{"id":313194,"date":"2025-10-18T10:46:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/313194\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T10:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:46:30","slug":"survivors-of-ww2-era-internment-camp-south-of-san-antonio-gather-to-remember-the-injustice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/313194\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivors of WW2-era internment camp south of San Antonio gather to remember the injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SurvivorsSurvivors of the Crystal City Enemy Detention Facility and their descendants visit the site during a recent pilgrimage. Credit: Dean Zach<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, survivors of a World War II-era concentration camp<\/a> located in the scrubland southwest of San Antonio came together, along with their descendants, for a day of remembrance, healing, and bridge-building with local community members.<\/p>\n

The Crystal City Enemy Detention Facility around an hour and a half from the Alamo City imprisoned more than 3,000 people of Japanese, German and Italian descent taken from their homes in the U.S. and Latin America from 1942 to 1948. At its peak, it was the largest U.S. family internment camp.<\/p>\n

In a ceremony held on the concrete slab left behind by the camp pool where two Japanese Peruvian girls drowned in 1943, the 200 survivors and descendants sat alongside Crystal City\u2019s mayor and city manager while the names of 12 internees, all of whom died in the camp of causes both natural and unnatural, were read in prayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pilgrims, who ranged from young children to octogenarians, came from places as far-flung as Japan, Peru and San Francisco to the town of 6,000 known for being a hotspot for Chicano activism in the \u201960s and \u201970s. The Crystal City walkouts of 1969-70 protested anti-Latino discrimination in schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This shared history of injustice brought former internees and former activists together. The Pilgrimage and a new local museum exhibit on the camp were organized by a committee consisting not just of survivors but Crystal City citizens including Diana Palacios, a bail bondswoman and museum owner, and Ruben Salazar, a history teacher at Crystal City High School.<\/p>\n

Salazar said the missions of the Pilgrimage Committee and the people of Crystal City are the same: to keep their stories of surviving injustice alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want this story to continue,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cWe want it to be exposed, we want everybody to know what actually happened here. We want to put Crystal City on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Crystal City\u2019s My Story Museum, Satoshi Kojima, a former internee who was born in the camp, discussed the importance of the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

\"PilgrimsPilgrims to the Crystal City event examine a model of the camp at a museum. Credit: Dean Zach<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many more years I\u2019ll be able to be here,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich is why it\u2019s good to see so many young people here who can carry on the legacy of why the camps matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theme of this year\u2019s pilgrimage, \u201cNeighbors Not Enemies,\u201d highlighted the 80-year-old injustices in the context of \u201cpresent-day attacks on immigrant communities,\u201d according to the Pilgrimage Committee\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

The pilgrimage also included educational events held in San Antonio, including a panel on the Trump Administration\u2019s use of the Alien Enemies Act.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s pilgrimage was the first since the second Trump Administration took office and the White House expanded efforts to detain and deport U.S. and non-U.S. citizens alike, including at the Dilley Immigration Processing Facility. <\/p>\n

That site 40 minutes east of Crystal City is the largest family detention camp in the U.S., and it\u2019s been plagued by reports of inhumane conditions and overcrowding.<\/p>\n

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