Adopt “Alternative C” for public access to Tule Lake

Tule Lake aerial photoYour voice is needed to create a record for the National Park Service that will help Stop the Fence at Tule Lake.

Our friends at the NPS have a preferred plan — Alternative C — which will provide for stabilization of structures at the CCC isolation camp, reconstruction of the notorious Tule Lake Stockade and a replica guard tower, and open the site for year-round visitation.

But in order to create that site preservation and public access, the staff at NPS needs a public record that shows public support for it. The other two Alternatives, A and B, are unacceptable as they provide minimal effort toward creating a National Park that would preserve and interpret the unique Tule Lake story.

In the meetings, and for the meeting records, it is vital that we raise the importance of  access to the larger site, the lands where the barracks and blocks once stood. As the Tule Lake Committee says, it is all hallowed ground, and visitors should be able to experience and walk on the lands where their families once endured incarceration and segregation — without the barrier of an 8- to 10-foot high fence around an existing airstrip that cuts through the heart of the old barracks ground.

That’s where your voice comes in. Tonight is the first of 11 public meetings up and down the West Coast, at these locations:

Monday, November 28 – Tulelake, CA @ The Honker, from 6-8 pm

Tuesday, November 29 – Klamath Falls, OR @ The Klamath Library, from 6-8 pm

Thursday, December 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, from 6 to 8 pm

Friday, December 2 – Carson, CA @ CSU Dominguez Hill Univ. Library, from 10 am to noon

Tuesday, December 6 – Sacramento, CA @ Buddhist Church of Sacramento, from 6 to 8 pm

Wednesday, December 7 – Sacramento, CA @  Sierra 2 Center, from 1 to 3 pm

Thursday, December 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, from 10 am to noon

Thursday, December 8 – San Jose, CA @ Japanese American Museum, from 6 to 8 pm

Tuesday, December 13 – Seattle, WA @ Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington, from 5 to 7 pm

Wednesday, December 14 –  Portland, OR @ Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, from 6 to 8 pm

Thursday, December 15 – Hood River, OR @ Hood River County Library District, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm

Under an incoming federal administration that threatens a Muslim registry and mass deportations if not incarcerations, the lessons of Tule Lake are needed more than ever.

If you can’t make one of the hearings, you can also use this web form to comment online.  You can download the entire 277-page General Management Plan and Environmental Assessment here. Below are the two relevant pages describing the NPS Preferred Alternative C.

tulegmp_alternative_c

tulegmp_alternative_c_2

2 thoughts on “Adopt “Alternative C” for public access to Tule Lake”

  1. I am for Alternative C, which sounds like an excellent proposal to help Tule Lake concentration camp, one of ten sites that should be enhanced, to memorialize what took place there over seventy-years ago. It should stand to help the United States of America remember not to repeat such a constitutional violation against any of it’s citizens.
    As a former child prisoner in Amache, one of the other nine other concentration camps, I am fully aware of the importance to preserve key features of the site to encourage future learning by the U.S. citizens yet to learn about the gross violation of the U.S. Constitution.
    I have written essays about my family’s WWII history and have produced a video documentary, when I learned about what my father did for the Allies, radio broadcasting to Japan. So, I know how important it is to preserve the American history of that time.
    I think the NPS has done a fantastic job helping towards this end and must continue it’s important mission. Thank you.

  2. The complex and tragic story of Tule Lake is an integral part of American history that must of preserved and told in full. I support National Park Service proposals for Alternative C.
    – Shizue Seigel, author, “In Good Conscience: Supporting Japanese Americans during the Internment.”

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