This is the Twitter account for the Tule Lake Pilgrimage. We tweeted for the first time during the 2018 pilgrimage, and will continue tweeting year-round.
Sep 23, 2019 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD: It has been over a year since the Tule Lake Committee filed a civil rights complaint in Federal Court to stop the sale of the Tulelake Municipal Airport to an entity that vows to expand aviation activities on the site.
We now have an important update. /1
First, some background: This rural airstrip occupies 2/3 of the residential area of the Tule Lake concentration camp where 27,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned during WWII. It is a sacred site where 331 of us died from illness, harsh conditions, and despair. /2
Aug 22, 2018 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Yesterday, the Tule Lake Committee filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the city of Tulelake from giving the Tulelake airport to the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma for $17.5k -- the cost of the city's legal fees in the land transaction. /1
The land consists of 358 acres of historic concentration camp property -- 2/3rds of the WWII Tule Lake incarceration site.
In 1951, the federal government, ignoring the concentration camp’s historic significance, transferred it to the City for use as an airport. /2
Jun 29, 2018 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
In 1943, Tule Lake was designated a “segregation center”—the highest security prison camp for Japanese Americans, reserved for those who had been designated “disloyal” or troublemakers.
The basis for these loyalty judgments was a clumsily-worded questionnaire that many of the prisoners viewed as a trap.
Two particular questions, number 27 and 28, caused sharp conflicts and division within each camp, and led to agonizing turmoil within many families.
