OKAZU
SLO BUDDHIST TEMPLE
6996 Ontario Rd.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
Ph. 805 595-2625
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
Ph. 805 595-2625
An Opportune Moment
This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Executive Order
9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which paved the way for the internment of Americans of Japanese, German and Italian descent. Many Japanese Americans with us today still remember those days living behind barbed wire and guard towers. Many who were children at that time view living in the internment camps as a period of growing up in a self contained community with schools, churches, sports, dances and other social activities. Yet, these 10 camps were located in harsh environments: cold, windy and dusty in places like Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, Granada (Colorado), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Minidoka (Idaho) and Topaz (Utah); the hot desert environment of Gila River and Poston (Arizona); or muggy and swampy in Jerome and Rohwer (Arkansas). Until recently, many would not talk openly about their lives during that period, doing so only among those who shared those experiences or if asked about it.
Growing up in Hawaii, we did not experience the hardships that our kin faced on the West Coast. Being that 40 percent of residents in Hawaii were of Japanese descent, that the Japanese Americans were a vital workforce there and that the people of Hawaii were of diverse ethnic backgrounds making a “melting pot” society, very few people were rounded up and sent to internment camps. Some of the key people in the Japanese community were sent to mainland camps but 320 were kept on the island of Oahu at Honouliuli near Pearl Harbor. Like me, many people in Hawaii had never heard of Camp Honouliuli or of the 10 internment camps on the mainland. It was in the mid 1990s that I became aware of the results of Executive Order 9066 as I started attending services at Placer Buddhist Church in Penryn, California and met members who were sent to Tule Lake at the start of WW II.
In 2005, I spent 6 months in Newell, California, overseeing the rebuilding of Tule Lake Airport’s runway and taxiways. Tule Lake sits at the northeastern most sec-tion of California amidst a dry and fertile lake bed where potatoes grow abundantly and waterfowl thrive in the marshes nearby. The airport is located where the internment camp used to be, but all that is left is a bronze plaque on a stone base and remnants of the camp stock-ade. During lulls in the airport’s reconstruction, I would walk throughout the site, hoping to find traces of the camp or even maybe some artifacts. However, all I saw were sand, rocks and sage brushes. Upon completion of the project and at the company’s office, I stumbled upon a 36 inch by 24 inch blueprint of the Tule Lake internment camp as it was built back in 1942. The drawing was done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the camp was representative of the other 9 camps.
Making a copy of the drawing I then waited for an opportune time to show it to members of Placer Buddhist Church but was also apprehensive because I did not know how some would react upon seeing it. Would there be anger, sadness or possibly no one would want to look at it? It was during a coffee break at the church’s cleanup day when I approached one of the older male volun-teers whom I knew spent time at Tule Lake during the war. I asked the gentleman if he would be interested in seeing what I had to which he replied, “Definitely!” Laying the drawing on the table, his eyes widened as he pointed to one of the barracks and said, “This is where we lived.” Soon other volunteers gathered around the drawing awe struck. You could hear the following: “This is where we played baseball!” “Here’s the mess hall where we ate spam and eggs!” “Our family lived here next to the Kawamotos!” Needless to say, I was happy that no bad feelings surfaced that morning. I also made copies of the drawing for those who wanted one to show their children where they lived for a brief period in their lives.
After that day, some of the men told me about their experiences while in camp. One person who was just starting college at that time said that he and others of the same age would wait at the camp’s entrance every morning to be taken to jobs in the local area where they earned wages. He learned how to raise hogs at a farm and later after the camp’s closure was offered a job to start a hog ranch in California’s Central Val-ley. Stories told by others were often funny and full of mischief.
Because of my experience and in 2005 coupled with viewing the many displays at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and reading books about life in the in-ternment camps, I am now more aware of the events following Executive Order 9066 . It is sad to note that 75 years later, many people still are unaware of the internment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans during WWII.
This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Executive Order
9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which paved the way for the internment of Americans of Japanese, German and Italian descent. Many Japanese Americans with us today still remember those days living behind barbed wire and guard towers. Many who were children at that time view living in the internment camps as a period of growing up in a self contained community with schools, churches, sports, dances and other social activities. Yet, these 10 camps were located in harsh environments: cold, windy and dusty in places like Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, Granada (Colorado), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Minidoka (Idaho) and Topaz (Utah); the hot desert environment of Gila River and Poston (Arizona); or muggy and swampy in Jerome and Rohwer (Arkansas). Until recently, many would not talk openly about their lives during that period, doing so only among those who shared those experiences or if asked about it.
Growing up in Hawaii, we did not experience the hardships that our kin faced on the West Coast. Being that 40 percent of residents in Hawaii were of Japanese descent, that the Japanese Americans were a vital workforce there and that the people of Hawaii were of diverse ethnic backgrounds making a “melting pot” society, very few people were rounded up and sent to internment camps. Some of the key people in the Japanese community were sent to mainland camps but 320 were kept on the island of Oahu at Honouliuli near Pearl Harbor. Like me, many people in Hawaii had never heard of Camp Honouliuli or of the 10 internment camps on the mainland. It was in the mid 1990s that I became aware of the results of Executive Order 9066 as I started attending services at Placer Buddhist Church in Penryn, California and met members who were sent to Tule Lake at the start of WW II.
In 2005, I spent 6 months in Newell, California, overseeing the rebuilding of Tule Lake Airport’s runway and taxiways. Tule Lake sits at the northeastern most sec-tion of California amidst a dry and fertile lake bed where potatoes grow abundantly and waterfowl thrive in the marshes nearby. The airport is located where the internment camp used to be, but all that is left is a bronze plaque on a stone base and remnants of the camp stock-ade. During lulls in the airport’s reconstruction, I would walk throughout the site, hoping to find traces of the camp or even maybe some artifacts. However, all I saw were sand, rocks and sage brushes. Upon completion of the project and at the company’s office, I stumbled upon a 36 inch by 24 inch blueprint of the Tule Lake internment camp as it was built back in 1942. The drawing was done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the camp was representative of the other 9 camps.
Making a copy of the drawing I then waited for an opportune time to show it to members of Placer Buddhist Church but was also apprehensive because I did not know how some would react upon seeing it. Would there be anger, sadness or possibly no one would want to look at it? It was during a coffee break at the church’s cleanup day when I approached one of the older male volun-teers whom I knew spent time at Tule Lake during the war. I asked the gentleman if he would be interested in seeing what I had to which he replied, “Definitely!” Laying the drawing on the table, his eyes widened as he pointed to one of the barracks and said, “This is where we lived.” Soon other volunteers gathered around the drawing awe struck. You could hear the following: “This is where we played baseball!” “Here’s the mess hall where we ate spam and eggs!” “Our family lived here next to the Kawamotos!” Needless to say, I was happy that no bad feelings surfaced that morning. I also made copies of the drawing for those who wanted one to show their children where they lived for a brief period in their lives.
After that day, some of the men told me about their experiences while in camp. One person who was just starting college at that time said that he and others of the same age would wait at the camp’s entrance every morning to be taken to jobs in the local area where they earned wages. He learned how to raise hogs at a farm and later after the camp’s closure was offered a job to start a hog ranch in California’s Central Val-ley. Stories told by others were often funny and full of mischief.
Because of my experience and in 2005 coupled with viewing the many displays at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and reading books about life in the in-ternment camps, I am now more aware of the events following Executive Order 9066 . It is sad to note that 75 years later, many people still are unaware of the internment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans during WWII.
