The 2014 Tule Lake Pilgrimage Committee announces the 2014 pilgrimage dates are Friday, July 4, through Monday, July 7.
Registration forms for the four-day Tule Lake pilgrimage are posted online at www.tulelake.org.
The registration fee is $475 per person. For students and persons on low or fixed incomes, the fee is $375. For Tule Lake survivors 80 and older, the special rate is $250. Need-based grants are available.
The registration fee is all-inclusive and covers charter bus transportation, lodging, meals and all activities during the pilgrimage.
“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.”
This year’s pilgrimage, “Criminalizing Dissent,” is the 20th pilgrimage to Tule Lake and will continue the focus on Japanese American dissenters who were incarcerated at the maximum-security segregation center. Their dissent brought 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, and was unique in having three separate penal areas for protesters — the military stockade, the Civilian Conservation Corps camp known as Camp Tulelake, and the iconic Tule Lake jail.
Pilgrimage Details
Pilgrimage participants travel together in deluxe, chartered buses that depart from San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Union City, Sacramento, Seattle and Portland.
Accommodations are student dormitories at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls. There are two housing options: standard double-occupancy dorm rooms that are included in the registration fee, and accommodations in the newer four-person/four-bedroom air-conditioned suites, which add an extra $50 per person to the registration fee. The suites are further from the main activity building and have no elevators; a limited number of ground-level suites are handicapped-accessible.
Activities include tours of the Tule Lake camp site and a memorial service on the site. Intergenerational discussion groups and open forums 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.
Registration forms and a list of FAQs (frequently asked questions) are posted at www.tulelake.org. The PDF forms can be filled in with the requested information, printed out and mailed with your check.
The website’s Tule Lake Paypal account can accept donations for preservation; however, do not use Paypal to pay for pilgrimage fees.
If you wish registration forms to be mailed to you via USPS, or if you want more information on the pilgrimage, contact Hiroshi Shimizu at (415) 317-2686 or hshimizu@pacbell.net