Rev. Masato Kawahatsu of Konko Church of San Francisco conducts service at the site of the camp cemetery during the 2004 Tule Lake Pilgrimage. The graves were relocated to the Linkville Pioneer Cemetery in Klamath Falls, Ore. after the war.
The Tule Lake Committee has announced that the 2026 Tule Lake Pilgrimage, “Resistance and Solidarity,” will be held the weekend of July 3-6.
Pilgrimage registration opens at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19 and will be completed entirely online at www.tulelake.org. Instead of analog paper forms and checks, the process will include filling out requested registration information and making payment online via Paypal or Venmo. The all-inclusive registration fee for the four-day event is $700 per person, which covers charter bus transportation, lodging, meals and all activities. For those on a limited or fixed income, grants of $400 are offered to defray the expense.
“Registration is expected to fill quickly,” pilgrimage organizers said. “We encourage you to be prompt in completing the registration process, especially survivors and descendants of Tule Lake and those who share our passion to preserve Tule Lake’s social justice history.
“If you are unfamiliar with electronic registration forms or making online payments using Paypal or Venmo, please consult a family member or friend who can assist you in completing the registration process.”
“In today’s political climate, it is more important than ever to remember Tule Lake’s history of the government demonizing people of color, taking birthright citizenship and deporting them,” says pilgrimage chair Hiroshi Shimizu. “Now is the time to show solidarity and support others who are going through the same abuses as our families did during World War II.”
As a segregation center, Tule Lake is unique among the 10 War Relocation Authority concentration camps as the only site converted to a maximum-security prison where dissident Japanese Americans were demonized and the Department of Justice stripped them of birthright citizenship so that they could be deported as “enemy aliens.”
Pilgrimage Details
Pilgrimage participants travel together in deluxe, chartered buses that depart from San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Union City, Sacramento, Sacramento Airport, Seattle and Portland.
Accommodations will be at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls in a new air-conditioned building equipped with elevators, double-occupancy dorm rooms and shared bathroom facilities. For a single-occupancy room, the fee is an extra $50. Rooms in the air-conditioned Village Apartment suites, which have no elevators, are an extra $100 per person.
Activities include a memorial service at the site of the Tule Lake concentration camp and tours led by docents who are descendants of family members imprisoned at Tule Lake. Plenary sessions, workshops and “healing circles” provide an occasion to learn, share experiences and help heal the multi-generational wounds of the wartime incarceration. The final night’s closing cultural program is held at the Ross Ragland Theater in downtown Klamath Falls.
As a precaution, COVID testing is required 24 hours before the buses depart for Tule Lake.
A detailed FAQ will be available with the pilgrimage registration materials posted at www.tulelake.org.