A Roadside Attraction

I was about 20 when I went with my boyfriend and his mother to the Sacramento Delta region in California to buy asparagus. Asparagus was very much a seasonal treat back in the day and, every summer, his mother would buy and freeze as much of the vegetable as she could. We went to a roadside stand manned by an elderly, blind Japanese man. The mother said his asparagus was the best, and well-worth the drive from Turlock. I found out that the lush agricultural land behind the levees and the house had once belonged to the old man. The present owners were kind enough to let him live on the property when he  had returned. "Returned from where?" I asked. I was horrified to learn of the internment camps that had been created in 1942 for Japanese people living in the United States. Even the children who were born in the country were forced into camps, sometimes with only the clothes on their backs. The more questions I asked, the more annoyed the mother became. I don't know if she was shocked by my ignorance, (no surprise given my family dynamics and the Vallejo school system) or, as I strongly suspect, she was embarrassed by what our government and its citizens had done to our Japanese citizens.

After being locked up, the Japanese weren't given their lands and homes back. Some had been given the chance to sell off their homes and businesses with only a few days to do so. You can imagine how badly they were ripped off.

There are plenty of books that go into the subject. It's an important part of our country's history and shouldn't be hidden away.

 "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Wakatsuki is usually the first book read by young people.

Camp Amache in Colorado is now a National Historic Site. All that's there now is the cemetery, foundations of some buildings, and a sign.

Wyoming had the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. This camp now has an interpretive center.

Throughout all of this, the men were subject to being drafted into the military to fight for the U.S.