Farewell to Manzanar

I read Farewell to Manzanar by  Jeanne Houston this past week. It was one of those books that just caught my eye at the library, and so I checked it out. It's a true story written by a woman who's family was put into, and lived in, one of the Japanese interment camps (here in the U.S.) during World War II.
I've actually driven by the remnants of the camp that they lived in. It's in the Owens Valley ironically located near a town called Independence, and I remember passing it by on a geology field trip. It's a hot, dry, dusty valley.
Anyway, the book was really good. You always think of the "bad guys" having camps, and placing people there on a racial bias, but we did it too to Japanese-Americans. Granted there was no intention of killing anyone, or hurting them even, but still. People, American families (many of which did not speak Japanese, nor had ever even been there), were plucked from their homes and their jobs and forced into barracks in the middle of the desert. And most of what they had "on the outside" was gone by the time they were allowed to go back home. Loans had been defaulted on, cars, boats, etc repossessed or stolen, storage lockers raided or burglarized. I can't imagine how devastating that must have been for them.
It's interesting though, because in a way the story is not entirely sad. It's told by the author, but based on memories from when she was a little girl. And like most kids, it didn't seem as bad to her as it probably did to the adults. She talks about attending school inside the camp, and joining a baton-twirling class. The people living in Manzanar transformed it into a town, with parks and parades and all the normal things that Americans value. She recalls lots of things that she understands now in a different, more serious way , but she also includes those few glimmering memories all kids have, no matter what the circumstances, that even adulthood can't erase.
Anyway, this was a short read, but a really interesting one as well. It's part of our history as a country, and we shouldn't forget about it. Otherwise we will inevitably make the same mistake all over again.