Before I get going today, I want to add a comment to my post from yesterday about the proposed plan for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (7/23/13). I think it's great that Christopher Hawthorne took the time to reconsider the William Pereria/ HHPA designed build on the LACMA campus. I also think it's good that he appreciates them for the way they work together. What I'm not too happy about is his giddiness about demolishing them. To me his appreciation for the 'older' buildings contradicts his support for the Peter Zumthor proposal. So it's hard to tell what he was getting at in his article from the Sunday Los Angeles Times article and his previous articles on the subject. Does he endorse the new campus plan or is reconsidering his support? After reading it over and thinking about it, I'm not quite sure where his thinking is. Perhaps Mr. Hawthorne can clarify his opinion in future articles.
Now on to today's topic, the recognition of a Japanese-American Internment Camp as a historic-cultural landmark. During World War II, the Japanese-American citizens of the United States were rounded up and placed in internment camps in California, the Rocky Mountain, Southwestern, and Midwestern states. The overwhelming majority of the men, women, and children sent to the camps were hard-working American citizens who victims of venomous racism. Some of the male internees, eager to prove their loyalty, signed up to fight in the war and served with distinction. When the Japanese-Americans were finally allowed to return home, they found that their houses and businesses were confiscated and sold off and they were no longer welcomed in their neighborhoods. These camps are part of the shameful history of the United States that includes slavery and the exploitation and destruction of Native-American culture. However, I and the State of California believe, that despite their dark history, the camp sites should be designated as an ever constant reminder of our shame. To that end, the City of Los Angeles recently designated a site in Tujunga, associated with Japanese-American Internment, Historc-Cultural Monument #1039.
The site of the former Tuna Canyon Detention Station is bordered by La Tuna Canyon Road on the south and Tujunga Canyon Boulevard on the east. The former detention station is located on a portion of land that was originally used by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a federal public works program established during the Great Depression. The camp was used by the CCC until the autumn of 1941, when it was vacated but the buildings remained intact.
Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Station on December 7, 1941, the site was converted into a temporary internment camp for American citizens of Japanese, Italian, Polish, and German descent. Interesting, how citizens of Axis county ancestry were never interned for the duration of the war while citizens of Japanese descent were. As I said, venomous racism. The site became one of the first temporary detention centers established and renamed "Tuna Canyon Detention Station, Immigration and Naturalization Service." The existing buildings were repurposed for holding detainees, barbed wire was installed enclosing the entire compound.
After the camp was closed, the property changed ownership twice and radically altered. In 1947, the County of Los Angeles purchased 10-1/2 acres of the site and established the Los Angeles Probation School for boys. In 1960, it was acquired for the purpose of constructing the Verdugo Hills Golf Course, which resulted in the demolition of the all the original buildings and major changes to the topography and landscape. Currently, the property still acts as a golf course. In recent year, Snowball West Investments has proposed to develop a housing estate of 229 single-family homes located on half of the golf course property. The proposal has received very little support from the local community.
In late 2012, the site was nominated for designation as a Historical-Cultural Monument through a CitynCouncil motion put forward by member Richard Alarcon, with support from the Sunland-Tujunga community organizations and the Little Landers Historical Society (http//:www.littlelanderhistoricalsociety.org) and a broad coalition of Japanese-American and other cultural groups. While the site did, without a doubt, present a significant amount of historical and cultural importance, the Office of Historic Resources (http://preservation.lacity.org) did not recommend designation because the property lost its physical integrity from its period of significance. This loss of historic fabric stemmed from all the changes made during the post-World War II. Let me back track and explain. In order for a historic or cultural resource to be considered for designation, one of the qualifiers is that it retain approximately 2/3 of its original character defining features from its period of significance. The Cultural Commission followed form by also declining nomination. However, the Commission recommended that the community work with the property owner to develop a vigorous on-site interpretive and educational program, which would include signage and displays, in order raise awareness of the site's historical value.
As the nomination process continued onto the City Council, new information revealed by supporters and additional historic photographs of the Detention Center presented a better timeline of the site's evolution including a portion of the property, a one-acre oak tree grove largely untouched by war. Council member Alarcon worked closely with other members to craft a compromise, approved by the full Council on June 25, 2013 which provided for HIstorical-Cultural Monument designation for this one-acre portion. In a follow up to designation, the OHR, at the behest of the City Council, has convened a working group of Japanese-American cultural leaders, the Golf Course property owners, and other community leaders to create a consensus on how best to approach future site interpretation or commemoration. A report is expected later this summer. Regardless, it is important to raise public awareness for sites such as the internment and detention camps because of their role in history. History is not all about the bold-faced happy glorious events. History is also about commemorating and learning about the shameful past because through doing so we can learn for the future.
For more information go to: http://city planning.lacity.org
Due to a very stubborn and sticky space bar on the laptop, I'll be posting pictures on Pinterest. In the meantime, you can follow or like me at http://www.twitter.com/glamavon or http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen
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