The Train To Crystal City: FDR'S Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II, Russell - C, Inc.

                                                For many in America, it was not a good war.  This is a story that goes beyond the internment of the Japanese on the west coast and deals with the wholesale incarceration of, not just the Japanese, but also Italians, Germans and even Latin Americans. Crystal City, thirty miles from the Mexican border in Texas, was opened in 1942 for the purpose of reuniting families with immigrants who'd been arrested and imprisoned as enemy aliens. Not only were American residents incarcerated, but the US had coordinated anti-Axis plans and protocols with all of the Latin American countries, except Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico. The Latin Americans arrested their Axis citizens and shipped many of them to the US.  Their assets were confiscated, and when they arrived in the US, on American troop ships, they were arrested for 'illegal entry'.  By the middle of the war, Crystal City was filled with German, Japanese, Italian and Latin American families.
                                                Unfortunately, there are too many threads running through this book and the camp for the telling of a coherent story. The incarcerated Germans consisted of those supporting the fatherland and those desirous of being Americans. All were part of a US plan to exchange Germans for US POW's. Along with the parents, the camp was filled with American-born minors. There were six German-American exchanges, including one in January 1945. One Cleveland-based construction engineer was arrested, incarcerated, sent to Crystal City, and repatriated to Germany, where the SS beat and imprisoned him. On the Japanese side of the ledger (why some families were sent to Crystal City instead of the west coast camps wasn't apparent to me although, I did start skimming), the major issue was issei v nisei. The immigrant Japanese ( under the Asian Exclusion Act, they could not become citizens) fully supported the Empire and their children did not. The American born-nisei fought in the 442nd Regiment, the most decorated in the war.  Although I do not think the book was up to the challenge, it does depict some fascinating personal stories. Throughout it all, the appalling lack of fair, decent, humane, equitable or American treatment of those considered aliens and their families is frightening and embarrassing. In the 80's, the US apologized to its Japanese-American internees and paid compensation.