German and Italian Internment

The Japanese relocation during World War II has become widely publicized in the media and securely embedded in secondary school curriculums across the country. Its notoriety has greatly overshadowed the relocation and selective internment of Italians and Germans, to the point that many people who write and teach about the subject of internment remain unaware of the fate of thousands of other enemy aliens during and after World War II. It is a common misconception that Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, applied only to Japanese (and Japanese Americans) living in the western states. Presently, even quality newspapers such as the San Francisco Examiner have unequivocally stated that no Germans or Italians were held in concentration camps.

The roots of the internment lay in 1939 and 1940, when the United States government compiled lists of dangerous enemy aliens and citizens in departments such as the FBI, intelligence divisions of the Justice Department, and various military intelligence agencies. The 1940 national census included information that was later used to locate persons based on their ethnicity. Also in 1940, the Alien Registration Act was passed, which required all aliens 14 years of age and older to register with the federal government. In all, 4.9 million aliens were registered, including 695,000 Italians, 315,000 [Page 276]Germans, and only 91,000 Japanese; one of every 26 people in the country in 1940 was foreign born.

On the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, based on the intelligence gathered in 1939 and 1940, Roosevelt authorized Attorney General Biddle to issue a blanket warrant to have large numbers of predesignated “dangerous enemy aliens” arrested. Raids by the FBI netted 737 Japanese Americans and hundreds of German and Italian aliens by the end of the day. War was not declared on Germany until four days later, on December 11, 1941. The next day, Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526, and 2527, branding German, Italian, and Japanese nationals as enemy aliens. In accordance with the enemy alien act of 1798, these nearly identical proclamations authorized internment as well as travel and property ownership restrictions.

In the weeks following America's entrance into World War II, many additional restrictions were placed upon enemy aliens. On December 27, 1941, the California Division of Fish and Game announced that no hunting or fishing licenses would be sold to enemy aliens. This restriction took away the livelihood of many of the Italians on the West Coast, who were commercial fishermen. To further compound this, enemy aliens were prohibited from entering coastal waters. A day later, it was announced that cameras and shortwave radios were contraband items and that all enemy aliens must immediately turn these items in to the authorities, usually the local police departments or sheriffs.

Pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 2525, 2526, 2527, and 2537, issued January 14, 1942, Attorney General Biddle ordered additional regulations requiring application for certificates of identification of all enemy aliens aged 14 and older and outlining restrictions on their movement and property rights. Approximately one million enemy aliens had to reregister, including hundreds of thousands of German and Italian aliens. Registrants submitted their applications to both the Department of Justice's Alien Registration Division and the FBI. Furthermore, it was necessary for enemy aliens to report any changes of address, employment, or name to the FBI. The Department of Justice worked with the military to create numerous, prohibited zones strictly off-limits to any enemy aliens. At this time, they also established large restricted areas in which enemy aliens were subject to stringent curfew and travel restrictions, particularly on the West Coast. Later, on February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the secretary of war to define military areas in which “the right of any person to enter, remain in or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions” were deemed necessary or desirable by the appropriate authorities. This order applied to all axis aliens, and if they violated these or other applicable regulations, they became subject to internment for the remainder of the war. Two days after the signing of Executive Order 9066, 119 Japanese, 54 Italians, and 9 Germans were arrested in California. Over the first several weeks of the war, 1,540 Japanese Americans, 1,260 German Americans, and 231 Italian Americans were detained by the FBI.

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