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| Hwy 161, Modoc Plateau, California |
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I once knew an American physician of Japanese descent who spent her teen years at Tule Lake, California. I noticed California 161 ran directly along the Oregon state line into the Modoc Valley, the site of the Tule Lake Japanese Internment Camp. It was worth a detour.
Originally built as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1935, it was expanded to house Japanese Americans. There's not much left of the camp today, but I learned it was a "maximum security" segregation center where those citizens who did not "properly" answer a controversial patriotism questionnaire were sent. By 1944, close to 19,000 Americans were imprisoned at Tule Lake, the largest of ten such concentration camps. Interestingly, there was a POW compound nearby housing Italian and German combatants. These men were let out each day to work the agricultural fields of the widely irrigated basin. They were allowed into town and some even romanced local girls. At the end of the war, they were qualified to apply as veterans for the homestead lottery, although none were lucky enough to win. I'm not sure what the imprisoned Americans were eligible for.
So, peculiarities in interpreting "homeland security" are nothing new.
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| All that's left of Camp Tule Lake | | | | | |
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| Over 1/3 of the world's horse radish comes from the irrigated fields of the Modoc Plateau |
Just south of Tule Lake lies the fascinating Lava Beds National Monument with over 700 caves to explore. A remnant of an age when rock flowed like honey.
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| Fascinating ceiling of a lava tube cave at Lava Beds National Monument |
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| Downtown "Tulelake", CA, withering from the Klamath water rights controversy | |
I have a friend that was a child in the Tule Lake camp for the duration of the war. Her older brother volunteered to fight in the Army in hopes that his patriotism would help his family.
ReplyDeleteHer father was a proud man an not willing to be pushed around and denied his rights. The Army saw that as dangerous, so he was separated from his family and sent far inland to Kansas.
I can tell you that this family always resented how our country treated them. My friend's father sent her back to Japan after the war because he was so angry at the U.S. She was born in the U.S. and still a little girl, but she didn't stay but a few years in Japan because these were bad times and she wasn't very welcome in Japan either.
We are right to ashamed as a country regarding how we treated our own, hard working people.