Almost all of those who left personal memoirs of relocation centers remembered the omnipresent, choking dust of those desert locales. Yet both memory and history served to obscure reality, which was one of remarkable productivity. The centers usually were in drylands because that is where there was unpopulated space. However, these drylands were eminently irrigable, and in some cases perfect for agriculture. And even where the soil was supposedly not so suitable, the Nikkei made it so. Water was available everywhere. Far from being unsettled, every single one of the centers resided near smaller existing towns and communities. When not working outside the centers on seasonal leave, Nikkei provided their own labor force. The Amache/Granada settlement was one of the smallest centers, but it was large enough to produce prodigious amounts. There has obviously been conflict in American history and at the relocation centers. However, this conflict paradigm misses the larger narrative of relocation, and that is one of cooperation and voluntarism. The other side of the coin was the impact of the centers on neighboring communities, which was economically stimulating to the small town and farming communities. Despite the collective productivity of the centers, they represented a huge economic loss for individual Japanese Americans.