In December 1941, when the United States entered the Second World War, Italian immigrants who had not naturalised were classified as “enemy aliens”. They numbered more than 600,000, many of them in the country for decades and with sons wearing the American uniform.
They had to register at post offices, be fingerprinted and photographed, and carry an identification card at all times. They had to hand in cameras and short-wave radios and were barred from ports, shipyards, power plants and defence factories. Dozens of new restricted zones were added on the West Coast, and many families had to move.
By June 1942 the FBI had arrested 1,521 Italians. About 250 spent up to two years in military camps in Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas; most were released after Italy surrendered in September 1943. In October 1942, with President Roosevelt’s approval, the “enemy” label was lifted from Italians.
For decades it was a little-told story. In 2000 Congress passed a law acknowledging the violations of Italian Americans’ civil liberties during the war, and in 2010 the California Legislature formally apologised.
Sources: Internment of Italian Americans — Military History Wiki
