The work of Cristoforo and other activists ultimately led the United States government to make reparations and issue an official apology to the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II.
It was a common practice for Japanese immigrants to send their children to Japan to study and spend time with relatives, and at age eight de Cristoforo was sent to Hiroshima for her primary education.
By the time the Matsudas were "evacuated" from their Fresno home in April 1942, the couple had two small children and de Cristoforo was pregnant with a third — and recovering from surgery to remove a tumor.
[4] The family was taken to the Fresno Assembly Center, one of fifteen temporary detention sites where Japanese Americans were held while construction on the more permanent and isolated War Relocation Authority camps was completed.
[1][4] Soon after, the family was transported to the concentration camp at Jerome, Arkansas, where they remained until the infamous "loyalty questionnaire" resulted in Matsuda's separation from de Cristoforo and their children.
Initiated in order to relieve overpopulation in the camps and get an early start on post-war resettlement, the leave registration process eventually devolved into a tool to assess inmate loyalty and segregate dissidents and other "troublemakers."
[5] Matsuda, already in custody after joining a committee to investigate food shortages in Jerome, was transferred to the Justice Department internment camp at Santa Fe, New Mexico, while de Cristoforo and their three children were sent to the Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California.
[4] She played an active role in the redress movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and testified in one of the hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, whose recommendations ultimately led to the passage of the landmark Civil Liberties Act of 1988.