We travelled by bus around an hour south from Klamath Falls to the site of the WWII concentration camp known as Tule Lake, situated outside the town of Tulelake, spelled as one word. Sometime early in that hour we crossed the border into Northern California.
At the camp location, a flat high desert area peppered with scrub brush with emmense areas bound by barbed wire fencing, we disembarked and under a warm hazy sun walked across a dusty flat piece to an area next to a depression in the ground. We were told that the depression was the location of the camp's cemetery. Several umbrella tents were arranged in a row, and those pilgrims 80 and older were seated under their shade. Because of the hazy cloud cover, the temperature was a mildish upper 70s - there was a slight breeze that helped keep the temperature tolerable. The memorial service ended up being very long, mainly because in the middle of the ceremony each of the 320 pilgrims placed a carnation in one of several ceremonial vessels next to the Buddhist altar, burned a pinch of incense, and said a prayer... |
At the Tule Lake site, there is now only one structure remaining: the jail building for the “trouble-makers” from Tule Lake, and in time, to include those "trouble-makers" sent here from other camps. It was constructed to house approximately 100 inmates, but during the time of operation, it housed more than 250. This, and the alleged stealing of camp food by the guards, the lack of milk for the children, little to no health care, and a host of other lacking services, a majority of internees at Tule Lake protested for just the simplest of amenities due citizens of the United States. Harsh treatment in the face of these protests was the usual fare, one of the darker parts of the history of Tule Lake
The Buddhist priest presiding over the pilgrimage ceremony had some connection with Tule Lake, but I didn’t hear what that was – he was too young to have been the priest at the camp during the war. After the ceremony, several of the elders spoke, giving some of the history of the site, where buildings were, incidents they remembered – there were a few, no, a lot, of moist eyes... |
