How does the winter take its toll on the people in the camps?

As winter turns colder, the War Relocation Authority distributes World War I surplus to the internees. The internees are ill prepared for the freezing temperatures, and the weather is bitter. The boy's mother receives two men's sized winter coats, which she attempts to alter for her children. On numerous occasions, the temperature drops more than twenty degrees below zero, and one of the camp residents freezes to death as a result.