up so we could not see where we were going. What a surprise awaited us when the boxcar door was opened. We stepped out into the middle of a desert, which contained the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Nearby was the small town of Poston, Arizona. The War Relocation Authority, a bureau set up by Franklin. D. Roosevelt, was building a large Relocation Camp Center here. It was way out in the middle of nowhere. As it reached it's peak, 17,824 Japanese-Americans would be housed here.

Everyone had to be fingerprinted and

photographed, then given a complete physical. Next came a lengthy interrogation with questions I considered very silly. (Such as, are you a Jap spy, have you ever been a Jap spy, have you ever been to Japan, etc..) Here I am, only 13 years old and I have never been out of Alameda County, California! Finally, my father and my mother and I were taken to a large warehouse, we wondered, what next? It was full of big bundles of straw, with a long table in the middle. Stacks of "Gunny sacks" (Burlap bags) were piled high. The internment officer said, you must take one of these "gunny sacks and fill it up with straw. It will be your new bed! I just sat down on the floor and bawled loudly as I thought of my lovely queen size bed back in California. It was solid red cherry hardwood, with a high canopy on top.

I cannot remember how long we lived at the War Relocation Center, it seemed forever. But one day the three of us were loaded back on another train. This time we would travel around 1146 miles before reaching our destination, Crystal City, Texas."


Now Crystal City was a permanent World War II Civilian Internment Camp. It

was one of seven built in Texas and there were at least 45 more built in other states. In time Crystal City became the biggest Civilian Internment Camp in the United States, with around 20,000 people interned there. The fenced camps were all built with the same blueprints, arranged in blocks. Contained in each block was 14 barracks, with  Mess Hall and 1 Recreation Hall on the outer edges which  included ironing, laundry and also men and women lavatories. The barracks were 100 ft by 20 ft, with space assigned according to the number of people in a family. Other buildings were built for warehouses, car and equipment repair, schools, library, churches, hospitals and a post office.

There were several kinds of Japanese-Americans living in the Internment Camps. The "Issei" the Elders who migrated here in the early 1900s. The "Nisei," the second generation born here and educated here. Then the "Kibei," another second generation born here but educated in Japan.

Why did the U.S. Government trample so completely on the Civil Rights of all of these U.S. citizens? One reason, for their own protection. Many people

were wanting to shoot anyone who looked remotely like a Japanese. Second reason, they believed that some of them would sympathize with Japan. Third reason, which was a very good one, hidden among the Japanese-Americans was the "Black Dragon Society!" This was an active espionage group with

several thousand members. Many people are still disturbed today because it is the common belief that the Japanese-Americans were the only ones treated this way.

Crystal City Civilian Internment Camp was actually three camps in one! One camp for Japanese-Americans, one camp for Italian-Americans, and another for German-Americans. Japanese, Italian, German, Bulgarians, Czechs, Hungarians, and Romanians were interned as part of the "Enemy Alien"

sweep. The United States Government sent a secret order by General George Marshall to the US Caribbean Defense Command. It caused 12 Latin American countries to round up Latino-Japanese, Latino-Italians and Latino-Germans. They were all sent to the United States and put in the Civil Internment Camps too. These 12 countries also profited greatly by seizing the property and business of these unfortunate people. (No official records are available for all of the thousands treated this way.)

By the end of the war, 11,000 persons of German ancestry including many American born children, were interned. At least 4,050 Latino Americans were interned also. Several thousand of these people were later exchanged for Americans held by the Third Reich in Germany. Many of these people were thrown into concentration camps when they arrived in Germany. (For the Gestapo thought they were American spies.) Some of their young children who were American citizens could not even speak German. The Eiserloh family and the Graber family were two such families.

Italian-Americans were treated just as harshly, with no regards for fairness. Joe Aiello, a resident for 56 years, was hauled off in his wheelchair. Placido Abono, 97 years old, was carried out on a stretcher. And Rosina Trovato, was classified as an enemy alien and told to move out of her home.... On the same day she learned her son and nephew had gone down on the U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

What a time of hysteria and trampled civil rights. Was anything ever done to correct this great wrong? In 1988 The United States Government apologized to the Japanese-Americans and started paying $20,000 to each survivor. To this day, I do not believe the Italian-Americans or the German-Americans have received a penny from our government. Nor an apology either. Ironically the Japanese Government has never apologized nor shown any remorse for the untold horrors and suffering they caused millions and millions of people. The United States Government is not perfect and has never been perfect, but we do learn from our mistakes. It is still the greatest country on the face of the whole Earth. And I am proud to be an American.

God bless America!!