A lost 'period of time'

Feb. 16—The Sutter County Museum in Yuba City recently opened its latest temporary exhibit that brings to life a history of California and America that is sometimes forgotten or pushed aside as an ugly chapter or our past that doesn't represent who we think we really are.

With the "Disrupted Life: Replica Barrack from the Tule Lake Internment Camp" exhibit, Sutter County Museum and Director and Curator Molly Bloom give an up close and personal look at what life was like not only as a person of Japanese heritage after Pearl Harbor and during World War II, but also the horrific idea of taking innocent people from their homes and placing them in government-run camps.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a replica of one of the barracks used at internment camps such as the Tule Lake Relocation Center in Northern California, the last camp to close in 1946. The barrack replica that is currently in the museum was put together, plank by plank, by two men who experienced firsthand life inside these camps. One of the men, Stan Umeda, was held along with this family at the Jerome Relocation Center and the Gila Relocation Center. The other, Calvin Asoo, was incarcerated along with his family at the Tule Lake Recreation Center and the Topaz Relocation Center.

"The two gentlemen who built this, Stan Umeda and Calvin Asoo, were brought with their families to different internment camps," Bloom said.

She said the exhibit was previously located at Chico State but additions were made to the one currently at Sutter County Museum to highlight some local connections with internment camps and the people who were affected.

"Originally the barrack and a lot of the interpretive material was at Chico State at their anthropology museum," Bloom said. "They had displayed this a few years ago and it was actually an anthropology class and they had some of the students put it together for the display. We took some of the interpretive components, and of course the barrack, and we added some material about the local families in our area because we really wanted to represent the Japanese American experience in our region pre-World War II to show how we had a huge community here thriving. (There were) a lot of Japanese-owned farms in this area ... so we wanted to make sure we were sharing some of the local stories and then featuring some local material from our collection as well as from folks from the area who loaned to us during the exhibit."

The barrack, which takes up most of the area inside the temporary exhibit space inside the museum, is partly furnished with items that may have been present in any given family's shelter. While inside the structure, you can get a real sense of how hard life must have been for those who were denied their rights and stripped of the dignity they thought was safe inside a bastion of freedom such as the United States.

Standing inside the structure you can see the spaces in between the planks of the walls that were no match for cold winters.

"We wanted to remind people that this was a forced relocation," Bloom said. "That's why half of the barrack is set up bare bones, the way it would have come when they came in. You got a cot, there may be a light bulb in the ceiling, a bucket. ... We just wanted people to understand the reality of what people walked into. And then we have the more lived-in side where people really made this their home and were able to be part of a community that in some ways was really thriving despite the circumstances."

Besides the shelter that has been built, there also are images of propaganda that were used to demonize a culture and people that for many saw America as their first and only home. Around the main installation there also is a wide array of government documents and other informational items describing how internment camps came to be and the push for acceptance that was made to allow them.

They include what Bloom called "pre-war information" and "anti-immigration sentiments" that were present in American society at the time.

"There was this racism and anti-Japanese feeling," Bloom said.

As part of the exhibit, there is information about local "assembly centers" that were often used as waiting areas for those who would eventually be sent to more established internment camps. As part of that information is a map showing where these centers and camps were located in California.

"This map's great because it also shows all the assembly centers," Bloom said. "We did have a local one in Marysville, also known as the Arboga Assembly Center."

She said a lot of families were brought to the Marysville assembly center before being moved to formal internment camps.

"A lot of people in this area were taken to Tule Lake," Bloom said. "At one point Tule Lake did become a prison, so a lot of families there got moved to others."

Nearly the entire exhibit was put together with collaboration from those who were deeply involved with this dark corner of American history, including the Marysville Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).

"We don't want this exhibit to just be about negative experiences," Bloom said. "A lot of it is about how people came together as a community. Our local chapter of the JACL really helped people. ... They really helped people to get set up again. The Buddhist church in Marysville became a site that people used as a resource. The JACL also helped people with citizenship applications and things like that. So people really did come together as a community after as well, so it's not all just the negative things that happened."

For Bloom, a big motivation for having the exhibit at the museum is to make sure people are aware these kinds of things actually did happen and shouldn't be forgotten.

"I think one of the biggest things we want to get across in this exhibit is that people were American citizens, they were a part of this community, and it was confusing especially to young kids that were taken away from their homes, they had to leave their belongings, leave the places where they were born and had grown up and got moved to the internment camps," Bloom said. "It's just important that people realize that these things can happen to people who are a part of the community and we don't want anything like this to ever happen again. So, it's important to learn about it and know that this happened."

In partnership with Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture and the Marysville JACL, the museum will be hosting a public program for the annual Day of Remembrance this Saturday from 1-2:45 p.m. This day is an annual observance of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Included with the day will be kid-friendly activities such as taking part in origami activities and what's called "Kamishibai," a Japanese form of storytelling and street theater.

To reserve a chance to take part in what is happening on Saturday, the public can call the Sutter County Museum at 530-822-7141. All activities will take place in Ettl Hall, located behind the museum at 1333 Butte House Rd. in Yuba City.

The museum is currently open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 1-5 p.m. and then on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free and the internment camp exhibit will be on display until May 1.

"Sometimes people forget that it wasn't just happening in Nazi Germany. It wasn't just happening where people are being rounded up across Europe," Bloom said. "There were things happening at home that were unacceptable. The way we were treating people who were citizens of our country. People who had grown up here. People who had never been to Japan before and were born here were taken from their homes and lost property, lost money from crops, and lost a period of time."