World War II Woman

Now Italian-Americans

I wrote about the internment of Japanese-Americans, and then I heard about the internment of German-Americans and wrote about that. And now, thanks to one of my readers, I have information on Italian-Americans who were interned.

Jackie wrote, “It wasn’t only the Japanese and Germans who were evacuated from their homes. There were 10,000 Italian-Americans who were also interned at this time.

“My mother-in-law was one of 600,000 Italian-Americans who was forced to register as an ‘enemy alien,’ and had to go and ‘check-in’ at the local post office periodically.

“This was even though her only son was overseas serving in the United Stated Army.”

Jackie sent me to the website of author Lisa Scottoline, whose grandparents were forced to file as “enemy aliens,” even though their son was serving in the United States Air Force. One of her recent legal thrillers, Dead Ringer includes refences to the treatment of Italian-Americans during the war.

They were interned at a number of military installations including Fort Meade in Maryland, Fort Sam Houston in Texas and Camp McAlester in Oklahoma. Many on the West Coast were confined to “exclusionary zones” and were subject to dusk-to-dawn curfews. For example, the father of baseball great, Joe DiMaggio was not permitted to visit his son’s restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf, because it lay outside the exclusionary zone.

On the East Coast, many Italian-Americans had to register and were not allowed to travel without having their registration cards readily available. Additionally, many had their homes searched and were relieved of flashlights and radios, should they be inclined to signal enemies off the coast. Fishermen were not allowed to fish for fear that they, too, might help the enemy. It was a time of great suspicion.

For more on World War II, please go to www.peggeorge.com.

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