The Tule Lake Segregation Center was one of the internment camps formed during World War II, when racist hysteria led the U.S. government to intern 110,000 U.S. residents of Japanese heritage. Two thirds of those interned were U.S. citizens. In 2009, UER brought a delegation to the pilgrimage for the first time. (Lois Yoshishige first participated in the 1994 pilgrimage and paved the way for UER’s involvement.)
Eleven RCers, led by Jan Yoshiwara, the International Liberation Reference Person (ILRP) for Japanese-Heritage People attended the pilgrimage in 2009 and offered an RC introductory workshop, helped to facilitate intergenerational discussion groups, and share RC in many ways, beginning on the bus ride to Tule Lake. Jan spoke as part of the welcoming program about listening and its power to heal and explained how to do a mini-session and had each participate do one-minute each way. The UER delegation also got the chance to train facilitators for the intergenerational discussion groups.
The second delegation in 2010 included ten RCers led again by Jan. The UER team began its work of connecting with other people attending the pilgrimage on the several-hour bus rides out to the site. Making connection with some of the sixty-five Japanese Americans over age eighty who had been incarcerated at Tule Lake and were at the pilgrimage was central to the UER efforts. UER delegates spent hours getting closer to the former internees, giving them a chance to tell their stories. (Even before the pilgrimage, the UER team interviewed fifty elders who were incarcerated at Tule Lake during World War II.)
Because Jan and Lois were part of the planning Committee for Tule Lake, they were able to bring RC ideas like acceptance, inclusion, sharing stories, and internalized racism into the pilgrimage. Jan was one of the speakers welcoming the more than three hundred participants—reminding people of the value and importance of listening well to each other so that people could share stories and heal the hurts of the internment. Once again a mini-session was part of her presentation.
UER again trained the facilitators for the intergenerational discussion groups. Each group consists of about fifteen pilgrims, ages ten to ninety. In the groups those who were incarcerated get to remember their incarceration experiences and educate succeeding generations, often releasing long-held emotions. Of the twenty-one groups this year, approximately half were facilitated by UER delegates. The training was so excellent that UER was invited to train the staff of the Manzanar Internment Camp* to listen to inmate stories.
*Manzanar War Relocation Center in California was one of ten camps where Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. It was designated as the Manzanar National Historic Site.
UER held listening projects from the first night, asking people to talk about “How is the pilgrimage going thus far?”, “What do you hope to get out of the weekend?”, “What is your relationship to internment camps?”, and “What’s been meaningful for you at the pilgrimage?” UER delegates took initiative to actively make contact with passers-by, greeting them warmly and inviting them to think and talk about the questions. When they were finished talking, they were invited to the UER workshop and given some information.
Twenty-eight people attended an introduction-to-RC workshop.