the train to crystal city by jan jarboe russell

MARTIN: As you say, these were all Americans who happened to be living abroad when World War II breaks out. And he charged the Special War Problems Division with creating pools of people that he could trade for important Americans - soldiers, diplomats, businessmen, journalists, missionaries. RUSSELL: In the run-up to the war, the president realized that Americans would be tracked behind enemy lines in Germany and in Japan, especially. MARTIN: And this is where we get to the subtitle of your book 'The Secret Prisoner Exchange Program.' But most heartbreaking is that President Roosevelt set up a division within the Department of State called the Special War Problems Division. All of the mail in and out of the camp was censored. JAN JARBOE RUSSELL: You had wives and fathers and children living in tiny huts in this 290-acre internment camp. Jan Jarboe Russell writes about these secret trade arrangements in a new book called 'The Train To Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program And America's Only Family Interment Camp During World War II.' Russell writes about the families who came to Crystal City to be with their loved ones who have been detained. Hundreds of these Americans were then sent back to their countries of origin in exchange for Americans who were caught behind enemy lines when the war broke out. And there, thousands of Japanese immigrants were detained along with many people of German and Italian descent. One lesser-known camp was called Crystal City in southern Texas.

The internment camps where Japanese-Americans were sent during World War II are a well-documented part of American history.

The train to crystal city by jan jarboe russell