2011-05-18

Internment of Italians in the United States

Italian American internment

Italian American internment refers to the internment of Italian Americans in the United States during World War II.

Terms

The term "Italian American" does not have a legal definition. It is generally understood to mean ethnic Italians of American nationality, whether Italian-born immigrants to the United States (naturalized or unnaturalized) or American-born people of Italian descent (natural-born U.S. citizens).

The term "enemy alien" has a legal definition. The relevant federal statutes in Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the United States Code, for example par. 21, which applies only to persons 14 years of age or older who are within the United States and not naturalized. Under this provision, which was first defined and enacted in 1798 (in the Alien Enemies Act, one of the four Alien and Sedition Acts) and amended in 1918 (in the Sedition Act of 1918) to apply to females as well as to males, all "...natives, citizens, denizens or subjects..." of any foreign nation or government with which the United States is at war "...are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as alien enemies...."

At the outbreak of World War II, for example, an Italian businessman temporarily living in the United States, Italian diplomats, and Italian international students studying in the United States all became "enemy aliens" the moment Italy declared war on the United States. In some cases, such temporary residents were expelled (such as diplomats) or given a chance to leave the country when war was declared. Some were interned, as were the Italian merchant seamen caught in U.S. ports when their ships were impounded when war broke out in Europe in 1939.

The members of the Italian community in the United States presented an unusual problem. Defined in terms of national origin, it was the largest community in the United States, having been supplied by a steady flow of immigrants from Italy between the 1880s and 1930. By 1940, there were in the United States millions of native-born Italians who were American citizens. There were also a great many Italian "enemy aliens", more than 600,000, according to most sources, who had immigrated during the previous decades and had not become naturalized citizens of the United States.

The laws regarding "enemy aliens" did not make ideological distinctions—treating as legally the same pro-Fascist Italian businessmen living for a short time in the U.S. and trapped there when war broke out, anti-Fascist refugees from Italy who arrived a few years earlier intending to become U.S. citizens but who had not completed the process of naturalization, and those who had emigrated from Italy at the turn of the century and raised entire families of native-born Italian Americans but who were not naturalized themselves. They were all considered enemy aliens.

Before United States entry into World War II

In September 1939, Britain and France declared war against Nazi Germany after the Germans invaded Poland. In a show of support for Britain and France, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, to compile a Custodial Detention Index of those to be arrested in case of national emergency. The Axis powers allied with Germany included Fascist Italy and the Japanese Empire. More than a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Department of Justice began to list possible saboteurs and enemy agents among the German, Japanese, and Italian populations.

In 1940, resident aliens were required to register under the Smith Act.

War relocation centers

A distinction must be made between:

Generally speaking, that was not the case with members of the Italian community. Although there were anomalous cases of U.S. native-born Italian Americans being caught in the round-up, the others had been born in Italy and were still Italian citizens, even if many of them had resided in the U.S. for decades.

Di Stasi cites a number of such cases of mistreatment and internment of "Italian Americans", although he apparently defines "Italian American" as anyone within the Italian community, native-born U.S. citizens or Italian-born non-U.S. citizens.

1941 to 1943

Chronology of events regarding the treatment of enemy aliens and the reaction in the Italian community.

Attorney General's Report on Wartime Restrictions

On November 7, 2000, the U.S. Congress passed the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act.(Pub.L. 106-451, 114 Stat. 1947) This law, in part, directed the U.S. Attorney General to conduct a comprehensive review of the treatment by the U.S. Government of Italian Americans during World War II and to report on its findings within a year. The Attorney General submitted this report, A Review of the Restrictions on Persons of Italian Ancestry During World War II, to the U.S. Congress on November 7, 2001 and the House Judiciary Committee released the report to the public on November 27, 2001. The report, covering the period September 1, 1939, to December 31, 1945, describes the authority under which the United States undertook enforcement of wartime restrictions on Italian Americans and detailed these restrictions. In addition, the report provides 11 lists, most of which include the names of those most directly affected by the wartime restrictions. The lists include:

  1. the names of 74 persons of Italian ancestry taken into custody in the initial roundup following the attack on Pearl Harbor and prior to the United States declaration of war against Italy,
  2. the names of 1,881 other persons of Italian ancestry who were taken into custody,
  3. the names and locations of 418 persons of Italian ancestry who were interned,
  4. the names of 47 persons of Italian ancestry ordered to move from designated areas under the Individual Exclusion Program or, and an additional 12 who appeared before the Individual Exclusion Board, though it unknown if an exclusion order was issued,
  5. the names of 56 persons of Italian ancestry not subject to individual exclusion orders who were ordered to temporarily move from designated areas,
  6. the names of 442 persons of Italian ancestry arrested for curfew, contraband, or other violations,
  7. a list of 33 ports from which fishermen of Italian ancestry were restricted,
  8. names of 315 fishermen of Italian ancestry who were prevented from fishing in prohibited zones,
  9. the names of 2 persons of Italian ancestry whose boats were confiscated,
  10. a list of 12 railroad workers of Italian ancestry prevented from working in prohibited zones, of whom only 4 are named, and
  11. a list of 6 wartime restrictions on persons of Italian ancestry resulting specifically from Executive Order 9066.

See also

Notes

References

  • Brandon, Michael (April 1950). "Legal Control Over Resident Enemy Aliens in Time of War in the United States and in the United Kingdom". The American Journal of International Law 44 (2): 382–387. ISSN 00029300.
  • Di Stasi, Lawrence (2004). Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II. Berkeley: Heyday Books. ISBN 1890771406.
  • Hacker, Doug (June 2001). "Aliens in Montana". American History Illustrated (Cowles History Group): 32–36.
  • Harris, Charles W. (October 1965). "The Alien Enemy Hearing Board as a Judicial Device as a Judicial Device in the United States during World War II". The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 14 (4): 1360–1370. doi:10.1093/iclqaj/14.4.1360. ISSN 00205893.
  • U.S. Department of Justice (November, 2001), Report to the Congress of the United States: A Review of the Restrictions on Persons of Italian Ancestry During World War II, Washington, D.C.

External links






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