| Freshman Bully Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Konneticut
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|  My Research Paper :Discrimination: :
03-05-2008
Enjoy, written over a weekend.
It is very well known that over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were placed in interment camps during World War II (Miksch). The Japanese were not alone in their struggles here. In the United States between the years 1941 and 1943 almost 600,000 Italian-Americans and Italian immigrants were discriminated against, detained, interned, and excluded from society against their will. The reason for this was the threat of spying and sabotage, which might have hindered the United States in their attempt to win the Second World War (Segreta). Most if not all of the Italians were completely innocent; they had come to America to seek the American dream and to start a new life in a free country. In reality the United States had very little justification to do these things. Yet it disrupted and in some cases devastated the lives of these hard-working people, for the supposed betterment of the country.
Before the United States became involved in World War Two, President Roosevelt thought that Italian leader Benito Mussolini, though a fascist dictator, was a very intelligent and wonderful leader. At the time, Italy had numerous social programs and fantastic social security. The knowledge that Italy and its leader was held with such high regard by the President of the United States gave hope to immigrant Italians living in America that they too would be respected in their new country. But when Mussolini became allies with German leader Adolf Hitler and invaded Ethiopia in 1935, Roosevelt called him “that jackal” for having stuck a “dagger “ into the “back of his neighbor” (FDR qtd. In Segreta). After hearing the President say this, Italians in the United States became very insecure about their future in America (Segreta).
On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked the United States Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, it only took a few days for President Roosevelt to declare war on both Italy and Germany. The fear that had been haunting the Italians since 1935 became a reality. A few days after the attack, Italian-Americans and Italian immigrants along with Germans, and Japanese, were ordered away from the coastline and told to move inland. This was most common in California. (Segreta). President Roosevelt did not want these mass evacuations. He had told the Secretary of War Stimson to consult him on alternatives to this problem. Stimson proposed that commanders would hold the right to evacuate individuals based on military necessity. At the time General John L. Dewitt was the commanding officer on the west coast. Roosevelt agreed to this in hope that it would not do the same damage as a mass evacuation (DiStasi Appendix A 317).
Most of the Italian immigrants (now called enemy aliens) who were told to leave their homes and move were community leaders, teachers, and fishermen or suspected fascist supporters. These selected few were ordered to leave their homes and go ten to fifty miles to the designated safe zones. Since most people had no car, they were forced to walk. (Segreta)
Soon after this, General Dewitt imposed many restrictions on the Italians who were still living on the west coast. Some of these restrictions included the following: no travel beyond a five-mile radius from home, no firearms, short wave radios, cameras, signaling devices (which also included flashlights.) and a curfew set at 8pm to 6am (Segreta).
The travel restriction was the most problematic for the Italians. Velio Bronzini was a young boy from Oakland, California. His father owned a fruit stand outside of town. However his fruit stand was fifteen feet into an zone that was off limits. As such, the market had to be shut down and the family lost all of its income. Bronzini’s family pleaded with the court to let them have the market back, but the court would not permit it. After the court hearing Velio Bronzini’s mother said,“ Why is this happening to us? …We have done nothing to no one, we have done no wrong... this is not justice.” Soon after Velio’s mother fell into a severe depression and was put into a mental hospital. After a brief stay, she came back home and both she and her husband enrolled in a local junior high school so they would have enough education to become citizens. When the restrictions were lifted the Bronzini couple took a citizen test, which they both passed. After much celebrating Mrs. Bronzini said, “Ora Siamo Americani” which translated to “Now we are Americans” (Mrs. Bronzini qtd. in Bronzini 32-35)
Other stories did not end so well. A man named Comelli lived across the street from his farm. The road was the dividing line between the safe zone and the off limits zone. Comelli was not allowed to cross the road to work on his own farm. He eventually lost his farm and dream of being a landowner and farmer was crushed and had to find work elsewhere (Comelli 115).
In mid-1942 the threat of invasion had decreased and most of the restrictions had been lifted, and many people were able to return to their homes. At the same time the United States government announced that Italian immigrants were no longer enemy aliens, but they were still “dangerous” (Government Statement qtd. Segreta). They were now required to register at their local post offices and carry identification cards at all times. General Dewitt thought that some individuals were still a threat. And wanted to move selected Italians or pro-fascists into internment camps for security purposes. He eliminated Italian social clubs, radio shows, and newspapers that were suspected of supporting Mussolini. FBI agents raided the homes of many Italians, searched their homes and took them away to National Immigration Service detention facilities. The FBI agents gave no explanations to the families of the suspects of why they were taking them and for how long they would be gone (Segreta).
The military and the FBI started holding trials against individuals and groups who were suspected of being pro-fascist. One of the first trials on record was that of the staff of a newspaper named L’Italia. They were arrested for suspicion of using the newspaper to endorse fascism. After a four-day trial they were convicted. They were released and ordered to discontinue the paper. After the L’Italia trial the FBI started holding more trials against suspected fascists and communists. The defendants were never given legal counsel to assist them, and the punishment for most convictions was a sentence to an internment camp (Segreta).
The internment of non-resident alien Italians, and some Italian-born American citizens was allowed under Title 50 of the U.S. Code, which was based on the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. This law allowed the United States government to detain aliens during emergency situations. The United States government believed these Italians were a threat to the nation’s security, so they placed them in detention camps. There were twenty-six such camps in the United States in 1942. Texas had the most camps with six, followed by California with four. The Immigration and Naturalization Service operated most of the camps. The largest camps were Fort George Meade in Maryland, Camp McAlester in Oklahoma, Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and Camp Forrest in Tennessee (DiStasi 319-320).
Life at many camps was quite comfortable for the Italians. At Fort Missoula in Montana, most detainees were living in better conditions then they had before. They were fed three times a day, slept in well-built houses, and were allowed to shower at any time. They were also allowed to have clubs, bands with instruments supplied by the camp, religious services, and sports teams. (Benedetti 17-25). At other camps near the coast inmates helped the war effort by loading supplies onto U.S. ships headed for Europe and the Pacific (Macquarrie).
Despite the fact that Italians were looked upon with suspicion, they actually played some supporting roles in the Allied war effort. At some camps near the coast inmates helped the war effort by loading supplies onto U.S. ships headed for Europe and the Pacific (Macquarrie). Many of the investigated and uprooted Italians had sons serving in the United States military. Out of all of the men in the five branches of the United States military it is estimated that almost one million were Italian. It is certainly true that some of the soldiers had parents who were in camps and forced to leave their homes.
When some of these soldiers returned, they found their homes empty. One of these soldiers was Leo Girogetti. He came home to San Diego expecting a warm welcome, however there was no sign of his mother. Girogetti soon found out that she had been sent to an internment camp. He traveled to San Francisco to persuade General Dewitt to let his mother go. He was not able to speak to Dewitt directly, but he did tell a colonel in his office, “You’ve got me in the service. The day my mother betrays this country you can take me out and shoot me. I’m here to beg. I want my mother home, and she belongs there.” Three weeks later Girogetti’s mother was at home with her son (Leo Girogetti qtd. In DiStasi “War within War: Italian-Americans and the Military in World War Two”).
Although their families were being mistreated, some Italian soldiers became heroes in the war. John Basilone, in 1942, was one of the first enlisted men to receive the Medal of Honor in World War Two. He is also the only soldier in United States history to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. He returned to the United States as a hero. He volunteered to return to duty in 1944 because he felt he needed to continue to serve his country--the very country that was holding some of his fellow Italians behind barbed wires fences. He was killed in the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. (DiStasi “War within War”).
The contributions and the sacrifices made by Italians during this period in American history has gone largely unnoticed, especially when the Japanese internments have received much more attention and even financial reparations. Researchers such as Lawrence DiStasi have only more recently started to document and analyze the discrimination and hardships endured by this Italian population. No one is likely to disagree today that this treatment of Italians in the United States during World War Two was shameful.
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