and offer few O services. Yet I love the place. It is the epicenter of my family and other multiple generations of hardworking, no-nonsense farming families. Its rich fields were reclaimed for homesteading in the early twentieth century from a broad marshy lake that is still one of the most important migratory waterfowl convergences along the Pacific Flyway. There are aboriginal hieroglyphics on its volcanic bluffs. Along the lake’s former edge is the Lava Beds National Monument, with its unique geologic formations and battlegrounds from one of the United States’ final armed conflicts with Native America against the Modoc people. And there is more, much more. The unincorporated, uncharismatic Newell has fewer than 500 residents today, but less than seventy years ago its population was over 20,000. It was the site of the Tule Lake Segregation Center, our nation’s longest operating concentration camp for West Coast American citizens and legal residents of Japanese ethnicity (Nikkei), what the director of the National Park Service, Jon Jarvis, has called ‘‘...ashameful episode in our past, and a compelling lesson in the fragility of our constitutional rights.’’1

Boom: A Journal of California, Vol. 3, Number 1, pps 17–33, ISSN 2153-8018, electronic ISSN 2153-764X. © 2013 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/boom.2013.3.2.17.

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Many area farms have more than one repurposed building still in use. The home and all of the outbuildings on the Bettandorff farm came from the camp.

Like Manzanar in California’s Owens Valley, Tule Lake the camp at Tule Lake left indelible marks on Tuleans (the was one of ten permanent ‘‘relocation’’ camps built during term for its former incarcerees) and the local community.3 World War II as a response to the hysteria that followed Until recently, Tuleans avoided being associated publicly Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. It was the largest and most with it; as the camp where ‘disloyals’ were sent, it was a land- controversial of them all, and became the site of prominent scape of conflicted memory and singular shame. But over acts of resistance.2 The only camp with a stockade and jail, the years the meaning of internment has shifted, and the Tule Lake had more guard towers and military police than Nikkei community no longer accepts the brand of ‘disloyal’ any other, and at one point deployed eight tanks to maintain that was seared into their psyches.4 Many have since order. The war ended over six decades ago, the camps were returned with younger family members during pilgrimage decommissioned, official apologies and reparations have events. Further, the National Park Service (NPS) has begun been made, and few people are left who were directly planning for the site’s future as a National Historic Site. involved with this event. Yet Tule Lake matters. Issues of ownership, budget, and local ambivalence present Although it never enjoyed the celebrity of Manzanar, challenges to its preservation and interpretation; and while which has been the subject of books, films, and exhibitions, controversy continues, touchstones visited by pilgrims are

As the camp where ‘disloyals’ were sent, it was a landscape of conflicted memory and singular shame.

18 BOOMCALIFORNIA.COM In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, on the basis of race, people of Japanese ancestry could not become naturalized citizens.

deteriorating and many may become less accessible in the for pilgrimages to the site. My research has also included future. on-site visual inventories, photography and geolocation of Ironically, as Nikkei come to terms with Tule Lake, in the relocated buildings, literature and archival reviews, and local community its physical remains continue to mark an examination of crime and property value data for Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 social divisions.5 It has more remaining historic assets in Newell. I’ve travelled to the sites of five of the other situ than all the other camps combined and many more of its camps to visually compare their remains and the degree assets are scattered throughout the basin.6 Its infrastructure of memorialization or historical interpretation present. and building stock have facilitated local community devel- These were Manzanar; Poston and Gila River in Arizona; opment since the war, but its intact portions, where people Topaz, Utah; and Minidoka, Idaho.7 Finally, I joined the live behind the barbed wire fences built in 1942 to exclude latest organized pilgrimage event to the Tule Lake site in Americans from other Americans based on race, have inher- July, 2012. ited the legacy of shame: in the 1970s, school children who lived there were embarrassed by its shabbiness. These days, Context: history and place it is not just shabby, it has a negative reputation. In local parlance, it’s ‘‘the ’hood,’’ a dicey place to live. A broad sweep of American history shows Japanese Amer- My family lived within view of the Tule Lake relocation ican incarceration as part of a continuum of values and camp site in a home that, like many, was made from policies that undermine civil or human rights for targeted a moved and remodeled barracks building. For nearly groups of Americans. Prior to WW II, anti-Asian, and par- four decades I’ve witnessed the layers of narrative in the ticularly anti-Japanese sentiment was high in the western landscape and the varied attitudes to the ‘‘old Jap camp’’ (a United States. Beginning in 1893 we see a history of insti- term now offensively racist) held by local residents. I tutionalized segregation, targeted immigration laws, and learned that repurposed homes like ours supported other anti-Japanese activities. Prominent social and political a post-war wave of homesteading for hardworking, white leaders in the region mainstreamed racist attitudes with American veterans, and have been the living and working inflammatory public statements like this one from V.S. environments of generations of area residents to follow. McClatchy, the publisher of the Sacramento Bee: ‘‘Of all I noticed that pilgrimages to the site by Japanese Americans races ...the Japanese are the least assimilable and the most draw larger numbers even as time grows distant from the dangerous to this country.’’8 Japanese American success in incarceration event. farming and horticulture was seen as particularly threaten- I wanted to flesh out the nuances of Tule Lake’s story, ing, resulting in the enactment of laws in 1913 and 1920 to understand how the mass incarceration event still holds preventing resident aliens from owning or even leasing power over its current and past residents. To this end I’ve land. In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, on the looked at the events, policies, and values that led to its exis- basis of race, people of Japanese ancestry could not become tence, its (d)evolving physical presence in the landscape naturalized citizens.9 since 1946, its significance to its resident (local) commu- Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, racist nity, and the imprint of place on its resonant (Nikkei) com- attitudes escalated sharply. Shortly thereafter, federal munity. I’ve been able to draw from family and community authorities arrested Japanese and Japanese American lan- knowledge, and also from communication with NPS per- guage teachers, newspaper editors, priests and other com- sonnel and the Tule Lake Committee, the organizing body munity leaders, often without informing their families

BOOM | SPRING 2013 19 Its high elevation, rugged geology, cold temperatures, isolation, and the poor condition of its secondary roads made it ideal for the containment of large numbers of people. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 where they were being held.10 Secretary of War Henry L. conducive to the Relocation Authority’s objectives: the for- Stimson asserted that the ‘‘racial characteristics’’ of the Jap- merlakebedhaslittletopographicalreliefandissur- anese were ‘‘such that we cannot understand or trust even rounded by volcanic bluffs, and its arid climate supports the citizen Japanese.’’11 On Feb. 19, 1942, President Roose- a native plant palette devoid of dense or tall vegetation, velt signed Executive Order No. 9066, giving the U.S. West- providing excellent distance visibility and little cover. Its ern Defense Command the authority to relocate and confine high elevation, rugged geology, cold temperatures, isolation, Japanese Americans and resident aliens from the Western and the poor condition of its secondary roads made it ideal Exclusion Area without due process.12 for the containment of large numbers of people, more than The War Relocation Authority (WRA) registered heads of any other camp. households at local registration stations and then moved Tule Lake’s secured portion was approximately one and families to Assembly Centers for one to four months prior a half square miles (1100 acres), with an additional 3575 to permanent camp assignment. The permanent camps, acres for agricultural crops and livestock, warehouses, sew- officially called ‘War Relocation Centers,’ were constructed age treatment plants and effluent fields, a garbage dump in isolated areas far from military facilities, with sufficient site, and other peripheral uses. Staff and military police federal property suitable for agriculture.13 During the war, facilities were aligned along the highway, and internee bar- the media and many Americans referred to them coldly as racks were arranged in blocks to the northeast. There were ‘Jap camps.’ President Roosevelt and other government offi- 1036 barracks buildings, sixteen per block, each block with cials occasionally referred to them as ‘concentration camps.’ separate dining hall and latrine buildings.15 The 20’x100’ TheTuleLakecampwastheonlyonethateventually barracks were hastily constructed with low quality materials acquired the status of ‘Segregation Center’ for reasons that and divided into four to five family quarters, each with less will be explained later. average floor space per person than what was considered the At the time, Tule Lake residents supported the incarcer- standard for poverty level.16 Thecampwassectionedby ation but not its location. It was already a racialized land- roads, fire breaks, and barbed wire-topped fencing, and scape created by the expulsion of its original inhabitants, the ringed with guard towers. It was designed to be self- Modoc people. It had been physically transformed by the contained, with its own hospital, post office, schools, library, US Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath project that drained shops, offices, industries, utilities, and maintenance and channelized much of the area’s extensive shallow lake/- facilities. wetland system for agriculture and homesteading, and In 1943 Tule Lake evolved from being a relocation center opened it up to (white only) homesteaders; large tracts of like any other to being the most disreputable of the camps. federal property under irrigation were still available in This was because the War Relocation Authority decided to 1942.14 It was significantly far from any large urban area administer a mandatory loyalty questionnaire to all those or military facility but near a highway suitable for support- incarcerated in all ten camps. The questions were confusing ing its construction and supply from Klamath Falls, Oregon, and the implications of answers were not explained; in addi- and Alturas, California. The site’s physical character was tion, no answers could be qualified with comments.

20 BOOMCALIFORNIA.COM Answering questions 27 and 28 was a lose-lose proposition; than all other internment camp sites combined, although 27 addressed willingness to serve in the U.S. armed forces most of the former camp site and remaining buildings are and 28 demanded unqualified allegiance to the U.S. These now on private property.20 Among the camp’s surviving questions posed a serious dilemma for many families with inventory are buildings, roads, utilities, fences, and trees. mixed citizenship (for example, resident alien parents with Most of the intact buildings in original locations, admin- children who were U.S. citizens), and the fear of deportation istrative and staff portions of the camp, are in the town of or repatriation to Japan had become oppressive. Any who Newell. Many of them remain in use as housing, a general did not answer ‘‘yes’’ to either of those questions, or who store, potato warehouses, and vehicle maintenance build- refused to answer them, were deemed disloyal, and all ‘‘dis- ings. Several other historic structures remain in various loyals’’ were sent to Tule Lake, which had been designated states of disrepair. They include a firehouse, a carpentry/ as the camp for disloyal or otherwise ‘disruptive’ incarcerees. paint shop (currently under restoration), and the stockade Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 Social unrest quickly developed. The influx of reassigned gate and jail. Trees planted in the camp and along its peri- people and the displacement of many Tulean families to meters also remain, contributing to the visual definition of other camps (because their answers were ‘‘right’’) caused Newell’s boundaries. The camp’s water system, primary disruption in family stability and community cohesion, and water treatment plant and sewer lines, electrical grid, and Tule Lake became the site of several acts of resistance.17 numerous road footprints are still in use today and have At this point, the camp’s incarcerated population grew to strongly influenced Newell’s physical layout, its aesthetic nearly 19,000, and it was converted into a maximum secu- character, and its viability as a settlement. rity facility. Additional troops and eight armored vehicles The camp’s most unsettling remnants are its fences. were deployed, additional barracks and sentry towers were They symbolize forced exclusion, yet in Newell people still erected, and the only stockade and jail in any of the ten live within them. The largest grouping of camp buildings is camps was built.18 the former military police compound, which remains nearly Over time, Nikkei who did not answer ‘‘yes’’ to the ques- intact and has been in use as private housing for several tions became known as ‘‘No-Nos.’’ Some became ‘‘Renun- decades. Its regimented layout, stark building style, and the ciants’’ who in anger, confusion, or protest, or simply out of low quality of its building materials give it the look of public fear that family members might be separated, renounced their housing, and this has had a noticeable social impact on its U.S. citizenship. These people were also sent to Tule Lake. residents and the community. It is now called the Flying There was, at this time a vacated Civilian Conservation Goose Lodges, locally referred to as ‘the Goose’. Its Corps camp approximately twelve miles away. A group of concentration-camp fencing segregates it visually and phys- Tuleans was given the task of repairing the CCC camp and ically from the rest of Newell, leaving the impression that improving its security features in order to convert it to a tem- it’s the ‘bad’ part of town. There was and still is a stigma porary jail for Nikkei dissenters. Shortly thereafter, it also attached to living there, and I recall that kids who lived there housed 243 Nikkei brought in from other camps to harvest back when I was in school were embarrassed by it; when the crops when Tulean farmworkers went on strike. In May bus let them off they scurried away, ashamed. The percep- 1944, the CCC camp was converted to a prisoner of war tion that the Goose is an unsafe ’hood still exists, in fact, camp for Italian and German POWs.19 Ironically, phobias none of the locals I interviewed in recent years will drive about Japan had such a hold on the white community that through it and all recommended avoiding it because of per- European POWs enjoyed much more freedom of move- ceived drug trafficking and the potential for violence. (I did, ment in and out of their camp than the Nikkei Americans however, take photographs along each street without inci- in the Segregation Center. dent.) The rest of Newell, with the exception of a migrant housing area, is considered safer. The physical differences are that building alignments have been altered and there is Legacy: remnants and relocation no perimeter fencing. Today, the site of the Tule Lake camp has more buildings The negative assertions about the Goose by my local and other historical assets remaining in their original sites acquaintances were anecdotal,soIvisitedtheSheriff’s

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Flowers left as tribute by family and strangers at the approximate location where a wall of a camp high school under construction fell on Daisaburo Kowano, the only Tulean killed in the camp’s construction.

office in Alturas last summer for more information. Bill There were 413 incident calls during the reporting period Engel, the Resident Deputy whose response area includes for the Goose alone, and there is a significantly higher crime Newell, and Assistant Sheriff Mike Crutcher asserted that in rate in Newell where buildings and perimeter fences remain the past ten years domestic violence, child abuse, sex in place from the original camp. Mike Crutcher told me crimes, and theft had increased in Newell, and that that the drug dealers in the Flying Goose Lodges actually 60–70% of these crimes occurred in the Goose. To confirm prefer that the fencing remain, because it limits ingress/ these statements, I examined lists generated by the Sheriff’s egress points, enabling them to better monitor who comes staff of all incident reports in the Goose and the rest of and goes, including (and especially) law enforcement Newell for the last four years. It’s interesting that, even personnel. though Newell has only 136 households and 449 persons The social stigma and crime of the Flying Goose Lodges and residents of the Flying Goose Lodges make up only is an example of the relocation camp’s negative legacy in the 25–33% of Newell’s population, Modoc County has a spe- local community. Though it could also be argued that the cific category for incident reports from the Goose.21 Goose provides needed low-income housing, the barbed

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The Flying Goose Lodges is the camp’s former military police compound and its largest intact portion.

wire fence and gate give new meaning to ‘‘gated commu- housing built for the families of seasonal farmworkers. This nity.’’ Not surprisingly, home ownership is not as desirable housing compound sits on the site of the former camp staff in the Flying Goose Lodges compared to the rest of Newell. residential compound and is enclosed by the original fence The 2010 Census data shows that 39% of all housing units line, complete with barbed wire. As with the Flying Goose in Newell are rentals—but does not break this number out Lodges, its fencing and regimented layout communicates by address. Assessment records reveal that there are a num- a negative message and has served to segregate migrant ber of persons and companies who own multiple properties (primarily Hispanic American) families from the rest of the in the Goose and in the rest of Newell. This can be community. Incidentally, a new migrant housing develop- accounted for, in part, by extended family occupation and ment is currently under construction to replace this one; it adjacent lot ownership. Nevertheless, records show that will presumably house primarily Hispanic families but is, a higher percentage of Flying Goose owners reside else- unfortunately, completely enclosed by cyclone fencing. A where, suggesting their status as absentee landlords. more positive note in the camp’s legacy resulted from the ElsewhereinNewell,thepatternofcamphousingis movement and reuse of its building stock after the war. The repeated in the footprint and style of 1970s government blocks of internee barracks were dismantled and many

BOOM | SPRING 2013 23 hundreds of buildings were moved and repurposed nearby general area of the Tule Lake basin. According to longtime as houses and farm outbuildings, strongly influencing the resident James Anderson, most of the moved buildings Tule Lake basin’s aesthetic character to this day. Neverthe- remained relatively close, because transporting them over the less, it was still a racialized landscape. A post-war phase of rough, unpaved secondary roads of the 1940s was difficult. homesteading for returning Anglo veterans occurred from Nevertheless, many were moved to Klamath Falls, and he has 1946–49, and the camp’s existence to a large extent made recentlyspottedcampbuildings in Macdoel, Dorris, and this feasible.22 The areas opened to homesteaders were in Alturas, California, and 117 miles away in Lakeview, Oregon.23 close proximity to the camp, within six miles due north and When I lived in the area in the 1970s, living in a ‘Jap south. Homesteaders were each allowed one barracks shack’ was something people either didn’t care to admit or building, which, for $150, was cut in half and moved to didn’t recognize as significant. Today, reticence to admit it farmsteads that were approximately a quarter mile square. is waning, but so is awareness of the homes’ origins. Even Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 Other barracks buildings were available for purchase from though my family lived in one of these repurposed homes, I the Bureau of Reclamation (for $1-$400,according to anec- didn’t realize the scale of their postwar use and continued dotal accounts) and the camp’s farm and other equipment existence until conducting inventories for this research. and materials were also sold to new farmers, allowing them Angela Sutton, the NPS ranger in charge of the Tule Lake to concentrate a larger share of their resources on agricul- Unit, related that four generations of her family currently ture. Hundreds of the camp’s barracks and a few of its other live in former barracks buildings or have barracks outbuild- buildings were moved and repurposed, mostly in the ings at their homes.

The camp’s secondary sewage treatment facility with the iconic Abalone Mountain in the distance.

24 BOOMCALIFORNIA.COM The Bureau of Reclamation offered remodeling plans to homesteaders to help make the idea of living in them more attractive.

The landscape is peppered with these buildings in vari- occurs on the bus rides to and from Sacramento, Berkeley, ous states of modification and structural integrity. Their Seattle, and other western cities.26 No longer a rustic affair, layouts were modified into T or L footprints, with improve- thepilgrimagemakesuseoftheresidencehalls,lecture ments to enhance appearance and structural integrity, and halls, classrooms, and cafeteria at the nearby Oregon Insti- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 to mask their origin. In fact, the Bureau of Reclamation tute of Technology (OIT). offered remodeling plans to homesteaders to help make The 2012 pilgrims arrived at the institute venue on the the idea of living in them more attractive to their wives.24 evening of June 30th. The next day organizers took everyone Barracks used as outbuildings typically were left in their to the site of the camp for a day of remembrance and, for the original linear form. young, discovery. I joined the group at the first event, a rig- The portion of the camp where incarcerees lived has orous early morning hike to the top of Castle Rock.27 Those essentially been erased, but the imprints of its layout and capable of reaching the summit were treated to a panoramic some foundation structures remain clearly legible on its viewoftheentirecamp.There,onCastleRock’speak, soil.25 Much of this area is owned by Macy’s Flying Service, pilgrims paid respect to the large white metal cross sponta- a local business whose small aircraft runways follow the neously and generously installed by locals in 1974 to replace camp’s two major firebreaks and whose main buildings the deteriorating wooden original that Christian Tuleans stand on the location of barracks blocks 19 and 20. Latrine erected while incarcerated. This cross, like so many of the and guard tower foundations, coal bunkers, and other struc- camp’s buildings, has acquired value for a broader constit- tural remnants have become important touchstones for Jap- uency than the Nikkei. anese Americans and other visitors. There is easy physical A memorial service at the site of the camp’s cemetery and visual access to these mostly privately owned properties followed on July 1st. George Nishikawa, 81, sent to Tule Lake from public roads. as a child, on his first pilgrimage, spoke to the assembled crowd of being (spiritually) reborn that day, ‘‘This moment ... is larger than life. I will leave here a changed Legacy: resonance and reconciliation person. As I trace the steps of my parents and friends it is This working, living landscape is the landscape of memory something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.’’ Another and personal discovery for Tuleans and their descendants, poignant moment that day came when family members of who have organized pilgrimage events to Tule Lake since Daisaburo Kowano, the only Tulean killed in the camp’s 1975. Early on, such pilgrimages involved some 250 partici- construction, held an ad hoc memorial at the approximate pants who camped out at nearby fairgrounds, but in recent location where a wall being erected for a high school fell on years, participants have numbered over 400, with many him. Remembrances and tears of heartbreak and joy were more waitlisted. As the years go on there is naturally a reduc- shared, and flowers were left as tribute by family and stran- tion in the number of original Tuleans, but participation by gers alike.28 Other pilgrimage stops included the local Tule- extended family members, younger Japanese Americans, lake museum, the modest state highway historical marker National Park Service personnel, and other interested per- (built in the 1970s near the camp’s original entrance), the sons has increased. Many return for each pilgrimage. The intact jail, and the entrance gate to the Flying Goose four-day event (including two travel days) is organized by Lodges.29 Butmoresubtleelementsinthelandscape the Tule Lake Committee (TLC), and according to its current also drew the attention of pilgrims. I observed elderly chair, Hiroshi Shimizu, much intergenerational bonding folks leading youths to points of reference, where their

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Reaching the top of Castle Rock allows 2012 pilgrims to connect to the cross, originally erected by Christian Tuleans, and to experience a panoramic view of Newell. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021

Pilgrims gather shells from the lacustrine soils as a ritual memento. The tiny shells were used by Tuleans for crafts and jewelry.

family’s quarters may have been. They showed them the others facilitates sharing of their remembered stories. As foundations of latrine buildings and watchtowers, the ruins we gathered at one of the latrine foundations, a former of coal bunkers, and the faintly visible red cinder paving of detainee related memories of tobogganing down Castle roads and breaks that defined housing blocks. Some pil- Rock in the winter.31 grims collected tiny mollusk shells in the lacustrine soil In the past, many Tuleans, whether ‘disloyal’ or not, were that were used for crafts and jewelry during the war years. reluctant to admit or discuss their connection to Tule Lake. Elderly Tuleans gazed up at the two striking landmarks that It was guilt by association. No-Nos, Renunciants, and even haunted their imaginations both during incarceration and ‘loyal’ internees who chose to stay in Tule Lake after the afterwards–Castle Rock and Abalone Mountain. These two camp’s redesignation had endured decades of resentment bluffs have been painted, sketched, and otherwise refer- and shame within the Japanese American community for enced in numerous works of art and literature produced supposedly being disloyal to the United States. As the dec- by Tuleans during the confinement years and beyond.30 ades passed, revisionist attitudes developed in the com- Seeing familiar landmarks helps stimulate Tuleans’ munity; many Japanese Americans now view renunciation memories of place and experience; and being there with as having been a courageous, righteous act of protest.

BOOM | SPRING 2013 27 Following the passing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, weekends in the company of a ranger. Many of the camp’s which granted reparations to former incarcerated persons, other historic features nearby are accessible but not inter- there was a psychological shift in the community. Talking preted; there is no signage and there are no self-guided tours. about the Tule Lake experience, or admitting having been A Congressional Act established the Japanese American there, was no longer completely taboo.32 During the 2012 Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program that authorizes up pilgrimage, Tuleans demonstrated a spirit of openness, opti- to $38 million for projects to preserve and interpret these mism, and even pride in the experience of returning to the sites. Since 2009, grants have been awarded for a wide site and sharing it with younger generations. range of projects including film production, developing edu- The theme of the 2012 pilgrimage was ‘‘Understanding cational materials, recording oral histories, and building No-No and Renunciation’’ and organizers structured the museums.33 To date, however, the only JACS grant specifi- event to be an opportunity for personal healing and com- cally targeted at interpretation or preservation of Tule Lake’s Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 munity forgiveness and reconciliation. During the last full physical heritage assets was $40,000 for a Historic Struc- day, general sessions at OIT were devoted to discussing the tures Report on the stockade and jail. psychological trauma of incarceration and the ensuing In comparison, the development of Manzanar as an shame, imposed by the Nikkei community, of being Tulean. interpreted historic site is much more legible within the Speakers urged a redefinition of the actions of individuals broader landscape. Unlike Tule Lake, Manzanar did not previously branded as ‘disloyal’ as having acted out of patriot- become the infrastructure for a town, and the site stands ism by their refusal to accept the injustices imposed on them. stark and alone. A replicated guard tower against a stunning There were smiles, applause, and tears in the packed lecture High Sierran backdrop is a beacon for visitors along CA 395. hall when a motion was made and passed by those assembled Most of the buildings were taken down when the camp was to replace any use of the term ‘disloyals’ by the term ‘American closed; some were moved and repurposed, like those at Tule Patriots.’ It was a deeply moving catharsis for many. Lake, but their continued presence in the landscape is not as noticeable.34 The only building that remained on site after the war was the high school gymnasium, which recently was Recognition: interpreting history and legacy transformed into the NPS visitor center and a modern, ultra- Nationwide, more attention has been paid in recent years to slick museum. Archeological excavations have exposed the importance of illuminating the history of Nikkei con- the outlines of the camp’s blocks and major use areas, finement, now acknowledged widely as an abomination. even its exquisitely designed gardens. A handful of historic With this comes the recognition of the importance of pre- buildings have been re-erected on the site, and interpretive serving and interpreting its story in the landscape. In 2006, signage abounds. The visitor center is open daily and there forty-two acres in and around Newell were designated as is an after-hours guide map available in a kiosk at the park- a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Inte- ing lot. rior, and in 2008 the site of the Segregation Center as well Manzanar’s story reads well both in the landscape and its as the former European POW camp became the ‘‘WW II interpretive infrastructure, but the NPS is still coming to Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Tule Lake Unit,’’ terms with the Tule Lake stories that need to be told. The but landmark status is just a beginning. The NPS doesn’t Park Service estimates that there are already 3000–4000 have full control or ownership of all forty-two acres, which visitors to the site annually, not including pilgrimage events, are a combination of US Fish & Wildlife Service, California even though almost nothing encourages it. There’s little Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and BOR proper- existing interpretive signage, no restrooms, no shady rest ties; and there is no current federal budget for further prop- areas, not even a paved parking lot. The small Newell mini- erty acquisition, site development, or preservation. The grocery (the camp’s former staff recreation building) is the visitor center is located ten miles away at the local community only place to get food or drink. museum in the city of Tulelake. The only portion of the camp The NPS and the Tule Lake Committee have begun on site controlled by the Park Service is the stockade area and a five-year planning process for the management and future jail, which is fenced and accessible to the public only on development of Tule Lake. Site development goals include

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The Tule Lake Pilgrimage memorial service, July 1, 2012.

rebuilding an entire barracks block and its associated fence, which would effectively eliminate public access to latrines and recreation facility; development of interpretive a large number of historic remnants. walks; and recreation of the stockade, including its four On July 2, 2012, as part of the pilgrimage program, the guard towers. These require funding and the major hurdle Park Service held the kickoff session on development plan- of property acquisition. The NPS would prefer to recreate ning for Tule Lake to gather ideas and discuss issues with the block in a historically accurate place, but appropriate a large number of interested persons. Anna Tamura, an properties are privately owned. The stockade site is on state NPS planner and landscape architect who has been involved property and other existing buildings in situ are either pri- in the planning for the camp at Minidoka, facilitated. Also vately owned or owned by the state (Caltrans owns the present were Terry Harris, Chief of Visitor Services at the camp’s motor pool and vehicle maintenance buildings.) The Lava Beds National Monument and the Tule Lake Unit; Tom Park Service hopes to work out an agreement with the Macy Leatherman, former Superintendent for the Manzanar family to use some of the airport property, but there are now National Historic Site; other NPS personnel; many former fears that new Department of Homeland Security rules may Tuleans and other Japanese Americans, and a handful of require that the airport have a higher-security perimeter other interested persons, including myself and some local

BOOM | SPRING 2013 29 residents. This meeting was a small first step, but the NPS after the war but kept them intact, recognizing their signif- plans to hold more meetings in the future and has con- icance.37 This is important because according to a study, structed a web-based contact center to facilitate the exchange ‘‘the original jail structure is, for former internees, the most of ideas from any interested person or organization.35 significant symbol of internment anywhere in the United The feedback covered questions of visitor experience, States.’’38 Other locals are taking care to preserve or cele- treatment of the landscape, and restoration of buildings. brate the remaining integrity of historic buildings on their Although few specific program ideas were generated, sug- properties. At the Bettandorff family farm, approximately gestions offered included developing a set of economic two miles from Newell, several barracks are arranged into incentives to foster local residents’ ‘buy-in’ and replacing a house and outbuildings. The Bettandorffs often have the clunky ‘‘WW II Valor in the Pacific, Tule Lake Unit’’ allowed Nikkei pilgrims and other visitors to see the exten- moniker with the more direct ‘‘Tule Lake National Monu- sive writing in Japanese on the interior wall of one of these Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 ment.’’ When one participant commented that the current outbuildings. David Misso, whose property is just across an site context did not relate to the camp, referring to the visual irrigation canal from the former camp’s southern edge, has messiness of Newell, I pointed out that this context was the both a former camp engineer’s building and a cold storage camp, and advocated that site interpretation also tell the building, built by Tuleans, that he converted to a hay shed. postwar story of the camp’s legacy in the community, per- When showing me this building in 2011, he related that had haps providing information to help the visitor ‘read’ the he initially known that Tuleans built it, he would not have broader landscape of artifacts and repurposed buildings. altered it, out of respect for its origins. The fact that so many historic buildings are now people’s Janet Anderson, who attended the planning meeting, lives homes and businesses will certainly complicate their inter- in a home made from repurposed barracks and is proud of pretation. If the most haunting vestiges of the concentration the historic significance of her property. Her back door dis- camp, its fencelines, remain, then residents within could plays its original painted unit number and her outbuilding still become objects in a voyeuristic tableau. Further, local atti- has some of the original flooring and partitions. She is sup- tudes toward the camp’s history, the Tuleans, and the portive of preservation efforts, but feels that the Park Service remains continue to be ambivalent, ranging from post-war may still encounter local resistance to further development. insistence that incarceration was valid and necessary, to the Jim King, an area resident and educator, believes that shame of history or of material shabbiness, to outright racist resistance to development of historic assets is gradually fad- annoyance with remembrance, to personal pride in the ing, and that economics can drive the success or failure of buildings as homes or as historical assets.36 The wounds preservation and development efforts. At the meeting, he of World War II, though deep for some, are certainly no recommended ‘‘small steps’’ in the beginning that will bring longer fresh, and fewer remain who were alive in that era. in tourist dollars, and suggested purchasing the vacant New- Many local people own well-preserved artifacts from the ell Elementary School building for use as an interpretive camp, and with the growing awareness of their historical center. He and his wife, Akimi (herself the daughter of value are donating them to the NPS through the Tulelake Tuleans) have been long-time advocates for historic preser- museum. Just recently, the metal portions of the jail (cell vation of the site.39 bars, doors, and bunks) were donated by Bill Osborne, Kelly Lytle Hernandez´ has written that ‘‘California is the whose mother and father bought them as metal scrap heartland of racial exclusion in the United States today,’’

If the most haunting vestiges of the concentration camp, its fencelines, remain, then residents within could become objects in a voyeuristic tableau.

30 BOOMCALIFORNIA.COM Its landscape has been uniqueness of remaining camp traces.42 Although the scene lacks windshield appeal, it tells an important national story. designed for racial It is the destination of pilgrims seeking emotional resolu- tion. Newell is not just the remains of the former Tule Lake exclusion. Segregation Center, it is also the living, working environ- ment of its present community. Site interpretation, if it is to and the Tule Lake basin is no exception.40 Reclamation be thoroughly understood and relevant to the widest audi- rendered it unrecognizable to its original Native American ence, must address its historic context and its present social inhabitants; homesteading policies assured white exclusivity. issues. Its largest intact portion, the Goose, is functionally The Tule Lake Segregation Center was an egregious viola- and visually evocative of its concentration camp origin. The tion of civil rights based on race, and current government camp’s other inelegant structures have been moved, used, Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 housing for migrant workers serves to segregate Hispanic and altered, and have acquired new and more positive fam- American families from the broader community. Beginning ily histories. They are the vertebrae in the aesthetic spine of with the era of Modoc expulsion, its landscape has been the surrounding area, the living and working environments designed for racial exclusion. of homesteading veterans and multiple generations to fol- The local population is split on the question of memor- low. Even deconstructed, the Tule Lake Segregation Center ialization of the site. In 1979, I personally removed a large still exists as the living landscape of both its resident and crude sign spray-painted with the words ‘‘Remember Pearl resonant communities. B Harbor’’ that was placed on the highway memorial shortly after its dedication. There have been instances of intentional Notes aircraft overflights during pilgrimage memorial services in 1 Newell, and the occasional angry letter to the editor of the National Park Service, ‘‘$3 Million for WWII Japanese Ameri- local newspaper. But positive local gestures are many: the can Confinement Sites’’ (press release), http://www.nps.gov/ applications/digest/headline.cfm [accessed 13 December 2010]. preservation and donation of artifacts; the replacement of 2 TheTuleLakecampwasinoperationfromMay26,1942, the cross on Castle Rock; volunteerism by locals like David through March 20, 1946. Misso, who helps with logistics for pilgrimage events; the 3 The term incarceree is used rather than the more common willingness of families like the Macys and the Bettandorffs internee. It is the term preferred by the Japanese American to allow strangers access to their property; and local partic- Citizens League for use in this context because internment is ipation in the construction of the highway monument (my the legal term for the imprisonment of civilian enemy persons. late stepfather, a WW II veteran, was one who helped). Much has been written on terminology used for the Nikkei These days, the wartime incarceration of Japanese Amer- incarceration era. For more information, follow the ‘‘Suggested icans is little discussed and not even known to all Ameri- Reading’’ link for teachers on this NPS website: http://www. nps.gov/tule/forteachers/index.htm (accessed December 7, cans. Preserving and appreciating its evidence is important 2012). to maintaining the narrative of the event in its context. 4 This article cannot begin to do justice to the complexity of The physical features of Tule Lake’s landscape reveal Nikkei remembrance of, attitudes toward, personal psycholog- a unique glimpse into a controversial era and a racialized ical struggle, and community conflict with the incarceration era. landscape. The story they tell has a broader relevance to Numerous books and oral histories exist, and for an in-depth current issues, such as voter ID laws, anti-Muslim senti- scholarly examination of this complexity and the struggle for ment, and the racial profiling of Hispanics and African redress, see Alice Yang Murray, Historical Memories of the Americans. In the words of Ren Lohoefener of the U.S. Fish Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress (Stan- ford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008). and Wildlife Service, ‘‘When people visit [Tule Lake] ... they 5 It is important to note that the term ‘local community’ does not will learn the past doesn’t have to be repeated.’’41 include Japanese Americans. Immediately before and after the The official recognition of Tule Lake as a historic site will war, the Tule Lake basin was populated almost exclusively by drive increased heritage tourism that may influence the white settlers. No Nikkei remained in the area or were granted local economy and further raise local awareness of the homesteads after the camp closed.

BOOM | SPRING 2013 31 6 ‘‘Tule Lake Segregation Center Special Resource Study Act,’’ U. 19 California State Military Department. ‘‘Historic California S. Senate Report 110-296 (Microfiche) (Washington, D.C.: Posts: Tule Lake Branch Prisoner of War Camp (Camp Tulelake).’’ Government Printing Office Y1.1/5:110-296, 2008) 2–5. http://www.militarymuseum.org/TuleLakePOWCamp.html 7 The other four relocation camps were at Heart Mountain, WY; [accessed November 2010], 2. Granada, CO; Rohwer, AR; and Jerome, AR. 20 ‘‘Tule Lake Segregation Center Special Resource Study Act.,’’ U. 8 Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore (New York: Little, S. Senate Report 110–296 (Microfiche) (Washington, D.C.: Brown, and Co., 1989), 209. Government Printing Office Y1.1/5:110–296, 2008). 21 9 Wendy Ng, Japanese American Internment During World War II: According to the 2010 U.S. Census, http://www.census.gov a History and Reference Guide (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, [accessed 29 July 29 2012]. 22 2002). Homesteaders were chosen by lottery, but the pool of applicants 10 Ng, Japanese American Internment During World War II: a His- was narrowed prior to drawing by both explicit and implicit

qualifications, including race. Wilson, ‘‘Landscapes of Promise Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 tory and Reference Guide. and Betrayal,’’ 426. 11 James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (New 23 Personal communication, 30 July 2011. York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1970), 215. 24 Wilson, ‘‘Landscapes of Promise and Betrayal,’’ 435–6. 12 Peter B. Sheridan, ‘‘The Internment of German and Italian 25 ™ Aliens Compared with the Internment of Japanese Aliens in To see the camp’s imprint on Google Earth, search for Newell, the United States During World War II: a Brief History and CA, and look just to the south and east of the airstrip. Analysis,’’ Congressional Research Service Report, November 24, 26 Personal communication, March 2012. Information on the Tule 1980 (Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1980). The West- Lake Committee and pilgrimage events can be found at http:// ern Exclusion Area included California, the western portions of www.tulelake.org. Oregon and Washington, and the southern part of Arizona 27 Castle Rock, known to locals as the Peninsula, is closed to along its border with Mexico. public use. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the 13 Ng, Japanese American Internment During World War II: bluff as sensitive raptor habitat and grants the TLC special a History and Reference Guide. permission for the hike. 14 Harold Jacoby, Tule Lake: from Relocation to Segregation (Grass 28 No incarceres´ remain buried at the camp. Most who died dur- Valley, CA: Comstock Bonanza Press, 1996) and Robert ing the war years were cremated as per Buddhist tradition, and Wilson, ‘‘Landscapes of Promise and Betrayal: Reclamation, those who were buried at camp were later reinterred at the Homesteading, and Japanese American Incarceration,’’ Annals Linkville Cemetery in Klamath Falls, OR. of the Association of American Geographers, v101,n2(2011), 29 According to Angela Sutton (23 July 2011), this metal entrance pp. 424–444. gate is not original, but was built as part of the movie set for the 15 Jeffery F. Burton and Mary M. Farrell, Tule Lake Segregation filming of ‘‘Farewell to Manzanar’’ in the 1970s. Center (first draft of historic resources inventory for National 30 One of the most well-known artists from Tule Lake is Jimmy Historic Landmark nomination) (Tucson: National Park Service, Mirikitani, who, though feeble, was present for the 2012 pil- U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Western Archeological and Conser- grimage. His life and work were documented in the 2006 film vation Center, 2004). ‘‘The Cats of Mirikitani’’ directed by Linda Hattendorf. Miriki- 16 Bruce Elleman, Japanese-American Civilian Prisoner Exchanges tani died on October 21, 2012, at the age of 92. and Detention Camps, 1941–45 (London and New York: Routle- 31 Personal communication with Saburo ‘Sam’ Owada, 1 July 2012. dge, 2006). 32 According to Richard Katsuda, as reported by Martha Naka- 17 Stan Turner, The Years of Harvest: a History of the Tule Lake gawa, ‘‘Tule Lake Pilgrimage Experiences’’ www.nikkeiwest. Basin (3rd edition) (Eugene, OR: Spenser Creek Press, com [accessed 4 September 2012]. 2002), Philip L. Fradkin, The Seven States of California: A 33 Information on the JACS grant program can be found at http:// Natural and Human History (New York: Henry Holt & Co., www.nps.gov/hps/hpg/JACS/index.html. 1995), ‘‘Tule Lake Segregation Center Special Resource 34 For a stunning visual documentation of Manzanar’s repurposed Study Act.’’ buildings, see Andrew Freeman [Manzanar] Architecture Double 18 Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell, Florence B. Lord, and (Ram Publications/The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Richard W. Lord, Confinement and Ethnicity: an overview of World 2006). War II Japanese American Relocation Sites (Seattle: University of 35 http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm? Washington Press, 2002), 282–283. projectID¼43110.

32 BOOMCALIFORNIA.COM 36 Wilson, ‘‘Landscapes of Promise and Betrayal,’’ 438. 40 Kelly Lytle Hernandez,´ ‘‘Amnesty or Abolition? Felons, illegals, 37 National Park Service, Tule Lake Unit, WW II Valor in the and the case for a new abolition movement,’’ Boom: A Journal of Pacific National Monument, ‘‘Significant Pieces Donated to California, v 1, n 4 (Winter 2011), 55. National Park Service,’’ (press release 6 September 2012). 41 Lee Juillerat, ‘‘New Park Dedicated: Monument tells the story of 38 ‘‘Tule Lake Segregation Center Special Resource Study Act.’’ Tule Lake Detention and Segregation Camp’’ (Klamath Falls, OR: Herald and News: July 4, 2009: A3.’’ 39 Statements by Janet Anderson and Jim King were made on 42 Conservation Fund, ‘‘Tule Lake Segregation Center Becomes July 2, 2012, at the inaugural site planning meeting facilitated National Monument,’’ (press release 5 December 2008), http:// by NPS personnel and held as part of the pilgrimage program www.conservationfund.org/news/tule_lake_segregation_center_ at OIT. becomes_national_monument, [accessed 7 December 2010]. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article-pdf/3/1/17/381492/boom_2013_3_1_17.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021

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