Tule Lake Concentration Camp Lessons and Pilgrimage
Commission for Intercultural Ministries
Tule Lake Concentration Camp: Introduction
In 1942, the US government removed over 125,000 people of Japanese descent from the western US and incarcerated them, without due process, in concentration camps located in remote areas. One of the camps, the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, lies in our diocese and has unique significance as a maximum-security site operated under crowded and stressful conditions. However, relatively few people are aware of its historical significance.
The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California created a multifaceted program to address this gap, with several articles about the camp at Tule Lake published in a diocesan newsletter, a workshop with both an in-person and live-streamed component, and a pilgrimage to the site.
The camp at Tule Lake has a complex and troubled history. Initially called the Tule Lake War Relocation Center by the federal government, it initially imprisoned people of Japanese descent from parts of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. It later became the destination for those considered disloyal to the US, with its name changed to the Tule Lake Segregation Center. However, both names can be considered euphemisms for its identity as a concentration camp.
Northern California Time of Remembrance
Every year on February 19, we commemorate Executive Act 9066, which required the incarceration of anyone with “one drop” of Japanese blood living on the West Coast.
To reflect on this, a sellout crowd gathered on Saturday, February 14, 2026 at the Sacramento’s California Museum for the Northern California Time of Remembrance (NCTOR). A dozen members of our diocese were among the several hundred gathered to hear from two scholars on their work related to the incarceration of people of Japanese heritage during WWII.
Naomi Oswald Kawamura directs a Seattle-based nonprofit called Densho (www.densho.org) that holds a vast digital archive which “preserves and shares the history of Japanese American wartime incarceration to promote equity and justice today.” She spoke passionately about the importance of helping people be seen and heard, so that the suffering of Japanese Americans is never visited on another group of our citizens.
Duncan Ryuken Williams, a USC-based professor of religion and Buddhist priest, spoke of his great work of love, the Irechō Project — a huge book of over 125,000 names of those of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during WWII.
The book is currently traveling the U.S. and at each stop survivors, family members, and loved ones make appointments to see the book, find the names of family and friends, and place a stamp mark, in essence, witnessing to that person. The hope is that eventually every name will have a witness.
It was a beautiful, powerful gathering. The Ireicho book is at the California Museum this week.
A permanent exhibit there, “Uprooted” tells the story of Japanese and Japanese American incarceration.
The California Museum is in downtown Sacramento and is open Tuesday – Sunday.
The Commission on Intercultural Ministries has created a beautiful page on our website about the history of Japanese Incarceration here. You can find that here.
Tule Lake and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans: Overview
I am an American
“I am an American” by Carole Hom
Published in the Becoming Beloved Community Resource Newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, 1 December 2024.
Japanese Americans in the Diocese of Northern California, 1942
“Japanese Americans in the Diocese of Northern California, 1942” by Carole Hom
Published in the Becoming Beloved Community Resource Newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of NorthernCalifornia, 19 January 2025.
Tule Lake, Part 1: Japanese American Incarceration
“Tule Lake, Part 1: Japanese American Incarceration” by Carole Hom
Published in the Becoming Beloved Community Resource Newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern
California, February 2025.
Tule Lake, Part 2: Repression and Resistance
Tule Lake, Part 2: Repression and Resistance by Carole Hom
Published in the Becoming Beloved Community Resource Newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, March 2025.
Japanese American Incarceration: The End of Incarceration and Beyond
“Japanese American Incarceration: The End of Incarceration and Beyond” by Carole Hom
Published in the Becoming Beloved Community Resource Newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, 25 April 2025.
Tule Lake: The Wounds of History Revisited
Tule Lake Concentration Camp: History and Lessons
The Tule Lake Concentration Camp: Reflections and Lessons is a series of leaders, some connected directly to the concentration camp.
Learn from the speakers as they present their stories at Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento on June 7, 2025. Speakers included attorneys, camp survivors and their descendants, and clergy.
- The Rev. Canon Julie Wakelee
- The Very Rev. Cliff Haggenjos
- The Rev. Canon John Kitagawa, descendant of Tule Lake survivors
- Congresswoman Doris Matsui, survivor of the camp at Poston, AZ
- Steve Sasaki, descendant of Tule Lake survivors
- Hachiro Yasumura, Tule Lake survivor
- Tamiko Nimura, descendant of Tule Lake survivors
- Timothy Soseki Kudo, descendant of Tule Lake survivor
- The Rev. Ernie Lewis, Witness to the forced removal of Japanese neighbors in his youth
- Prof Raquel Aldana, expert on immigration law
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this video are solely those of the presenters and not of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California.
Tule Lake Concentration Camp: The Pilgrimage
In September 2025, members of the diocese took a pilgrimage to Tule Lake National Monument. This significant camp, one of ten concentration camps in the state of California at the time, is located in the northern part of our diocese.
The pilgrimage included talks by National Park Service staff, and visits to a restored guard tower, barrack, restored jail, and ruins of a 12-seat latrine that served 125-150 people. For several, reading the names of the 332 prisoners who died at Tule Lake was a highlight. One parishioner wrote, “Reading the names of people who had died there… and having many of the names be family names of schoolmates, friends, and church community from the Santa Clara Valley was very powerful and moving.…I was also deeply struck by the idea that all of these people were so far from home.”
The pilgrimage concluded with a Service of Lament and rededication to seek justice. The Rev. Canon Julie Wakelee reacted, “I pray we become more engaged in telling these stories and in seeking justice and repair for those damaged down through generations by fear and hatred. I pray I will be a different person because of what I have learned.”
Read about the pilgrimage from Episcopal News Service.
Below is a video sharing the experience.We are so grateful for those that were willing to share their stories.
Pilgrims had the opportunity to visit parts of the Tule Lake War Relocation Center on a September 2025 visit sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California. Photo: Julie Wakelee
Part of the ruins of the latrines that served the 150 residents of barracks block 73 at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center. Latrines at Tule Lake lacked partitions between toilets, which were spaced close enough that neighbors could touch. Photo: Elias Higbie
The pilgrimage included a tour of the restored jail led by a National Park Service ranger. Each of the five cells was meant to hold four people at most, but at times, over a hundred men were crowded into the jail. Photo: Cliff Haggenjos
[ENS] The Sept. 12 Tule Lake pilgrimage closed with a Service of Lament, in which the names of the 332 people who died at the Tule Lake concentration camp were read. Photo: Julie Wakelee
