In the early 2000's, I was a student at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. Humboldt County is on the far north coast of California. They are known for liberal politics, beautiful nature, a large homeless population and marijuana. One of the undergraduate requirements was 2 earth science classes. Having grown up on the West Coast, I was familiar with earthquakes that split the earth and caused destruction. I had thoroughly enjoyed a popular class called "Earthquake Country" for my lower level earth science requirement so I chose Geology of California for the upper level requirement.
The class itself was rather monotonous. The professor read aloud from the textbook instead of actual lectures. The most interesting part of the class were the required field trips to geologically significant area. The first one I went on was to Lava Beds National Monument in the northeast corner of California. Our first night was spent at Trinity Lake. My classmates seemed happy to get away from school and treated like a party by the lake. I wasn't a night owl at the time so I went to my tent around 11pm. Around 7am, I left my tent and went to the shore of the lake. Trinity Lake is quite large, it was already autumn so there was a chill on the lake. I stood there and gloried in the beauty of the lake and surrounding forest. We packed up our tents and hot back on the bus to head to the lava tubes.
As we drove, we moved to a high desert area. The professor announced that we'd be looking at areas around the dry Tule Lake. One of the geologically significant things there was a giant rock formation. It was in the center of the dry lake. The lake had been dry for many years by then. We walked to the rock formations and saw the art on the rock done by past generations of the Modoc tribe. When it was time to get off the bus again, the professor warned us that we might be disturbed by what we saw. He didn't let on why but I soon found out.
We had arrived the Tulelake Internment Center. The building had originally been used for the California Conservation Corp.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulelake_camp
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was used for another purpose. The Japanese population who lived along the west coast of the country were seen as enemies. At the time, it was seen as a way to protect the US. Now, it's a very dark time in our history. The coastal Japanese population were taken from their homes and sent off to various camps. They were barely allowed to take anything with them and they weren't compensated for their lost property. While we were fighting to stop concentration camps on the European front, we were building them here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
The Tulelake Camp was the largest camp and wasn't closed until 1946. There were also German and Italian POW camps nearby. Feel free to read the links for more information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_Lake_War_Relocation_Center
"After a period of use, this facility was renamed the Tule Lake Segregation Center in 1943, and used as a maximum security, segregation camp to separate and hold those prisoners considered disloyal or disruptive to the other camps' operations. That year inmates from other camps were sent here to segregate them from the general population. Draft resisters and others who protested the injustices of the camps, including by their answers on the loyalty questionnaire, were sent here. At its peak, Tule Lake Segregation Center (with 18,700 inmates) was the largest of the ten camps and most controversial."
The sun was out but I still felt a chill as we walked around the empty buildings. Although the camp had been closed for over 60 years, you could still feel the presence of the people who "lived" at Tulelake. You saw the barracks that had been crammed full of people and could almost hear their tears on the wind.
I have family who were in the Nazi concentration camps and we were taught about WWII in World History classes. Due to my background, I was interested in visiting Auschwitz, Birkenau and Treblinka. I wasn't prepared for my feelings about Tulelake. The grounds were oddly quiet. Even the animals who made their homes in the empty camp were silent. A chill fell over me. Would it be like this at Treblinka? Hot tears streamed down my face. This was a topic that was glossed over in US history classes. As if we wanted to erase this dark mark from our past. While the Holocaust is remembered, we should always remember the concentration camps in our own country. Tulelake can't be forgotten.
Notable Tulelake residents included Pat Morita (Mr. Miagi from The Karate Kid) and George Takei. Takei is currently working on a musical called "Allegiance". It first premiered in Los Angeles in 2012 and is now headed to Broadway. "Allegiance" is Takei's legacy.
The US government has attempted to make monetary reparations for the Japanese internment camps. However, money won't erase the memories and won't change history.
