Japanese American WWII Camp Survivors Say Immigrants Today Share Similar Experiences

Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, July 21, 2026:

• The Tule Lake Segregation Center in Modoc County was one of ten camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Eighty years after its closure, a group of pilgrims recently paid tribute to the people who died there. Survivors of the camp see parallels between their experience and the federal government’s treatment of immigrants today.
• Federal fire investigators are looking into a possible link between PG&E equipment and a fire in Plumas County that started earlier this month.
• As a new school year approaches, some Los Angeles special education teachers and parents are worried the LA Unified School District won’t bring ballooning class sizes down this fall. That’s despite an agreement reached last spring between the district and UTLA, the union representing teachers.

Survivors and descendants gathered at Tule Lake recently to remember those incarcerated during World War II and explain why they believe the camp’s history still shapes debates today.

Standing in front of a small concrete jail, one of the few remaining buildings at the former Tule Lake Segregation Center, Buddhist priest Duncan Williams led a prayer meant to alleviate suffering caused by hatred and ignorance.

The memorial service was part of a pilgrimage that brought about 400 people to the site over the Fourth of July weekend to remember the 331 people who died at the camp between 1942 and 1946. For many families, that loss extended beyond the death of loved ones. They also lost their homes, businesses and freedom.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. government forcibly removed more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from their homes, incarcerating them in 10 camps across the country.

Satsuki Ina, who was born in Tule Lake, said it’s difficult to watch conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities without thinking about her own experience.

“Because of what happened to us, it’s really important for us to show up in ways that people didn’t show up for us back in 1942,” she said.

The U.S. Forest Service is investigating PG&E’s potential involvement in the Twain Fire, which burned about 276 acres of Plumas National Forest in Northern California last week.

On July 13, PG&E filed an incident report with the California Public Utilities Commission, stating that a contractor was performing work on a steel pole for a transmission line near Feather River U.S. Highway 70 and Twain Store Road around noon. 

“A short time later, the Twain Fire was reported in the same area,” the filing said.

PG&E said it was aware of the Forest Service’s investigation and is conducting its own investigation.

Los Angeles Unified special education teachers and parents are bracing for another year of large classes when the new school year begins, despite a first-ever limit the union negotiated this spring.

With booming special education enrollment, teachers say the district needs to hire more full-time staff to ensure tens of thousands of students receive the extra support they need — and are legally entitled to — every day.

Under the new contract ratified by UTLA, resource services teachers are limited to supporting 20 students each in integrated classes which include both special and general education students. Resource services teachers are designated to students and collaborate with other teachers to support them.

Classrooms with only special education students have different ratios, and those teachers qualify for a monthly stipend of $500 to $1,000, depending on how many students over the limit they have.

But teachers say that although the extra pay doesn’t hurt, they want the district to focus on making both kinds of classes smaller.

Debby Schneider, a special education teacher and UTLA committee chair, told LAist that it’s not about the money.

“The stipend is to deter the district from overloading us. Really, what they need to do is open more programs and hire more educators,” she said.

Stipends for large classes aren’t new, but Schneider told LAist that in previous years, extra compensation didn’t stop the district from overfilling classrooms. Because of that history, she said she’s concerned this year won’t be any different.