Aug. 7, 2026

This historical area has very little left of what used to be Tulelake Concentration camp for those of Japanese descent in WW2. At one point there were over 18,000 in the camp plus an entire US Army division housed on site. The only buildings remaining are a few administration buildings, part of a watchtower, one barracks and the prison. They built a prison inside of the prison for those individuals that were deemed unloyal. Some pencil poetry and graffiti are still visible on the walls. It is hard to understand why US citizens were sent to these camps as it was only those residing on the west coast, excluding Hawaii. Japanese Americans were about 1/3 the population of Hawaii and the government determined that it would ruin Hawaii’s economy if there were sent to camps. So, why not Hawaii or the rest of the US, but families from Washington, Oregon, California and part of Arizona were sent to these camps for almost 4 years.