Tulelake Police Japanese War Camp

$3,995 This sterling badge has the number 71 in the bottom point and was used in the Japanese Internment Camp during WWII. The camp was located south of the City of Tulelake in Modoc County.

Guards at the Japanese internment camp in Tule Lake. Getty Images.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the intention of preventing espionage on American shores.
Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon—states with a large population of Japanese Americans—and Roosevelt’s executive order commanded the relocation of Americans of Japanese ancestry.
Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 117,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens.
Canada soon followed suit, relocating 21,000 of its Japanese residents from its west coast. Mexico enacted its own version, and eventually 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States.

A civilian organization called the War Relocation Authority was set up in March 1942 to administer the plan, with Milton S. Eisenhower, from the Department of Agriculture, to lead it. Eisenhower only lasted until June 1942, resigning in protest over what he characterized as incarcerating innocent citizens.

Those identified as dissibents were sent to a special camp near Tulelake, CA.

This sterling badge has the outline of Tule lake in the top point and was used in the Japanese Internment Camp during WWII. The camp was located south of the City of Tulelake in Modoc County.