NEWELL, Calif. (AP) — An 8-foot-high barbed-wire fence planned around a rural airport on the site of an old internment camp in Northern California has spawned a national protest by hundreds of Japanese Americans.

The Sacramento Bee reports Monday (http://bit.ly/2yTyB9F) Modoc County plans to build the fence around an airport that for decades has sat on the site of the old camp barracks where many Japanese American families were incarcerated during World War II.

Barbara Takei, whose mother was sent there along with her family, says the fence would be a desecration of a site that is spiritual to many.

Airport operator Nick Macy says the fence is needed to keep animals off the single runway, which provides agricultural services to more than 900 family farms that use small planes.

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Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com