The Manzanar Committee has announced its opposition to the building of a proposed fence at the Tulelake Municipal Airport.
The committee says the fence would cut the historic site of the Tule Lake Segregation Center National Historic Landmark in half.
But the Federal Aviation Administration believes the fence is necessary to keep people from accidentally walking onto the airstrip.
The proposed fence would be eight feet high and 16,000 feet long.
In a statement, the Manzanar Committee said:
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“Many visitors to the site typically seek the location of the barrack where their family was assigned,” the statement continued. “They want to traverse the site to experience the dimension and magnitude of the place, to gain a sense of the distances family members walked in their daily routine to eat meals, attend school, to do laundry and use the latrines. They want to summon up the ghosts of the place, to revive long-suppressed memories and to mourn personal and collective loss.”
“Presence of a three-mile long fence in the very center of the Tule Lake site will impede such reflection. Rather than being able to traverse the site, visitors would be confronted by a massive, intimidating fence built to let them know they are trespassers who are unwelcome and being warned away.”
The Manzanar Committee has organized a petition to stop the fence.
You can read more about the proposal from the Manzanar Committee.
