The War Outside, by Monica Hesse, is set in the confines of the Crystal City, Texas Family Internment Camp during WW II. Teenagers Haruko, a Japanese American from Colorado, and Margot, whose German American family are from Iowa, form a friendship, even as life in the camp shifts and changes their perceptions. “…an extraordinary novel […]
The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds, and Riches of Latin America during World War II, written by Mary Jo McConahay, is now available. The author is a reporter who has covered wars in Central America and economics in the Middle East. She details efforts of the U.S. to influence and shape events […]
Michael Murphy contacted us recently, sharing the World War II internment reminiscences of his grandparents, Hans and Ella Herrmann, and giving us a bit of their history. His mother, Barbara, was twelve at the time. Placed in a temporary holding facility in Chicago, Hans was moved to Camp McCoy, in Wisconsin, then on to Ft. […]
Tommy Dyo recently offered us photographs of Annie Kaiser, Hildegard Voelker, and Betty, women who worked with his father, Ken, in the hospital at the Crystal City, TX Internment Camp. Interned with his father, Tsutomu Dyo, Ken was not a doctor, probably serving as a medical assistant. The first two women were probably deported to […]
A piece of WW II history, a former barrack building, “T-23,” used to house male internees from the U.S. and Latin America at the Fort Lincoln, Bismarck, ND Internment Camp, is being reassembled. The Missouri Valley Historical Society has a $2,000 grant from Preservation North Dakota to help with the renovation. Volunteer Mike Beck, working […]
“Only the Oaks Remain: The story of Tuna Canyon Detention Station” in WW II, is on display from June 9, 2018-January 31, 2019, at 640 Old Mason Street, Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129. Sponsored by the National Japanese American Historical Society, the exhibit tells the true stories of people targeted as dangerous enemy aliens […]
The United Tribes Technical College, whose campus encompasses the former Fort Lincoln Internment Camp near Bismarck, North Dakota, has completed a Condition and Feasibility Assessment that provides recommendations to rehabilitate a former hospital and the hospital steward’s quarters for preservation and reuse. The study was funded with a 2013 grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites […]
The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is hosting two exhibits on WW II detention and internment in the area. Only the Oaks Remain: the Story of Tuna Canyon Detention Station and The Detention & Internment of Santa Barbarans During WWII opened February 1, 2018 at 136 East De la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. On February 22 […]
Alfred and Susan Schmidt married in Germany in 1932, moved to the U.S. the following year, eventually working their way to Honolulu. In 1940, he and his wife became naturalized American citizens, changing their name to Smith. Their experiences with internment at various Hawaiian and mainland camps are summarized in this article, written by Louis […]
Ft. George G. Meade was a US Army military post located southwest of Baltimore in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It apparently served primarily as a temporary detention site for German, Italian and some Japanese internees before they shipped to other locations. A group of German seamen were transferred there from Camp Upton, New York, in […]