Crystal City Internment Camp Correspondences and Images: Perspectives on the Camp's Administration

Crystal City Internment Camp Correspondences and Images: Perspectives on the Camp's Administration

Internment during World War II; Incarceration; Correspondence and Letters; Photographs

This collection sheds light on the administrative style of the officer in charge of the Crystal City Internment Camp through internee correspondences. During World War II, the internment camp contained people of German, Italian, and Japanese descent. Correspondences don't downplay these conditions but indicate that the officer in charge was thanked for his generosity, efficiency, and kindness, despite the camp being part of an unjust system of confinement and containment. The letters also shed light on the difficulties internees faced after being released from internment, as well as their innocence in the face of all that they experienced. This collection also provides images that give insight into the conditions of the camp. Finally, the collection supplies a report written by the officer in charge himself to provide this official's point of view on his administrative methods and the history of the camp.

Internees from the Crystal City Family Internment Camp, photographers (identity unknown), James L. O'Rourke

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, National Archives, The M. Nakagawa Collection

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Densho Encyclopedia, National Archives

1940s

Internees from the Crystal City Family Internment Camp

This electronic resource is made available by the University of Texas Libraries solely for the purposes of research, teaching and private study.

This material is made available for education and research purposes only. The creator of this exhibit does not own the rights for these items; it cannot grant or deny permission to use this material. Copyright law protects unpublished as well as published materials. It is your responsibility to determine the rights status and secure whatever permission may be needed for the use of any item. Due to the nature of archival collections, rights information may be incomplete or out of date. We welcome updates or corrections. Upon request, we'll remove material from public view while we address a rights issue.

From the O'Rourke (James) Crystal City Internment Camp Papers, box 2.325/B101b, 1937-1950, undated, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Paper

English

Personal Correspondences, Photographs, Narratives

Civil Liberties, Crystal City Internment Camp, Wartime Internment

Crystal City Internment Camp, Crystal City, Texas