Love and camp #21

I just finished the story of CPS camp #21 located in Cascade Locks. It was nice to read about what daily life was like at one of these camps. The book really gave the sense that even though these men shared a common belief, they were still very diverse in how that belief was carried out. The camp was very organized and the men produced several publications, created and put on plays, and had speakers come to the camps.

The book also told the story of George Yamada who was a Japanese-American CO at the camp. Since the camp was in the area along the west coast where Japanese-American's were rounded up and put into camps during  WWII, Mr. Yamada was ordered to go to one of these internment camps. The men at camp #21 wrote letters against the order and eventually Mr. Yamada was able to move to another CPS camp which was located outside of the relocation area.  During that process, camp #21 received a letter from grandpa's camp in support of efforts to not comply with the order. It made me proud.

The Cascade Locks CPS camp story also told the story of a CO who had a family back home who depended on him financially. The CO decided to enter the military against his beliefs so that he could support his family. That story really illustrated that even though these men were relatively isolated, they depended on their families and church members to support them and their families while they were at the camp (receiving no pay). The financial struggles must have put a lot of stress on relationships.  I haven't read any personal accounts yet that go into this.

I was also reading and thinking about this post over Valentine's Day weekend which of course is about love. I was reflecting on the power of love which has helped my family get through some very trying times. Love has been my motivator through some really tough times and (in my experience at least) grows stronger by creating peace on the other side of the struggle. Sometimes, it's extremely hard to draw on that motivation/love in the heat of the battle or internal struggle. Even trying to draw on my own experience to relate to these COs during WWII, I come up very short. I can't imagine the the struggle to find their motivation. I look forward to gaining a better sense of this in my next read which is the personal stories of 30 different COs during WWII.

Love and Peace