The dates of the 2014 Tule Lake Pilgrimage will be July 4-7, announced the Tule Lake Committee. Registration for the four-day trip begins Feb. 19 on the committee’s website, www.tulelake.org.
This year marks the 20th pilgrimage to Tule Lake. The theme of this year’s trip is “Criminalizing Dissent,” and it will focus on Japanese American dissenters who were incarcerated at the maximum-security segregation center.
Those who were imprisoned at the center were subject to harsh treatment by the government and lingering stigma from traumatized Japanese Americans compelled to accept wartime propaganda that defined dissent as disloyalty.
Tule Lake is the only War Relocation Authority concentration camp that became a maximum-security segregation center. Tule Lake was unique in having three separate penal areas for protesters — the military stockade, the CCC camp known as “Camp Tulelake” and the iconic Tule Lake jail.
This year’s registration fee is $475 per person. For students and persons with low or fixed incomes, the fee is $375. For Tule Lake survivors 80 years and older, the rate is $250. Need-based grants are also available.
The registration fee is all-inclusive and covers charter bus transportation, lodging, meals and all activities during the four-day pilgrimage. Buses will depart from San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Union City, Sacramento, Seattle and Portland.
“Given the growing interest in the Tule Lake Pilgrimage and limited space, we expect registration to fill before the March 31, 2014, deadline,” said Pilgrimage chair Hiroshi Shimizu. “If you want to attend this year’s Pilgrimage, please avoid disappointment by registering early.”
Activities over the four-day pilgrimage include tours of the Tule Lake site and a memorial service. Intergenerational discussion groups and open forums will provide an occasion to learn, share experiences and help heal the wounds of the incarceration experience. An evening cultural program of music, dance and spoken-word is open to the public and will be held at the Ross Ragland Theater in downtown Klamath Falls.
For more information on the Tule Lake Pilgrimage or to have registration forms mailed via USPS, contact Hiroshi Shimizu at (415) 317-2686 or email hshimizu@pacbell.net.
Originally published on February 7, 2014
