This book is well written and filled with a little known topic regarding WWII. It is filled with facts and photos that are a well chosen addition to a home library.

As I get older, I realize just how much history of the United States and of the world that I just do not know about and this is a really big part of my history as an American that I had very little idea about until I saw this book. The stories of internments camps for Japanese citizens and to a lesser extent German and Italian people in the U.S..
However, the idea of there being actual P.O.W. camps in the United States where captured enemy soldiers lived and worked during WWII was never something that I knew about.
The fact that there was such a discrepancy between the Axis P.O.W.S that were taken to America and the Allied P.O.W.S that remained in Europe was striking.
I truly don't know what to write about this book other than I absolutely recommend it to anyone and everyone. This type of history is incredibly important to learn about and the fact that we don't learn more about this period of time is truly a failing.
The author makes notes of some of other books that he has written that are based on what he is writing about in this book and I am definitely interested in looking into other books that this author has written.

A fascinating insight into an often overlooked aspect of an important part of our history. There was a good balance of social history, too, with interesting information about day to day life for POWs and the people with whom they were able to interact.

Author Gary Slaughter http://www.garyslaughter.com published the book “WW II POWs in America and Abroad: Astounding Facts about the Imprisonment of Military and Civilians During the War” in 2021. This is his eighth publication and was released just last week.

During WWII many prisoners were taken by the Allies. Needing a place to safely hold them until the end of the war, many were sent to the US. Over the years of the war around 5,000 Japanese, 51,000 Italians, and nearly 380,000 Germans were interred in the US. Construction of 135 camps in the US and another 40 in Canada took place to hold the POWs. Some hotels and resorts held prisoners as well.

For the most part, few of the POWs attempted to escape. The enlisted were employed on farms, food processing plants, and other non-war work. They earned wages from their work and often made friends with those around the camps. The POWs were even allowed to earn college course credit while interred.

Camps were also built to house Japanese, Germans, and Italians here at the outbreak of war. Some were foreign nationals but many were US citizens. POWs at camps in the US were treated well. That was not always the case for Americans or other Allies held by the Axis powers. Many were prosecuted after the war in the War Crime Trials.

I enjoyed the 3.5+ hours I spent reading this 271-page WWII history. I had known of the camps in the US, but I learned a lot from this book. For a history book, this was an easy read. The book offers the opportunity to learn about a different perspective of WWII. The chosen cover art is bleak but appropriate. I rate this book as a 3.8 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

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There’s a lot of interest here. For instance, the Japanese diplomatic staff and their families tried to flee Berlin in 1945 for Switzerland but were placed in the custody of the American army. They were sent to the Bedford Springs Hotel in Pennsylvania until they could be sent to Japan in November. The locals were outraged that they should live in splendor while American POWs were starved and tortured in Japan.
There’s a lot about well-known topics like the Japanese-American internment and the concentration camps. Not all is clear. The German POWs could take college classes and receive credit in Germany, but did American POWs really take classes in Germany from German professors?
Long excerpts from the author’s novels seem out of place. Lists of POW movies and TV shows likewise. Coverage is scant about the Americans experience in Axis camps.

This was a wonderful book that anyone who appreciates WWII history would enjoy. POWs are often the forgotten in any war, but this book brings to notice those who also sacrificed so much.