Guide to the Tule Lake Internment Camp records M2645

Language of Material: English

Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Title: Tule Lake Internment Camp records

Creator: Rodriguez-Martin, Antonio

source: Marc Selvaggio, Bookseller ABAA

Identifier/Call Number: M2645

Physical Description: 0.5 Linear Feet (one half box, 1 flat box)

Date (inclusive): 1940-1944

Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual & born-digital materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.

The collection consists of documents and correspondence.

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

The collection is an exceptional set of documentation on the internment camp at Tule Lake, CA assembled by and pertaining to Antonion Rodriguez-Martin.

The Tule Lake Relocation and (as of fall 1943) Segregation Center operated between 1942 and 1945 as one of 10 federal installations for the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. At its peak, more than 18,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated there. Tule Lake was the largest and most conflict-ridden of the War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps used to carry out the government's system of exclusion and detention of persons of Japanese descent, mandated by Executive Order 9066. The Order, which eliminated the constitutional protections of due process and violated the Bill of Rights was issued February 19, 1942 following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Tule Lake opened on May 26, 1942, detaining persons of Japanese descent. Tule Lake was the only WRA camp converted into a maximum security segregation center, ruled under martial law and occupied by the Army. It was closed on March 28, 1946. The collection includes various documents, in English, concerning health and medicine at the camp, a block manager's manual from 1942, the age distribution of internees as of 1942, a type-written report in Spanish from Antonio Rodriguez-Martin to the Embassy in Spain in Washington entitled "Protection of Japanese interests" dated 31 December 1942, an undated list in English of recent detainees and where they relocated from, camp menus for the period December 17-25, 1942, correspondence and other documentation. The addenda to the collection includes an engraved document signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States (presumably a stamp) as well as the Secretary of State Cordell Hill with the large separtate embossed Presidential seal mounted on the document. Also included is a printed document appointing Francisco de Amat y Torresas, the Spanish consul to San Francisco and surrounding states with stamped signature of Franco, in purple ink. Finally, included is a typed letter from Antonio Rogriguez-Martin, on the SF Consul letterhead from 1940 informing a Spanish government friend that he has arrived in the US and spoke with the "new Minister" about the "peculiar conditions in which I find myself" - which may be an allusion to his work as an inspector of the American incarceration camps, at the request of Japan. [From dealer description]