[A2X]≫ Download The Train to Crystal City FDR Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America Only Family Internment Camp During World War II eBook Jan Jarboe Russell

The Train to Crystal City FDR Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America Only Family Internment Camp During World War II eBook Jan Jarboe Russell

Download As PDF : The Train to Crystal City FDR Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America Only Family Internment Camp During World War II eBook Jan Jarboe Russell

The Train to Crystal City FDR Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America Only Family Internment Camp During World War II eBook Jan Jarboe Russell

I had high expectations for this book, and they were only partially fulfilled. The writing style is a bit simplistic---almost as if this were written for an audience of high-schoolers (no offense to high school students!). Also, the book jumps around from family to family, Japanese to German, and I think it could have been organized a little better. Furthermore, the first half gets a bit redundant and becomes a bit of a slog, with the telling and retelling of descriptions of camp life. That said, it really improved greatly by mid-way through the book, and I became very interested in what happened to the few families that are highlighted in the book; how the German family fared once they got on German soil and realized, to their horror, that Germany was in ruin and that they'd agreed to "repatriate" under duress and under false pretenses. Same with the Japanese family: they were shuttled around like livestock, and it was very interesting to see how a family that was not really Japanese, was able to adapt and survive in a country that viewed them with suspicion. Generally, the book was enjoyable and opened my eyes to another dimension of the true scandal that "will live in infamy"---the US imprisonment of not only Americans of Japanese descent, but also of Italian, German, Romanian, Bulgarian descent. Also, the cold, sociopathic way in which our government bureaucrats and leaders dispensed with these people, used them as bargaining chips, traded away their lives and "repatriated" entire families (how do you repatriate children born in this country, to another country? "Repatriate" means to return to one's homeland---a point the book discusses). It is also shocking that our government kidnapped people of Japanese and German descent from South American countries, to use as bargaining chips in exchange for the return of our citizens from Axis countries.


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The Train to Crystal City FDR Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America Only Family Internment Camp During World War II eBook Jan Jarboe Russell Reviews

At the onset of World War II, the United States government decided to round up Japanese, German and people of other nation origins to protect the country from sabotage and spying. One little problem was that for the vast majority of these people, there was no proof that they were disloyal or had any intent of harm to the country.

This book details the rounding up of Japanese and German citizens and the transfer of them to internment camps located throughout the U.S. A good number of camps were located in California and they are probably the best known internment camps (remains of which can still be seen on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.) One problem with the internments was the separation of family members from each other…men sent to male camps, women sent to female camps with or without their children.

This book details the separation of families, the problems the families went through and their eventual arrival at the only camp in the U.S. designed for families to be held together. It was a camp called Crystal City and was located in a desolate and foreboding area of Texas. Life was hard for not only the families, but also the guards who had to live near the cam itself.

The book is well written and adds another story to the shameful treatment of American citizens during World War II. This s not part of the history I learned in school. I knew about the Japanese camps, but never about any of the other camps or the forced relocation of anyone other than Japanese. Given what is happening along our Southern border at the moment, this book is a reminder of how carried away government can get and should serve as a lesson of how not to react.
I certainly never learned any of this in any history course I took in school.
The author did an excellent job in telling the stories of the people involved in that whole fiasco, both on the government side and the prisoners' sides. The interweaving of the stories of the families, the individuals, what their feelings were, how their cultures impacted their reactions made it feel like I was there with them, could almost taste that Texas dust.
While I can understand the average citizens being afraid due to the war, I cannot understand nor excuse our political, military and religious leaders going along with all of this.
That we would actually send our military to South America to kidnap Germans & Japanese in other countries, bring them here on troop transport ships, then arrest them as illegal aliens and put them in concentration camps? Just to be able to use them as exchanges for American prisoners? Oh sure, the excuse they might eventually be able to cause harm here?
Interning small children with their parents then forcibly repatriating them to a country they have never seen. Keeping others in camps years after the war ended while still trying to forcibly repatriating them to Germany and Japan? Sending US citizens to exchange for non citizens?
What was not gone over was the economic loss to those who were held in the camps. Their homes, businesses, etc.
I so admire the people who shared their lives with us, I cannot imagine being that strong and overcoming such adversity.
It should be required reading for everyone, the impact of discrimination due to race, country of origin, religion has terrible consequences for all concerned. And as the author pointed out, is still so relevant today, just different groups. We need to be very careful of how we proceed in the coming years, I can see something so similar happening again.
Someone posted a quote the other day, those that don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.
Read and learn something!
I had high expectations for this book, and they were only partially fulfilled. The writing style is a bit simplistic---almost as if this were written for an audience of high-schoolers (no offense to high school students!). Also, the book jumps around from family to family, Japanese to German, and I think it could have been organized a little better. Furthermore, the first half gets a bit redundant and becomes a bit of a slog, with the telling and retelling of descriptions of camp life. That said, it really improved greatly by mid-way through the book, and I became very interested in what happened to the few families that are highlighted in the book; how the German family fared once they got on German soil and realized, to their horror, that Germany was in ruin and that they'd agreed to "repatriate" under duress and under false pretenses. Same with the Japanese family they were shuttled around like livestock, and it was very interesting to see how a family that was not really Japanese, was able to adapt and survive in a country that viewed them with suspicion. Generally, the book was enjoyable and opened my eyes to another dimension of the true scandal that "will live in infamy"---the US imprisonment of not only Americans of Japanese descent, but also of Italian, German, Romanian, Bulgarian descent. Also, the cold, sociopathic way in which our government bureaucrats and leaders dispensed with these people, used them as bargaining chips, traded away their lives and "repatriated" entire families (how do you repatriate children born in this country, to another country? "Repatriate" means to return to one's homeland---a point the book discusses). It is also shocking that our government kidnapped people of Japanese and German descent from South American countries, to use as bargaining chips in exchange for the return of our citizens from Axis countries.