Things that No Longer Exist

Each internment camp had their own newspaper. The Tulean Dispatch was published out of the Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell, California. While most papers published various reports of events during the weeks at camp, a few oddities appear from time to time. Notably, Chris Ishii's "Lil' Neebo" comic strip arose from the Merced and Granada papers, but Tule Lake took a more introspective look by publishing a literary magazine by the imprisoned Japanese American citizens.

Presented here are images from the Valentine's Day issue of the Dispatch Magazine Edition. The comics are not nearly as playful or biting in satire as Lil' Neebo was. Instead, they fall more into the realm of scratches on a cell wall. There is a graffitti like quality to these images in that they are more raw. The normality of miserable situations stands out more than anything else.

Tule Lake was probably the best suited place for such artistic expressions to born. It was the largest camp and also the camp filled with the most unrest. Riots, arrests, and "repatriations" back to Japan all occured at this site. The magazine was a sounding board beyond the news of births, deaths, and government announcements that typically dotted the newspaper.