POW Camps in the United States

POW Camps in the United States

                                                       by Collette

During my study of American History in high school, I do not recall reading any information about concentration camps or detention centers in the United States for Japanese. Obviously, if one lived near a facility you would have known about its existence. I was in college before I was cognizant of those facts. What I discovered while working with my husband in our greenhouses brought it all home to me.

As our floral business grew, we began buying small plants to transplant into pots instead of seeding our own. This saved time and was efficient. The source of these plants was in Colorado. It was a plant farm owned by a Japanese family. The family had been transported from California to a detention center in Colorado during the war. They lost everything they had owned in California where they had been prosperous trunk farmers. When the war ended, they were simply released. With no money or home to return to, they stayed in Colorado eventually earning and saving enough money to buy land.

The result was the business we knew as our source of little seedlings for our production and sale. Although the original occupants of the camp are gone, the family carries on the family name and business. They have become very successful despite the hardships they endured during the war in America.