7/27/13

What are the Poston, Arizona block books about?

Basically, the book is a "Who's Who" directory of the incarcerated people and where they lived within each block and barrack based on the 1944 Poston census. The book includes names and limited photos, and the marriages, births, deaths, location from where, and when some were taken by the FBI from their homes, and when and where they went when they were told to "leave" Poston and had no where to go. 

The book tells of some of the students who were released to attend college, others went outside for agricultural work in nearby states, and the Poston organization memberships and positions held, etc..  Information mostly extracted from the Poston Chronicles and/or oral histories by the author. 

The goal of the book series is to let outsiders know that each person was a real person.   Most descendants have no idea WHO were living in the same block.  Those who were incarcerated did not talk about this traumatic episode in their disrupted their lives which occurred from 1942-1945.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a Huge and Important project! I appreciate the effort and have a better understanding of these"books" with this update as it goes way beyond just the block layout and the names of people. I might also add that the Brick Project allowed me to honor and remember each member of my family who was imprisoned at Poston.
JLS