Internment Camps Quotes

“There was too much history he’d like to forget, but his memories were on the surface today, closer even than the woman across from him. For a single heartbeat the shop faded and Slocan appeared: huts in rows, men and women like cattle within its fenced boundaries.”
― Danika Stone, The Dark Divide

“Every week they heard new rumors.
The men and women would be put into separate camps. They would be sterilized. They would be stripped of their citizenship. They would be taken out onto the high seas and then shot.They would be sent to a desert island and left there to die. They would all be deported to Japan. They would never be allowed to leave America. They would be held hostage until every last American POW got home safely. They would be turned over to the Chinese for safekeeping right after the war.
You've been brought here for your own protection, they were told.
It was all in the interest of national security.
It was a matter of military necessity,
It was an opportunity for them to prove their loyalty.”
― Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine

“In the pages that follow I hope that readers similarly struggle to find their own balance within a history of injustice. Such pasts should be unsettling.”
― Jordan Stanger-Ross

“In 1944, dozens of these principaled objectors were transferred to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. I'm proud of them, and I consider them just as heroic as those who fought on foreign battlefields. Though they responded in different ways -- caring for their families, fighting on the battlefield, or serving time for their principles -- all these Japanese Americans showed incredible courage and heroism. They proved that being American is not just for some people. They all made difficult choices to demonstrate their patriotism to this country, even when it rejected them.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy