Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell

Our English teachers and I were excited to learn about the publication of The Train to Crystal City because, per its subtitle, it tells the story of "FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II." Our students read, research and discuss When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka so The Train to Crystal City will be an excellent additional resource.   Over several years, we have compiled and shared related teaching and learning resources, including many primary sources.

I expected The Train to Crystal City to tell much of the same story -- it does that and more. Author Russell has focused attention not only on Japanese/Japanese-American internees, but on Latin American, Italian, and German internees as well. Frankly, I was shocked to read the Eiserloh family story -- that family could have been my relatives or their friends.  The immigration dates and ages were eerily similar, including a the profile of a patriarch who worked for a well-respected Fortune 500 company and who enjoyed German music and wrote letters to family still in Europe. Fortunately, my family never experienced life in an internment camp, but I heard stories of how difficult it was to be living in America with a German surname in the 1940's and 50's. For the adults, it meant less social time with friends and worries about relatives in Dresden and nearby German towns.  For the children, it lead to teasing and bullying.

Stressful? Yes, but not like the secret prisoner exchanges which Jan Jarboe Russell investigates and documents. Russell spent years researching The Train to Crystal City and she includes copious footnotes and annotations, although her family stories are very readable.  In its review Booklist describes The Train to Crystal City as "an informative, disturbing, and necessary reminder of the dangers produced by wartime hysteria." Our teachers and students will be using this reference work and drawing parallels to their reading and to today's news headlines where threatening events may lead to fear, prejudice and over-reaction with negative impacts on civil liberties.