Japanese Americans incarcerated in U.S. WWII camp speak out

For years, whenever Japanese Americans would get together after World War II, one question would come up: “Which camp were you in?” Like where you went to school, what you did for work, and whether you rooted for the Dodgers or the Giants, it was a form of small talk but probed at something deeper. Those who answered “Tule Lake” say they were often met with silence, then scorn: “Oh, you were one of those.” Some even turned away in disgust. The stain was so strong that even after President Reagan apologized in 1988 for the “grave wrong” of mass incarceration, some people who had been at Tule Lake felt the need to hide their personal histories, even from their children, to avoid being shunned within the Japanese American community. “Incarceration was a prison environment, and Tule Lake was the most prison-like of all the camps,” said Barbara Takei, 71, who has been researching Tule Lake for two decades. I don’t feel bad like that anymore because it was the situation that drove us to having to make that choice.” Survivors of incarceration at Tule Lake who attended the 2018 pilgrimage.