“We will never forget that we risked our lives to protest our unjust treatment by the United States military during the war.” - Tasuo Ryusei Inouye leader of hunger strike in the Tule Lake Stockade
Just three weeks after our Day of Remembrance, Week of Action, Tsuru for Solidarity leadership is back in Tacoma, back at the Northwest Detention Center with La Resistencia, in response to the alarming death of Charles Leo Daniel, who was detained in solitary confinement, last week.
Our community knows the psychological violence of indefinite detention. We are carrying with us the Issei and Nisei that took their own lives while incarcerated at Tule Lake, Minidoka, and every site of shame across the country. We are carrying the fear and uncertainty surrounding the murder of James Wakasa in Topaz. Now we also carry the anger and grief of losing Charles Leo Daniel, who was kept in solitary confinement for two years. Though the exact cause of his death inside NWDC is not yet known, we do know that ICE and Geo Group have blood on their hands.
The death of Mr. Daniel and the multiple attempted suicides since (two that we know of, and possibly 5 others just in the last four days) have spurred mass resistance inside NWDC. Over 300 individuals are now on hunger strike – the 10th strike in the last 13 months.
We are committed to meeting the intensity of the strikers inside with our actions outside.
Becca Asaki and others began their hunger strike on Wednesday. “As the granddaughter of people who were incarcerated, removed from their homes and imprisoned in camps, I felt called to join this hunger strike just like I felt called to civil disobedience in February. To protest this unjust incarceration of people like my grandparents, held indefinitely in dangerous conditions. There are over 300 people in NWDC on hunger strike because they are afforded no other options to demonstrate the severity of what they’re experiencing. It’s a disgrace that this mistreatment of human beings continues, and I’m inspired by their resolve to not be silent.”
Becca carries on the legacy of Japanese American resistance of U.S. concentration camps. People detained in the Tule Lake stockades initiated their hunger strike in response to worsening conditions in their segregated unit. Just like the people inside NWDC now, they were isolated and deprived of access to basic human needs. And just like people inside NWDC now, they fought back in any way they could.
We can’t let them fight alone - we are here to be the allies our ancestors needed.
Tsuru for Solidarity is fiscally sponsored by Community Initiatives. To donate by check: p lease make checks payable to Community Initiatives/Tsuru for Solidarity 6455, 1000 Broadway Suite 480, Oakland CA 94607
