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I knew Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WW2. But why has there been virtually no mention of the Germans and Italians sent to internment camps?
I knew Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WW2. But why has there been virtually no mention of the Germans and Italians sent to internment camps?
You've never heard that Germans and Italians were interred? Really? I can't remember ever not knowing. I would not say at there was been 'virtually no mention' of either. Now, is it true that the internment of Japanese has gotten far more attention? Absolutely. And for good reason.
Numbers:
From over 1.2 million German immigrants in 1942 (and millions more of German descent), ~11,000 were interned. Out of nearly 700,000 Italian immigrants in 1942 (and millions more of Italian descent), fewer than 2000 were detained and less than 500 were interned. They did face other restrictions (where they could live, travel, work, etc.).
By comparison, essentially all Japanese living on the West Coast (where the vast majority of Japanese-Americans in CONUS lived) were interned.
Targeting:
Germans and Italians detained were targeted for their actions: being members of the Nazi Party of other fascist organizations, or other associations with pro-fascist groups or past undertaking of political activities deemed potentially adversarial to the United States.
But the Japanese were interned for being Japanese. There is a fundamental difference between being suspect based on what you have individually done and being suspect merely on your immutable characteristic of ethnicity.
So, it's a matter of sheer numbers/scale, as well as the totality of the respective community that was subject to internment.
The Germans within the U.S. were closely watched and there was infiltration into their social groups, as were Italians, although I suspect to a lesser extent. Those with any connection to communism were also on watch lists. Bluntly, watching was cheaper and less disruptive than large scale interment when there were enough bilingual people for that to be effective.
I get really tired of the retrospective angst over the realities of what was required to win a war on multiple fronts. Understanding that it happened, understanding the consequences, all in the greater context of the forces of the time, yeah, that is important when studying history. The "Oh, poor me." from second and third generations fall on my deaf ears.
There were what, TWO people in the Federal government that could speak and read Japanese at the beginning of WWII and the family ties within the community were known to be extremely tight and subject to coercion from the Japanese government? Just how would YOU insure that coastal communities were safe from spies in such situations? Train translators of the language within a month? Good luck with that.
I had not heard about that either. I knew many Germans changed their names to sound more American.
Quote:
Because Germany was one of America’s adversaries in the war, many Anglo-Americans began to fear that German Americans were still loyal to the Kaiser, or German emperor. Suddenly, German Americans became “hyphenated Americans” who suspiciously practiced their own traditions instead of “assimilating” into Anglo-American culture. As President Woodrow Wilsononce admonished: “Any man who carries a hyphen about with him, carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic when he gets ready.”
German Americans began intentionally “assimilating” to avoid becoming targets. They changed their names to English-sounding ones, renamed German streets, and began to speak German only in private. In public, they spoke English
Japanese could not hide the fact that they were Japanese.
I had not heard about that either. I knew many Germans changed their names to sound more American. Japanese could not hide the fact that they were Japanese.
I always wondered how many could pass for other Asian nationalities. I am sure many people had to outwardly proclaim that they looked Asian but they were not Japanese American
I had not heard about that either. I knew many Germans changed their names to sound more American. Japanese could not hide the fact that they were Japanese.
I’ve heard some justify the Japanese internment as a way to also protect them from backlash for the Pearl Harbor attack. While I don’t accept the excuse, it was a very real possibility. The Germans and Italians who acclimated to the culture and language to the point that their accent was virtually gone could better blend into the culture in a nation with a majority of people of European ancestry. I knew about the Japanese internment but I had not heard about Italian and German interment. Justifying such mass internment as war doesn’t make it right. Imagine if after 9/11 attacks if USA set up Islamic internment camps. To watch and monitor those who expressed support towards those who attacked the nation is one thing, uprooting whole families is something else.
Targeting:
Germans and Italians detained were targeted for their actions: being members of the Nazi Party of other fascist organizations, or other associations with pro-fascist groups or past undertaking of political activities deemed potentially adversarial to the United States.
Not true!
Quote:
Prejudice and discrimination against working-class Italians were pervasive and the ethnic stereotypes of Italians as inherent criminals were widespread, but many Italians naturalized and their children became part of a broad, multi-ethnic New Deal coalition that supported President Roosevelt and his economic, social, and political programs during the 1930s. By the 1940s, Italian Americans—such as Fiorello LaGuardia—had secured political positions of power, but the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy gave pause to the Department of Justice, the FBI, and President Roosevelt.
As tensions increased in the Pacific and Europe, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover directed agents to begin gathering data on immigrants from communist and fascist nations. At the time, Hoover focused on Japanese, Italians, and Germans. By 1939, his bureau had amassed an impressive database of foreign-born nationals who required extra surveillance for their activities (which ranged from political and union activism to subscribing to ethnic language newspapers) and, in the event of war, internment.
Essentially, any individual from any enemy nation who had not initiated paperwork for naturalization was considered an enemy alien.
Italians could only freely travel to and from work, places of worship, and medical care facilities.
Otherwise, they were required to fill out documents that listed their destination, mode of transportation, and return dates. This paperwork was filed with local US Attorney offices and forwarded to the FBI for their records. Attorney General Biddle also issued curfews for those enemy aliens living in certain communities along the West Coast, including major cities in California with large Italian American populations like San Francisco. Confiscation of property rounded out a series of violations that Italian immigrants faced in the early days of the war.
He required nearly 10,000 Italian immigrants to move out of restricted areas of California along the coast (predominantly San Diego and San Francisco) to areas further inland. Sometimes, these distances were absurdly short—relocating a few streets over to move outside of restricted areas. In other cases, some went to the nearest large city closest to their homes outside of the restricted zones, like Reno, Nevada. Regardless of the location, finding housing was often difficult, particularly when employment was interrupted. The Alien Property Division of the Department of Justice confiscated thousands of boats used by Italian fishermen along the coast, jeopardizing economic security and creating financial difficulties for their families. And, though not as harsh as removal or job loss, nearly 600,000 Italian Americans along the West Coast lived under curfews that restricted many activities for most of 1942.
The members of the ethnic Italian community in the United States presented an unusual problem. Defined in terms of national origin, it was the largest ethnic 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 had become 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 20th century and raised entire families of native-born Italian Americans but who had not become naturalized. Under the law they were all classified as enemy aliens.
Tricky claims. Barre Vermont had a very large community of Italian granite workers that made gravestones for Rock of Ages and other granite companies. They were not, AFAIK, considered any threat to the war effort whatsoever. However, they were locally viewed with distrust as papists. (I am talking from first hand personal experience here.) The Irish Americans were still distrusted as being Fenians. The odd Fenian raids into Canada, and the disruptive presence in New Hampshire were still remembered.
The whole idea that history can be judged by current values is stunningly stupid and narcissistic.
I had not heard about that either. I knew many Germans changed their names to sound more American. Japanese could not hide the fact that they were Japanese.
Could the Japanese have not changed their names to chinese sounding ones?
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