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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2006Tule Lake: dignity and survivalOakland, Cal.-At the final planning meeting before the 2006 Tule Lake Pilgrimage, someone announced a rally to be held in San Francisco on June 27 to support Lt. Ehren Watada, a 28-year-old U.S. Army officer who refused duty in Iraq. Watada, in military custody awaiting retribution of his superiors, had stated at a previous public event, "I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression." The RAFU SHIMPO, a Los Angeles-based Japanese-American daily, ran an editorial that disparagingly compared Watada to the "disloyals" who ended up at Tule Lake Segregation Center during World War II. A week later 250 of us, mostly Nisei, Sansei and Yonsei (2nd, 3rd, 4th generation Japanese American), boarded five buses and headed to Tule Lake for the long Fourth of July weekend. What we call Tule Lake is a 7,400 acre desert-like region in Northern California near the Oregon border, where the largest of ten internment camps for persons of Japanese ancestry once stood. The camp became Tule Lake Segregation Center in 1943 after internees in all camps filled out a survey containing two questions that specifically addressed national loyalty. Those deemed disloyal by the federal government remained in or were sent to Tule Lake. The "loyal" internees were transferred to other camps. That division, at first clearly seen to be a government contrivance, eventually became internalized and exists in the Japanese-American community today. It was no surprise to many of us in Tule Lake Committee that Japanese Americans were notably missing from the many rallies held for Ehren Watada. In hopes of opening up dialogue across the divide, we chose "Dignity and Survival in a Divided Community" as the title and theme of the 2006 pilgrimage. Our dialogue largely took the form of sharing and absorbing stories whether from former internees of any camp, descendents of internees, or from attendees who wished to learn more about American concentration camps and had something to say. There were one-on-one conversations during a tour of the camp site as well as group discussions at a nearby (Oregon) college campus where we lodged. At one of the few remaining camp fixtures, the foundation of Block 73 latrine, a Nisei who spent his early teens in Tule Lake told a small cluster of us that his family had answered No to the loyalty questions for fear that his older brothers would be drafted into the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. It was common knowledge that this renowned all-Nisei unit (except for the commanding officer) was routinely called up for suicide missions in Europe. In my intergenerational discussion group, another Tule Lake internee said he and his brother answered No because of the chance they would have to fight against their older brother who had been drafted into the Japanese Imperial Navy. The two families were neither pro-Japan nor anti-U.S. Keeping the family together and alive was the primary concern at the time whether or not one declared loyalty to the United States. The loyalty questions asked about the willingness to serve with the U.S. Armed Forces and allegiance to the United States but never mentioned the Constitution-maybe with good reason. Ehren Watada stated shortly before his incarceration, "As a commissioned officer of the U.S. Armed Forces my legal and moral obligation is to the Constitution-not to those who would issue unlawful orders." Despite this forthright stance, he is likely to be charged with cowardice and disloyalty in the court of public opinion just as the "No-No Boys" of Tule Lake were. But this begs some questions posed by our theme: Does one path (going to war) really take more courage than the other (refusing)? Should loyalty be to a nation or to a principle? During the pilgrimage a group from the Bay Area which had attended the June 27 "Thank You, Lt. Watada" rally invited others to an impromptu discussion on the topic. Later, a petition asking public officials to support Watada was drafted. On the way home only a quarter of the Berkeley bus passengers signed the petition. Apparently our community remains divided. Yet where one community divides, another comes together. Perhaps it is the community of those who struggle for true human freedom that the lieutenant needs. Surely that community, i.e. the movement, could use an Ehren Watada if both are to survive with dignity in these pre-revolutionary times. See www.thankyoult.org and www.couragetoresist.org. -David Mizuno'Oto |
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