Images of Tule Lake Segregation Center and Camp Tulelake, WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument – Northern California, taken in April 2017.

One of several camps set up during World War II, Tule Lake Segregation Center and Camp Tulelake were built to hold people of Japanese ancestry after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. The majority of the individuals detained here were American citizens and they were held without the benefit of due process of law. As stated on the historical plaque that today sits in front of the compound “These camps are reminders of how racism, economic and political exploitation, and expediency can undermine the constitutional guarantees of United States Citizens and aliens alike. May the injustices and humiliation suffered here never recur.”

These are ideas expressed in many countries and I saw a similar declaration when I visited the German concentration camp Dachau many years ago. Like Tule Lake, the stated purpose for historically maintaining Dachau was not only as a memorial to those that were incarcerated and died there but also that the world never forgets.

Obviously the crimes against humanity at Dachau were far and away more horrific than anything that occurred at the Japanese segregation centers here in the US during the war but the reason for maintaining both is the same…so that we never forget and so the “injustices and humiliation suffered here never recur.”

Hopefully we have learned that painting any group with a single stroke of a brush is not only problematic but is also immoral…never forget…