The train to Crystal City : FDR's secret prisoner exchange program and America's only family internment camp during World War II / Jan Jarboe Russell.
Material type: TextPublication details: New York, NY : Scribner, 2015.Description: xix, 393 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates ; 24 cmISBN:- 1451693664 (hardcover)
- 9781451693669 (hardcover)
- Iserloh, Ingrid, 1930-
- Utsusjogawa, Sumi, 1929-
- Crystal City Internment Camp (Crystal City, Tex.) -- Biography
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Concentration camps -- Texas -- Crystal City
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians -- United States
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Forced repatriation
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children -- United States -- Biography
- Japanese Americans -- History -- 20th century
- German Americans -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Crystal City (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century
- 940.53/177644370922 23
Item type | Current library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Phillipsburg Free Public Library | Adult Non-Fiction | Adult Non-Fiction | 940.53177644370922 RUS | Available | 36748002216309 | ||
Adult Book | Phillipsburg Free Public Library | Adult Non-Fiction | Adult Non-Fiction | 940.53177644370922 RUS | Available | 36748002220525 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
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 Americans--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.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-370) and index.
"Focusing on a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, a dramatic account exposes a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II where hundreds of prisoners were exchanged for other Americans behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany."-- Publisher's description.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Preface (p. xv)
- Part 1 Without Trial
- 1 New Enemies (p. 3)
- 2 Eleanor vs. Franklin (p. 19)
- 3 Strangers in a Small Texas Town (p. 35)
- Part 2 Destination: Crystal City
- 4 Internment Without Trial (p. 61)
- 5 A Family Reunion (p. 83)
- 6 The Hot Summer of '43 (p. 93)
- 7 "Be Patient" (p. 111)
- 8 To Be or Not to Be an American (p. 121)
- 9 Yes-Yes, No-No (p. 139)
- 10 A Test of Faith (p. 153)
- 11 The Birds Are Crying (p. 169)
- Part 3 The Equation Of Exchange
- 12 Trade Bait (p. 133)
- 13 The False Passports (p. 197)
- 14 Under Fire (p. 213)
- 15 Into Algeria (p. 223)
- 16 The Ail-American Camp (p. 233)
- 17 Shipped to Japan (p. 249)
- 18 Harrison's Second Act (p. 263)
- Part 4 The Road Home
- 19 After the War (p. 277)
- 20 Beyond the Barbed Wire (p. 295)
- 21 The Train from Crystal City (p. 313)
- Acknowledgments (p. 331)
- Sources and Notes (p. 335)
- Bibliography (p. 353)
- Index (p. 371)
- Photograph Credits (p. 393)