Site of WWII Japanese-American Segregation Camp

Earth soaked with sadness.

An atrocity that should never have happened.

Absolutely a sad place, such a barren and lonely atmosphere. Let's hope this kind of thing is not in our future if a certain orange man is not elected president. I wouldn't put it past him.

Yes, very sad.
... and from your mouth to God's ears, Diane!

Thank you, yes!

Wow! That was an absolutely huge camp.............but it's really good to see it's slowly being reclaimed by nature. It looks quite beautiful in this well composed image!

It is beautiful in its tragic way. I'll go again in the spring and look around some more. This was my second time in the area, but the first time driving out to this particular site. I was surprised it was so emotional. This camp had a unique position in the system, in that it was quite a serious prison, a lot of hardship, and there were rebellions against camp administration. Of course, in the prison there were families with little kids and old people. Quite a complicated history of its own.

Of all of the sites (all in the west), this was the harshest - for reasons that were thought justified at the time - and is cause for the most grief and stigma among the Japanese-Americans who were sent there. The government is also the most ashamed of this one, which I believe is the main reason this camp is barely acknowledged to this day. There is no marker to explain what this landscape is.

That's my understanding of the camp also, but I've found some confusion between the more northern Camp Tulelake and the very large camp at Newell. Even though the camp at Newell has largely disappeared into farmland, it's still very sad to see. Luckily, the museum in the town of Tulelake does an excellent job of presenting it all. FYI, some of the buildings from Newell are now used by farm workers: Tulelake, CA: Tule Lake Internment Camp 2450a

Yes, and those in charge of these monuments emphasize the northern one, which housed POWs and the elite, "trusted" Japanese. It was quite posh compared with Newell. Something that really bugs me is that in front of the preserved jail building off the highway at Newell, it is also labeled as a Valor in the Pacific monument! (This happened during the Bush II administration.)

Other things that contribute to the confusion are (1) the convoluted history of the Newell camp, which served different purposes at different times and (2) complete lack of signage and the destruction of all buildings on the site itself. (3) The whole she-bang - both sites together - is generically called Camp Tule Lake.

When I first moved here, I wanted to see the camp, which I only knew by its generic name and a foothill location beside the wildlife refuge. I could see by the placard there that it wasn't the entire story. I went into the refuge's ranger center and asked where the rest of it was. The woman, a federal employee, said, I swear, "Oh, you mean our dirty little secret?" She directed me to the jail building off the highway at Newell. It was up to me to figure out the rest at home. I think that pretty much sums it up.

Actually, considering the politics of the area, I was surprised to see the attention given to preserving any of the history. Thanks for the detail here.