不為人知的美國荒漠集中營曾囚禁十萬日裔

Revisiting a World War II Internment Camp, as Others Try to Keep Its Story From Fading

不為人知的美國荒漠集中營曾囚禁十萬日裔

GRANADA, Colo. — Most days, the only sounds in this desolate place in the southeastern part of the state are the skitter of rattlesnakes and the rustle of sagebrush in the wind.

科羅拉多州格拉納達——多數(shù)時候，在科羅拉多州東南部這片荒蕪之地，唯一能聽到的聲音是響尾蛇的滑行聲，以及鼠尾草在風中的沙沙聲。

But on Saturday a car stopped in the sand, and out stepped Bob Fuchigami, 85, who had come to tell the story of his imprisonment, 73 years before, at an internment camp here that came to be known as Amache.

然而上周六，一輛車停在了沙地上，從車里走出來的是85歲的鮑勃·淵上(Bob Fuchigami)。他來到這里是為了講述自己73年前被囚禁在當?shù)匕ⅠR奇集中營(Amache)的故事。

In 1942, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, roughly 120,000 people of Japanese descent were evicted from their homes and sent to live in camps around the country. About two-thirds of them were American citizens. At the time, the federal government called the move necessary to protect the West Coast from sabotage.

1942年，在珍珠港遇襲后不久，約12萬日裔被逐出家園，驅趕到全美各地的集中營。這些人中約有三分之二是美國公民。聯(lián)邦政府當時表示，此舉對于保護西岸免受破壞十分必要。

“It was a mile square full of barracks,” Mr. Fuchigami said as he whacked through a thicket of sage in search of the remains of his hut, 7G. “They shouldn’t have been here,” he said of the people who lived inside. “It was just one colossal mistake.”

“那是一個蓋滿了棚屋的一英里見方的場地，”淵上一邊說著，一邊用力撥開鼠尾草叢，尋找他居住過的編號為7G的棚屋的遺跡。“他們本不應該被趕到這里，”他提到住在集中營的人時說。“那是一個天大的錯誤。”

For years, people who were held at Camp Amache have made a pilgrimage to the detention center on the second-to-last Saturday in May, bumping down a gravel road to share what they remember about their time behind the barbed wire. In the past, busloads of former detainees have attended. But this year only two people who had lived here could make the trek: Mr. Fuchigami and a woman named Jane Okubo.

多年來，每到5月的倒數(shù)第二個星期六，曾經(jīng)被關在阿馬奇集中營的人都會到這里來，在沙地上顛簸行進后，分享他們對鐵絲網(wǎng)內(nèi)生活的記憶。過去，曾被關押的人員會一車車地聚集到此。但今年，只有兩個當年的居民能夠踏上這趟旅程：一個是淵上，另一個則是名為簡·小洼(Jane Olubo)的女士。

“We’re dying off,” said Ms. Okubo, 71, who lives in Sacramento.

“我們在相繼離開人世，”目前居住在薩克拉門托的71歲的小洼說。

The two were accompanied by a group of about 70 others who had come to support them. During a luncheon, an organizer asked Ms. Okubo to speak about her detention. “I don’t have any memories,” she said apologetically. “I was born here at Amache.”

陪同他們兩個的有大約70名支持者。在午餐會上，一名組織者請小洼談談在集中營里的經(jīng)歷。“我什么也不記得了，”她抱歉地說。“我是在阿馬奇出生的。”

Amache was the smallest of 10 internment camps, reaching a peak population of just over 7,000. In recent years, bigger camps like Tule Lake (which grew to a population of 18,789) and Manzanar (which had a peak population 10,046) have received large numbers of visitors, and their stories continue to be recounted in classrooms and in books like the 1973 memoir “Farewell to Manzanar,” by James D. Houston and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.

阿馬奇是10個集中營中規(guī)模最小的，人口最多的時候剛剛超過7000。近年來，圖利湖(Tule Lake，其人數(shù)增長到了18789)和曼贊納(Manzanar，巔峰時期人口為10046)等規(guī)模更大的集中營接待了大批訪客，它們的故事得以繼續(xù)在課堂和書本中講述，比如詹姆斯·D·休斯敦(James D. Houston)和讓娜·若月·休斯敦(Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston)合著的回憶錄《永別了，曼贊納》(Farewell to Manzanar)。

But few in Colorado even know Amache existed. The lone comprehensive book on the camp is out of print. And survivors say that as they age and their peers die, their experiences are falling deeper into the footnotes of history.

但是，就連知道阿馬奇存在的科羅拉多人都屈指可數(shù)。唯一全面講述這座集中營故事的書現(xiàn)已絕版。幸存者稱，隨著他們的老去，以及同輩的逝世，他們的經(jīng)歷正被覆蓋上越來越厚的歷史塵埃。

Amache (pronounced ah-motch-EE) sits at the edge of Granada, a farming community of 500 people. It is a four-hour drive south from Denver, through ranch land and past gas stations.

阿馬奇位于格拉納達邊緣，是一個由500人組成的農(nóng)業(yè)社區(qū)。從丹佛開車往南四小時方可到達，中途要穿過牧場，經(jīng)過幾座加油站。

The camp was named for a Cheyenne princess who had married a local cattle baron, and it was also known as the Granada War Relocation Center.

這座集中營以嫁給了當?shù)仞B(yǎng)牛大亨的一名夏延族原住民公主命名，又被稱作“格拉納達戰(zhàn)爭收容中心”(Granada War Relocation Center)。

Today, the space where its residents once lived is an unruly carpet of prickly shrubs and wildflowers that is dotted with hints of its past life: shattered porcelain, exposed rebar, slabs of concrete and the occasional ribbon of barbed wire.

如今，集中營居民曾經(jīng)住過的地方，長滿了多刺的灌木和野花，中間僅有星星點點的過往的痕跡：破碎的瓷器、暴露在外的鋼筋、混凝土板，偶爾還能看到條狀的鐵絲網(wǎng)。

There are almost no buildings. When the final detainees left on Oct. 15, 1945, the camp’s roughly 550 structures were auctioned off and moved, dispersed just like their inhabitants.

這里已幾乎沒有建筑物。1945年10月15日，當最后一批關在那里的人員離開的時候，集中營的大約550棟建筑即被拍賣和轉移，像曾經(jīng)住在這里的人一樣消失了。

Many residents, like Mr. Fuchigami, had come from California.

包括鮑勃·淵上在內(nèi)的許多居民來自加州。

Mr. Fuchigami, who now lives near Denver, was born in the United States. He was 12 when his family of 10 people left its walnut and peach tree farm outside Yuba City. The family leased — and later lost — its farm to a white man, and took up residence in two rooms in 7G.

他出生在美國，目前住在丹佛附近。當他12歲的時候，一家10口人離開了尤巴城外的胡桃和桃樹種植農(nóng)場。他的家人把農(nóng)場租給了一個白人，然后住進了7G的兩個房間。后來，這座農(nóng)場被這個白人據(jù)為己有。

A naked bulb hung from the rafters of each tin-walled space, and during the first winter the temperature dropped to 22 degrees below zero.

每個由錫制墻面隔開的空間里，都只有一顆光禿禿的燈泡懸掛在屋梁上。在那里度過的第一個冬天，氣溫降到了零下22華氏度(合零下30攝氏度)。

In some ways, the detention camp operated like a typical American city. There were schools, a fire department, a Boy Scout troop and a semiweekly newspaper. It had businesses for detainees and contributed to several industries at large, including pumping out thousands of war propaganda posters. The camp even had its own football team, the Amache Indians.

從某些方面來看，集中營的運行與一座典型的美國城市類似。那里有學校、消防部門、童子軍，還有一份報紙，每周出兩期。它為在押人員安排了業(yè)務，還大致為幾個行業(yè)貢獻了力量，比如印制了成千上萬份的戰(zhàn)爭宣傳海報。這座集中營甚至擁有自己的橄欖球隊——阿馬奇印第安人隊(Amache Indians)。

Four hundred fifteen babies were born. And nearly 1,000 residents entered military service, the highest percentage of any internment camp, according to Robert Harvey, the author of the out-of-print book, “Amache.”

共有415名嬰兒在營中出生。前述絕版圖書《阿馬奇》的作者羅伯特·哈維(Robert Harvey)表示，共有近1000名阿馬奇居民進入軍隊服役，比例在所有集中營中最高。

“But it wasn’t freedom,” Ms. Okubo said. “To be swept up and have two suitcases of stuff, and go to an area you’ve never known before, with the sandstorms coming through the cracks.”

“但這并不等于自由，”小洼說。“被趕出家門，帶著兩箱行李，去往一個你以前從不知道的地方，沙塵暴每天都會從墻縫里吹進來。”

Mr. Fuchigami recalled the armed guards, and the floodlights that interrupted each night’s sleep. At Amache, he said, he became intensely jealous of a kite he had fashioned from sticks and newspapers. “A kite can fly wherever it wants to go,” he said, noting the way it soared over the barbed wire as he remained inside.

鮑勃·淵上想起了武裝警衛(wèi)，以及每晚妨礙睡眠的探照燈。他表示，在阿馬奇集中營，他越來越嫉妒自己用小棍和報紙做成的風箏，他說，“風箏可以飛到任何它想去的地方。”他指的是他在集中營時，風箏升空飛躍鐵絲網(wǎng)的情景。

“There was always this feeling,” he said, “well, what are we in for? Why are we in here? What are they going to do to us tomorrow or the next day?”

“一直有這樣的感覺，”他說。“我們在這里做什么?我們?yōu)楹伪魂P在這里?他們今后會對我們做什么?”

Mr. Fuchigami has attended the pilgrimage each year since about 2006. This year, he was accompanied by his wife, daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter, Sejal Gordon, 10. He was determined to show Sejal the camp.

大約從2006年開始，鮑勃·淵上每年都會參加紀念之旅。今年，他的妻子、女兒、女婿和10歲的外孫女塞亞·戈登(Sejal Gordon)陪他一起前來。他決定讓塞亞看看這個集中營。

It took them nearly an hour — and the assistance of an archaeologist who just happened to be passing through — to identify the spot where he had once slept.

在一名碰巧路過的考古學家的幫助下，他們花了將近一個小時找到了他從前睡覺的地方。

“This wind is very familiar to me,” he said, standing by the remains of the barracks as gusts blew through his white hair.

狂風吹過白發(fā)時，他說，“這里的風對我來說很熟悉。”

Amache, while not nearly as well known as camps like Manzanar and Tule Lake, in California, has not been entirely forgotten.

在加州，雖然阿馬奇集中營不如曼贊納和圖利湖集中營有名，但它尚未被完全遺忘。

John Hopper is a teacher, a sports coach and the principal at Granada Public Schools. In 1993, he decided to make a class project out of Camp Amache.

約翰·霍珀(John Hopper)是一名教師、運動教練，格拉納達公立學校(Granada Public Schools)的校長。1993年，他決定開展與阿馬奇集中營有關的課堂任務。

Since then, his students have interviewed former internees, gathered documents, excavated portions of the camp and built a small museum, often partnering with other groups. In 2006, the site became a National Historic Landmark.

從那時起，他的學生訪問曾被拘禁的人，收集資料，并在集中營的部分區(qū)域進行挖掘，建起一個小型展館，他們常常與其他組織展開合作。2006年，這個地方成為一個國家歷史名勝。

One of the students’ most ambitious projects involves chasing down the camp’s scattered buildings and returning them to the camp. In 2014, they helped bring back a water tank and reconstruct a guard tower.

學生開展的最具雄心的項目涉及找出該集中營分散的建筑物與設施，使其恢復原狀。2014年，他們幫助找回一個水槽，并重建了一個守衛(wèi)塔。

This June, they will lay the foundation for a barracks building they plan to move from a farm in Stonington, Colo., about 60 miles south.

今年6月，他們將為一處營房奠基，他們計劃將位于科羅拉多州斯托寧頓農(nóng)場的營房搬來這里。那個農(nóng)場位于該集中營以南60英里(約合100公里)的地方。

The goal, said Mr. Hopper, 52, is to create a museum where people can sleep over and experience camp life. “You need a building so they understand what it was like,” he said.

52歲的霍珀表示，這個項目的目的是創(chuàng)建一個展覽館，人們可以在這個展覽館過夜，感受集中營的生活。他說，“需要有一個營房，這樣人們才會了解當時的生活。”