Digging into the History of the Presidio

Dewitt’s office and the tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans that were affected by his fatal decision is what interests Tracy the most. She is spending her summer researching the history of Japanese-Americans at the Presidio, especially before and during WWII. Despite the abundant interest in the area, there is not a lot of written history on Japanese Americans at the Presidio, she told me.

Tracy finds the work interesting and hopes it will ultimately be very rewarding. She is focusing on an old, abandoned Japanese-American language school located in the Presidio close to the bay. On my personal tour she showed me this inconspicuous, white, and wind swept building with large windows facing the bay. According to the small sign outside the building, six thousand Japanese-Americans graduated this school. But little else is known about the school and the lives of the Japanese Americans who attended it.

Tracy’s job is to collect the bits and pieces of history and put them together in a coherent way. By the end of the summer she will have produced a historical brochure that will be available to visitors.
Tracy, a graduate of Brown University with a degree in History, finds it very interesting to be researching this different perspective in history that is not nearly as well documented as the dominant white man’s perspective. And she “loves the scandal involved in it.” The scandal is that Dewitt authorized the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, while many Japanese-Americans were actually helping the US military by decoding messages from the Japanese opponents.

Tracy is also doing work on the Presidio’s webpage, including a space where people can share memories they have from the Presidio. She also occasionally leads historical tours of the Presidio when she has time, which she really enjoys doing.

Besides learning more about Japanese-Americans at the Presidio than most people will ever know, Tracy is learning a lot about the National Park Service, which she hopes to maybe work for as a historical ranger one day. She said she is especially surprised by the interconnectedness of the Parks, despite the vast distances that separate them from each other.

She is also enjoying serving her internship in one of the most beautiful cities in the world (in my humble opinion). “It’s a cool way to be in San Francisco,” said Tracy. A total of five SCA interns are living in apartments in the Presidio this summer along with other interns and young people working with the Park. “It’s fun to live and work with people from different backgrounds,” she said.

Tracy’s internship ends with the end of summer, but her historical research at the Presidio will last, educating visitors and people interested in the rich history of Japanese Americans at the Presidio. So if you’re ever at the Presidio, be sure to pick up Tracy’s historical brochure!

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