The title of this literary magazine, Tessaku––translated as “iron gate” or “barbed wire”––reflected the bleak, controlled environment of its internee authors at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in northern California. Internees at many camps published their own community newspapers and magazines, but their writings were subject to censorship.
Asian Division, Library of Congress
Tessaku [Barbed Wire], no. 6, Tule Lake, California, 1944
Wartime Internment of Civilians
In February 1942, two months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order authorizing the evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans residing in the western United States and Hawaii. Congress legislated to implement the relocation of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans to remote camps for the duration of World War II, resulting in tremendous loss of property and rights. In 1980 Congress established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which recommended that restitution be made to former internees. In 1989 the U.S. government issued them a formal apology.
The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity. . . . A grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II.
Personal Justice Denied, Part 2: Recommendations, 1982
The title of this literary magazine, Tessaku––translated as “iron gate” or “barbed wire”––reflected the bleak, controlled environment of its internee authors at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in northern California. Internees at many camps published their own community newspapers and magazines, but their writings were subject to censorship.
Asian Division, Library of Congress
