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The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
The dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II; where thousands of families, many US citizens, were incarcerated.
From 1942 to 1948, trains delivered thousands of civilians from the United States and Latin America to Crystal City, Texas, a small desert town at the southern tip of Texas. The trains carried Japanese, German, Italian immigrants and their American-born children. The only family internment camp during World War II, Crystal City was the center of a government prisoner exchange program called "quiet passage". During the course of the war, hundreds of prisoners in Crystal City, including their American-born children, were exchanged for other more important American diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, physicians, and missionaries behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.
Focusing her story on two American-born teenage girls who were interned, author Jan Jarboe Russell uncovers the details of their years spent in the camp; the struggles of their fathers; their families subsequent journeys to war-devastated Germany and Japan; and their years-long attempt to survive and return to the United States, transformed from incarcerated enemies to American loyalists. Their stories of day-to-day life at the camp, from the ten-foot high security fence to the armed guards, daily roll call, and censored mail, have never been told.
Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR's tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war.
From 1942 to 1948, trains delivered thousands of civilians from the United States and Latin America to Crystal City, Texas, a small desert town at the southern tip of Texas. The trains carried Japanese, German, Italian immigrants and their American-born children. The only family internment camp during World War II, Crystal City was the center of a government prisoner exchange program called "quiet passage". During the course of the war, hundreds of prisoners in Crystal City, including their American-born children, were exchanged for other more important American diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, physicians, and missionaries behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.
Focusing her story on two American-born teenage girls who were interned, author Jan Jarboe Russell uncovers the details of their years spent in the camp; the struggles of their fathers; their families subsequent journeys to war-devastated Germany and Japan; and their years-long attempt to survive and return to the United States, transformed from incarcerated enemies to American loyalists. Their stories of day-to-day life at the camp, from the ten-foot high security fence to the armed guards, daily roll call, and censored mail, have never been told.
Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR's tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 20, 2015
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March 8, 2017
Bad decisions implemented with as much compassion as possible. Not a part of our history to be proud of.
FDR's decision to concentrate Japanese, German and Italian-Americans in barbed-wire camps during WWII was based on the kind of fear that currently grips some in the US today regarding Muslims. Most of the people whose lives were ripped apart and often destroyed were loyal Americans, and the few who were not could have been identified and dealt with on an individual basis.
The descriptions of the conditions faced by those arrested are heart-breaking, despite sincere efforts by those tasked with running the camps to treat them as well as possible. Particularly wrong-headed were the decisions, towards the end and after the war, to "re-patriate" to Germany and Japan American citizens who had never lived in those countries. Some managed to get back to the US, but many did not.
FDR's decision to concentrate Japanese, German and Italian-Americans in barbed-wire camps during WWII was based on the kind of fear that currently grips some in the US today regarding Muslims. Most of the people whose lives were ripped apart and often destroyed were loyal Americans, and the few who were not could have been identified and dealt with on an individual basis.
The descriptions of the conditions faced by those arrested are heart-breaking, despite sincere efforts by those tasked with running the camps to treat them as well as possible. Particularly wrong-headed were the decisions, towards the end and after the war, to "re-patriate" to Germany and Japan American citizens who had never lived in those countries. Some managed to get back to the US, but many did not.
November 10, 2014
..."My Only ambition was to work hard, to live an honest life, a decent life, to be among my family, and give my children happiness and security".
War is war is War
...An American right to freedom and Justice was destroyed by a vast illegal national campaign of targeting hundreds and thousands of politically defenseless immigrants.
War is war is War
...Busloads of men, woman, and children were torn away from their homes --they arrived tired and confused, with tags around their necks for identification...
War is war is War
...Japanese, Germans, and Italians immigrants and their American-born children were held without charges or trials -their homes seized with no warnings.
War is war is War
...Teenagers were pulled out of their schools -handcuffs --no understanding of where they were being taken
War is war is War
...The Only family Internment Camp during the war, Crystal City was the center of government prisoner exchange program, called "quiet passage". **Government Secrecy** American-born children were exchanged for more 'important'..(ha)..American diplomats, soldiers, businessman, missionaries -behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.
War is war is War
...living spaces barely tolerable
...facilities were stark..(cots for beds, outdoor privies, no soap for laundry, etc.)
...120 degrees during the day --so hot that children would scorch their hands if they touched the metal part on their beds.
...Guards every fifty feet with guns
...Barbed wired High fences
...Censors: incoming mail, comic books, etc.
War is War is War
...A Popeye Statue in Crystal City was made of shiny fiberglass and dedicated to "The Children of The World"...
Kinda ironic....A Popeye Statue who represents 'strength', in the center of a prison camp with woman and children.
The heartfelt true story of the families whom Jan Jarboe Russell wrote to tell us is so powerful -- at times I was weeping. Other times I was reading parts to my husband --having discussions. I was stuck in a car for 12 hours, (6 hours each day), while my husband was driving us home from visiting our daughter, when I read a large bulk of this AMAZING MASSIVE EXCEPTIONAL & EMOTIONAL book!
I'm grateful for things I learned in "The Train To Crystal City". I liked my personal involvement: (fully invested with my entire being). When a book does this to me --I GROW! I found myself looking up other information on the internet --and still want to read more.
I HIGHLY recommend this book!!! Its a history book --a true story-- which often read like a FICTION BOOK. I wish it WERE a fiction book.
It was said by Ingrid in this story: There is no word to describe physical hunger. "True Hunger is a painful, ever-present feeling that it is impossible to comprehend. Its a gnawing hollow feeling"
I'm left with two things:
1) How would I endure extreme-ongoing suffering without losing my sense of identity, dignity, and sense of purpose? Could I do that?
and
2) This was a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, "A democracy which does not serve all people could not survive long".
THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Jan Jarboe Russell (if Jan is speaking in the Bay Area on this book -I sure want to meet her), and THANK YOU to NETGALLEY!
War is war is War
...An American right to freedom and Justice was destroyed by a vast illegal national campaign of targeting hundreds and thousands of politically defenseless immigrants.
War is war is War
...Busloads of men, woman, and children were torn away from their homes --they arrived tired and confused, with tags around their necks for identification...
War is war is War
...Japanese, Germans, and Italians immigrants and their American-born children were held without charges or trials -their homes seized with no warnings.
War is war is War
...Teenagers were pulled out of their schools -handcuffs --no understanding of where they were being taken
War is war is War
...The Only family Internment Camp during the war, Crystal City was the center of government prisoner exchange program, called "quiet passage". **Government Secrecy** American-born children were exchanged for more 'important'..(ha)..American diplomats, soldiers, businessman, missionaries -behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.
War is war is War
...living spaces barely tolerable
...facilities were stark..(cots for beds, outdoor privies, no soap for laundry, etc.)
...120 degrees during the day --so hot that children would scorch their hands if they touched the metal part on their beds.
...Guards every fifty feet with guns
...Barbed wired High fences
...Censors: incoming mail, comic books, etc.
War is War is War
...A Popeye Statue in Crystal City was made of shiny fiberglass and dedicated to "The Children of The World"...
Kinda ironic....A Popeye Statue who represents 'strength', in the center of a prison camp with woman and children.
The heartfelt true story of the families whom Jan Jarboe Russell wrote to tell us is so powerful -- at times I was weeping. Other times I was reading parts to my husband --having discussions. I was stuck in a car for 12 hours, (6 hours each day), while my husband was driving us home from visiting our daughter, when I read a large bulk of this AMAZING MASSIVE EXCEPTIONAL & EMOTIONAL book!
I'm grateful for things I learned in "The Train To Crystal City". I liked my personal involvement: (fully invested with my entire being). When a book does this to me --I GROW! I found myself looking up other information on the internet --and still want to read more.
I HIGHLY recommend this book!!! Its a history book --a true story-- which often read like a FICTION BOOK. I wish it WERE a fiction book.
It was said by Ingrid in this story: There is no word to describe physical hunger. "True Hunger is a painful, ever-present feeling that it is impossible to comprehend. Its a gnawing hollow feeling"
I'm left with two things:
1) How would I endure extreme-ongoing suffering without losing my sense of identity, dignity, and sense of purpose? Could I do that?
and
2) This was a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, "A democracy which does not serve all people could not survive long".
THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Jan Jarboe Russell (if Jan is speaking in the Bay Area on this book -I sure want to meet her), and THANK YOU to NETGALLEY!
June 25, 2019
“Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” ~~The Bible
I got a call from my younger sister Karen the other day, and she began telling me about this book. She goes to an exercise class, and one of her friends, a German woman who lived in the holocaust, told her about this book. I had never heard of it although it ws a best seller two years ago. our book group had once read a book about the Japanese Internment Camps. The book we read was nothing as deep as this one, nor was it as interesting.
So Karen and I talked again the next day, and she was almost finished with this book. We discussed it. She has never been a big reader, so this was the first time in our lives that we discussed a book. She told me that her German friend had said that it could happen here, and, well, it is with the Hispanics at the boarders. Who’s next?
While being rounded up and put inta internment camp iss psychological damaging in so many ways, at least the internment camp at Crystal City, Texas was more humane than ¬had in the America internment camps at that time, the 1940s, whereas, the Hispanics are having a hard time all around. They are separated from their parents, arebhungry and haven’t been bathed, given toothbrushes and soap, or given clean clothes. Plus, they are in cages. It is happening here. And it could get worse.
My sister and I didn’t know why they rounded up Italians along with the Japanese and Germans, so she asked a friend. Mussolini, who was an Italian, wanted to join Hitler, but the country didn’t want that to happen. Mussolini was killed and then strung up in public. So, I suppose that the Americans were paranoid about Italians just as they were the Germans and the Japanese.
The people who were placed in these camps, when released, suffered psychological problems, plus their jobs and homes that been taken away from we not returned. They were given $5,000 as restitution. Big deal, but at least it was something.
Anyway, this book follows the lives of some of those who had been in Crystal City, and they have even interviewed thos who are still alive.
Back to today: Why is it that the Republican Christians are quiet in regards to what is happening at pir borders? Why do they always come back with, “Obama did the same and no one said anything?” Obama did not do the same thing, andd if he had and the democrats knew about it, they would be just as loud as we are now. Still, it boils down to this, at least it does to me: The Christians who backed the man in the White House have nothing to say about what he is doing at the border, except to stand up for everything he does. They have lost their way, or maybe they never really had a way. I think they never really had a way.
I got a call from my younger sister Karen the other day, and she began telling me about this book. She goes to an exercise class, and one of her friends, a German woman who lived in the holocaust, told her about this book. I had never heard of it although it ws a best seller two years ago. our book group had once read a book about the Japanese Internment Camps. The book we read was nothing as deep as this one, nor was it as interesting.
So Karen and I talked again the next day, and she was almost finished with this book. We discussed it. She has never been a big reader, so this was the first time in our lives that we discussed a book. She told me that her German friend had said that it could happen here, and, well, it is with the Hispanics at the boarders. Who’s next?
While being rounded up and put inta internment camp iss psychological damaging in so many ways, at least the internment camp at Crystal City, Texas was more humane than ¬had in the America internment camps at that time, the 1940s, whereas, the Hispanics are having a hard time all around. They are separated from their parents, arebhungry and haven’t been bathed, given toothbrushes and soap, or given clean clothes. Plus, they are in cages. It is happening here. And it could get worse.
My sister and I didn’t know why they rounded up Italians along with the Japanese and Germans, so she asked a friend. Mussolini, who was an Italian, wanted to join Hitler, but the country didn’t want that to happen. Mussolini was killed and then strung up in public. So, I suppose that the Americans were paranoid about Italians just as they were the Germans and the Japanese.
The people who were placed in these camps, when released, suffered psychological problems, plus their jobs and homes that been taken away from we not returned. They were given $5,000 as restitution. Big deal, but at least it was something.
Anyway, this book follows the lives of some of those who had been in Crystal City, and they have even interviewed thos who are still alive.
Back to today: Why is it that the Republican Christians are quiet in regards to what is happening at pir borders? Why do they always come back with, “Obama did the same and no one said anything?” Obama did not do the same thing, andd if he had and the democrats knew about it, they would be just as loud as we are now. Still, it boils down to this, at least it does to me: The Christians who backed the man in the White House have nothing to say about what he is doing at the border, except to stand up for everything he does. They have lost their way, or maybe they never really had a way. I think they never really had a way.
February 7, 2017
Being threatened by war never brings out the best in humankind, whoever and wherever they might be. Unfortunately for some citizens in North America, they felt the brunt of paranoia and the less than thoughtful actions which came as a result of WWII. Those of Japanese, German and Italian extraction were all under close scrutiny during the war years; suspected subversives were incarcerated at times simply because a duplicitous neighbour bore a grudge or wanted the abandoned property for himself.
After Pearl Harbour was attacked in 1941, President Roosevelt authorized the War Department's blanket order, which required the forced removal of all people of Japanese descent from California, western Washington and Oregon and southern Arizona. J. Edgar Hoover, of FBI renown, began to amass the immense personal power of his career during this time, by zealously conducting thousands of searches and interviews of people in numbers far greater than Roosevelt had remotely considered.
The government had other plans which the general population knew nothing about. In hot, dry and remote Texas, an abandoned farmworkers' camp would be transformed into an internment camp for Japanese and German families. For the duration of WWII and beyond, Crystal City would be home to thousands of Japanese and German families, most of whom had children who were American citizens.
The Train to Crystal City is a compassionate recount of the experiences of some of those families affected by this practice, as well those who tried their best to follow government orders and make the living conditions as decent as their authority would allow. It is shocking to consider that these individuals, many American by birth, were housed as family groups with the intent to use in exchange for American POWs or stranded civilians. Those who were unwillingly "repatriated" suffered twice, rejected and imprisoned by a country they loved and then greeted with hostility by the country where they had ethic yet no real connected roots.
The history in this book is highly detailed and most of it is extremely interesting. I got a bit bogged down at times with the extensive personal minutiae of each individual, but otherwise these stories were compelling and at times quite heartbreaking.
I don't know how Japanese people are treated today in Texas; in 1941 Texas adhered to a strict Jim Crowe policy and the Japanese were segregated as "coloured". I'm still shaking my head over that tidbit of information.
A strong 4 stars.
After Pearl Harbour was attacked in 1941, President Roosevelt authorized the War Department's blanket order, which required the forced removal of all people of Japanese descent from California, western Washington and Oregon and southern Arizona. J. Edgar Hoover, of FBI renown, began to amass the immense personal power of his career during this time, by zealously conducting thousands of searches and interviews of people in numbers far greater than Roosevelt had remotely considered.
The government had other plans which the general population knew nothing about. In hot, dry and remote Texas, an abandoned farmworkers' camp would be transformed into an internment camp for Japanese and German families. For the duration of WWII and beyond, Crystal City would be home to thousands of Japanese and German families, most of whom had children who were American citizens.
The Train to Crystal City is a compassionate recount of the experiences of some of those families affected by this practice, as well those who tried their best to follow government orders and make the living conditions as decent as their authority would allow. It is shocking to consider that these individuals, many American by birth, were housed as family groups with the intent to use in exchange for American POWs or stranded civilians. Those who were unwillingly "repatriated" suffered twice, rejected and imprisoned by a country they loved and then greeted with hostility by the country where they had ethic yet no real connected roots.
The history in this book is highly detailed and most of it is extremely interesting. I got a bit bogged down at times with the extensive personal minutiae of each individual, but otherwise these stories were compelling and at times quite heartbreaking.
I don't know how Japanese people are treated today in Texas; in 1941 Texas adhered to a strict Jim Crowe policy and the Japanese were segregated as "coloured". I'm still shaking my head over that tidbit of information.
A strong 4 stars.
January 11, 2015
Thank you to Scribner and Netgalley for a free advance copy of The Train to Crystal City. This was such an interesting, well researched and readable book. Russell recounts the creation of the Crystal City internment camp set up in Texas in the US during WWII, where many families of Japanese and German origin were held after the US entered the war. Incredibly, some of them were brought from a few Latin American countries, and many of them -- including children born in the US who were American citizens -- were sent to Japan and Germany toward the end of the war as a "trade" for Americans. This part of history is incredible enough on its own, but Russell recounts it in a way that really brings it to life. She focuses on a handful of children who spent their teenage years in Crystal City and their families, who she has had the privilege of interviewing in the last few years as part of the research for her book. She tells the story of their American lives, their moves and lives in Crystal City, and their moves to Japan in some cases and Germany in others -- and then their moves back to the US. She also has researched the personal circumstances and background of some of the people involved in setting up and running Crystal City. This really brings the time, the people, their emotions and how they kept themselves together -- or not -- to life and makes for fascinating reading. I am a relatively new reader of history, having generally focused on fiction. But I find that I am increasingly interested to 20th century history, and truly appreciate books such this one that have put to rest my apprehension that history books will necessarily be dry and tedious. Great read, fascinating subject. Best of luck to Russell on the upcoming publication.
August 11, 2015
INTERESTING, ILLUMINATING, RIVETING.
“The ferocity and global reach of World War II, which claimed more that 50 million lives, dwarfed the fate of individuals.”—page 263
A page-turner of an historical nonfiction might seem like an oddity. But that is exactly what author Jan Jarboe Russell has delivered in her awkwardly named, The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America’s Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. An excellent, informative, illuminating and poignant page-turner. It is far and away the best book I’ve ever read on the subject of civilian internment during WWII; offering both wider scope and deeper focus than others. I learned so much.
DID YOU KNOW?
[In early 1939] “[President] Roosevelt authorized the Special War Problems Division to find Japanese and Germans in America and in Latin America who could be used as hostages in exchange for the more valuable of the Americans.”—page 28
DID YOU KNOW?
“To secure the Panama Canal from sabotage, [President] Roosevelt reached an agreement with the government of Peru that allowed the forcible detention in American internment camps of eighteen hundred Japanese Peruvians—men, women, and children with no ties to the United States.”—page 29
DID YOU KNOW?
“Over the course of the war, the US government orchestrated and financed the removal of 4,058 Germans and 2,264 Japanese and 288 Italians from thirteen Latin American countries and interned them in the United States, many in Crystal City.”—Location 83/7062
DID YOU KNOW?
[In the U.S., during WWII, there were as many as] “fifty-four internment camps operated by the US military and […] thirty camps operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service[…].”—page 295
As attuned to the subject as I thought I was, I did not know any of the above.
Recommendation: The Train to Crystal City is a fascinating read on many levels. For history (especially of a more esoteric stripe) buffs, it is a must read.
“From the beginning, the two sides of America’s internment policy—detention and exchange—were intertwined at Crystal City.”—page 54
Kindle edition, 416 pages
“The ferocity and global reach of World War II, which claimed more that 50 million lives, dwarfed the fate of individuals.”—page 263
A page-turner of an historical nonfiction might seem like an oddity. But that is exactly what author Jan Jarboe Russell has delivered in her awkwardly named, The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America’s Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. An excellent, informative, illuminating and poignant page-turner. It is far and away the best book I’ve ever read on the subject of civilian internment during WWII; offering both wider scope and deeper focus than others. I learned so much.
DID YOU KNOW?
[In early 1939] “[President] Roosevelt authorized the Special War Problems Division to find Japanese and Germans in America and in Latin America who could be used as hostages in exchange for the more valuable of the Americans.”—page 28
DID YOU KNOW?
“To secure the Panama Canal from sabotage, [President] Roosevelt reached an agreement with the government of Peru that allowed the forcible detention in American internment camps of eighteen hundred Japanese Peruvians—men, women, and children with no ties to the United States.”—page 29
DID YOU KNOW?
“Over the course of the war, the US government orchestrated and financed the removal of 4,058 Germans and 2,264 Japanese and 288 Italians from thirteen Latin American countries and interned them in the United States, many in Crystal City.”—Location 83/7062
DID YOU KNOW?
[In the U.S., during WWII, there were as many as] “fifty-four internment camps operated by the US military and […] thirty camps operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service[…].”—page 295
As attuned to the subject as I thought I was, I did not know any of the above.
Recommendation: The Train to Crystal City is a fascinating read on many levels. For history (especially of a more esoteric stripe) buffs, it is a must read.
“From the beginning, the two sides of America’s internment policy—detention and exchange—were intertwined at Crystal City.”—page 54
Kindle edition, 416 pages
September 12, 2025
Russell manages well three narrative threads--one each of a Japanese, German, and Italian family--within the larger framework of what happened before, during,and after family internment at Crystal City, Texas.
Perhaps the federal government agents handled as well as possible the internment--housing, education, and medical care. I am fairly sure they did. Yet the conditions could never be acceptable
* to first-generation Americans worried about their families.
* to second-generation Americans not sure about place in new country.
* to conscientious government agent who had to limit civil rights.
Civil rights were always going to be limited when people were gathered in less than honest ways to be possible participants in prisoner exchanges. Here in this book, we see how a German family is repatriated to Germany during the last days of war, when Japanese family is repatriated just as Japanese surrender, and a repatriated Italian family is separated due to major illness/institutionalization. If had been left to pursue their inalienable rights to life and health, things would have been different, at least done as best seen fit.
Reading this book was challenging, but so much as Russell does do a go job of keeping ideas connected and moving. Writing the review has been difficult. A dark chapter in the history of Texas.
Read for my personal challenge 21 All About Texas in 2021.
Perhaps the federal government agents handled as well as possible the internment--housing, education, and medical care. I am fairly sure they did. Yet the conditions could never be acceptable
* to first-generation Americans worried about their families.
* to second-generation Americans not sure about place in new country.
* to conscientious government agent who had to limit civil rights.
Civil rights were always going to be limited when people were gathered in less than honest ways to be possible participants in prisoner exchanges. Here in this book, we see how a German family is repatriated to Germany during the last days of war, when Japanese family is repatriated just as Japanese surrender, and a repatriated Italian family is separated due to major illness/institutionalization. If had been left to pursue their inalienable rights to life and health, things would have been different, at least done as best seen fit.
Reading this book was challenging, but so much as Russell does do a go job of keeping ideas connected and moving. Writing the review has been difficult. A dark chapter in the history of Texas.
Read for my personal challenge 21 All About Texas in 2021.
April 11, 2015
It was a revelation to read this book about the internment of Japanese, German and Italian immigrants and their families during World War II. I did not know: Germans and Italians were included (you never read about them) some from South America; Crystal City, Texas was the only family internment camp; the program was partly designed to provide for prisoner exchanges, which became cruel to American born immigrant children who were forced to “return” to a country devastated by the war.
The book mentions that the American internment camps, which the Japanese who lived in Crystal City later called a concentration camp, were much more humane than the equivalent camps in Japan (especially) or Germany. But they were still prisons. It’s pretty much recognized now, and acknowledged by later reparations to the Japanese, that this was an illegal, unnecessary program, and regretted by those Americans involved in it. The Germans and Italians were denied this official recognition, and the Japanese from South America received ¼ of the amount awarded to the Japanese Americans years later. A lot of the immigrants suffered for years, or all of their lives, because of being imprisoned for up to 5 years in Crystal City.
The book mentions that the American internment camps, which the Japanese who lived in Crystal City later called a concentration camp, were much more humane than the equivalent camps in Japan (especially) or Germany. But they were still prisons. It’s pretty much recognized now, and acknowledged by later reparations to the Japanese, that this was an illegal, unnecessary program, and regretted by those Americans involved in it. The Germans and Italians were denied this official recognition, and the Japanese from South America received ¼ of the amount awarded to the Japanese Americans years later. A lot of the immigrants suffered for years, or all of their lives, because of being imprisoned for up to 5 years in Crystal City.
April 9, 2016
These types of books are right up my reading alley. These, military, and animal books are about the only non-fiction I read. I am not familiar with Crystal City. Yet I am not surprised as this was way before my time but also it seems that now a days the media does not really report on news but on celebrities. We as a society have forgotten our history which is very important.
The reason that I rated this book so low is not because of the people but because of the way this book was written. The first four chapters I could not remember a word of what was written in them. Also I felt that the author repeated herself a lot with events. The writing came off dry and thus kind of a chore to read. The only interesting thing was the people and reading about what they had to endure. Not to take anything away from the events but I found myself after a bit skimming the pages rather then reading them, so I put it down.
The reason that I rated this book so low is not because of the people but because of the way this book was written. The first four chapters I could not remember a word of what was written in them. Also I felt that the author repeated herself a lot with events. The writing came off dry and thus kind of a chore to read. The only interesting thing was the people and reading about what they had to endure. Not to take anything away from the events but I found myself after a bit skimming the pages rather then reading them, so I put it down.
December 8, 2020
The Train to Crystal City documents the lives and plight of German, Italian, and Japanese families interred during World War II. Most Americans are familiar with the camps for Japanese Americans in the West. This work explores the plight of the other ethnic groups imprisoned based on their heritage. This is an excellent read about a dark page in American history during World War II.
March 12, 2019
Wow! This book should be a must read for students. It opened my eyes to the harsh treatment of Japanese, German and Italian peoples living in the United States during WWII. I had no idea that there had been a family internment facility in Crystal City, Texas before reading this book. I also had no idea the great number of Germans that were interred in the confinement facilities around the U.S. Having ancestors who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the mid 1800's it is frightening to think that my ancestors could have been part of this little-known group.
As others have mentioned the writing style is different in that the author jumps and skips around quite a bit. And yes the author repeats herself. But those did not take away from my enjoyment of the book and the fact that I learned about a subject I really knew nothing about and I feel compassion for the individuals whose lives were changed forever by actions of our government.
As others have mentioned the writing style is different in that the author jumps and skips around quite a bit. And yes the author repeats herself. But those did not take away from my enjoyment of the book and the fact that I learned about a subject I really knew nothing about and I feel compassion for the individuals whose lives were changed forever by actions of our government.
February 8, 2015
I am gobsmacked by the contents of this amazing book. I cannot praise it highly enough. It grabbed my from the very beginning and didn't let me go until long after I finished. It made me cry. It gave me goosebumps. It made my blood pressure spike. It is nothing short of superb.
There is so much to say about what was done to these people by our own government, and Ms. Russell does an outstanding job of presenting the facts while giving the story a human quality...a quality which I can say without hesitation was largely missing when these laws and practices were formulated and implemented. It's nothing short of horrifying that our government could so closely mimic the practices of Nazi Germany. I could go on a long-winded rant, but I will refrain, unless you're unlucky enough to talk to me in person, and then I will proceed to spout off in outrage.
There is so much to say about what was done to these people by our own government, and Ms. Russell does an outstanding job of presenting the facts while giving the story a human quality...a quality which I can say without hesitation was largely missing when these laws and practices were formulated and implemented. It's nothing short of horrifying that our government could so closely mimic the practices of Nazi Germany. I could go on a long-winded rant, but I will refrain, unless you're unlucky enough to talk to me in person, and then I will proceed to spout off in outrage.
April 16, 2015
Americans, despite their mythology, really don't like immigrants very much, and when war comes they like them even less. Everyone knows about the internment of the Japanese during World War II, but hardly anyone knows that German and Italian citizens were also rounded up and placed in camps for the duration (and sometimes longer). Additionally, German and Italian immigrants were rounded up in Central and South America, shipped to the US and upon arrival arrested for entering the country illegally & sent to the camps. The Train to Crystal City deals with a family camp in south Texas and focuses on three or four families, tracing their journey from being arrested at the beginning of the war. their lives in the camp and what happened afterwards.
While most (but not all) of the adults were non-citizens, their children, who were almost all born in the US, were citizens. And while most of the people who were rounded up were Japanese, there were also German ans Italians who were held in the camp for most of the war and even in some cases afterwards. The camp was not completely closed down until 1948.
With few exceptions (mostly, at least in this book, German) those incarcerated were in no way a danger to this country. Instead they were victims of the xenophobic hysteria that swept this country after the attack on Pearl Harbor. One would like to say that something like this will never happen again, but the current hysteria against Muslims and undocumented Hispanic immigrants makes it impossible to make that statement. One can hope, however, that people will read this book and, perhaps, learn something from history.
While most (but not all) of the adults were non-citizens, their children, who were almost all born in the US, were citizens. And while most of the people who were rounded up were Japanese, there were also German ans Italians who were held in the camp for most of the war and even in some cases afterwards. The camp was not completely closed down until 1948.
With few exceptions (mostly, at least in this book, German) those incarcerated were in no way a danger to this country. Instead they were victims of the xenophobic hysteria that swept this country after the attack on Pearl Harbor. One would like to say that something like this will never happen again, but the current hysteria against Muslims and undocumented Hispanic immigrants makes it impossible to make that statement. One can hope, however, that people will read this book and, perhaps, learn something from history.
September 12, 2015
The Train to Crystal City, can be quite upsetting to read. After Pearl Harbor was attacked. FDR decided to gather men who were Japanese, German and some Italians who were considered "dangerous" they were arrested though out the country and taken to internment camps. soon the wives and children were brought to live in these internment camps as well. One of the largest was called Crystal City in Texas. these families were not allowed to leave and were guarded at all times. it was like a mini city with small homes, schools. etc. some of the children who are now senior citizens were interviewed. the book focuses on what happened to these families did nothing wrong but were taken from their homes, jobs, and lives to be forced to live in internment camps. a pretty interesting read. i had heard about these camps but did not read much about them until now.
February 22, 2017
Great written book! My friend told me to read the book with her book club and at first I took some time to get interested in it, but I'm so glad I read it! Being I have a degree in History, crystal city is something I didn't know much about. The book went into detail about how the American Government were treating Japanese/German American born citizens! I think this topic should be taught to students in school.
April 11, 2015
Provides insight into internment during WWII but very disjointed writing style.
October 19, 2017
January 19, 2017 marked the 75th anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's signing of Executive order #9066 authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable.” The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps. The order was expanded to include 1st and 2nd generation Japanese from all over the United States and thousands from Central and South America who were placed in internment camps.
Crystal City had the unique specialty of "uniting families." When immigrant men were arrested, their wives and 2nd generation (American born) children were interned (imprisoned) with them. One advantage of having entire families interned, as well as evacuees from Central and South America was that they made excellent bartering chips. They could be exchanged in Japan and in Germany for American prisoners of war. Between 1942 and 1948,Crystal City alone incarcerated 10,000 civilians from the United States and Latin America.
Jan Jaroboe Russell does a masterful job of making this remarkably researched work of non-fiction simply readable. The chapters follow several families of different nationalities from their arrests through their interments and then to freedom or repatriation. Almost without exception the internees were eventually to be deported or repatriated in exchange for Americans. Very often there were divisions within interned families on the subject of what to do at the end of the war. Most often the immigrant parents chose to return to the fatherland, but generally the American born children preferred to stay in the United States. Ultimately the children were not of legal age to make the choice to stay, while others obediently followed their parents. Sadly they knew not what they were headed into. Although they were leaving an internment camp, they were leaving homes with kitchens and food, schools, movie theaters and a swimming pool for near starvation in a bombed out desolate homeland. That is IF the receiving nation was even willing to take them back. They were virtually persons without a country.
I have read a lot on WWII but this is a new one for me. FDR's executive order #9066 marks the blemish on his 12 years in office as I see it. I can understand the panic since Executive order #9066 was signed on 1/19/1942 which followed right on the heals of the air attack on Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941. One would think we would have learned a lesson from the dark chapter of the FDR administration. Trump's Travel ban was penned 16 years after the most recent attack on American soil. That included most middle eastern Muslim nations except for the one from where most of the 9/11 hijackers and most jihadists came from which was Saudi Arabia. But then the President has lots of business interests in Saudi Arabia.
Crystal City had the unique specialty of "uniting families." When immigrant men were arrested, their wives and 2nd generation (American born) children were interned (imprisoned) with them. One advantage of having entire families interned, as well as evacuees from Central and South America was that they made excellent bartering chips. They could be exchanged in Japan and in Germany for American prisoners of war. Between 1942 and 1948,Crystal City alone incarcerated 10,000 civilians from the United States and Latin America.
Jan Jaroboe Russell does a masterful job of making this remarkably researched work of non-fiction simply readable. The chapters follow several families of different nationalities from their arrests through their interments and then to freedom or repatriation. Almost without exception the internees were eventually to be deported or repatriated in exchange for Americans. Very often there were divisions within interned families on the subject of what to do at the end of the war. Most often the immigrant parents chose to return to the fatherland, but generally the American born children preferred to stay in the United States. Ultimately the children were not of legal age to make the choice to stay, while others obediently followed their parents. Sadly they knew not what they were headed into. Although they were leaving an internment camp, they were leaving homes with kitchens and food, schools, movie theaters and a swimming pool for near starvation in a bombed out desolate homeland. That is IF the receiving nation was even willing to take them back. They were virtually persons without a country.
I have read a lot on WWII but this is a new one for me. FDR's executive order #9066 marks the blemish on his 12 years in office as I see it. I can understand the panic since Executive order #9066 was signed on 1/19/1942 which followed right on the heals of the air attack on Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941. One would think we would have learned a lesson from the dark chapter of the FDR administration. Trump's Travel ban was penned 16 years after the most recent attack on American soil. That included most middle eastern Muslim nations except for the one from where most of the 9/11 hijackers and most jihadists came from which was Saudi Arabia. But then the President has lots of business interests in Saudi Arabia.
February 5, 2015
At first glance, Ghettoside and The Train to Crystal City don’t appear to have much in common. Ghettoside tells the story of a detective determined to solve the murder of a fellow officer’s son and highlights the fact that a disproportionate number of murder victims in America are young, black men. It falls squarely in the true crime genre and reads like a gritty police procedural. The Train to Crystal City is a book about our history, specifically the only family internment camp in America during WWII, home to families (including American-born children) some of whom were exchanged for American POWs against their will. What made me choose to review these books together is that they are both exemplary works of narrative nonfiction.
These books reminded me of quote from E. B. White: “I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time.” These books got of bed and did both. Despite the different tones and plots, both of these books fascinated me. Both told incredibly interesting stories and were engagingly well-written. I couldn’t put either of them down! They also had in common meaningful topics. Ghettoside is certainly more relevant today, covering events which took place in the 2000’s, but reparations have yet to be made to German internees at Crystal City, so both are calls to action.
In both books, I enjoyed the many direct quotes the authors included. Direct quotes from people who were there are one of my favorite things in narrative nonfiction. They add emotional depth to a story, while simultaneously showing that the author has done their research. I also admired both authors’ ability to incorporate peoples’ back stories into the narrative without getting sidetracked. Both of these authors shared personal details about the people involved in a way which made me feel like I knew them without losing the thread of the main story. I find it incredibly impressive when authors manage to achieve this blend of entertainment and education, research and good writing. These books are both truly wonderful examples of the narrative nonfiction genre and I highly recommend them.
This review first published at Doing Dewey.
These books reminded me of quote from E. B. White: “I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time.” These books got of bed and did both. Despite the different tones and plots, both of these books fascinated me. Both told incredibly interesting stories and were engagingly well-written. I couldn’t put either of them down! They also had in common meaningful topics. Ghettoside is certainly more relevant today, covering events which took place in the 2000’s, but reparations have yet to be made to German internees at Crystal City, so both are calls to action.
In both books, I enjoyed the many direct quotes the authors included. Direct quotes from people who were there are one of my favorite things in narrative nonfiction. They add emotional depth to a story, while simultaneously showing that the author has done their research. I also admired both authors’ ability to incorporate peoples’ back stories into the narrative without getting sidetracked. Both of these authors shared personal details about the people involved in a way which made me feel like I knew them without losing the thread of the main story. I find it incredibly impressive when authors manage to achieve this blend of entertainment and education, research and good writing. These books are both truly wonderful examples of the narrative nonfiction genre and I highly recommend them.
This review first published at Doing Dewey.
December 30, 2016
Growing up, I knew, of course, about Hitler's camps for Jews and others he deemed undesirable in Nazi Germany. But I knew little about internment camps here in my own USA until I was grown.
This book takes on the stories of those who lived in the only family internment camp during World War II. It was located in Crystal City, in one of the most remote parts of Texas. The stories are sad, with lives disrupted, jobs lost, homes abandoned, and, worst of all, trust in America shaken. It was the stories of those who were sent back to their homelands which were most tragic, however, the stories of peoples who were traded to Germany and Japan for other prisoners of war, and who returned to their homelands to find the horrors of war stamped on their countries.
A moving book.
This book takes on the stories of those who lived in the only family internment camp during World War II. It was located in Crystal City, in one of the most remote parts of Texas. The stories are sad, with lives disrupted, jobs lost, homes abandoned, and, worst of all, trust in America shaken. It was the stories of those who were sent back to their homelands which were most tragic, however, the stories of peoples who were traded to Germany and Japan for other prisoners of war, and who returned to their homelands to find the horrors of war stamped on their countries.
A moving book.
January 24, 2015
Jan Jarboe Russell has written an excellent account of the Crystal City internment camp and the families who found themselves caught in the fear and hysteria that gripped the country after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is a very readable and relatable, meticulously researched book about an aspect of U.S. history I knew nothing about.
February 4, 2015
Wonderfully written, engaging book. I knew very little about the US internment camps of World War II. I learned so much from this book, and I liked how it was written by telling the stories of three families affected by the camps and also prisoner exchanges that went on during the war. Highly recommend
September 1, 2018
It’s really a shame that it has taken almost 80 years for this story to be explored—truly eye opening!
March 15, 2018
History shows favor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as one of the greatest presidents of the United States after having led the country through the Great Depression and World War II, however Roosevelt’s administration is responsible for one the country’s greatest violations of constitutional rights on a mass scale. As the war in Europe continued to grow and concerns of the United States becoming drawn into it escalated, Roosevelt’s administration directed actions to prepare for the day America did enter the global conflict by identifying Japanese and German American citizens to exchange for American citizens within Germany and Japan. This action devalued the citizenship of one American citizen over another based-on race and country of origin. As we learned from reading Jan Jarboe Russell’s, The Train to Crystal City, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States Government systematically rounded up Japanese and German American citizens without charges and placed them on trains to detention or internment camps. Most families became separated by the internment and some reunited at the Crystal City Internment Camp after the detained Japanese and German American men, citizens of the United States, signed a document volunteering for repatriation with Japan and Germany as needed. The American Government portrayed the camps as humane and that in the case of Crystal City, that the Japanese and German families voluntarily relocated to join their husbands and fathers. This narrative proved to be false after the closure of the camps. Russell provides a well-researched and documented glimpse into the lives and experiences of several actual internees and their families.
The information provided within Russell’s book is powerful and compelling. I knew about the internment camps, but never the extent of the internment, how the American government selected American citizens to detain and to secretly use as bargaining chips to free higher valued American citizens from captivity in Japan and Germany. The policies executed by the Roosevelt Administration were criminal and directly violated our constitution. The revelations and discovery provided by Russell’s book angers me and begs the question of whether the American Government can ever repeat this atrocity. Just who gets to decide who is more American or more loyal? The number of lives affected by this program was around 120,000, however accurate record keeping ended in 1945. According to Russell, “In all, approximately six thousand American citizens and immigrants from other countries – ordinary people – endured confinement because of an overzealous government widespread public fear of traitors, and a game of barter: “our” internees in America for “their” internees in Axis countries.”1 Russell lays the blame for this heinous program squarely with President Roosevelt and his administration and the American people apparently supported the program due to the widespread fear and hatred. Ultimately, according to Russell, the internees were nothing more than human bargaining chips and their status as American citizens meant nothing. Russell’s book provided a very enlightening and detailed perspective of what life was like on the home front during the great war.
__________________
1. Jan Jarboe Russell, The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. First Scribner hardcover ed, New York, NY: Scribner, 2015, pp 310-311.
Works Cited
Russell, Jan Jarboe. The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and
America's Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. First Scribner hardcover ed.
New York, NY: Scribner, 2015.
The information provided within Russell’s book is powerful and compelling. I knew about the internment camps, but never the extent of the internment, how the American government selected American citizens to detain and to secretly use as bargaining chips to free higher valued American citizens from captivity in Japan and Germany. The policies executed by the Roosevelt Administration were criminal and directly violated our constitution. The revelations and discovery provided by Russell’s book angers me and begs the question of whether the American Government can ever repeat this atrocity. Just who gets to decide who is more American or more loyal? The number of lives affected by this program was around 120,000, however accurate record keeping ended in 1945. According to Russell, “In all, approximately six thousand American citizens and immigrants from other countries – ordinary people – endured confinement because of an overzealous government widespread public fear of traitors, and a game of barter: “our” internees in America for “their” internees in Axis countries.”1 Russell lays the blame for this heinous program squarely with President Roosevelt and his administration and the American people apparently supported the program due to the widespread fear and hatred. Ultimately, according to Russell, the internees were nothing more than human bargaining chips and their status as American citizens meant nothing. Russell’s book provided a very enlightening and detailed perspective of what life was like on the home front during the great war.
__________________
1. Jan Jarboe Russell, The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. First Scribner hardcover ed, New York, NY: Scribner, 2015, pp 310-311.
Works Cited
Russell, Jan Jarboe. The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and
America's Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. First Scribner hardcover ed.
New York, NY: Scribner, 2015.
August 6, 2015
'The Train to Crystal City', by Jan Jarboe Russell, tackles a subject we think we already know much about -- the involuntary roundup and internment of Japanese and German citizens in the hysteria and fear after Pearl Harbor. But Ms. Russell quickly dispels this will be a too familiar story..
In the hours after Dec. 7, 1941, presidential order designated thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants -- many of them naturalized citizens with children born in the US -- and ordered them removed from their homes across the country and detained in hastily built compounds topped with barbed wire. Ms. Russell's story deals with the more than 6,000 of these 'enemy alients' who founds themselves shipped by train to the dusty isolation of Crystal City, Texas, a short distance from the Mexican border.
Added to the internees were hundreds of Japanese and German immigrants living in Central and South America, who were seized from their homes, flown by the US government and sent to Crystal City. There they tried to set up the semblance of households, go to school, work in the camp while dealing with the depression and confusion of not understanding fully why there were there.
In addition, a secret order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, made this group at Crystal City part of a cruel chess game in which they were held as 'exchange bait' -- to be used for exchange for Americans detained in Japan and Germany. In the closing days of the war, many were forcibly repatriated to war-ruined
Ms. Russell unfolds her story slowly, telling it largely through Sumi Utsushigawa and Ingrid Eiserloh, two teenage girls who were thoroughly Americans suddenly locked with their families behind barbed wire in the middle of nowhere. They went to school, played sports and wondered for years why their own country had abandoned them.
Later, in an interview, Sumi says that the anger and confusion of Crystal City had to be accepted. 'Mama was right,' she said. 'War makes no sense.'
This is a stunning history, beautifully told. I should note that I have known Jan Jarboe Russell for more than 30 years and have always held her in high respect as a journalist and as a human being. She has crafted a masterwork, a very human history that echoes today in America's fearful uncertainties on how to deal with terrorism. We can learn not to make the mistakes of Crystal City.
In the hours after Dec. 7, 1941, presidential order designated thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants -- many of them naturalized citizens with children born in the US -- and ordered them removed from their homes across the country and detained in hastily built compounds topped with barbed wire. Ms. Russell's story deals with the more than 6,000 of these 'enemy alients' who founds themselves shipped by train to the dusty isolation of Crystal City, Texas, a short distance from the Mexican border.
Added to the internees were hundreds of Japanese and German immigrants living in Central and South America, who were seized from their homes, flown by the US government and sent to Crystal City. There they tried to set up the semblance of households, go to school, work in the camp while dealing with the depression and confusion of not understanding fully why there were there.
In addition, a secret order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, made this group at Crystal City part of a cruel chess game in which they were held as 'exchange bait' -- to be used for exchange for Americans detained in Japan and Germany. In the closing days of the war, many were forcibly repatriated to war-ruined
Ms. Russell unfolds her story slowly, telling it largely through Sumi Utsushigawa and Ingrid Eiserloh, two teenage girls who were thoroughly Americans suddenly locked with their families behind barbed wire in the middle of nowhere. They went to school, played sports and wondered for years why their own country had abandoned them.
Later, in an interview, Sumi says that the anger and confusion of Crystal City had to be accepted. 'Mama was right,' she said. 'War makes no sense.'
This is a stunning history, beautifully told. I should note that I have known Jan Jarboe Russell for more than 30 years and have always held her in high respect as a journalist and as a human being. She has crafted a masterwork, a very human history that echoes today in America's fearful uncertainties on how to deal with terrorism. We can learn not to make the mistakes of Crystal City.
December 28, 2015
This was really interesting, although it took a while to get into. This book profiles several families and inmates to a family internment camp in Texas which held Japanese, German, Italian, and Latin American people who were forcibly detained during WWII. Many of the people in this camp ended up being "repatriated" to either Germany or Japan during or after the war, although some later came back to America. I still can't get over the fact that my country did this. I always read these books with a sense of disorientation; I just can't understand. I really can't. I was even unfamiliar with the stories of many Japanese who lived in Latin America who were basically kidnapped by the US; we leaned on other governments to round up their Japanese people and ship them to us, where we promptly arrested them (because they were illegal immigrants???? That we forced to come here????) and detained them for the duration of the war; many were sent to Japan after the war. This book also told the stories of Germans who were labelled "enemy aliens" and detained. The circumstances of this look about as flimsy as the justifications to intern Japanese, just there were many fewer. One man was basically labelled an enemy alien because he worked for a company that built bridges, and some of his neighbors said he sometimes had people over to his house. ??? What a terribly sad chapter in our history. This is very relevant today in 2015 as we hear some political leaders speak approvingly of treating others (Hispanic immigrants, Muslim immigrants) in similar ways. It would be a dear wish of mine that we should all HAVE to learn this history, in order to make sure we do not embark on similar tragedies today.
April 13, 2017
This was an exceptional non-fiction book; much of it read more like fiction so it was an enjoyable and enlightening book to read. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all Japanese immigrants and their American born chilren were interned in camps for the 'public safety of Americans' as the Administration believed that they may have been a threat to the country. What the books goes on to tell is the Germans, Italians and Japanese, who were also in Latin America, were interned during the war. The book followed the lives of several families interned and the hardships they endured in the camp. There was also good follow up as to their lives after the camps were disbanded. Some were "repatriated" to their homelands as prisoner exchanges for Americans trapped in Germany and Japan, some of which ended up in Herman concentration camps or at the very least, destitute in a homeland that made no provisions for them. The book explains the climate of the country at that time, the camps and their family situations, the administrators at the camp and how they felt about the internment camps and the Administration of the country under FDR and then Truman. If gave a good look at some of the things that were going on in the USA while the battle with the Germans and Japanese were going on overseas. I have read many German WWII novels (fiction) about concentration camps but never really recalled many books dealing with the internment camps in the USA. This book gives great detail of the situation in an easily readable manner. An enlightening story, well told and factual.
June 21, 2015
A fascinating tale of imprisonment and reparation by the US government. Following several families, German, Italy, and Japanese, the author details the process by which they arrive at the family internment camp and then for some their actual reparation to countries they in the case of the children had never seen. The most bizarre was the war time exchange of a German American family for a German Jewish family with fake Ecuadorian passports (pulled out of a concentration camp, the Jewish girl's last act is to give Anne Frank a coat). Well worth the read. Timely in the case of current US (and Canadian) sentiments towards "suspected" terrorist and others --- the politics of fear is often repeated with the similar results.
August 15, 2019
Interesting but repetitive. After initial facts about wartime prison camps in the US, book followed paths of numerous individuals and families. Disturbing but narrative after narrative grew tiresome. Those in camps were separated by nationality (no one wanted to live with the Anti-Semitic Germans, whether US citizens or not). Prison camps were really restricted communities but the US provided schools, food and medical care.
March 11, 2017
My husband and I both read this book and learned a lot of things we didn't know about the American interment camps during Wold War II. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the shameful decisions made by the FDR administration out of unwarranted fear and prejudice. It is a history lesson that should never be repeated.
July 1, 2016
This is an incredible story in many respects. I knew of the internment camps in America, but I really was not aware of the "prisoner" exchanges that took place, so there was a lot of good information in this book. I am always fascinated when reading about WWII.
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