On different names at different times. Now the 21st century it is calling itself the tea party. The government is not us. You get into all kinds of conflict now, i dont want the federal government to take away my medicare,. The if youre looking for the origins, last. Last question were out of time. At the beginning of the talk you said the topics discussing today came from a great political party, what will it take the country to see that class of leaders ever again question work. Impossible to answer that question. I would say theres only one crisis that have the potential to generate that kind of leadership. , Global Warming. That will grow to come as lines miamis underwater and droughts are killing millions of people in africa and the weather is the first item on the news every night. We will have the energy to think about, in that sense Global Warming could become a god senate could wake us up. I want to thank you for the extraordinary talk today. T so thank you all very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] you are watching booktv on thanksgiving, four days of nonfiction authors and books on cspan2. Next up from the should National Book festival, Jan Jarboe Russell talks about his family and chairman camp located in crystal city taxes were thousands of japanese, germans and italians immigrants were incarcerated during world war ii. [applause] its such an honor for me to be here. My first time at the National Book festival and id like to thank the library of congress and each one of you who have come. Dont we were that im a black belt. You are safe. As you may have heard, i have a long history in journalism but i wanted to start by explaining what interested me most as a writer. I have always been interested in the literature of witness, witnessing the Womens Movement and as you just heard assorted political scandals in texas of which there are noand. And a lot of wheeler dealer scandals and conspiracy theories. I like intellectual and emotional intimacy of interviewing people facetofa facetoface, upholding the space for other peoples story. I like the silence in between the talking in interviews as it gives me a chance to reflect. The second thing that has always been for my work is the subject articulated in the biblical book of job that confronts the universal question, why do good people suffer . In fact why do all of us suffer . Good or evil. How can the suffering be endured, and more than that, the path to transport with resilience and grace. In 2010 when i started the train to crystal city and byway crystal city is not a metro stop in my book, but a small town in texas. It was, i begin interviewing child survivors of the internment camp who are now in their 80s and 90s. To take something from the past, most of it largely unknown and to explore it with living characters, survivors, seem to me at impossiblimpossibl e prospect to pass up. So id like to run through some photos of my characters come and ask you to serve as a witness as we explore the characters in my book. So i began one more back. I began this 40 years ago when i was a young student at the university of texas. That guy on the left over there was the dean of architecture and it was my job as a member of the daily texan, he was part of my beat, and what i first met him i had never before seen an asian person so i asked him where he was from, and he said brentwood california. But he said he understood and explained he was japanese american. And so then i asked him a question people from texas always ask which is how did you get to texas. And he said, my family was in camp. And i think they could back to school at the time, not so good now, i said, well, church camp . [laughter] and he said not exactly. And over the course of our long relationship he explained to me that he and his family were in the crystal city and chairman camp. So i always knew even from 18 years old about the can. I knew the existence but it was something that was in the back of my mind. After learned that alan had died i decided to take this on. I was very sorry that ive not gotten more information about the can. And so i dug down and dug deep. Almost all of you know about the executive order 966 in which one in 20,000 japanese, twothirds americans, were in relocation camps. This is a very beautiful photograph of a very famous photographer of one of the characters in my book being rounded up on the streets of san francisco. The little girl holding the doll is standing next to her mother. You can see the army of people putting them on the bus. This is a photo of them after reverend trudeau who was a minister was arrested, and they are going to the camp david go to before they go to crystal city. I always had this photo over my desk at my work because it seemed to me to kind of a madonna and child photo about the effects of war on civilians and in this case innocent civilians. And i love the look of humanity on her face as she gathers her children around her to be interned. Most of you know about those war relocation camps. Crystal city was a very special cant. It was the only camp during world war ii that house germans and german americans, japanese and japaneseamericans and a few italians and italian americans. What happened is that in 1939 roosevelt and were still in the grip of isolationism but he realized that war was coming. He authorized a division called a special for Problems Division to begin figuring out how to round up japanese and germans in that sense, fathers, that might could be traded for people behind enemy lines in war zones. In 1939 j. Edgar hoover was given the task of coming up with leaders in the German Community and in the Japanese Community who were, after pearl harbor, immediately rounded up. They cant in crystal city became the center of the president s Prisoner Exchange program that camp in crystal city people from all over the world came to crystal city and the government said to them, we will reunite you with your families but if we need to repatriate you or to then come yet to sign this document saying that you would agree to go. That was the price for reuniting their family. My book focuses on two families, one german american and one japanese american. Im going to show you the face of sumi. Sumi is a japanese american, now she is 90 but here she is very cute with a Yellow Ribbon in her hair standing in a white dress with her father, tom, who is a photographer in los angeles. He was the most successful japanese photographer in california. And thats the reason he was immediately arrested because of the hoover and the code was very concerned about anyone taking photographs of military installations, et cetera. So he was taken. All of the men who were arrested as enemy aliens, not of them ever had any charges filed against them so they never knew why they were arrested. And the terms of the internment were indefinite which made them eager to find a way to get out of interment even if it meant going to war in japan. There were no lawyers allowed to them and so it began for sumis family. The second one that i focused on was ingrid, this is a photo of her parents who were german immigrants living legally in the United States and when they were married in a little town in west virginia. And this is a photo. Ingrid is the one sitting on the chair with her mother. This is a photo after he was arrested and taken from them. It was within a matter of too much they lost the house because they didnt any money to pay for the house. And so this is their last moment in the house before they go to crystal city. Ingrid had lovely long red golden hair at another, joanna, decided for some unknown reason to give a to give her a from the night before so ingrid always calls this the unfortunate permanent shock. That camp opened in 1942, and over the course of its lifetime and 421948, three years after the war was over, 6000 men, women and children came on the train to crystal city from places in latin america and from places on the west and east coast. I wanted to tell you a little bit about the camp itself. It was earl harrison, that kind the left, he was ahead of the ins to find a location for this camp. And it needed to be someplace outside when the media wasnt around then it needed to be not too close to military installations. And it needed to have train access and access from latin america. Harrison was an unlikely candidate for this. He was a quaker, a philadelphia lawyer, a very, very smart guy who actually in his life had actually kept jews in the house who are trying to get out of germany. So he was a very, very good hearted man, and one of the nuances of my book is how hard he worked to make the camp in crystal city manageable for the children at the camp. The other guy, you can hardly see him in that photo but he was the commandant of the camp, josef orourke, an irishamerican from buffalo what just cant do a bad divorce and was looking for a place to rent a way. When people like that exist, they often go to texas. [laughter] so we did, in fact, go to texas. So the camp was 240 acres and had bungalows, and according to the Geneva Convention youre not supposed to make multiple national multiple nationals in your camp but we did have in crystal city. The germans side of campus one end of the japanese the of the. This photo came from a a five year old Warner Aldrich when he was five years old when they came to the camp in he has taken very special interest in trying to get the bungalows lined up with the names in a. I show you these photos because a lot of time in my research for this book i thought especially true . If we really do this but its mindboggling. Why didnt anybody ever talk about this . Im showing you the photos to prove that it existed. This is another view of the camp from the aerial, and you can see its not very, theres nothing around it. Crystal city is one of the poorest cities in texas, located 35 miles from the mexican border. But you could see the lights of the camp from mexico which is right, at night, the people from mexico could see the lights from the camp. Everybody in the camp lived behind barbwire and the camp was, both the Texas Rangers and Border Patrol rangers guarded they cant. The penalty for escape was death. Everybody knew it, and smartly come in the entire history of the camp no one ever attempted to fully. To flee. The kids in the camp who, may sound crazy but some of the best memories are at the camp because they were with her family. They did not know why they were there, and the camp has three schools. It at a School Called the American School where you got an american education. This was taught by School Teachers from texas. Many of the School Teachers have husbands fighting in europe and in japan and so kind as to these children is something to be marveled at. There was also a japanese, this is sumi at the bottom. You can see she was in an American School and they have sports and stuff like that. Sumi was a gelding song played. We usually call that a chilly but thats the way it was. And there she is, she was in girl scouts and there she is. Its not the medical staff. Its the german barber and hair place for the germans. Everybody worked on the camp and raised food and all of, there was ice that came every morning so someone had to bring the isa to the camp, and things like that. Everybody worked. When you are in, if youre a citizen of japan or germany or italy or anything and youre in an internment camp, youre allowed to display your own home countries flag. And here are some japanese people doing that. In the camp this caused a great deal of conflict between the german side of camp and the japanese side of camp. The japanese women ran the mattress company, the factory. Those of you who are familiar with forward location cant know this happened in more relocation camps as well. But everything was made better, and so everybody was very busy. Which was good. Theres a story behind this photo, the japanese really like their own kind of food and so they went to orourke and said, we need a place to make tofu. They were a long way from tofu in crystal city, so they turned a victory had overturned and the japanese people forget how to make tofu. So we have what is surely the first tofu factor in texas at the crystal city cant. The german said tofu . We want beer. And so here is the beer garden. Overwork who had little bit of problem with booze himself issued an order you could only make beer once a week. This role is often broken in the crystal city internment camp. In order to irrigate best actress farms and a vegetable gardens they built an enormous pool. This was an incredible source for the children in the camp because it became their Swimming Pool. In summer its 125 degrees in crystal city, and socome and our scorpions and rattlesnakes so these people coming from the east coast and west coast, you know, it was hell. So the Swimming Pool became the place of total comfort. But also to get the place of a lot of tragedy. I dont want to give up too much if you have not read the book, but there were several very sad drownings in the pool. So there you have it. And this is a photo i love. Its a photo of japanese and japanese american immigrant. You cant tell which one was which, getting a christmas tree. And so i love this because its the face of humanity of people struggling to overcome their boredom, there to spare, their encarta ration with these sort of rituals. By far the biggest shock to me in researching the book was the president exchange program. Just because there were six president Exchange Programs from crystal city. The first happened in 1942. The second one in september of 1943. Sumi and her parents were scheduled to be exchanged within. Tomorrow occurred in 1944, one in february, one of december. The final exchange january 8 when ingrid and her family were traded in the war into germany. This is sumi once she was tired into japan, and i just, thats her father by this time has grown a beard and looks more japanese to us. This is sumi but this is a great part of my book. I think that as soon as the americans occupied japan, sumi and all of these kids from crystal city, they went to the arm and said give us a job. We are americans. They worked to feed their families, even though in japan these people were considered spies. They were stoned, et cetera. So they eventually all made their way back. The situation, heres sumi with her children. Her husband was in the for 42nd which was the all japanese brigade in world war ii. She lost her husband then and has raised these six beautiful children, every single one of them gone to college and shes very proud of them. She told me when i see us come here, i talked to on the phone and i said that going to ask how did he do it. How did you live through it . She said tell them i am one tough cookie. [laughter] the same thing happened when i got traded. Ingrid and her brother got jobs with the military and they made their way back and rebuild their lives here. I dont know, i often ask myself if president obama trade the night to syria if i would be fighting to get back to the United States. But these children thought very hard for their american citizenship. The resilience is so inspiring to me. Im not going to talk about that right now. We are running out of time. This is ingrid and her first husband who fought, he was a germanamerican who enlisted when war broke out and fought in germany against the germans. Isnt she beautiful . This is ingrid with her family. And this is my last photograph with ingrid. Ingrid died for the book was finished, and its a real source of sadness for me. I just wanted, before we get to questions, and i talked too long, i just want you to know a little bit why this book means so much to me. Because adobe so much about how one suffers. None of the 50 kids i interviewed ever asked why this happened to them. The question was always, how do we transform what has happened to them. The japanese, and there may be some people who know they have this incredible word which means to persevere, unendurable situations. In the way you practice is you have some practice, whether its calligraphy or meditation. As the city. I was astonished you didnt mention, the audience would appreciate hearing how our government, elaborated with governments to kidnap people, bring islam here and arrested them once they were here for being here illegally, the second thing was a question, i dont understand how crystals city was allowed to continue in existence until 1948. I kept scratching my head saying of the war was over. Why werent a released . These are two great questions. The book is very complicated and my take on it is quite nuanced. My father fought in world war ii, but the situation was that all the laws were essentially off the books. Roosevelt initiated a Good Neighbor policy in latin america. Once the war broke out, hoover sent fbi agents to 12 different latin american countries, and we were looking for people to exchange and the way exchange worked is you try to give the exchanges, a Prisoner Exchanges a useful diplomatic tool in war, but when you do it you try to get low Value Exchange for high value american, so you are doing that, roosevelt is trying to get low value people. 4,000 germans from these countries, incredibly 81 of them jews who had fled, germany, they were taken and put on a blacklist the fbi had, army boats came to wherever it they were, deposited them at the port of new orleans the moment they sat on american soil, arrested for being illegal aliens, they were taken to crystal city. Many of those were traded. So that was the nature of it. The other thing, roosevelt is worried about the panama canal, he wanted military forces in latin american countries are, what happened was many of those people were very wealthy in peru, etc. And their businesses were confiscated by their government which was another reason they tried to do it. The second question, what was the second question . Crystal city continued to insist . Note to obama, is easier to open an internment camp and to close it. This is happening right here now. Truman inherited fdrs camp, he attempted to deport remaining people in crystal city but by the time the war was over, the fathers that still lacked didnt really want to go back because they knew seeing all the news was centered in the camps so they didnt know germany lost or japan lost and live did. And it dragged on and on until finally they deported as many as they could and let the rest go. Including the first person i showed. It is a mess. Once you have an internment camp or whatever you want to call it, how do you close it. Yes, sir . If you follow it right lee, you had japanese, american, german american citizens who had traded back to their countrys ancestors, trading american pows and why would this american citizen do that voluntarily . The way it worked, in the case you just saw, a father and mother were legal residents born in japan, first generation but they did not have citizenship here. It was illegal for any japanese person to be a citizen until 1952. And their children were all born here, so the americans that were traded, americans, mostly children, they had to go with their parents, had no choice. Here is how it worked. In 42 there was trade with diplomats, p. O. W. S, business men, japan, journalists, missionaries, we ran out of americans to trade. That is a big twist in the book, in which a very last traded, didnt start doing this earlier but in the very last trade i found at the Holocaust Museum in washington, up a list of 300 jews, german jews were part of this last exchange. By the time they left, there were only 100 of them laughed. Two of the living holocaust survivors, the total catch22 of war in that you had and american, german american from Cleveland Ohio traded for irene katzenberg, a german jew from germany when it was supposed to be the other way around. When these women found that out, they were like a ball, and so it is hard to believe. I never heard, i am interested in reading your book, i had a cousin by marriage who was in turned with his parents, he was japaneseamerican. Actually his brother was mexican, he was 36 years old at the time. His father pledged loyalty to the United States, was sent over to fight, they had to remain, had japanese blood and was kept in the camp. This blood thing, i was so shocked to know, i have two adopted children, i was so shocked to know that if i had adopted, if you had adopted, if i had adopted a japanese child, my child would have been taken from me. It was about the blood which is that terrible scar for us, i think. With the germans that were in turn, it was more about occupation, like in gores father was an engineer, and an engineer was a very high valued trade because but hooverss theory was if you can build a bridge you can blow up. I guess we are almost out of time. Come for my a little book. I cant see you. For this audience, if you were to tell a little bit about this germanamericans efforts to have recognition from our government about this. It has knocked from san antonio, i bet there are others here so thank you. President reagan did the right thing when he delivered an apology to all the japanese that were in turn to including the japanese people that were in turn been crystal city and they were compensated for this terrible act of injustice. The germanamerican community for a variety of reasons there is no one that has ever apologized to the about 300,000 german and german americans that rain turned, not all of them in crystal city, but you probably know we had a lot of different camps around, not just the ones we learned about in our pathetically bad history books in school. They werent done because they made the argument that if you were a arrested as a german there was probably something wrong with the because it wasnt a blood issue, it wasnt a race issue, it was an ethnic issue. What the difference is between race and ethnicity i am not sure but that is what they said. The second reason is the german people, the kids i interviewed now, they feel a terrible shame at having been arrested. Many of the people, a lot of my research was getting the fbi files of these fathers declassified so the kids learned for the first time that their fathers were not charged with any crime and there were a letters to the attorney general and the attorney general said it is not personal. We did the rest you because you had done anything wrong, we arrested you because you are a citizen of a country, your adopted country is at war with. It is just like that. And it is on that basis that all aliens are arrest in times of wa