Life in an Internment Camp in America During World War Two

In 1942, the United States began searching the homes of immigrants who had come to America from Germany, Japan and Italy and, even with no evidence of any crime, many were taken away in handcuffs and removed to what was referred to as "custodial detention" with no charges, no trials and no recourse.

Even though their cause was supported by President Roosevelt's wife Eleanor, Executive Order 9006 was signed requiring the forced removal of all people of Japanese decent from certain areas - including the entire state of California.  Families were forced to leave their homes and were shipped to internment camps - even those who were born in the United States.  The plan was to trade these 'prisoners of war' for Americans being held overseas.

'The Train to Crystal City' is the story of the upheaval and struggles faced by the families forced to leave everything behind them.  The author, Jan Jarboe Russell, focuses the story on two teenagers whose families were sent to the Crystal City internment camp - Ingrid, born in New York in 1930 to German immigrants who had migrated to the United States in 1923, and Sumi, born in 1928 to Japanese immigrants.

Putting personal faces on a little known and often forgotten portion of American history, the stories of the two girls and what happened to their families are not easily forgot once the book is finished.