In the decades after they were released, they continued to play down the enormity of their experience. When I prodded them for details, I heard stories that lacked even hints of anger or bitterness. Instead there was a fierce resolve to forgive the country that had imprisoned them.

Even so, I was shocked, though not entirely surprised, to learn that some of my relatives who endured the internment also voted for Donald J. Trump.

“I’m thinking more highly of him lately,” my great-aunt Lillian told me weeks after marking Mr. Trump’s name on her ballot.

A rapid assimilation into American culture defined how my family responded to their years in confinement. While they were Americans on paper even before the war, afterward, they were willing to make any sacrifice to prove it. For my relatives who were interned, that assimilation, and love for this country, found a new expression in supporting Mr. Trump.