Concentration camps, USofA

 

I wonder whether this marker, which I photographed some years ago, has survived the Trump administration's disemboweling of federal signage about our history. Tule Lake was one of the country's World War II concentration camps for Japanese American civilians -- an episode so shameful that the victims eventually won some financial compensation from Congress.

 

Rebecca Gordon writes about the Trump regime's revived concentration camps for migrants at Tom Dispatch. 

 ... It’s no exaggeration to say that ICE detention camps now threaten to become a central instrument of repression under the Trump administration. As many as 40 people have died in the camps since Trump returned to office in January 2025. And those are only the deaths that have been publicly acknowledged.

... Concentration camps exist to support and expand the power of an authoritarian regime. They make everyone afraid of being treated like the current targets of the regime. Like state torture programs, concentration camps accelerate the process of dehumanizing groups of people in the public imagination. Such a process often begins by describing the target group as non-human, as “vermin” or “garbage” (as Trump has, of course, done). Ironically, the very act of placing people in inhumane conditions can amplify the public’s perception of their inhumanity. After all, would genuine human beings submit to such treatment? Would our good nation treat genuine human beings that way? ...

Gordon studies the ethical implications of torture. She's well equipped to describe what we must fear and fight to end.

The state of California marker at Tule Lake is far more informative than the NPS signage. And probably not something Trump can trash. Though who knows? Click to enlarge.