Washington, D.C. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the nation’s oldest and largest Asian American civil and human rights organization established in 1929, applauds President Bush and the Department of Interior for the naming of the Tule Lake Internment Camp Site as part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.
On February 19, 1942, the United States government, mandated by Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, opened internment camps for the exclusion and detention of 120,000 persons of Japanese Ancestry who were mostly U.S. Citizens but deemed to be potential enemies of America. Tule Lake was the largest and most controversial of the ten War Relocation Authority Camps. Opening on May 26, 1942, Tule Lake had a peak population of 18,700. The camp housed some of those most vocal in protest of the unjust incarceration. On March 28, 1946, it was the last of the camps to close.
In the 1970’s, the JACL and other groups began a Redress Movement to right the egregious wrong of the internment. After many years of campaigning, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was passed by Congress. The Act offered an official apology from the President of the United States (then President Ronald Reagan) and monetary reparations for Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their West Coast homes in 1942. This year the JACL and others have commemorated the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Liberties Act.
Floyd Mori, National Executive Director of the JACL, stated: “Naming Tule Lake as part of this National Monument, the second internment site to be so designated, underscores the importance of the lessons learned through the sacrifice of so many people during World War II. Internment was a watermark in history that shows the human frailty of the Constitution. Japanese Americans who were incarcerated showed valor in enduring the internment.”
It is meaningful to the JACL that the Tule Lake Internment Camp site is included as part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. The JACL has worked closely with the Department of Interior, including the Fish, Wild Life and Parks Department and the National Parks Service, The Conservation Fund, The Tule Lake Committee, and others in helping to develop this designation. The JACL thanks the White House for its consideration of Tule Lake and the JACL.
JACL National President Larry Oda stated that “the World War II experience of Japanese Americans should not be forgotten. Our Constitutional rights were illegally suspended during World War II because of racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. Having Tule Lake as part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument should serve as a reminder to future generations that this unjust action did occur, it was wrong, and it should not ever be allowed to happen again.”
