Gordon Hirabayashi Campground
Gordon Hirabayashi's draft registration card
Gordon Hirabayashi Historical Background:
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US government began to restrict the basic freedoms of Japanese Americans. The attack and events of the war sparked undue racism and bigotry towards those of Japanese descent. American officials believed those with connections to Japan (no matter how distant) ran the risk of espionage. On February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizing the mass forced removal and internment of all West Coast Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 117,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens. Canada and Mexico followed the US and enacted their own orders, isolating and relocating those of Japanese descent. Those who were not relocated were met with extreme racism and resistance to their presence, despite often times being American citizens themselves. Two of the relocation centers in Arizona were built on indigenous territory, despite protest from the indigenous communities.
Catalina Federal Honor Camp:
Prior to being renamed the Gordon Hirabayashi Campground in 1999, the area was known as the Catalina Federal Honor Camp. In 1993, the construction of the Mt. Lemmon Highway began. To cut the cost of labor, a Federal Honor Camp was built in 1939 to hold prisoners who worked on the project. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which gave the Secretary of War the ability to use any military areas to hold anyone during this time of war. Many of the prisoners were draft resistors and people of Japanese descent. Other prisoners included those who had resisted the draft, Jehovas Witnesses, Hopi who are Native Americans from Northeastern Arizona, and members of nonviolence and peace groups. Many of these people were transported to the camp in leg irons and under close surveillance by armed guards. The prisoners were responsible for working on the completion of the highway, which included clearing trees, breaking rocks with sledgehammers, and drilling holes. Additionally, they were responsible for growing food and cooking for the prisoner population at the camp [1]. These prisoners were forced to sleep in overcrowded rooms which lacked plumbing, and experienced many food and fuel shortages. The camp was known to be in an area that was both snake and scorpion infested.
Anti-Japanese Propaganda in WWII:
Between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Executive Order signed by President Roosevelt, there was a surge in racism towards Asian-Americans. There were many Japanese-Americans who volunteered to fight in the war on behalf of the United States of America, some being highly decorated troop members. Instead, they were imprisoned for their ethnicity. Racism towards Asians in the U.S. was known as the Yellow Peril. Originally, this was used as a color metaphor to describe the skin color of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. during the 1870s, when white-working class Californians were fearful of losing their jobs to Chinese immigrants. This rhetoric was later applied to Japanese and Eastern Asians [2].
Following the events that took place at Pearl Harbor, the United States entered World War II with strong anti-Japanese messaging and had an incredibly segregated military, with all-black and all-Japanese American divisions. Japanese were depicted as animals, morally corrupt, and "less than" a white American in the media at the time. This propaganda and hate towards Japanese people led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps like the Catalina Federal Honor Camp, as well as the United States justification to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After being held for the duration of the war, many Japanese Americans returned home to find they no longer had ownership of their property and businesses [3].
Gordon Hirabayashi:
Gordon Hirabayashi was an American sociologist, best known for his resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II. Hirabayashi was a volunteer with American Friends Service Committee, assisting families with the relocation. Hirabayashi's parents and family were moved to the Pinedale assembly center, California and then later to Tule Lake Relocation Camp, California.
Hirabayashi was born in Seattle in 1918. His father immigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and his mother in 1914. There marriage had been arranged in Japan but they didn't get married until they were both in the United States. Hirabayashi's parents converted to Christianity from Buddhism. He was the oldest of five children. In 1937, he attended the University of Washington and was still in school when he learned that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. He would later recount his reaction to this news, describing the fear he felt for the safety of his family especially since his parents were ineligible for American citizenship. Once the attack had happened, Japanese were considered "enemy aliens"[5].
Rather than registering for relocation, Hirabayashi instead turned himself into the FBI with the express intent of challenging the constitutionality of the order through the due process of law. Gordon was charged with violating the curfew and exclusion orders. During the legal battle, Hirabayashi was supported by a defense fund headed by Mary Farquharson, lawyer for the University District of the ACLU, and law partners Arthur Barnett, John Geisness, and later Frank L. Walters. He was represented by Arthur Barnett, entering a plee of 'not guilty' on the basis that the exclusion laws, curfew, and executive order were unconstitutional and racially biased. After being sentenced, they repealed the ruling and the case was taken to the Supreme Court. There the case did not, as Gordon hoped, rule on the constitutionality of the situation, but rather focused entirely on his violation of the curfew. On June 21, 1943 the court unanimously ruled in Hirabayashi v. United States, (320 U.S. 81) and upheld the earlier conviction and ruled that the curfew order was justified by military necessity and allowable in a time of war. Hirabayashi was to serve his sentence at the Tucson Federal Prison in Arizona. Hirabayabshi was required to fund and find his own mode of transportation to the prison. Gordon proceeded to hitchhike all the way to Arizona, 1,600 miles, where he was admitted to the prison.
He was released in December 1943. After the war he continued his education, receiving additional degrees in the field of sociology from the University of Washington. He taught at multiple universities, including American University. In 1987 the case was reopened, and the previous conviction was cleared after evidence of government wrongdoing was provided. He taught cultural studies, including Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. Hirabayabshi later moved to Canada, residing in Edmonton, Alberta until his death in 2012. In May of 2012, after his death in January, Gordon was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Top of the memorial
The Campground and Recreational Site
Ruins of prison camp
The Foundations 
Trees mark the campground
Prison camp prior to demolition
In 1999, the Coronado National Forest renamed the site of the old prison camp in honor of Dr. Hirabayashi and the other resisters of conscience who were imprisoned there. Dr. Hirabayashi and others attended the dedication ceremony. The campground that bears his name was a work camp for Japanese prisoners and conscientious objectors during World War II. The prisoners that were incarcerated there are responsible for the creation of the new road that is now used to access Mt Lemmon (Catalina Highway). Many of the prisoners had been transferred there from Amache Colorado- a concentration camp for Japanese Americans. It was not till 1988 that there was a public apology to the people that were removed from their homes during WWII. Draft resistors were pardoned in 1947, but the prison was not closed until the completion of the highway in 1951. The Prison Camp consisted of four prisoner barracks, a mess hall, laundry facilities, power and storage facilities, a garage, a vocational shop, one classroom, an administration building, fifteen cottages for prison staff, and water and sewage systems. There is not much left from the work camp but the foundation for some buildings. After being converted to a rehabilitation center and then later shut down in the 70s, the buildings were destroyed in 1973. Today there is a memorial at the ruins of the work camp and a camp ground nearby that connects to the trail that explores the Coronado National Park.
Catalina Federal Honor Camp Set Up:
There are concrete foundations less than a mile from the original Main Gate where prisoner staff lived beginning in 1939. This housing area was located at the end of a stone bridge. It's in this location that fifteen cottages were built for the prison staff to live in, along with guards and family of the staff. The bathrooms can be located by finding the holes in the concrete flooring.
Near the staff housing are the remains of a playground, likely built by the prisoners at the camp for the children of the staff. Located by the "Prisoner Camp Climbing Area," was a baseball field. When the prisoners weren't working, some spent their time playing baseball. There are inscriptions around this area-- dates and initials, some of which confirm the field was still being used years later by Border Patrol and members of a juvenile detention center.
There was a sawmill and a lumber drying building near the edge of the camp. It's estimated that they burned around 8,000 cords of wood each year. In addition, this could have been used to create signs for surrounding areas.
Charles B. Mead was the superintendent of the camp during the war and Claude Hillman headed the road building project [4].
Catalina Federal Honor Camp Following World War II:
The camp was used as a juvenile detention center, following the war. Native youth were expected to complete sawmill work. In 1967, the camp was given to The State of Arizona and was used as a youth rehabilitation center. This was in partnership with the University of Arizona, and was supposedly a trades training school for native youth from Arizona and surrounding states. However, history has suggested that this was likely similar to Native Boarding School initiatives that taught youth to adopt white traits and societal practices [4].
The camp ground is only open some of the year due to flash floods and forest fire concerns. To find out if the camp ground is open follow the link; https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/recarea/?recid=25648 .However, the memorial is open all year long. There is no fee to see the memorial and only a fee for camping over night. This is considered to be a dry camp ground with no hook up for power, water, or sewer. Reservations can be made in advance by contacting the forest service Coronado National Park. Pets are allowed with restriction. Horse tails are closed to general pack animals until further notice. When visiting the memorial and campground, visitors are advised to bring water and protein given that the site is located at the base of the mountain and temperatures can get very high in the summer time.
Fees for camping:
Single Site $20.00 per day/night per vehicle.
Group Site $50 + $10 per vehicle per day/night.
Limited free parking for day use.
How to pay;
All fees are payable by cash, check, or money order at the time you occupy the site. Make check or money order payable to "USDA Forest Service." Coronado Recreation Fee Program passes are not required if vehicles remain in the campground.
Limits:
Limit of 2 vehicles and 10 persons per site.
Campers must occupy site for the first 24 hours. 14-day stay limit per year.
Pets must be leashed and accompanied by human at all times. Other rules regarding dogs follow the link; https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/coronado/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5125209&width=full
Pack animals are not allowed for the time being.
22 foot camper maximum
Sources:
[1]https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/anthropology74/ce18a.htm
[2]https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/21/brief-history-us-concentration-camps
[3]https://j387mediahistory.weebly.com/anti-japanese-propaganda-in-wwii.html
[4] https://www.seeingmemory.com/catalina
[5]https://www.historylink.org/File/2070
http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv58822
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/recarea/?recid=25648
https://www.library.pima.gov/content/gordon-hirabayashi-campground/
