Boxer Introduces Tule Lake Legislation

The Tule Lake Segregation Center’s jail, pictured in 2012. In the background is Castle Rock. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ina)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Dec. 17 introduced legislation to establish the Tule Lake incarceration camp as a National Historic Site managed by the National Park Service.

Tule Lake was the largest War Relocation Authority camp during World War II, incarcerating nearly 19,000 Japanese Americans.

Currently, Tule Lake is one of many sites that make up the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument created by President George W. Bush in 2008.

The new legislation would elevate Tule Lake to equal recognition with other incarceration camps that are also preserved and managed by the NPS.

“This legislation will give Tule Lake the national recognition it deserves, while honoring the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans who were forcibly relocated and incarcerated in one of our country’s darkest moments,” Boxer said.

“Sen. Boxer’s bill will distinguish the Tule Lake camp as a nationally significant historic site, for which we are grateful,” said Barbara Takei of the Tule Lake Committee, a grassroots non-profit organization that represents survivors of the wartime incarceration and their descendants. “The senator’s efforts will help educate Americans about a period of American history that we trust will never be repeated.”

“National Parks Conservation Association applauds Sen. Boxer’s legislation to establish Tule Lake National Historic Site, joining Manzanar and Minidoka in our National Park System to connect visitors to our country’s history and the injustices that Japanese Americans faced during World War II,” said Ron Sundergill, Pacific Region senior director of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Since Tule Lake was included in the national monument in 2008, many have expressed concerns that the name of the monument — World War II Valor in the Pacific — was inappropriate for a site aimed at remembering the grave injustice done to more than 110,000 Japanese Americans nationwide during the war. Under the new legislation, the camp would be designated as the Tule Lake National Historic Site, similar to the National Park Service-managed Manzanar National Historic Site in Inyo County and Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho.

Before Bush created the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Boxer, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) sponsored legislation to determine whether Tule Lake should be preserved as part of the National Park System.

The camp was composed of three sites across two counties: the Camp Tule Lake Civilian Conservation Corps camp, which also served as a prisoner-of-war camp for German and Italian soldiers, in Siskiyou County; a portion of the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Modoc County; and Peninsula-Castle Rock, also in Modoc County. At Peninsula-Castle Rock, incarcerated Japanese Americans were allowed to hike and recreate until 1943, when Tule Lake became a higher-security segregation center for Japanese Americans from other camps who conscientiously objected to taking “loyalty oaths.”

For more information on the camp, visit www.tulelake.org.