On June 29th, 2025, NPR aired a Radio Diaries story called “Inside a U.S. plan to use immigrants in Latin America as WWII bartering chips.” Interviewees included Karin Harten Schramm, whose family were brought to the U.S. from Ecuador. Expecting to be exchanged, they found themselves languishing in Crystal City, Texas, even after the war was officially over. Eventually they were allowed to return to Ecuador.
Libia Yamamoto, Kazumu Julio Cesar Naganuma, and Chieko Kamisato were interviewed about their families’ experiences in Peru, and then as internees in the U.S. After the War, Japanese Peruvian internees were unable to return to Peru, because the country refused to take them back. Church groups sponsored some, while companies like Seabrook Farms, needing workers, hired many, providing stepping stones to a new beginning.