This week marked California's first Annual Fred Korematsu Day, honoring a Japanese American who, with the help of civil rights attorneys, contested the United States Government's incarceration of over 100,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II in the famous case Korematsu v. United States. Much of my mother's family was imprisoned during WWII in these segregation camps, mostly in Topaz, Tule Lake and Kooskia (a remote Department of Justice camp in Idaho, reserved for a small number of "enemy aliens"). A recent conversation with my grandmother and the increase in attention being paid to this period of time due to the new holiday, has had me thinking about the location of the camps, the impact on the existing communities as well as on the Japanese incarcerates, and the state of these former camps and communities now.
There were ten War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps scattered along the western half of the country, and a number of smaller DOJ camps. They were built outside of cities -- wooden barracks lined up, guard towers erected and barbed wire strung -- in mostly rural locations. Many were built on or near Indian reservations. Poston camp was built on the Colorado River Indian Reservation over the objection of the Tribe. The 2000 census reported a Poston population of 9,201. At the peak of the war, the camp held just over 17,000. Manzanar was placed between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence in California's Owens Valley. The 2000 census reported a population of 1,655 for Lone Pine and 574 for Independence. At the height of the war, Manzanar camp held more than 10,000 internees. I am most familiar with Tule Lake camp, which straddled the town of Tule Lake and the unincorporated town of Newell, in Modoc County, at the California/Oregon border. In 2000, Tule Lake had a population of 2,010 and Modoc County, a population of 9,449. At its peak, Tule Lake had a population of over 18,000. Tule Lake was also built on the home of Native American tribes.
A number of thoughts and questions arise when considering the sudden influx of people into these communities. While I see the practical reasons for the Government placing these camps in rural locations (availability of land), there is also something to be said of the way that these sparsely populated locations served to separate Japanese and Japanese Americans from urban centers, where they would be more visible and could possibly have been given legal assistance and more empowered to contest their detention.
My grandmother recently commented that she was not allowed to access newspapers, or other media from the outside world, which would have alerted her to current events outside of camp. Her statement arose as we watched coverage of the uprising in Egypt, where Internet and telephone access had been shut down in an effort to cut off Egyptians from each other and from the outside world. The impact on, and lack of coverage of, rural communities in Egypt was discussed earlier in this blog. Although many of years and thousands of miles apart, the inability to communicate frustrates organization in both of these situations.
Thought should also be given to how these rural communities felt about their towns being used to imprison so-called enemies. Knowing that many of the camp sites were reservations, or home to native American tribes, its ironic that they were taken over and used to segregate unwanted Americans. But maybe it isn't surprising.
And additionally, how were these rural communities changed by the internment camps? I am most familiar with Tule Lake, due to my involvement in organizing pilgrimages to the site. Today, nearly sixty years after the Japanese Internment, there is very little evidence of what took place there. There are bare remnants of an outhouse and the concrete frame of the camp jail, but all barracks were sold for $1 and dragged away years ago. In 2008 Tule Lake was declared a National Monument and began to receive federal funds for preservation of the site. It will remain empty and preserved, with information plaques and an education center as a reminder of the atrocities that took place there.
What is clear is that the Japanese incarceration impacted Japanese American communities at the time and the effects have reverberated through generations. There is less discussion, however, on the interaction between the segregation camps and the communities in which they were placed and those lasting impacts.
5 comments:
I never knew that Native American land was co-opted in order to intern Japanese-Americans; that is sadly ironic. When I was in school we spent little time talking about internment- it almost seemed like it was being treated as a mistake that we should try to forget about. I wonder if that is why there has been little discussion regarding the effects of the camps on the local communities.
I think it is interesting to contrast that situation with the situation in Egypt. Egypt, of course, especially considering Cairo is a vast metropolis - and could hardly be coined a rural area. Perhaps the similarity between the two regions is that both have not had the opportunity for communication and interaction with outside communities. What is heartening, however, with the Egyptian situation is that access to the internet, twitter, newspapers, and Al Jazeera - although limited - never really was completely extinguished. Hopefully, this access found in Egypt is one that can be spread to rural America. Ultimately, it shows that any denial of the fundamental right of news and communication, never actually works.
This is a very interesting topic. It is the first time I have ever heard anyone make the correlation between the internment camps and Indian reservations near by. It would be interesting to hear what the Indians thought about the Japanese who were being held against thier will by the U.S. government. My guess is that the Indians would be very spilt due to thier high enlistment rate, and thier own history of oppression by the U.S.
This is a very interesting topic. It is the first time I have ever heard anyone make the correlation between the internment camps and Indian reservations near by. It would be interesting to hear what the Indians thought about the Japanese who were being held against thier will by the U.S. government. My guess is that the Indians would be very spilt due to thier high enlistment rate, and thier own history of oppression by the U.S.
One of my most distinct memories from middle school was reading Farewell to Manzanar, which was an account of a young Japanese girl interned in the Manzanar internment camp (located between Independence and Lone Pine) during WWII. My father, who had just become disabled and was not working, found the time to take me down to Manzanar during an annual memorial/celebration, and I was able to walk around the former camp, which boasts amazing views of both the Sierra Nevada as well as the Inyo Mountains. Not surprisingly, the remoteness and harshness of the environment there had long since destroyed the houses and streets, leaving nothing more than holes in the ground where posts had once anchored the flimsy houses to the ground. Even though I was no older than 13, the harsh winds, cold temperatures, and remoteness are images that stick into my head even today.
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