Classic Novel, Tule Lake, Re-released After Years Out of Print

Edward Miyakawa's updated portrayal of Japanese-American resisters finds new currency, interest
by S. D. Ikeda, Asian-American Village

The forbearance of Japanese Americans in the face of immense prejudice and injustice in World War II is well-documented, and has been widely taught since the passage of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act and creation of its public education fund. Justifiably, if belatedly, JAs were recognized in the 1990s for their tremendous efforts to make the best of shattered wartime lives: their cooperation in concentration and internment camps; contributions to the homeland war effort and economy while incarcerated; and the supreme sacrifice made by so many young Nisei soldiers, many of whom enlisted or were drafted into segregated military units directly out of prison camps.

However, if the most of the nation has begun to learn what was done to Japanese Americans and what many did for America during the war, the less-often told story is what Japanese Americans did to each other – and to ourselves. Suspicion, paranoia, and deep religious and ideological and generational differences within the community formed schisms that have continued to divide us – even within families – for over a half-century.

Last year, the gulf between JAs who chose to cooperate with the official war effort and those who chose to resist the government’s discriminatory actions in it was greatly reduced when the Japanese American Citizens League apologized to resisters of conscience and recognized the principled stand they took against prejudice. This year, the story of the resisters themselves is being told once again, both in films such as Frank Abe's Conscience and the Constitution, and in a newly re-released classic novel, Tule Lake, whose first edition from 1980 has been long out of print.

Those internees who refused to sign a "loyalty oath" or be drafted while their families remained incarcerated were branded "troublemakers" and rounded up from across the camps for imprisonment at Tule Lake, a desert camp in Northern California. Made outcasts in their own community, branded traitors and subjected to harsh treatment both during and after the war, these are the subjects of Edward Miyakawa’s novel. Like No-No Boy by John Okada, Tule Lake was allowed to fall into obscurity because it was simply released too early – JAs’ wartime scars were still too raw to let them hear the pleas of those "treacherous troublemakers" who conscientiously stood up to say "No". Further, Tule Lake’s publication coincided with the birth of the movement for a government reparations and apology. As such, it was not only a painful but also inconvenient reminder of a broken community at a time when JAs had to put up a unified and "hyper-patriotic" front in order to have its case heard by the rest of the nation.

Also like No-No Boy, now widely considered the first Asian-American novel and a must-read of Asian-American history, Tule Lake will offer an important new perspective on past issues of wartime justice, civil liberties, and racism that take on new resonance in our country on the eve a new war today.

Civil Rights Educator Reviews Tule Lake Novel

Review by Harvey Dong

Current attacks on civil liberties against Muslims and Arab Americans in particular have called attention to the shocking similarities with the WW2 internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans in US concentration camps. Recent statements by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), who is chair of the Judiciary Sub-committee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, have echoed past justifications for Japanese internment as precedence.

Besides repeating the argument of internment for their own safety, he added, "some probably were intent on doing harm to us, just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."

Japanese American internment, first raised by the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) in 1968 with its reprinting of the original internment orders (Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry), has been a thoroughly researched topic and sometimes considered "dead issue" by my activists and former activists, until recent.

TULE LAKE, a historical novel written by Edward Miyakawa in 1980 returns to us like a mocking bird reminding us of the human rights travesty committed against both citizens (70%) and aliens of Japanese descent by federal, state and local authorities. But this mocking bird adds a further dimension, the fact that there was resistance from the personal to the collective level. The protagonist, Ben Sensaki, is a young Kibei (born in the US but lived in Japan to learn the language and culture) and Boalt Hall-educated lawyer. He grew up in the Florin area of Sacramento and enters camp with many of his close high school buddies. His brother Gordie is a member of JACL, an accomodationist group that favored internment as a security precaution, encouraged cooperation within the camps and suggested that loyalty oaths could be a way to create a more favorable image of Japanese Americans.

Ben loves his brother but decides to resist the unconstitutionality of his situation. Because of his educational background and the fact that Ben is bilingual, camp authorities apply all sorts of pressures for Ben to also become cooperative.

At one point Ben is called into camp headquarters by Colonel Griffin, the camp commander, for a conversation that centered on the theme of democracy and totalitarianism.

In reply to Griffin's question about why he chose "disloyal", Ben replied, "I have been uprooted and placed behind barbed wire as a resident of this camp for a year and a half, without a hearing, without charges, without recourse to the normal channels of justice. Everthing I have been taught about this country is not. Everything I have been taught democracy is not."

Griffin replies, "You have the nerve to insult the greatest political system ever devised by man? I fought and almost lost my life for this country. You refused to answer the call of your country in wartime. Are you telling me you prefer to live under totalitarianism?"

"We, the Japanese Americans, are already living under totalitarianism. We have been betrayed by democracy. In our case this system of government has been perverted by special interest groups. (Ben)

"Democracy has not failed." (Griffin)

"If democracy has not failed, then what has failed is man's ability to truly govern himself" (Ben)

"Your talk verges on treason! The registration is a simple procedure. It is a means of determining political loyalties. YES-I am 'loyal. 'NO!-I am not!" any man who chooses freely to complicate his own life and situation does himself and his country a disservice.!" (Griffin)

On principal, Ben remains a 'disloyal' and eventually 'loyals' are moved out of Tule Lake and 'disloyals' from the other nine camps are re-relocated to Tule Lake. Tule Lake becomes stigmatized as the camp of the 'disloyals'.

TULE LAKE depicts not only the lost of homes and businesses, the splitting of loved ones, divisions between the Yes-Yes', the No-No's and the in-betweens, and bitter personal-political feuds; it develops as a story about how a disparate grouping of individuals from diverse class, occupational, regional and birth backgrounds come together to create an opposition that would resound again into the contemporary.

The novel is actually historical fiction, based on Mikakawa's findings at the UC Berkeley archives as he researched his book in the 60's. There was a sociology study published by the UCPress after the war, compiling the daily observations of Japanese American graduate students, interned in Tule Lake. Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas hired her students as they were taken into the camps, realizing this was a pivotal time in American history.

TULE LAKE was originally published in 1980 at the beginning of the Japanese American Redress Movement. It has just been republished by Trafford Publishing in Canada due to the renewed interest since September 11, 2001.

Given the current climate, TULE LAKE may be a posthumous blessing for the Japanese Americans who resisted Executive Order 9066 to become the present day heroes of those who are standing up for freedom. TULE LAKE portrays the desperate struggle of those young people who refused to sign a loyalty oath and refused to be drafted while their families were stuck in camps. Resistance continued within the double barbed-wire camp of 18,000 including a hunger strike, and mass demonstrations for the duration of the war. Some of the younger internees resisted by renouncing their citizenship and were gladly helped by the U.S. Congress that quickly passed an unconstitutional law, "The Denationalization Act."

Today, there is growing resistance to the governments attempts stigmatize Muslims and Arabs by questioning their loyalties because of their nationality and religion. Rep. Howard Coble are the modern day contemporaries of Colonel Griffin but the new resistance has a foundation established from the precedence set at Tule Lake.

Review published in March, 2003 HARDBOILED, the UC Berkeley Asian Studies publication.

TULE LAKE

Review by University of Oregon

A Readin' in the Rain Event: “A Community Addressing Hate.” Waldport’s Edward Miyakawa was seven-years-old in 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. By his signature, Roosevelt designated more than 100,000 Japanese Americans (two-thirds of them native-born citizens and some with only one-sixteenth Japanese blood) for “relocation” to 10 internment camps throughout the U.S. One of these camps was Tule Lake in the northern California desert near the Oregon border. This lava-strewn, windswept camp of barbed wire borders and machine gun tower mountains was the place for which the Miyakawa family and thousands others were forced to relinquish their homes, businesses and ways of life.

It was the aftermath of the Watts riots of 1965 that brought his anger of racial injustice to the surface and inspired Miyakawa to recall his memories and collect those of his family and others who were forced to the camps. After years of research, interviews and life’s continual interruptions, the historical novel “Tule Lake” finally appeared in 1979. More than 20 years later, “Tule Lake” has found life once again, following the Sept. 11th attacks of 2001. In response to the development of Homeland Security and the U.S. Patriot Act, many people contacted the author and told him how important his book had been and still could be. Miyakawa agreed, and in 2002 “Tule Lake” was reborn. One has only to read from the original author forward to realize the timeless power of the message: “Those who lived through it must learn why and how they were subjected to such treatment. The evacuation was a result of political expediency, economic exploitation, racism and hysteria. All Americans should know the truth as a reminder that it could happen again.” –E.T. Miyakawa, 1979.