My boss, when I first started in engineering back in Michigan, was born in LA but his parents were from Japan. He and his family were interned at the beginning of the war (not sure whether it was Manzanar or not) and when he graduated from the camp's high school, like a lot of other young Japanese-American men, he enlisted in the Army and ended up fighting in Italy and France with the 442nd Infantry Regiment. This unit had one of the highest casualty rates as well as being the most decorated unit in the history of the United States Army. Paul himself was wounded twice.
As tough as it was on him, his older brother, who had also been born in LA, had a more unusual and in the end, ironic experience during the war. He happened to be living with an uncle in Tokyo when the war broke out (his parents had sent him there to learn about his heritage and to help his uncle who was a Methodist minister). Anyway, the Uncle was part of a small but vocal anti-war movement in Japan and when the war started they were both arrested, the uncle for his pacifist preaching and the nephew for being an enemy of Japan (I think you can see the irony here, considering that his family in America had been 'imprisoned' for being an 'enemy' of America). Anyway, after awhile, they were released and put under house arrest and that was it for the rest of war. Of course, when the war ended and the Americans showed-up, here was this American citizen, fluent in Japanese and having experienced what it was like during the war, he was immediately hired by the occupation forces and worked with them for several years. In fact he stayed in Japan, married a local gal and went to work for the World Council of Churches (I guess his uncle's sermons got to him) and eventually he sent HIS kids back to America for some of their schooling so that they could learn about THEIR American heritage since they were technically American citizens themselves.
As for Paul, my boss, after the war he went to college on the GI Bill and became an engineer and moved to Chicago and eventually Michigan.
America is truly a nation of very diverse experiences.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/ansel-adams-manzanar_n_5155579.html
OCU
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