Poston was the largest of the camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II. More than 17,000 people were confined in the Arizona desert after the federal government forcibly removed families of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. The camp was built on land belonging to the Colorado River Indian Tribes despite opposition from tribal leaders. Most of Poston disappeared after the war, leaving scattered structures and foundations across the desert landscape.

What struck me most when I visited Poston was its remoteness—the landscape itself felt like part of the prison. I later learned that the parent of a Japanese American high-school classmate had been incarcerated during the war. My own German grandparents had feared being treated as enemies because of their accents, but they were never imprisoned. That difference matters.