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CAMPING AND PICNICKING RECREATION
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HistoryGordon Hirabayashi Campground
Tucson, Arizona 1933
Desert Dwellers wanted a road up the nearby Santa Catalina
Mountains to provide an escape from the summer heat, but
building the road through the steep and rocky terrain was
expensive. To cut costs Federal prisoners would supply most
of the labor, and a minimum security "Federal Honor
Camp" was begun in 1937 to house the prisoners. There
were no fences or guard towers at the camp; painted rocks
marked the boundry.
Durning two decades of labor, the prisoners constructed
24 miles of road through the Coronado National Forest, with
the route winding from 2,800 feet in elevation at the base
of the mountains to over 8,000 feet in the cool pines. The
Catalina Highway was completed in 1951, and the honor camp
buildings were torn down in the 1970's. Little reamins at
the site beyond foundations and rock walls built by the prisoners.
A Prison without bars
All of the prisoners at the honor camp had been convicted of
Federal crimes, ranging from immigration
law violations
to tax evasion to bank robery. During World War II, many
of the prisoners at the honor camp were conscientious
objectors, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Hopi Indians,
whose religions
prohibited them from serving in the military. Some of
the prisoners were japanese Americans protesting the "Japanese
American Relocation," the largest forced removal
and incarceration in U.S. history.
World war II
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, nervous U.S. officials were afraid that Americans of
Japanese heritage would conduct espionage and sabotage along
the West coast. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, wich authorized
the Secretary of War t designate military areas from which
"any and all persons may be excluded." Over the next 3 months,
117,000 Japanese Americans, two- thirds of them American Citizens,
were forced from their homes in California, Western Washington,
Western Oregon, and Southern Arizona and imprisoned in large,
crowded internment camps surronded by barbed wire and guard
towers.
A Citizen's Dilemma
In 1942, Gordon Hirabayashi was a senior at the University
of Washington in Seattle. Instead of reporting for relocation,
Hirabayashi turned himself in to the FBI. He challenged the
constitutionality of internment and a curfew imposed on Japanese
American Citizens, since both were based solely on race or
ancestry. Hirabayashi was one of only three people to directly
challenge the government's roundup by openly refusing to
comply with the relocation order. His cases went all the
way to the Supreme Court, but Hirabayashi was convicted.
In a landmark decision in American judicial history, the
court ruled that racial discrimination by the government
was constituional in the face of a genuine military threat.
Because the Federal Attorney would not provide transportation,
Hirabayashi hitchhiked alone from Spokane, Washingtion, to
Tucson to serve his sentence at the honor camp in the Santa
Catalina Mountains.
The Tucsonians
Some of the honor camp prisoners during World War II were
young Japanese American men. In 1942, Japanese Americans
had been classified as "4-C", unsuitable for military service
because of race or ancestry. Two years later teh draft was
reinstated for all Japanese Americans, and many served in
the military with distinction. However, over 300 refused
to be drafted until their Constitutional rights as citizens
were restored and their families were released from internment
camps. The reisters did not object to the draft in itself,
but hoped that by defying the draft they would clarify their
citizenship status. Their protest had little effect; the
reisters were convicted of draft evasion and served 2 to
3 years in Federal prisons. Over 40 of the resisters were
sent to the honor camp in leg irons and chains, but ironically,
once there, they had greater freedom than their families
did back in the interment camps.
Righting a Wrong
President Harry S. Truman pardoned the draft resisters in
December 1947. Forty years after Hirabayashi's original conviction,
it was discovered that the Justice Department had withheld
evidence that the forced removal and internment of Japanese
Americans durning World War II was motivated by racial prejudice,
wartime hystaria, and failed political leadership. In 1988
President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which
acknowledged the injustice and apologized for the internment.
Lest we Forget
In 1999, the Coronado National Forest named a new recreation
site at the old honor camp after its most famous inmate,
Dr. Gordon Hirabayashi, to honor him and other resisters
of conscience who were imprisoned there. At the dedication
(from left above) were Tucsonians Joe Norikane, Hideo Takeuchi,
and Ken Yoshida; Coronado National Forest Supervisor John
McGee, Gordon Hirabayashi, Congressman Jim Kolbe, Tucsonian
Harry Yoshikawa, Takashi Hoshizaki,
Tucsonian
Noboru
Taguma,
and
Yosh Kuromiya.
In 2001, interpretive signs were installed at the Gordon
Hirabayashi Recreation Site to tell the story of the old
honor camp and its connection to the Japanese American internment.
Bottom left photograph: Color Guard, Ira H. Hayes American
Legion Post 84, Sacaton, Arizona. Bottom right photograph,
from left: Hopi conscientous objector Roger Nasevama, Ken
Yoshida, Gordon Hirabayashi, Sus Yenokida, Harry Yodhikawa,
and Noboru Taguma at the sign unveiling.
Check with the Santa Catalina Ranger District for
more
information.
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