The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 20, May 18, 2003, Article 16

CRYSTAL CITY INTERNMENT CAMP TOKENS

  David Klinger wrote the following item for the MPCgram,
  and with their permission we're reprinting it here.   It
  illustrates Len Augsberger's point about how fast the
  Internet is growing.  What I wrote the Money Talks article
  there was very little information to be had about the camp
  or its tokens, but now there is a nice web page picturing
  them.

  Len wrote: "I recently read about money used at a
  Japanese-American internment camp in Crystal City, Texas
  during and just after WW II. I had never seen such money
  which was described by Wayne Homren in an ANA "Money
  Talks" script as follows: "The camp at Crystal City, TX, a
  hundred miles southwest of San Antonio, was a converted
  migrant farm labor camp.  The facility housed entire families,
  and held a peak population of over 3,000 people.  Residents
  of the camp were allotted a standard sum of money in fiber
  tokens.  These tokens could be spent for food, clothing, and
  other items at the camp canteen.  The tokens came in
  denominations ranging from one cent to $5.  When the camp
  closed, all the tokens were supposed to be destroyed.  But
  a few of these tiny tokens survive today."

  These tokens are not mentioned in "WW II Remembered".
  The inscription on the reverse of each of these tokens reads:
  "Alien Detention Station, Crystal City, Texas". The obverse
  shows value in letters and numbers.

  What surprised me during my research on this topic was
  that this internment camp was not only used to house
  Japanese-Americans but German-Americans as well. I was
  not aware that over 11,000 German-Americans were interned
  during WW II.  I wonder if any of these German-Americans
  received reparations as did the Japanese-Americans?   In any
  case, you can see these tokens at the following web site, along
  with interesting info and links related to the German-American
  internees.

  http://www.foitimes.com/internment/Facesplaces.htm"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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