A Little Bit of History
"Una Storia Segreta" (a book) tells of the Italian internment's here in the U.S. and how well intentioned parents were misguided or naive to wanting to Americanize their children, rejoicing that they were in the land of the free, rather than any of the bad countries ruled by by the villians. Yet, the Italian-Americans waiting to be "naturalized" could not escape the shadow of Mussolini.
After Pearl Harbor, older immigrants without citizenship, and who did not, or barely spoke English, 600,000 of them Nationwide, were branded enemy aliens. They got it when all 600,000 had to carry pink booklets identifying them as such, when they had to turn in "contraband," such as radios with shortwave band. They got it untold numbers of homes were searched to make sure that they were not harboring those radios or other contraband in secret, a crime for which they could be arrested. Then there were curfews dusk-to dawn- Italians got the message, and felt shamed for doing nothing wrong but being targeted as an enemy. (During the war no Italian was ever charged with, much less convicted of, espionage or sabotage, or any other hostile actions. Many of those initially arrested were thought to be community leaders-Italian Newspaper writers and editors, radio broadcasters, or heads of organizations with some links however tenuous to the Italian Government. In "Una Storia Segreta, you follow many immigrants as they go to internment camps. In one of the stories a man had to see his friend die in an internment camp. The first internment camp he was in was at Sharp Park (now part of Pacifica_In California), then he was transferred to Fort McDowell on Angel Island, then to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, then to Camp Forest, Tenn.
This is just a speck, there were many, many more internment camps within the U.S.
Let us not forget "The Dangerous Cargo Act" passed in 1940 with gave the Coast Guard jurisdiction over ships with high explosives and dangerous cargoes. The following years as the national paranoia increased the government began to act under the provisions of this act which allowed for the arrest of aliens for acts of sedition and conspiracy. Often evidence for such activity was not more than that individuals were Under the authority of these acts the US Navy and Coast Guard moved against Italian ships: March 30, 1941 28 Italian ships were confiscated by the Coast Guard accusing the crews of sabotage and arresting them. In December,1941 at the Panama Canal the Italian Luxury Liner Conte Biancamano was commandeered, converted to a troop ship and commissioned in the United States Navy as the USS Hermitage. 483 Italian crewmen are taken into custody. With terribly crowded conditions they are brought to Ellis Island where they are essentially incarcerated with virtually no amenities and stripped of any rights. After enduring these harsh conditions they are transferred by trains with bared small windows to Missoula Montana. In May, after three days in the cramped dark train cars not unlike the mode of transportation provided in Germany for the transportation of the Jews to the death camps, they arrived in at Fort Missoula, Montana. Although not charged with any crime they were indefinitely detained.
