Welcome, New Employees, to the Worst Internment Camp
Information Concerning Tule Lake Center
Publication: Newell, CA: War Relocation Authority, Tule Lake Segregation Center, 1944.
Notes: A guide to the Tule Lake Japanese internment camp for new civilian employees.
Tule Lake, located at 4,000 feet of elevation in the arid, remote northeastern corner of California, was the harshest of the Japanese internment camps. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and had a dedicated military police barracks just outside. The residents of Tule Lake were the uncooperative internees who either renounced their US citizenship, proclaimed allegiance to Japan in the war, or answered "no-no" to the loyalty questions (are you willing to be drafted and do you forswear allegiance to the Japanese emperor). Many Americans answered no to the question about the Japanese emperor because it implied that they had allegiance to the emperor.
Or as this pamphlet puts it: "While the majority of the 110,000 evacuees wanted to live and act as real American citizens or law abiding aliens, some signified their loyalty to Japan and their wish to live as Japanese nationals." The director of the camp encourages his employees to treat the incarcerated residents well because Japan "upon the slightest excuse threatens acts of reprisal against interned Americans citizens and prisoners of war."
The pamphlet discusses the natural beauty around the camp, the rather primitive living conditions for employees (who were expected to live on-site), the dining room, work hours (48 hours per week, with 1-1/2 days off), leave policies, bus schedules to local towns, and so on. The employees were allowed to hire internees to clean their rooms and they were allowed to make purchases at the cooperative store run by the internees.
[4], 19, [1: blank], [1: illustration of a nature scene], [1: blank] pages. Mimeographed. 5-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches. String-tied illustrated wrappers.
SOURCE: I spotted this on the new arrivals list of one of the first booksellers I ever bought from as a dealer, back in the mid-1990s.
Edition + Condition: A fine example. A scarce piece of Tule Lake ephemera.
Item No: #319429
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