Little more than 70 years ago, Italians were the poverty-stricken immigrants from an “undesirable” country
During World War II, Italians and Italian Americans in the U.S. were deemed a threat to national security. Six hundred thousand were forced to register with the government and carry “enemy alien cards” at all times. Houses were raided, and in some cases, seized. Those targeted were subject to curfews and forbidden to travel farther than five miles from their homes.
By June 1942, the FBI had arrested 1,521 Italian “aliens.” About 250 were interned, usually far from home and family, for up to two years in War Relocation Authority military camps in Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.
Many of the so-called enemy aliens were elderly, spoke no English, and hadn’t bothered to apply for citizenship. Among them was a San Francisco Bay fisherman named Giuseppe DiMaggio, who happened to be the father of baseball hero Joe DiMaggio. Giuseppe’s boat was seized by the government, and travel restrictions barred him from going to Fisherman’s Wharf, where he had worked for decades. Many fisherman in the community suffered the same fate, even though some had sons fighting in the U.S. armed forces.
Historians now agree that Italians weren’t a threat. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice formally acknowledged the mistreatment of Italian Americans during WWII. As one DOJ official said: “We’re trying to educate people so it won’t happen again.”
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