Click on any item in the table to review the document.
Use the "back" button or arrow on your browser to return to the table
below. Be patient this is a lengthy document.
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Legislation, Testimony, Remarks on the Internment issue |
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Hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution This is a lengthy document, but it is the entire hearing and testimony on H.R. 2442 to include a discussion on German Americans. This is a most interesting and informative document. |
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H.R. 2442 Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act Signed by the President 11/7/2000; Latest Major Action: 11/7/2000 Became Public Law No: 106-451. |
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S.1909 Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act Companion bill to H.R. 2442 see next entry. |
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Wexler
Calls For Commission to Study Injustices Suffered by Italian and German
Americans During WWII |
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Legislative History <--- Click here.
For those not familiar with "Thomas" Legislative information on the internet. Here is a quick primer. Simply enter either bill number, i.e., H.R. 2442 or S. 1909. Then click on the search button. After that you are on your own. It is not possible to provide a direct link to the history of this legislation, because in "Thomas" query's, so to speak, time out.
Do not hesitate to email the author of this page at Arthur D. Jacobs for assistance.
It is most important to note that in the hearings, prior to a vote pass H.R.
2442 out of the House Judiciary Committee, the German American situation was
discussed. Despite this discussion the bill was passed by the
House. An autographed copy of the book The Prison Called
Hohenasperg... was delivered to Chairman Hyde's office. [ADJ]
S. 1909 Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil
Liberties Act (Introduced in the Senate)
S 1909 IS
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1909
To provide for the preparation of a Government report detailing injustices
suffered by Italian Americans during World
War II, and a formal acknowledgment of such injustices by the President.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 10, 1999
Mr. TORRICELLI introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
A BILL
To provide for the preparation of a Government report detailing injustices
suffered by Italian Americans during World
War II, and a formal acknowledgment of such injustices by the President.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The freedom of
more than 600,000 Italian-born immigrants in the United States and their
families
was restricted during
World War II by Government measures that branded them `enemy aliens' and
included carrying
identification cards, travel restrictions, and seizure of personal property.
(2) During World War
II more than 10,000 Italian Americans living on the West Coast were forced to
leave their homes and
prohibited from entering coastal zones. More than 50,000 were subjected to
curfews.
(3) During World War
II thousands of Italian American immigrants were arrested, and hundreds were
interned in military
camps.
(4) Hundreds of
thousands of Italian Americans performed exemplary service and thousands
sacrificed
their lives in defense
of the United States.
(5) At the time,
Italians were the largest foreign-born group in the United States, and today
are the fifth
largest immigrant group
in the United States, numbering approximately 15,000,000.
(6) The impact of the
wartime experience was devastating to Italian American communities in the
United
States, and its effects
are still being felt.
(7) A deliberate
policy kept these measures from the public during the war. Even 50 years later
much
information is still
classified, the full story remains unknown to the public, and it has never been
acknowledged in any
official capacity by the United States Government.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice
shall conduct a comprehensive review of the treatment by
the United States Government of Italian Americans
during World War II, and not later than 1 year after the
date of enactment of this Act shall submit to the
Congress a report that documents the findings of such review.
The report shall cover the period between September 1,
1939, and December 31, 1945, and shall include the
following:
(1) The names of all
Italian Americans who were taken into custody in the initial roundup following
the
attack on Pearl Harbor,
and prior to the United States declaration of war against Italy.
(2) The names of all Italian Americans who were taken into custody.
(3) The names of all Italian Americans who were interned and the location where they were interned.
(4) The names of all
Italian Americans who were ordered to move out of designated areas under the
United States Army's
`Individual Exclusion Program'.
(5) The names of all
Italian Americans who were arrested for curfew, contraband, or other violations
under the authority of
Executive Order 9066.
(6) Documentation of Federal Bureau of Investigation raids on the homes of Italian Americans.
(7) A list of ports from which Italian American fishermen were restricted.
(8) The names of
Italian American fishermen who were prevented from fishing in prohibited zones
and
therefore unable to
pursue their livelihoods.
(9) The names of Italian Americans whose boats were confiscated.
(10) The names of
Italian American railroad workers who were prevented from working in prohibited
zones.
(11) A list of all
civil liberties infringements suffered by Italian Americans during World War
II, as a
result of Executive
Order 9066, including internment, hearings without benefit of counsel, illegal
searches and seizures,
travel restrictions, enemy alien registration requirements, employment
restrictions,
confiscation of
property, and forced evacuation from homes.
(12) An explanation
of why some Italian Americans were subjected to civil liberties infringements,
as a
result of Executive
Order 9066, while other Italian Americans were not.
(13) A review of the
wartime restrictions on Italian Americans to determine how civil liberties can
be
better protected during
national emergencies.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) the story of the
treatment of Italian Americans during World War II needs to be told in order to
acknowledge that these
events happened, to remember those whose lives were unjustly disrupted and
whose freedoms were
violated, to help repair the damage to the Italian American community, and to
discourage the
occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the
future;
(2) Federal agencies,
including the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the
Humanities, should
support projects such as--
(A) conferences, seminars, and lectures to heighten awareness of this
unfortunate chapter in our
Nation's history;
(B) the refurbishment of and payment of all expenses associated with the
traveling exhibit `Una
Storia Segreta', exhibited at major cultural and educational institutions
throughout the United
States; and
(C) documentaries to allow this issue to be presented to the American public to
raise its
awareness;
(3) an independent,
volunteer advisory committee should be established comprised of representatives
of
Italian American
organizations, historians, and other interested individuals to assist in the
compilation,
research, and
dissemination of information concerning the treatment of Italian Americans; and
(4) after completion
of the report required by this Act, financial support should be provided for
the
education of the
American public through the production of a documentary film suited for public
broadcast.
SEC. 5. FORMAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
The United States Government formally acknowledges
that these events during World War II represented a
fundamental injustice against Italian Americans.
H.R. 2442 Wartime Violation of Italian American
Civil Liberties Act (Engrossed in House )
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2442
AN ACT
To provide for the preparation of a Government report detailing injustices
suffered by Italian Americans during World
War II, and a formal acknowledgment of such injustices by the President.
HR 2442 EH
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2442
AN ACT
To provide for the preparation of a Government report detailing injustices
suffered by Italian Americans during World
War II, and a formal acknowledgment of such injustices by the President.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The freedom of
more than 600,000 Italian-born immigrants in the United States and their
families
was restricted during
World War II by Government measures that branded them `enemy aliens' and
included carrying
identification cards, travel restrictions, and seizure of personal property.
(2) During World War
II more than 10,000 Italian Americans living on the West Coast were forced to
leave their homes and
prohibited from entering coastal zones. More than 50,000 were subjected to
curfews.
(3) During World War
II thousands of Italian American immigrants were arrested, and hundreds were
interned in military camps.
(4) Hundreds of
thousands of Italian Americans performed exemplary service and thousands
sacrificed
their lives in defense
of the United States.
(5) At the time,
Italians were the largest foreign-born group in the United States, and today
are the fifth
largest immigrant group
in the United States, numbering approximately 15 million.
(6) The impact of the
wartime experience was devastating to Italian American communities in the
United
States, and its effects
are still being felt.
(7) A deliberate
policy kept these measures from the public during the war. Even 50 years later
much
information is still
classified, the full story remains unknown to the public, and it has never been
acknowledged in any
official capacity by the United States Government.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice
shall conduct a comprehensive review of the treatment by
the United States Government of Italian Americans
during World War II, and not later than one year after the
date of the enactment of this Act shall submit to the
Congress a report that documents the findings of such
review. The report shall cover the period between September
1, 1939, and December 31, 1945, and shall
include the following:
(1) The names of all
Italian Americans who were taken into custody in the initial roundup following
the
attack on Pearl Harbor,
and prior to the United States declaration of war against Italy.
(2) The names of all Italian Americans who were taken into custody.
(3) The names of all Italian Americans who were interned and the location where they were interned.
(4) The names of all
Italian Americans who were ordered to move out of designated areas under the
United States Army's
`Individual Exclusion Program'.
(5) The names of all
Italian Americans who were arrested for curfew, contraband, or other violations
under the authority of
Executive Order No. 9066.
(6) Documentation of Federal Bureau of Investigation raids on the homes of Italian Americans.
(7) A list of ports from which Italian American fishermen were restricted.
(8) The names of
Italian American fishermen who were prevented from fishing in prohibited zones
and
therefore unable to
pursue their livelihoods.
(9) The names of Italian Americans whose boats were confiscated.
(10) The names of
Italian American railroad workers who were prevented from working in prohibited
zones.
(11) A list of all
civil liberties infringements suffered by Italian Americans during World War
II, as a
result of Executive
Order No. 9066, including internment, hearings without benefit of counsel,
illegal
searches and seizures,
travel restrictions, enemy alien registration requirements, employment
restrictions,
confiscation of
property, and forced evacuation from homes.
(12) An explanation
of why some Italian Americans were subjected to civil liberties infringements,
as a
result of Executive
Order No. 9066, while other Italian Americans were not.
(13) A review of the wartime
restrictions on Italian Americans to determine how civil liberties can be
better protected during
national emergencies.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) the story of the
treatment of Italian Americans during World War II needs to be told in order to
acknowledge that these
events happened, to remember those whose lives were unjustly disrupted and
whose freedoms were
violated, to help repair the damage to the Italian American community, and to
discourage the
occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the
future;
(2) Federal agencies,
including the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the
Humanities, should
support projects such as--
(A) conferences, seminars, and lectures to heighten awareness of this
unfortunate chapter in our
Nation's history;
(B) the refurbishment of and payment of all expenses associated with the
traveling exhibit `Una
Storia Segreta', exhibited at major cultural and educational institutions
throughout the United
States; and
(C) documentaries to allow this issue to be presented to the American public to
raise its
awareness;
(3) an independent,
volunteer advisory committee should be established comprised of representatives
of
Italian American
organizations, historians, and other interested individuals to assist in the
compilation,
research, and
dissemination of information concerning the treatment of Italian Americans; and
(4) after completion
of the report required by this Act, financial support should be provided for
the
education of the
American public through the production of a documentary film suited for public
broadcast.
SEC. 5. FORMAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
The President shall, on behalf of the United States
Government, formally acknowledge that these events during
World War II represented a fundamental injustice
against Italian Americans.
Passed the House of Representatives November 10, 1999.
Attest:
Clerk.
Proclamation 2526, Extension of Remarks by the
Honorable Matt Salmon (AZ) on November 19, 1999, as printed in the
Congressional Record pp. E2525-E2526.
PROCLAMATION NO. 2526 -- HON. MATT SALMON (Extension of Remarks - November 19, 1999)
[Page: E2525] GPO's PDF
---
HON. MATT SALMON
in the House of Representatives
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1999
Mr. SALMON. Mr. Speaker, the severe treatment of
Japanese Americans and aliens during World War II
has been extensively detailed. Not as chronicled is
the less pervasive, but still serious discrimination on the
basis of ethnicity suffered by Americans or aliens of
Italian and German descent. To this end, Congressman
Rick Lazio's Wartime Violation of Italian Americans
Civil Liberties Act, which passed the House last week,
would provide Americans with a sharper account of the
discrimination suffered by Italian Americans during
World War II. But, history would still lack a clear
picture of the German-American experience.
It's clear that certain Americans of German descent
experienced injustices similar to other ethnic groups during
World War II. For example, consider the case of Arthur
D. Jacobs, an American of German descent, who
now lives in my district. Mr. Jacobs published a book
earlier in the year, The Prison Called Hohenasperg that
details his account of internment in the United States
and Germany. Mr. Jacobs and his family spent time at
Ellis Island, Crystal City, TX, and finally a prison
camp in Germany. The event that put Mr. Jacobs ordeal in
motion was the leveling of unsubstantiated, anonymous
charges against his father.
The book has generated national interest. The
November 1st edition of the American Library Association's
Booklist offered the following review of the book:
[Page: E2526] GPO's PDF
There has been very little written about the terrible punishment that was
meted out to thousands of German
Americans during World War II. That's why Jacob's book is an important one.
This modest tome opens up a hidden
and disgraceful chapter in our history for all to see.
The internment of Mr. Jacobs and his family was not
an isolated case. Arnold Kramer, a Texas A&M
professor specializing in European history and author
of Undue Process: The Untold Story of America's
German Alien Internees, observed in his book that
about 15 percent of the 10,905 German aliens and
Americans interned were committed Nazis, while the
rest `were ordinary American citizens.'
In the 48 hours following the bombing of Pearl
Harbor President Franklin Roosevelt issued Proclamation
2525, 2526, and 2527, which authorized restrictive
rules for aliens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent,
respectively. These proclamations coupled with
Executive Order 9066, which authorized the War Department
to exclude certain persons from designated military
areas, resulted in hardships and the deprivation of certain
fundamental rights for the targeted populations. A
1980 Congressional Research Service Report, The
Internment of German and Italian Aliens Compared With
the Internment of Japanese Aliens in the United
States During World War II: A Brief History and
Analysis, revealed that the War Department would not
support the `collective evacuation of German and
Italian aliens from the West Coast or from anywhere else in
the United States' but would authorize individual
exclusion orders `against both aliens and citizens under the
authority of Executive Order 9066.' In other words,
German and Italian Americans and aliens could still be
denied basic civil liberties because of their
heritage.
Ideally, Congress would address both the Italian
American and German American experience during World
War II. On a per capita basis, it appears that
significantly more Americans or aliens of German descent were
interned than Italian Americans. According to personal
Justice Denied, a report of the Commission on
Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians issued
in 1982, the Justice Department had interned 1,393
Germans and 264 Italians by February 16, 1942.
Moreover, the Commission's report contains evidence that
German Americans were considered to be more of a
threat than Italian Americans. For instance, the Secretary
of War in 1942 instructed the military commander in
charge of implementing Executive Order 9066 to
consider plans for excluding German aliens, but to
ignore the Italians. And later in the year, the Attorney
General announced that Italians would no longer be
considered `aliens of enemy nationality.' No such
clarification was ever issued for German Americans.
Finally, President Franklin Roosevelt dismissed the threat
of those of Italian descent living in America,
referring to them as `a lot of opera singers.'
As we reach the end of the century, I urge my
colleagues to pursue a full historical accounting of the
experiences of all Americans who suffered
discrimination during the Second World War as expeditiously as
possible.
1999
WARTIME VIOLATION OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H.R. 2442
OCTOBER 26, 1999
Serial No. 1
Page 2 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., Wisconsin
BILL McCOLLUM, Florida
GEORGE W. GEKAS, Pennsylvania
HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina
LAMAR SMITH, Texas
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
CHARLES T. CANADY, Florida
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
BOB BARR, Georgia
WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
EDWARD A. PEASE, Indiana
CHRIS CANNON, Utah
JAMES E. ROGAN, California
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
MARY BONO, California
Page 3 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
SPENCER BACHUS, Alabama
JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
JOHN CONYERS, Jr., Michigan
BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
RICK BOUCHER, Virginia
JERROLD NADLER, New York
ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia
MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina
ZOE LOFGREN, California
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
MAXINE WATERS, California
MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York
THOMAS E. MOONEY, General Counsel-Chief of Staff
JULIAN EPSTEIN, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on the Constitution
Page 4 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
CHARLES T. CANADY, Florida, Chairman
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
SPENCER BACHUS, Alabama
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia
BOB BARR, Georgia
WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina
MAXINE WATERS, California
BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts
JOHN CONYERS, Jr., Michigan
JERROLD NADLER, New York
CATHLEEN CLEAVER, Chief Counsel
BRADLEY S. CLANTON, Counsel
JONATHAN A. VOGEL, Counsel
PAUL B. TAYLOR, Counsel
C O N T E N T S
PREAMBLE
Hyde, Hon. Henry J., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Illinois, and chairman, Committee on the
Judiciary
Page 5 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
HEARING DATE
October 26, 1999
TEXT OF BILL
H.R. 2442
OPENING STATEMENT
Canady, Charles T., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Florida, and chairman, Subcommittee on the
Constitution
WITNESSES
de Guttadauro, Colonel Angelo, Retired, San Antonio, TX
DiDomenico, Matthew, Sr., Executive Vice President, National Italian American Foundation, Washington, DC
DiMaggio, Dominic, Ocean Ridge, FL
Di Stasi, Lawrence, President, American Italian Historical Association, Western Regional Chapter, Bolinas, CA
Page 6 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Engel, Hon. Eliot, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York
La Piana, Anthony E., Representing the National Italian American Council, Lombard, IL
Lazio, Hon. Rick, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York
Piccigallo, Philip, National Executive Director, Order of the Sons of Italy in America, Washington, DC
Pinza, Doris L., Cape Elizabeth, ME
Scudero, Rose Viscuso, Antioch, CA
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
de Guttadauro, Colonel Angelo, Retired, San Antonio, TX: Prepared statement
DiDomenico, Matthew, Sr., Executive Vice President,
National Italian American Foundation, Washington, DC:
Prepared statement
DiMaggio, Dominic, Ocean Ridge, FL: Prepared statement
Page 7 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Di Stasi, Lawrence, President, American Italian
Historical Association, Western Regional Chapter, Bolinas, CA:
Prepared statement
Engel, Hon. Eliot, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York: Prepared statement
Foran, Costanza Ilacqua: Prepared statement
La Piana, Anthony E., Representing the National Italian American Council, Lombard, IL: Prepared statement
Lazio, Hon. Rick, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York: Prepared statement
Maggio, Thomas P.: Prepared statement
Piccigallo, Philip, National Executive Director, Order of
the Sons of Italy in America, Washington, DC: Prepared
statement
Pinza, Doris L., Cape Elizabeth, ME: Prepared statement
Scherini, Rose, Ph.D.: Prepared statement
Scudero, Rose Viscuso, Antioch, CA: Prepared statement
Page 8 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Spadaro, Vitina: Prepared statement
P R E A M B L E
We are pleased to reproduce the testimony of those who
have come to tell their sad but important story. This
secret history of wartime restrictions on Italian Americans living in the
United States has been largely absent from the
American history books. It is long past time that this unknown part of American
history and the plight of an immigrant
people living in the United States who endured oppression during World War II
be revealed.
In the interests of history and truth itself, the
shocking story of the official persecution (there is no other word) of
so many persons then residing in the United States whose only fault seems to
have been sharing an Italian ancestry,
must be told.
The contributions to our country by Italian Americans
would fill a library, whether the category is business, film,
television and theatre, literature, music and entertainment, politics,
religion, science and technology, sports or the
visual arts. Persons of Italian heritage have helped make America the great
country it is today and we owe it to our
national honor to acknowledge with deep sorrow the abuses they endured here at
home during World War II.
I urge you to read this testimony and be as shocked as I
was by its details. By telling this ''secret history'' we can
only hope it will never happen again. That it still shocks us is a sign that we
have not yet lost our sensitivity and can
still celebrate and esteem a proud and exceptional people as fellow Americans.
Page 9 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
This testimony is an effort to bring to the forefront the
discrimination and prejudice that was suffered by Italian
Americans during the war. In a gesture of remorse and atonement for these acts,
the United States House of
Representatives on November 10, 1999 overwhelmingly passed the Wartime
Violation of Italian American Civil
Liberties Act, formally acknowledging the fundamental injustice that was
visited on Italian Americans during World
War II. It is my hope that in studying the provisions of H.R. 2442, we will
unearth the long-buried events and recast
the plight of Italian-American immigrants in a way that we can help heal those
who suffered and make sure that
history will never repeat such injustice again.
Henry J. Hyde, Chairman,
Committee on the Judiciary.
WARTIME VIOLATION OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1999
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on the Constitution
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:33 a.m.,
in Room 2237 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon.
Charles T. Canady [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Page 10 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Present: Representatives Henry J. Hyde, Bob Goodlatte, William L. Jenkins, Melvin L. Watt, and Jerrold Nadler.
Staff Present: Cathleen Cleaver, Chief Counsel; Jonathan
Vogel, Counsel; Susana Gutierrez, Clerk; Sharee
Freeman, Counsel; and Anthony Foxx, Minority Counsel.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CANADY
Mr. CANADY. The subcommittee will come to order.
This morning the subcommittee convenes to conduct a hearing
on H.R. 2442, the Wartime Violation of Italian
American Civil Liberties Act. Though much has been written about the internment
in the United States during World
War II of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans few people know that during the
same time approximately
600,000 Italian Americans were deprived of their civil liberties by Government
measures that branded them ''enemy
aliens.'' In fact, on December 7, 1941, hours after the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, the FBI took into custody
hundreds of Italian-American aliens previously classified as ''dangerous'' and
shipped them to camps where they
were imprisoned until Italy surrendered in 1943.
As so-called enemy aliens, Italian-American aliens were
required to carry special photo identification booklets at
all times and they were forced to turn into the Government items such as
shortwave radios, cameras, and flashlights.
Those suspected of retaining these items had their homes raided by FBI agents.
Page 11 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In California, about 52,000 Italian-American aliens were
subjected to a curfew that confined them to their homes
between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and a travel restriction that prohibited them from
traveling further than 5 miles from their
homes. These measures made it difficult, if not impossible, for some Italian
Americans to travel to their jobs, and
thousands were arrested for violations of these and other restrictions.
Then on February 24, 1942, 10,000 Italian-American aliens
living in California were ordered to evacuate coastal
and military zones. Most of those who had to abandon their homes were elderly,
some of whom were taken away in
wheelchairs and on stretchers.
Later in the fall of 1942, about 25 Italian-American
citizens were ordered to evacuate these areas. In Half Moon
Bay, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Monterey, evacuation orders had an enormous
impact on hundreds of
Italian-American fishermen who were prohibited from taking their boats out to
sea. In fact, many boats belonging to
Italian-American fishermen were impounded by the United States Navy for the
duration of the war.
H.R. 2442 would require the President, on behalf of the
Federal Government, to formally acknowledge that the
Government measures Italian Americans were subjected to during World War II
represented a fundamental injustice.
H.R. 2442 would further require the Department of Justice to author a report
that would include, among other things,
the names of every Italian American arrested and ordered to move or taken into
custody during World War II as a
result of those Government measures.
The bill also urges the Department of Education and the
National Endowment for the Humanities to support
conferences and lectures, pay for a traveling exhibit, and fund documentaries.
H.R. 2442 itself provides that this
story must be told to acknowledge that these events occurred, to remember those
whose lives were unjustly
disrupted by these events, to help repair the damage to the Italian-American
community, and to discourage the
occurrence of similar injustices in the future.
Page 12 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
[The bill, H.R. 2442, follows:]
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2442
To provide for the preparation of a Government report detailing injustices
suffered by Italian Americans during
World War II, and a formal acknowledgment of such injustices by the President.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 1, 1999
Mr. LAZIO (for himself, Mr. ENGEL, Mrs. MORELLA, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. BAKER, Mr.
BERMAN, Mr.
BOEHLERT, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mr. CROWLEY, Ms. DELAURO,
Mr.
FORBES, Mr. FOSSELLA, Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr. GONZALEZ,
Mr.
GUTIERREZ, Mr. HINCHEY, Mrs. KELLY, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. KING, Mr. LAFALCE, Mr.
LAMPSON, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. LOBIONDO, Ms. LOFGREN, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York,
Mr.
MCDERMOTT, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. MALONEY of Connecticut, Mrs. MALONEY
of
New York, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. MASCARA, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of
California,
Mr. NADLER, Mr. OLVER, Mr. OWENS, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. ROTHMAN, Mr.
TOWNS, Mr. TRAFICANT, Mr. UNDERWOOD, Mr. Wu, Mr. FARR of California, Mr. BROWN
of
California, Mr. WEXLER, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Mr. MATSUI, Mr.
BLAGOJEVICH, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. DOYLE, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. SMITH of New
Jersey,
Mr. WEINER, Mr. STUPAK, Mrs. MINK of Hawaii, Mr. DEUTSCH, and Mr. ACKERMAN)
introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
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A BILL
To provide for the preparation of a Government report detailing injustices
suffered by Italian Americans during
World War II, and a formal acknowledgment of such injustices by the President.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ''Wartime Violation of Italian
American Civil Liberties Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The freedom of more than 600,000 Italian-born immigrants
in the United States and their families was
restricted during World War II by Government measures that branded them ''enemy
aliens'' and included carrying
identification cards, travel restrictions, and seizure of personal property.
(2) During World War II more than 10,000 Italian Americans
living on the West Coast were forced to leave their
homes and prohibited from entering coastal zones. More than 50,000 were
subjected to curfews.
(3) During World War II thousands of Italian American
immigrants were arrested, and hundreds were interned in
military camps.
(4) Hundreds of thousands of Italian Americans performed
exemplary service and thousands sacrificed their lives
in defense of the United States.
(5) At the time, Italians were the largest foreign-born
group in the United States, and today are the fifth largest
immigrant group in the United States, numbering approximately 15 million.
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(6) The impact of the wartime experience was devastating
to Italian American communities in the United States,
and its effects are still being felt.
(7) A deliberate policy kept these measures from the public
during the war. Even 50 years later much information
is still classified, the full story remains unknown to the public, and it has
never been acknowledged in any official
capacity by the United States Government.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall
conduct a comprehensive review of the treatment by the
United States Government of Italian Americans during World War II, and not
later than one year after the date of
enactment of this Act shall submit to the Congress a report that documents the
findings of such review. The report
shall cover the period between September 1, 1939, and December 31, 1945, and
shall include the following:
(1) The names of all Italian Americans who were taken into
custody in the initial roundup following the attack on
Pearl Harbor, and prior to the United States declaration of war against Italy.
(2) The names of all Italian Americans who were taken into
custody.
(3) The names of all Italian Americans who were interned and
the location where they were interned.
(4) The names of all Italian Americans who were ordered to
move out of designated areas under the United States
Army's ''Individual Exclusion Program''.
(5) The names of all Italian Americans who were arrested for
curfew, contraband, or other violations under the
authority of Executive Order 9066.
(6) Documentation of Federal Bureau of Investigation raids
on the homes of Italian Americans.
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(7) A list of ports from which Italian American fishermen
were restricted.
(8) The names of Italian American fishermen who were
prevented from fishing in prohibited zones and therefore
unable to pursue their livelihoods.
(9) The names of Italian Americans whose boats were
confiscated.
(10) The names of Italian American railroad workers who were
prevented from working in prohibited zones.
(11) A list of all civil liberties infringements suffered by
Italian Americans during World War II, as a result of
Executive Order 9066, including internment, hearings without benefit of
counsel, illegal searches and seizures, travel
restrictions, enemy alien registration requirements, employment restrictions,
confiscation of property, and forced
evacuation from homes.
(12) An explanation of why some Italian Americans were
subjected to civil liberties infringements, as a result of
Executive Order 9066, while other Italian Americans were not.
(13) A review of the wartime restrictions on Italian
Americans to determine how civil liberties can be better
protected during national emergencies.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that—
(1) the story of the treatment of Italian Americans during
World War II needs to be told in order to acknowledge
that these events happened, to remember those whose lives were unjustly
disrupted and whose freedoms were
violated, to help repair the damage to the Italian American community, and to
discourage the occurrence of similar
injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future;
(2) Federal agencies, including the Department of Education
and the National Endowment for the Humanities,
should support projects such as—
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(A) conferences, seminars, and lectures to heighten
awareness of this unfortunate chapter in our Nation's history;
(B) the refurbishment of and payment of all expenses
associated with the traveling exhibit ''Una Storia Segreta'',
exhibited at major cultural and educational institutions throughout the United
States; and
(C) documentaries to allow this issue to be presented to the
American public to raise its awareness;
(3) an independent, volunteer advisory committee should be
established comprised of representatives of Italian
American organizations, historians, and other interested individuals to assist
in the compilation, research, and
dissemination of information concerning the treatment of Italian Americans; and
(4) after completion of the report required by this Act,
financial support should be provided for the education of
the American public through the production of a documentary film suited for
public broadcast.
SEC. 5. FORMAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
The President shall, on behalf of the United States
Government, formally acknowledge that these events during
World War II represented a fundamental injustice against Italian Americans.
Mr. Watt is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will not take 5 minutes.
I do want to thank the chairman for scheduling the
hearing and thank Representatives Engel and Lazio for
introducing this bill.
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As much as we love and respect and honor this country, we
keep finding that there are things in our history that
either through official acts or unofficial acts we cannot be proud of as a
Nation. When people ask me what value
there is in the current day practice that was followed in South Africa of
having a truth commission and hearings to put
all these things on the table and get them out in the public and in the light
of day, it always strikes me that it is
impossible to move forward until you have some appreciation of inequities and
injustices—acts both official and
unofficial—that keep you looking backwards and retrospectively.
I hope first of all that this hearing gives us the basis
for documenting as much of this as we can and that the bill
gives us a basis for having a discussion above board about what acts are
appropriate to address in this era and this
series of injustices. There are many things that we are proud of our country
for, but there are many things that leave
us scratching our heads and wondering if it is the same country that stands for
the same values that we all aspire to.
I am hopeful that this bill and this hearing will help in
addressing this particular thing that we cannot—not any of
us—be proud of and allow us to move forward.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I yield back.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Mr. Watt.
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We now go to our first panel of the day, which consists of two of our colleagues.
Our first witness this morning is the Honorable Rick
Lazio, who represents the 2nd District of New York.
Congressman Lazio was elected to Congress in 1992 and chairs the House Banking
Subcommittee on Housing and
Community Opportunity. Congressman Lazio has been named Chairman of the 1999
National Italian American Gala
Dinner and is Congress' representative on the Holocaust Asset Committee. Before
serving in Congress, he was twice
elected to the Suffolk County Legislature.
Following Congressman Lazio is the Honorable Eliot L.
Engel, who represents the 17th District of New York.
Congressman Engel, who was elected to Congress in 1988, serves on the House
Committee on Commerce and the
Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. Prior to his election to
Congress, Congressman Engel
served in the New York State Legislature from 1977 to 1988.
I want to thank both of you for being here with us today.
I would ask that you do your best to summarize your
testimony in 5 minutes, although I do not think anyone here is going to insist
on strict adherence to the 5-minute rule.
Of course, your full written statements will be made a part of the permanent
record, without objection.
Congressman Lazio.
STATEMENT OF HON. RICK LAZIO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF
NEW YORK
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Mr. LAZIO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Let me begin by thanking you personally for holding this
hearing and for your interest and for your statement,
which I listened to carefully, and I which I think very much reflects the
sentiments of both Congressman Engel,
myself, and others that are co-sponsors to this legislation.
I want to thank the ranking member as well,
Representative Watt, for his insight and sensitivity to what we call
''Una Storia Segreta,'' which is our ''secret story,'' for many Italian
Americans who were not even aware of this
chapter or who, because their parents or grandparents did not want to talk
about it, were ashamed of it and thought
that it stigmatized—which in many ways it did—Italian Americans during that
era.
Let me also, if I may, thank the witnesses that have
flown from different parts of our Nation to come here today
because they believe with passion that this chapter needs to be told, and we
need to come to terms with the
consequences of America's actions during World War II.
I should also mention at the outset, as an Italian
American and somebody who represents a district with many
Italian Americans—in a district that was home to Anthony Cassamento, one of
many Italian Americans who served
during World War II, who went off to war and served in Guadalcanal, took a
series of bullets in defending a hill, was
shot through the throat, took a bandanna, wrapped his throat, then continued to
charge up and secure the Japanese
machine gun nests, thereby saving many, many lives for which he was awarded the
Congressional Medal of
Honor—what an irony it was that during that time when Italian Americans in
unprecedented numbers were serving
our Nation in the Pacific and Atlantic theaters, were spilling blood and being
awarded honors, including the
Congressional Medal of Honor—their parents and grandparents back home were
being subjected to evacuation and
to the disgrace of being labelled ''enemy aliens.''
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Mr. Chairman, late in the night of December 7, 1941, only
hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
Filippo Molinari heard noises outside his San Jose home. When Mr. Molinari went
to investigate, he found three
policemen at his front door. They told him that by the order of President
Roosevelt he must come with them.
Filippo Molinari had served in the Italian army during
World War I, fighting alongside American troops. He was
well known in his community as a door-to-door salesman for the Italian language
newspaper, La Italia. He was the
founding member of the San Francisco Sons of Italy. Now he was under arrest.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Molinari was
shipped to a Government detention center in Fort Missoula, Montana for no other
reason than for having the status
of being an Italian American.
Filippo Molinari's story is not unique. He was one of the
hundreds of Italian Americans arrested in the first days of
the war and shipped off to distant internment centers without benefit of
counsel or trial, where they were held against
their will until Italy surrendered 2 years later—2 years later, Mr. Chairman.
Early in 1942, another 10,000 Italian Americans across
the Nation were forcibly evacuated from their homes and
relocated away from coastal areas and military bases. In all, 600,000 Italian
nationals—most of whom had lived in
the United States for decades—were deemed enemy aliens and subject to strict
travel restrictions, curfews, and
seizures of personal property for no other reason than their heritage.
These so-called ''enemy aliens'' were required to carry
photo-bearing identification booklets at all times, forbidden
to travel beyond a 5-mile radius of their homes, and were required to turn in
any short-wave radios, cameras,
flashlights, and firearms in their possession. In fact, Mr. Chairman, there
were instances of people having their
cameras seized or destroyed at their doorstep. Many times these were elderly
women who had their cameras or their
radios destroyed. Imagine the terror as many of the neighbors looked on and the
stigma that was attached to that.
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In California, 52,000 Italian residents were subject to
an 8 p.m. curfew. In Monterey, Boston, and other port
towns, Italian-American fishermen were grounded and many had their boats
impounded by the Navy—all this while
half a million Italian Americans were serving, fighting, and dying in the
United States armed forces during World War
II.
To this day, few Americans have any idea that these
events took place. Indeed, few Italian Americans know what
happened to their ancestors during the war. Many believe that President Roosevelt's
infamous Executive Order 9066
applied only to Japanese and Japanese Americans living in western States, but
that is not the case.
There is another chapter to this sad story which I
mentioned before, ''Una Storia Segreta''—a secret story. The
bill we are discussing today represents an attempt—I think a very balanced and
very modest attempt—to begin
setting the record straight. The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil
Liberties Act calls upon the Department
of Justice to conduct a comprehensive study of our Government's policies toward
Italian Americans during the war,
to find out exactly what took place and to whom. This report will include an
examination of ways to safeguard the
civil liberties of minority groups during future national emergencies.
The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties
Act would also encourage relevant Federal agencies to
support educational projects to heighten public awareness of this unfortunate
episode in our history, including
exhibitions, seminars, and documentaries.
Finally, this legislation calls upon the President to
acknowledge formally our Government's systematic denial of
civil liberties to what was then the largest foreign-born ethnic group in the
United States. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased
to say that this bill has attracted more than 80 cosponsors from both sides of
the aisle. The diversity of this list is
indicative of both the national scope of the injustices that took place and the
widespread belief felt across ethnic and
geographic lines, that justice be done.
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The noted poet and philosopher, George Santayana,
observed that those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it. This is exactly what Representative Watt was saying:
You need to confront the truth before
you can deal with assuring that that sad chapter is not repeated. That is why
this bill has been introduced, to establish
the truth. We owe it to the Italian-American community and indeed the American
public to find out exactly what
happened and to publicize it. A complete understanding of what took place
during this sad chapter of American
history is the best guarantee that it will never happen again.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank and
acknowledge the Chairman of the Full Committee, Mr. Hyde, for
his support in allowing this hearing to go forward, and for his sensitivity in
trying to work through the nuances of a
very difficult chapter, during a very difficult time, putting this in the
context of American history.
But again, it is difficult to address these seizures,
these arrests based on status, and the stigma that was attached
without reflecting on the irony that at the very same time Italian Americans
were serving our Nation, dying, protecting
others in the name of freedom, protecting American principles on far-off
shores.
Again, I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing this hearing to go forward.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lazio follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. RICK LAZIO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE
STATE OF NEW YORK
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Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the
Subcommittee, I want to thank you for holding these hearing
today. This issue, the violation of Italian American civil liberties during
World War Two, is one that is very important
to me, my constituents, and Italian-Americans across the nation.
I also want to thank all the people who have come from
all across the country to testify today. I genuinely
appreciate their time and effort, and admire their commitment to set the record
straight.
Mr. Chairman, late in the night of December 7, 1941, only
hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
Filippo Molinari heard noises outside his San Jose home. When Mr. Molinari went
to investigate, he found three
policemen at his front door. They told him that by order of President
Roosevelt, he must come with them.
Filippo Molinari had served in the Italian army during
World War One, fighting along side American troops. He
was well-known in his community as a door-to-door salesman for the Italian
language newspaper L'Italia. He was
the founding member of the San Francisco Sons of Italy. And now, he was under
arrest. Shortly thereafter, Mr.
Molinari was shipped to a government detention center in Fort Missoula,
Montana.
Filippo Molinari's story is not unique. He was one of
hundreds of Italian Americans arrested in the first days of the
war, and shipped off to distant internment centers without benefit of council
or trial—where they were held against
their will until Italy surrendered two years later. Early in 1942 another ten
thousand Italian Americans across the
nation were forcibly evacuated from their homes and relocated away from coastal
areas and military bases.
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In all 600,000 Italian nationals, most of whom had lived
in the United States for decades, were deemed ''enemy
aliens'' and subject to strict travel restrictions, curfews, and seizures of
their personal property. These so-called
''enemy aliens'' were required to carry photo-bearing ID booklets at all times;
forbidden to travel beyond a five mile
radius of their homes; and required to turn in any shortwave radios, cameras,
flashlights and firearms in their
possession. In California, 52,000 Italian residents were subjected to an 8 p.m.
curfew. In Monterey, Boston, and
other port towns, Italian American fishermen were grounded, and many had their
boats impounded by the navy—all
this while half a million Italian Americans were serving, fighting, and dying
in the U.S. armed forces during World
War II.
To this day, few Americans have any idea that these
events took place. Indeed, few Italian Americans know what
happened to their ancestors during the war. Most believe that President
Roosevelt's infamous Executive Order 9066
applied only to Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the western states.
But clearly there is another chapter to
this sad story, ''Una Storia Segreta''—a secret story. The bill we are
discussing today represents an attempt to begin
setting the record straight.
The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties
Act calls on the Department of Justice to conduct a
comprehensive study of our government's policies toward Italian Americans
during the war, to find out exactly what
took place and to whom. This report will include an examination of ways to
safeguard the civil liberties of minority
groups during future national emergencies.
The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties
Act would also encourage relevant federal agencies to
support educational projects to heighten public awareness of this unfortunate
episode in our history, including
exhibitions, seminars, and documentaries.
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Finally, this legislation calls upon the President to
acknowledge formally our government's systematic denial of civil
liberties to what was then the largest foreign-born ethnic group in the United
States.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to say that this bill has
attracted more than 80 cosponsors from both sides of the
aisle. The diversity of this list is indicative of both the national scope of
the injustices that took place, and the
widespread belief—felt across ethnic and geographic lines—that justice be done.
The noted poet and philosopher George Santayana observed
that, ''Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.'' But the truth must be established before it can be
remembered. That's why I introduced this
bill: to establish the truth. We owe it to the Italian-American community, and
indeed to the American public, to find
out exactly what happened and publicize it. A complete understanding of what
took place during this sad chapter of
American history is the best guarantee that they will never happen again.
Mr. Chairman, thank you again for holding these hearings.
I look forward to working with you and your
committee on this important issue.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Mr. Lazio.
Representative Engel.
STATEMENT OF HON. ELIOT ENGEL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE
OF
NEW YORK
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Mr. ENGEL. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Mr.
Watt. I want to thank you for having this hearing
today. I want to also thank those who have taken time out of their busy
schedules to be with us to offer their
personal experiences and expertise on this issue. I want to thank my friend and
colleague, Rick Lazio, for sponsoring
this legislation with me. And I want to thank both of you for your very
sensitive remarks. Mr. Watt is right on target
with the Truth Commission.
When we first started bringing this out to the public,
the reaction of people is just disbelief. People just do not
believe that it ever happened because the textbooks did not say anything about
it. Everyone has heard about the
unfortunate circumstances with the Japanese Americans, but people were unaware
that the Italian Americans had a
similar situation.
We have two photos up here showing Italian Americans
being marched to the internment camps in Missoula,
Montana. So we have documented evidence as to what really happened here.
Again, why do we do this? We do it because hopefully we
will learn from the past and something like this can
never happen again. We love this country. It is the best country in the world,
but mistakes have been made along the
line. People are human and make mistakes. This was obviously a colossal error
and it is something that we need to
focus on so that something like this can never happen again.
We are here today not only to discuss the Wartime
Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act, but to listen
to accounts from Italian Americans describing the events they and their
families endured during World War II. The
civil liberty abuses that Italian Americans suffered are not well documented
and are not well known, but they did
occur and the truth about this story—which we call ''Una Storia Segreta,'' the
secret story—must be told.
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December 7, 1941 is a day that is very well known. On
that horrifying day, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor
and the United States entered World War II. What has been overlooked since that
day is the fact that Italian
Americans suddenly became enemy aliens. Loyal Italian American patriots who
fought alongside the United States
Armed Forces in World War I, mothers and fathers of U.S. soldiers, and even
children were suspected of being
dangerous and subversive simply because they were Italian Americans.
With this new enemy alien status, the military and local
police began confiscating firearms from Italians. Italians
were subject to strict curfew regulations, forced to carry photo IDs, and could
not travel further than a 5-mile radius
from their homes without prior approval. Soon after, radios and televisions
were also confiscated, and eventually
Italians were forced to give up all electronic devices, personal pictures, any
papers that the Government suspected
treasonous, and even their livelihoods.
For instance, an Italian car dealer in Oakland,
California was told that he could not collect $3,500 for automobiles
he sold to Alameda County just before Pearl Harbor was bombed because of his
status now as an enemy alien. He
was told that payment to him by Alameda County would be considered trading with
the enemy and was prohibited.
Also Italian fishermen were forbidden from using their
boats in prohibited zones. Since fishing was the only means
of income for many families, households were torn apart or completely relocated
as alternative sources of income
were sought. Initially, the fishing boats left behind simply remained docked.
However, as time passed, the military
began using the boats and there was nothing that could be done to stop them, as
appeals to the Justice Department
were left unanswered. When some of the boats were returned after the war, they
either required extensive repairs or
were simply unusable, and some were never returned at all.
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As awful as the internment experience was, it would have
been much worse if not for the intervention of Congress
and other public officials attempting to prevent these injustices from
continuing.
As you may know, the Tolan Committee, made up of Members
of Congress, began holding public hearings on the
west coast at that time regarding the treatment of enemy aliens. Congressman
John Tolan of Oakland, California
chaired the committee. Chairman Tolan spoke publicly about the exemplary
character of many Italians subjected to
civil liberties abuses. He spoke openly about the plight of the famous DiMaggio
family. We will hear more about their
experiences later from Mr. Dominic DiMaggio.
Thanks to the Tolan Committee, Italian Americans did not
suffer the same fate as the Japanese Americans. The
committee recommendation to the Department of Justice suggested that Italians
were less ''dangerous'' than Japanese
and that mass internment and relocation was not necessary. However, the fate of
the Italians rested with Lieutenant
General John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command.
Through the efforts of the Tolan Committee, General
DeWitt was forced to scale back his mass evacuation and
relocation plans for the west coast. Consequently, Lieutenant General Hugh A.
Drum, Commander of the Eastern
Defense Command, who had recommended establishing prohibited zones in 16 States
along the east coast, was
pressured to scale back his plans to relocate some 52 million people.
Thankfully, relocation on the east coast never occurred,
as President Roosevelt prohibited it. However, individuals
considered dangerous were still taken into custody. As a New Yorker—and as a
person whose grandparents came
to Ellis Island to this country—it still saddens me to think that Ellis Island,
the world-renowned symbol of freedom
and democracy, was used to detain Italians considered dangerous. Ezio Pinza, an
international opera star, was
detained at Ellis Island. His wife is here today to share their story with us.
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The east coast was spared relocation. However, Italians on the west coast were not as fortunate.
Under authority of Executive Order 9066, which first
authorized the internment of the Japanese, General DeWitt
began relocation and internment of Italian Americans in California. Over 10,000
Italians deemed enemy aliens were
forcibly evacuated from their homes and over 52,000 were subject to strict
curfew regulations. Ironically, over
500,000 Italians were serving in the United States Armed Forces at the time,
fighting to protect the liberties of all
Americans, while many of their family members had their basic freedoms revoked.
However, the full extent of the internment experience is
still unknown. Several Italian Americans in California were
so shamed about their status as enemy aliens that they committed suicide. Many
Italians were arrested for curfew
violations or carrying everyday products that were suddenly considered
contraband. Families with ethnic names
began changing them to sound more American and stopped speaking their native language.
Mr. Chairman, we must ensure that these terrible events
will never be perpetrated again. We must safeguard the
individual rights of all Americans from arbitrary persecution or no American
will ever be secure. The least our
Government can do is try to right these terrible wrongs by acknowledging that
these events did occur. We are not
looking for an apology, just an acknowledgement by the President. That is part
of what this legislation does.
Mr. Chairman, there was not one documented case of
Italian Americans conducting sabotage against the United
States. While we cannot erase the mistakes of the past, we must try to learn
from them in order to ensure that we
never subject anyone to the same injustices.
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Our bill, H.R. 2442, calls on the Department of Justice
to publish a report detailing the unjust policies of the
Government during this time period. Essential to the report will be a study
examining ways to safeguard individual
rights during national emergencies. Moreover, this legislation calls on the
President to formally acknowledge our
Government's systematic denial of basic human rights and freedoms to one of the
largest ethnic communities in the
United States.
Mr. Chairman, we owe it to the Italian-American
community, and to all communities—especially those who
endured these abuses—to recognize the injustices of the past. Documentation and
education about the suffering of all
groups of Americans who face persecution is important in order to ensure that
no group's civil liberties are ever
violated again.
I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the
committee—Mr. Watt, the ranking member, and
others—for having this hearing. As you may know—and as Mr. Lazio said—this
legislation has received vast
support in the House of Representatives as 80 of our colleagues have
cosponsored the bill.
I look forward to working further with you and the committee on this important legislation.
I would like to revise and extend my remarks to include
letters I have received from organizations supporting our
legislation. I want to thank our staffs for helping us with this legislation,
particularly my administrative assistant, John
Calvelli, who has been so helpful in putting this together and documenting
this. I want to thank NIAF—National
Italian American Foundation—and all the people who have really called this to
our attention and carried the ball on
this.
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I thank you for your endorsement.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Engel and referenced documentation follow.]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ELIOT ENGEL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM
THE
STATE OF NEW YORK
Mr. Chairman, I first want to thank you and the distinguished
members of the Committee for having this hearing
today. I also want to thank those who have taken time out of their busy
schedules to be with us to offer their
personal experiences and expertise on this issue. We are here today not only to
discuss the Wartime Violation of
Italian American Civil Liberties Act, but to listen to accounts from Italian
Americans describing the events they and
their families endured during World War II. The civil liberty abuses that
Italian Americans suffered are not well
documented and are not well known, but they did occur and the truth about this
story, Una Storia Segreta—the
Secret Story, must be told.
December 7, 1941 is a day that is very well known. On
that horrifying day, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor
and the United States entered World War II. What has been overlooked since that
day is the fact that Italian
Americans suddenly became ''enemy aliens''. Loyal Italian American patriots who
fought for the United States
Armed Forces in World War I, immigrants who had fought along side our troops,
even women and children were
suspected of being dangerous and subversive. With this new enemy alien status,
the military and local police began
confiscating firearms from Italians. Italians were subject to strict curfew
regulations, forced to carry photo ID's, and
could not travel further than a 5 mile radius from their homes without prior
approval. Soon radios and televisions
were also confiscated, and eventually Italians were forced to give up all
electronic devices, personal pictures, any
papers that the government suspected treasonous, and even their livelihoods.
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For instance, an Italian car dealer in Oakland, California,
was told he could not collect $3,500 dollars for
automobiles he sold to Alameda County just before Pearl Harbor was bombed
because of his status now as an
enemy alien. He was told that payment to him by Alameda County would be
considered trading with the enemy and
was prohibited. Also, Italian fishermen were forbidden from using their boats
in prohibited zones. Since fishing was
the only means of income for many families, households were torn apart or
completely relocated as alternative
sources of income were sought. Initially, the fishing boats left behind simply
remained docked. However, as time
passed, the military began using the boats and there was nothing that could be
done to stop them as appeals to the
Justice Department were left unanswered. When some of the boats were returned
after the war they either required
extensive repairs or were simply unusable, and some were never returned at all.
As awful as the internment
experience was, it would have been much worse if not for the intervention of
Congress and other public officials
attempting to prevent these injustices from continuing.
As you may know, the Tolan Committee, made up of Members
of Congress, began holding public hearings on the
West Coast regarding the treatment of enemy aliens. Congressman John Tolan of
Oakland, California chaired the
Committee. Chairman Tolan spoke publicly about the exemplary character of many
Italians subjected to civil liberties
abuses. He spoke openly about the plight of the famous DiMaggio family. We will
hear more about their experiences
later from Mr. Dominic DiMaggio. Thanks to the efforts of the Tolan Committee,
Italians did not suffer the same fate
as the Japanese. The Committee recommendation to the Department of Justice
suggested that Italians were less
''dangerous'' than Japanese and that mass internment and relocation was not
necessary. However, the fate of the
Italians rested with Lieutenant General John DeWitt, head of the Western
Defense Command.
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Through the efforts of the Tolan Committee, General
DeWitt was forced to scale back his mass evacuation and
relocation plans for the West Coast. Consequently, Lieutenant General Hugh A.
Drum, commander of the Eastern
Defense Command, who had recommended establishing prohibited zones in 16 states
along the east coast was
pressured to scale back his plans to relocate some 52 million people.
Thankfully, relocation on the East coast never
occurred as President Roosevelt prohibited it. However, individuals considered
dangerous were still taken into
custody. It still saddens me to think that Ellis Island, the world renowned
symbol of freedom and democracy, was
used to detain Italians considered dangerous. Ezio Pinza, an international opera
star was detained at Ellis Island. His
wife is here today to share their story with us. The east coast was spared
relocation, however, Italians on the West
Coast were not as fortunate.
Under authority of Executive Order 9066, which first
authorized the internment of the Japanese, General DeWitt
began relocation and internment of Italian Americans in California. Over 10,000
Italians deemed enemy aliens were
forcibly evacuated from their homes and over 52,000 were subject to strict
curfew regulations. Ironically, over
500,000 Italians were serving in the United States Armed Forces fighting to
protect the liberties of all Americans,
while many of their family members had their basic freedoms revoked.
However, the full extent of the internment experience is
still unknown. Several Italian Americans in California were
so shamed about their status as enemy aliens that they committed suicide. Many
Italians were arrested for curfew
violations or carrying everyday products that were suddenly considered
contraband. Families with ethnic names
began changing them to sound more American and stopped speaking their native
language. Mr. Chairman, we must
ensure that these terrible events will never be perpetrated again. We must
safeguard the individual rights of all
Americans from arbitrary persecution or no American will ever be secure. The
least our government can do is try to
right these terrible wrongs by acknowledging that these events did occur. Mr.
Chairman, there was not one
documented case of Italian Americans conducting sabotage against the United
States. While we cannot erase the
mistakes of the past, we must try to learn from them in order to ensure that we
never subject anyone to the same
injustices.
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Mr. Chairman, HR 2442, the Wartime Violation of Italian
American Civil Liberties Act, calls on the Department
of Justice to publish a report detailing the unjust policies of the government
during this time period. Essential to the
report will be a study examining ways to safeguard individual rights during
national emergencies. Moreover, this
legislation calls on the President to formally acknowledge our government's
systematic denial of basic human rights
and freedoms to one of the largest ethnic communities in the United States.
Mr. Chairman, we owe it to the Italian American
community, especially those who endured these abuses, to
recognize the injustices of the past. Documentation and education about the
suffering of all groups of Americans who
face persecution is important in order to ensure that no group's civil
liberties are ever violated again.
I want to commend the Chairman and Members of the
Committee for having this hearing. As you may know, this
legislation has received vast support in the House of Representatives as 80 of
my colleagues have cosponsored the
bill. Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working further with you and the
Committee on this important legislation.
Italic Studies Institute,
Floral Park, NY, October 26, 1999.
CHAIRMAN,
Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Committee on the Judiciary,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
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Re: HR 2442
Wartime Violation of Italian-American Civil Liberties Act
DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Italic Studies Institute, a New
York State nonprofit educational organization
founded in 1987, hereby confirms its support of HR 2442 as the beginning of the
process to restore the historical
record and the dignity of the Italian American community in regard to the
unjust and shameful results of Executive
Order 9066/1942.
We have witnessed within the past few generations the
Federal government's recognition of past misdeeds. Most
recently, Congress has taken concrete steps to ameliorate the negative effects
of the Second World War as follows:
The American Civil Liberties Act of 1987 appropriated $1.2 billion in
reparations to Japanese-American victims of
the Internment as well as a $50 million education fund. Close to $3 million of
this fund has been awarded solely for
Japanese-American media projects in 1997.
The DOD Appropriations Act of 1994 provided $4 million for the establishment
of a Japanese-American Cultural
Center in Ontario, Oregon.
In March, 1996 House legislation called for the rapid creation of a Manzanar
National Historic Site for
Japanese-American internment.
H.R. 3019 (1996) libraries appropriation allowed for a $1 million direct
grant to filmmaker Steven Spielberg for his
Holocaust documentation (sponsored by Senators Boxer and Specter) in
recognition of the Nazi persecution of
European Jews.
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In 1996, Congress authorized a land swap in the capital to provide a site
for a war memorial to the 442nd Infantry
Division (Japanese-American Nisei), the first such ethnic war memorial, as well
as land for a Japanese American
Internment memorial.
In 1998 approximately $40 million was taken from the Civil Liberties
Education Fund (cited above) to provide cash
settlements to Peruvian Japanese who were interned in the United States during
World War II.
We would also like to bring to the Congress' attention
that the Government of Canada, through its National Film
Board, allocated approximately $400,000 to produce a public documentary (Barbed
Wire and Mandolins) as an
atonement for its horrific treatment of Italian Canadians during World War II.
Finally, there is the serious matter of disinformation
that abounds throughout the American media concerning the
full scope of Executive Order 9066. Nearly every newspaper article, a majority
of books, and almost all
documentaries on the subject emphatically state that only the Japanese
Americans were subjected to the illegal acts
of Executive Order 9066. Authors and narrators often state that Italians and
Germans were not targeted, as in the
1999 PBS documentary Rabbit on the Moon. They further opine that this is proof
of the racial intent of the Order.
These subjective views and misrepresentation of the public record need to be
addressed forthrightly by Congress.
In the matter of Italian Americans, the road to atonement
has not yet been taken. It is our unequivocal belief that
Congress needs to finally come to terms with Executive Order 9066 for the sake
of justice and the historical record.
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Respectfully,
John Mancini, Chairman.
cc: Officers, Governors, Advisors
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Mr. Engel and Mr. Lazio. We appreciate your very helpful comments.
I would like to now recognize the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. HYDE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Very briefly, I want to congratulate Rick Lazio for
bringing this to national attention. I was shocked when I heard
about it. Anthony LaPiana came to visit me and apprised me of the background of
this whole situation and I was
dumbfounded. And if I was dumbfounded, I wonder how many people just never
heard of these terrible abuses
against one of the most loyal segments of our country.
I am not Italian, but I have a profound admiration for
the Italian Americans and their contribution to our country. I
once had to give a speech before an Italian-American community and I spent some
wonderful hours learning about
the accomplishments of the Italians in music, art, literature, history, and
their contribution to this country.
My old friend, Frank Annunzio, who was instrumental in
having Columbus Day declared a national holiday, was
needled by one of his colleagues who said, ''Everyone knows Leif Ericksen
discovered America,'' and Frank, quick
as a flash, said, ''When Columbus discovered it, it stayed discovered.''
[Laughter.]
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Mr. HYDE. But all the Italian-American community wants is
the truth to be told. It is not a question of reparations
or looking for money or anything like that, but the truth has been obscured and
it ought not to be obscured. The truth
has to be told. And we are doing it the hard way, through a congressional
hearing. And this is only the beginning. I
think there will be more.
It is very important that the contribution of a proud
people be made known, and the abuses visited upon them be
made known, because then their unshakable patriotism stands in even greater
relief.
I am very proud to be a small part of this. Thank you again, Mr. Lazio and Mr. Engel.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Jenkins, would you like to make an opening statement?
Mr. JENKINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Hyde has a few years on me. I was surprised to
hear him say that his degree of being unaware of
this—because I certainly was—it very recently has come to my attention that
there were these kinds of abuses that
were being thrust upon a segment of our population. But I, like Mr. Hyde, would
like to salute the contributions that
have been made in every facet of our society by the Italian Americans and say
that I, too, am very happy to be—if
there is some way that we can atone for—a part of that.
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. CANADY. Mr. Watt.
Mr. WATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know we typically do not ask our colleagues questions,
but I thought this might be more appropriately addressed
to them than to any of the other witnesses who will be testifying about the
factual backdrop.
One concern—and I am not sure that it is an overwhelming
concern—that I have about the bill is on page seven.
Is there precedent for directing the President to make such an acknowledgement
as we are directing him to make?
Or might it be better to make the acknowledgment and have it acknowledged by
his signature on a bill that we, as
Congress, have officially acknowledged as opposed to having the President do
it? Is there some reason you elected
to do it this way?
Mr. LAZIO. I am not aware of any precedent. I think the
only precedent we have for this sort of factual setting is
the experience of the Japanese Americans. The reason why we have this formal
acknowledgement on the part of the
President is because I think he is perceived by the American public—and
rightfully so—as the head of our
Government. He has the ability to generate a message in a way that a piece of
legislation might not otherwise be able
to. And it would certainly offer the President the opportunity to make a more
thorough statement than just a signature
or an announcement. It is something that a message could be built around that
would penetrate the consciousness of
the American people that perhaps legislation might not be able to do.
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Mr. ENGEL. I agree with that. I was there when we put the
language together for the bill and we talked about
whether or not to have a formal acknowledgement by the President. We decided to
do it because we felt that that
would make it more forceful. Obviously, by signing the bill there is an
acknowledgement, but we felt that the formal
acknowledgement would emphasize it.
Again, as Chairman Hyde said, we are not asking for
money, or an apology, or anything like that, but a formal
acknowledgement. By doing it that way, we thought we would emphasize it and
highlight the fact of what really
happened.
Again, I want to stress—and everybody has mentioned
it—why I believe it is so important. The overwhelming
majority—99 percent of everybody who comes into contact with this bill—thinks
it is a wonderful thing that we are
doing. Occasionally someone will ask, ''Why drudge up the past? Why make
Italian Americans as victims? Why are
you doing this?''
I think it is important that we mention the past and
acknowledge the past. Whether it is the injustices against
African Americans in this country or what happened with the Japanese Americans
or the Holocaust in Europe—it is
so important to do that. How else are our children going to learn? How else are
we going to learn? How else are we
going to show that this happened when people ultimately will deny that these
injustices ever happened?
Mr. WATT. I do not want to leave the impression that I
object to this form of doing it. I just wanted to be sure
that we have thought about the ramifications of this. It seems to me that just
as powerful a statement would be made
by having all of us going on record as having acknowledged this. I suspect that
whatever president would sign this
bill, it would be a further acknowledgement at that point anyway.
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Let me emphasize that I am not second-guessing this. I am raising what I hope is a constructive question.
Mr. CANADY. Mr. Nadler.
Mr. NADLER. Thank you.
Let me first express my apologies for coming late. I was
at another meeting on a different topic, in this case a
current ethnic persecution. Let me express my appreciation to Mr. Engel and Mr.
Lazio for sponsoring this very
important legislation, of which I am proud to be a cosponsor. I am glad that we
are doing this—or hope to be doing
this—passing this legislation because it is about time that we acknowledge the
actions of our Government.
I just have one question. We know with respect to the
Japanese the shameful acts our Government committed,
and Congress voted for formal reparations about a decade ago. Until Congressman
Engel mentioned this to me a
few months ago, I had no idea that the Government had done anything with
respect to Italian Americans in World
War II. I was rather chagrined to find it out, and I am glad we are considering
this legislation.
Are you aware of anything the Government did to German
Americans? Did the United States Government take
similar action with respect to Germans in the United States, German citizens,
or German immigrants? Or did they
single out Italians and Japanese in a different way?
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Mr. LAZIO. Congressman, I believe that German Americans
faced a similar status problem. They were also
labelled as enemy aliens. I think their access to radios and to communications
equipment beyond telephones and to
firearms was also restricted. I do recall that German Americans had the same
status as enemy aliens.
Mr. NADLER. And this was limited in both the
Italian-American case and the German-American case to people
who were not citizens? Or was it not so limited?
Mr. LAZIO. There were cases where you actually had
citizens, but the overwhelming majority of the people were
resident aliens.
Mr. NADLER. But there was internment of Italian Americans?
Mr. LAZIO. Yes, there was.
Mr. ENGEL. Unfortunately, there were some internments of
German Americans as well. The thing that is so
striking here is that there was not one documented act of sabotage by any
Italian Americans. There were some
unfortunate cases by some German Americans. Unfortunately, German Americans
were rounded up as well. Again,
that is part of our history that most of us were not aware of.
Mr. NADLER. Were any citizens in either the German or Italian extraction interned? Or only resident aliens?
Mr. ENGEL. Most were resident aliens. There were some incidents of citizens as well.
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As you know, some people—for whatever reason—choose not
to become citizens but are legal in this country
and work and pay taxes. Most of those people were the ones who were rounded up.
Mr. LAZIO. I would also add that—and while I do not
believe in any way that this is justification for
internment—there were cases of German Americans who were involved in espionage
and helping the Nazis. There
were no instances of Italian Americans involved in espionage, who passed on
information to any of America's
declared enemies.
Mr. NADLER. Again, I want to thank the two of you for
sponsoring this legislation. I want to thank
Congressman Engel for bringing the history to my attention because I was
entirely unaware of it. I do hope we will
approve this legislation expeditiously.
Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Mr. Nadler.
Again, we thank both of you for your leadership on this important issue.
Mr. CANADY. We will now move to the second panel.
I thank all of you for being with us this morning. We will now proceed with the introductions of the next panel.
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The first witness on our second panel this morning is Ms.
Rose Viscuso Scudero of Antioch, California. Following
her is Doris L. Pinza of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Our third witness on the second panel is Colonel Angelo de Guttadauro of San Antonio, Texas.
Following him is ''The Little Professor,'' Mr. Dominic
DiMaggio of Ocean Ridge, Florida. Mr. DiMaggio, a former
major league baseball player, is the brother of baseball legend, Joe DiMaggio.
Our next witness is Lawrence Di Stasi of Bolinas, California.
Mr. Di Stasi is President of the Western Regional
Chapter of the American Italian Historical Association, and Project Director of
the traveling exhibit ''Una Storia
Segreta: When Italian Americans Were 'Enemy Aliens' ''.
Following Mr. Di Stasi is Anthony E. LaPiana of Lombard,
Illinois. Mr. LaPiana is here on behalf of the National
Italian American Council.
Our next witness on this panel is Matthew DiDomenico,
Sr., who is the Executive Vice President of the National
Italian American Foundation in Washington, D.C. NIAF is a non-profit
organization that represents an estimated 20
million Americans of Italian descent.
Our final witness on this panel is Dr. Philip Piccigallo,
who is here on behalf of the Sons of Italy of Washington,
D.C.
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Again, I want to thank all of you for being here with us
this morning. I apologize for mispronouncing any of your
names. I would ask that you do your best to summarize your testimony in 5
minutes or less, guided by the green light.
When it is red, that means the 5 minutes have expired. Without objection, your
full written statements will be made a
part of the permanent hearing record.
Ms. Scudero.
STATEMENT OF ROSE VISCUSO SCUDERO, ANTIOCH, CA
Ms. SCUDERO. Thank you, and thank you for having us here today.
I am Rose Viscuso Scudero and my story goes that I was
twelve and a half years old at the time this happened.
My mother received a letter from the Government stating that because she did
not have her citizenship papers she
would have to leave the town that we lived in. We had to move at least 9 miles
out. Pittsburg, California had the San
Joaquin River, the Columbia Steel Mill, and quite a few other vital industries.
We had to move. And because I was a minor—I was born in
the United States. I was a citizen—and yet because
I was a minor, I had to leave with my mother. My mother had to leave behind
three daughters, my two brothers, and
my father, who was building the Liberty ships at Kaiser Shipyards. My brothers
were working at Columbia Steel.
That is kind of ironic that there is a woman who could not read or write
English, and they sent her away.
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There were many families in Pittsburg who went through
the same thing. A lot of my classmates were sent away
that were born in the United States, with their parents. I did not have any
idea what was going to happen to me. I did
not know if I was ever going to come back home. I had to leave all the
classmates I had been in school with since
kindergarten. It was just very traumatic. My mother would cry herself to sleep
every night. The thought of leaving
three daughters, especially, at home—18, 19, and 21 years old—was very, very
hard for her to take.
They did not get to see us except every few weekends
because it was hard to get a ride. Everybody did not have
a car at that time. We shared the house with my two aunts, my two cousins, and
my uncle, who was a citizen. He
stayed with us so that we would have a man in the house.
We had to walk quite a few miles to go to the store to
get groceries and things. We had no radio. They took all
those things away from us. So we had no way of knowing how things were going,
except when our family came to
visit.
The school I went to—because we were foreign to them—I
was considered an enemy alien. When I would get on
the bus, they would spread out so that there would be no room to sit. My lunch
was stolen several times a month. I
had to share lunch with the teacher. When they would teach the children to
dance, the boys would ask the girls to
dance and I would sit there by myself. It was very humiliating.
And I know these things are not as bad as the atrocities
that happened to the Japanese. I am not trying to
compare this to that, but emotionally it did affect us. And now my
grandchildren are questioning it. ''We do not see it
in history books in school. Why are you saying this?'' I have to bring out a few
pictures and things that I have of my
family.
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This happened to two other members in my family. My
brother was married a year and a half and had a
1-year-old child. His wife came over when she was 9 years old. She had just
turned 21 at the time this happened. At
that time, I don't believe they could receive their citizenship papers until
they were 21. She did not have time. So she
had to move to Walnut Creek with the baby and my brother stayed behind because
he worked at the steel mill.
My brother joined the Navy, even though this was
happening, but his boss at the steel mill said that they needed
him there for the war effort. So he talked to his commanding officer and had
him deferred.
So it did affect us.
My father was building liberty ships at Kaiser shipyards and yet they sent my mother away.
I have a lot of other stories of people in Pittsburg who
had two or three sons in the service who came home and
found their house boarded up. The mothers were living in Oakley in itinerant
houses—three families in these
houses—distant cousins or whatever would cook and bring them food. A lot of
these things were going on.
My sister, Marie, was engaged to be married to a boy from
San Francisco, Mr. Del Carlo. He came here when
he was 18 months old and he was not 21 at the time. So he waited until he was
21. When he finally got his papers, 6
weeks later he is drafted. He fought in Normandy and the Rhine. And while he
was there he was able to go to
Lucca, Italy and he saw his 90-year-old grandfather, and here they were on
opposite sides fighting each other. I
have pictures of that.
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They confiscated all our cameras, radios, et cetera, so
my mom put me on the bus after several months and sent
me to Pittsburg. I was able to do that because I was born here. That liberty
they gave me. I was to find out when we
were going to be able to come home. The news was good at that time. We were
there from February 24th until
August of that year. I went back and the news was good. Everybody was so happy
and crying. My mom sent
me—this was sort of a rural area—to tell all the other people. I went knocking
on doors and kept telling them that
they could go home now. They labelled me the ''Italian Paul Revere'' at that
time. [Laughter.]
Ms. SCUDERO. I am now 70 years old. I am speaking to
children from the 6th grade through high school and it
is amazing the reaction I get to this story and the questions they come up
with. It is just mind-boggling. You can hear
a pin drop.
I have shown a video of my interviews with CNN and Good
Morning America. They cannot comprehend. The
first question I get from most of them is, ''You mean this happened here in the
United States?'' I answer yes, and it
can happen again.
They want to know more. They want to read about it.
I want to thank you for having me here, and I am sorry I
am so nervous. I have a lot more stories to tell, if you
want to listen.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Scudero follows:]
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROSE VISCUSO SCUDERO, ANTIOCH, CA
The year was 1942 and I was twelve and a half years old. My
mother received a letter from the U.S. government
stating that because she had not become a U.S. citizen, she would have to move
to a specified area in the county we
lived in because our house was too close to the Columbia Steel Co. and other
vital industries, plus the San Joaquin
River.
Because we were at war with Germany and Italy, it didn't
matter that my father (a U.S. citizen) was employed at
Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond Calif. building the Liberty ships for the Defense
Dept. and my two brothers worked at
Columbia Steel Co. My three sisters worked in downtown Pittsburgh
establishments. Even though I was born in the
U.S., I had to accompany my mother because I was a minor. I realize it now as
an adult that they had abused my
civil rights.
I was attending Jr. High School and I felt bad about
leaving all of my childhood friends. I thought I would be gone
forever, so gave away my collection of fancy pins that I wore on my sweaters to
my classmates.
It was February 24th, 1942 that we went to live in a
rented house on West St.on the outskirts of Concord Calif.
about nineteen miles from our home in Pittsburgh.
We shared the house with my Aunt Sara and Uncle Filipo
Nicolosi and my Aunt Mary Viscuso and her two sons,
Salvatore and Johnny. My Uncle Filipo was a U.S. citizen but he stayed with us
so that we would have a man in the
house.
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I can remember my mother Rosa crying herself to sleep at
night, missing her family especially the thought of having
to leave three daughters ages eighteen, nineteen and twenty-one years old.
I attended Clayton Valley School and the bus would pick
us up in the morning. The other children were not very
friendly. I would find my lunch missing many times and the teacher would share
hers with me. During music class, I
would not be asked to dance and I would sit alone. It was very humiliating for
a twelve and a half year old. We were
considered Enemy Aliens. This happened to many of my Italian friends that were
born here and had to move with
their parents.
My brother Salvatore's wife, Grace Viscuso and their baby
son Joseph eight months old, moved to Walnut
Creek, Calif. while he stayed in Pittsburg to work at Columbia Steel Co. Grace
came to America when she was nine
years old and she had just turned twenty-one when this happened. She didn't
have time to get her citizenship papers.
My sister Marie was engaged to be married to Albert Del
Carlo from South San Francisco, Calif. Because he
was born in Lucca, Italy and came to America when he was eighteen months old,
and was not twenty-one years old
yet in order to get his papers, he was restricted from traveling so many miles
from his home so my sister had to visit
him when she could get a ride to San Francisco. As soon as he turned twenty-one
years old, he received his
citizenship papers and six weeks later he was drafted. He fought in Normandy
and the Battle of the Rine. He also
was able to meet his ninety year old grandfather Bezo Del Carlo while passing
through Lucca, Italy. ''HOW
IRONIC'' that they were on opposite sides in battle!
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My brother Dante joined the Navy but his boss at Columbia
Steel Co. called his commanding officer and
requested that he be deferred from the service because they needed him at his
job for the War effort.
My family brothers Dante and Salvatore, and sisters
Josephine, Gena and Marie with my father, Giuseppe
Viscuso would come to visit us on weekends when they could. It would be a very
happy day and yet, when they had
to leave, it would be very sad with many tears.
Since they confiscated all of our cameras, radios etc. we
had no way of knowing how things were progressing on
our behalf, so my mother put me on a Greyhound Bus and sent me to Pittsburgh to
find out if any news on when we
could return home was available. The news was good so they sent me back to
Concord to alert every one. I can
remember the joy and tears when I told my mother and Aunts. Momma sent me on to
alert the other families living in
a one mile radius, blocks apart from one another. I can remember knocking on
doors and shouting ''YOU CAN GO
HOME NOW!'' and the excitement of it all . . . I felt like PAUL REVERE, Italian
Style.
I am now seventy years old and am giving lectures in
schools to students from sixth grade through high school and
it is amazing at how they respond to my story. The question most asked is . . .
''You mean that this happened here
in the U.S.A.?'' And I tell them YES! AND IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN! It is hard for
them to comprehend it
because it has not been acknowledged or documented in our history books. We are
not asking for an apology nor
monetary compensation. So please consider what little we are asking for.
Thank you.
Page 52 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Ms. Scudero.
Ms. Pinza.
STATEMENT OF DORIS L. PINZA, CAPE ELIZABETH, ME
Ms. PINZA. Honorable members of the committee, ladies and
gentlemen, my name is Doris Pinza. My late
husband, Ezio Pinza, was a native Italian and an opera singer working at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York when
he was arrested and interned at Ellis Island as an enemy alien on March 12,
1942, thus opening one of the most
terrifying chapters in our lives.
I had left in my car to do an errand that morning. Ezio
was alone in an upstairs room of our home in Mamaroneck,
New York, doing paperwork at a table when he suddenly became aware that two
strange men were approaching
him. They had entered through the unlocked back door without either knocking or
ringing the doorbell. They then
walked through the lower floor and up the stairway.
One of them said, ''Are you Ezio Pinza?'' Ezio replied,
''Yes, what can I do for you?'' The men showed their FBI
identifications, and one said, ''In the name of the President of the United
States, we place you under arrest.'' Ezio
immediately stood up. He was shocked and puzzled. He asked if they would mind
waiting until his wife came back
from the village. They handed Ezio a warrant and said, ''There is plenty of
time. We intend to search your house
anyway.''
Page 53 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
When I returned to find the strange car—and men—I was
shocked to hear Ezio say to me, ''They have come to
arrest me.'' We knew that all Italians were classified as enemy aliens during
the war, but we had not heard that they
could be arrested indiscriminately as the Japanese had been. We never suspected
this could happen in the United
States.
When they had finished their search of every room,
closet, drawer, and file and found nothing of interest except a
bill of sale for our boat, they told us they were going to take Ezio to the
Foley Square Court House in Manhattan.
When they arrived there, Ezio was searched again, fingerprinted, photographed,
and questioned at length. He was
then taken by boat to Ellis Island and handed over to uniformed guards who took
away his necktie, belt, and
shoelaces. Finally, Ezio was assigned an upper cot in a huge dormitory. A
photograph of the dormitory is attached as
Exhibit A to my written statement.
I had utter confidence in my husband, and although I was
confused, I felt certain that some horrible mistake had
been made and that he would be released quickly. But I was soon told that he
could not be released until after a
hearing that would take place in 12 days time. That was chilling news. A
hearing? About what?
We were told that the United States Department of Justice
would not disclose to us what charges had been
brought against Ezio. Needless to say, that seemed to us a highly unusual and
unfair policy for an American court.
Ezio was totally innocent of any wrongdoing against the country. He was due to
receive his final citizenship papers in
4 months, and we had not the slightest idea of what allegations had been made.
How, we agonized, could we
prepare for a hearing in 12 days? What would we talk about? What allegations
did we have to rebut?
Page 54 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
While Ezio was at Ellis Island, I was allowed to visit
him once each week by taking a ferry to the Island. When it
docked, there was a great rush to get to the head of the line to enter the
facility. Then we waited patiently to have our
packages, pocketbooks, and all of our clothing inspected by the hands of a male
guard.
We met in a huge room, sitting on wood benches, and again
being watched carefully. In 15 minutes or so, a bell
signaled that it was time to leave.
At Ellis Island I found my husband in a state of deep
depression. The very next morning after his arrest, his picture
had been on the front page of The New York Times stating that he had been
arrested as an enemy alien and implying
that he might be guilty of some subversive activities. Similar articles had
also been carried in every other New York
paper and in the newspapers of every major city in the country. He was
humiliated and felt certain that his operatic
career, which depended on the goodwill of the public, was doomed.
Living as he was with untidy clothing, open latrines,
censored mail, and a lack of fresh air was also difficult for him.
He felt helpless to defend himself. Ezio suspected that jealousies within the
opera house might be at the root of any
accusations against him. But how could we know if not presented with the
charges? How could I sort it all out and
make successful arguments at a hearing in 12 days? I could not.
Since we had no idea of the charges, the attorney I went
to could only suggest taking affidavits and witnesses to
the hearing who would attest to Ezio's honesty and his apolitical nature, and
we did so. At the hearing, my father and
I spoke in more detail about Ezio's character and the fact that in 1939 he
decided and then did dispose of everything
he had ever owned in Italy including his home, three apartment houses, his car,
and all Italian investments.
Page 55 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ezio told the judges why he had decided to become an
American citizen and how he had attempted to help the
American war effort by performing, without remuneration, for the United States
Treasury Department at rallies to sell
defense bonds and for the American Red Cross in their drives to collect funds
and blood. He tried to help them
understand that he cared only about his family and his musical career. He later
told me that he was so nervous and
confused by the ordeal that he had put on the worst show of this life.
The part of the hearing that was most startling to me, as
an American, was that our attorney was not permitted to
be in the courtroom with us. Ezio and I were forced to face a stern panel
without legal assistance and without
knowledge of the charges against him. We did our best to defend against the
ghosts lined up against us. Not
surprisingly, we failed.
Two judges voted for acquittal and one did not. We were
told that Ezio would be shipped to a camp in some
distant State until the end of the war. He would never be allowed to have any
visitors, and I could send him only one
letter each month. What was he being punished for? My parents and I agreed this
could not happen in America.
To make a long story as short as possible, within a few
days I found a new attorney and with great energy on our
part and the help of friends sympathetic to Ezio's plight, we were able to
persuade Attorney General Biddle to grant
us a second hearing. Then several of Ezio's colleagues from the Opera House
stepped forward and volunteered to
tell the facts about how this drama had been invented. They testified under
oath at the second hearing about that as
well as about Ezio's character and the impossibility of his being any type of
threat to America. We presented other
evidence in Ezio's favor as well. This time, we succeeded.
Page 56 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ezio had been confined for nearly 3 months when he was
finally released. When he felt strong again, he returned
to his profession, and to our joy, audiences everywhere greeted him with
affection. Ezio had never spoken of this
episode publicly, but they seemed to have guessed the truth.
Perhaps because Ezio was a well-known person, he managed
to gain his freedom within months, rather than
years. Even so, the terror of being arrested and imprisoned without knowing the
charges against him, the fear that he
could be separated from his family for years and lose his career and the
difficult conditions on Ellis Island
contributed, I am sure, to the high blood pressure and heart ailment that
eventually took his life at the young age of
64. His brother and sister lived to the ages of 91 and 93.
On July 2, 1945, Ezio was honored to have been chosen to
sing the Star-Spangled Banner at the welcoming
home ceremonies for Generals Patton and Doolittle.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Pinza follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DORIS L. PINZA, CAPE ELIZABETH, ME
Honorable Members of the Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen.
My name is Doris Pinza. My late husband, Ezio
Pinza, was a native Italian and an opera singer working at the Metropolitan
Opera in New York when he was
arrested and interned at Ellis Island as an enemy alien on March 12, 1942, thus
opening one of the most terrifying
chapters in our lives.
Page 57 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
I had left in my car to do an errand that morning. Ezio
was alone in an upstairs room of our home in Mamaroneck,
NY doing paperwork at a table when he suddenly became aware that two strange
men were approaching him.
They had entered through the unlocked back door without
either knocking or ringing the doorbell. They then
walked through the lower floor and up the stairway.
One of them said, ''Are you Ezio Pinza?'' Ezio replied,
''Yes, what can I do for you?'' The men showed their FBI
identifications, and one said, ''In the name of the President of the United
States we place you under arrest!''
Ezio immediately stood up. He was shocked and puzzled. He
asked if they would mind waiting until his wife came
back from the village. They handed Ezio a warrant and said, ''There's plenty of
time. We intend to search your house
anyway.''
When I returned to find the strange car—and men—I was
shocked to hear Ezio say to me, ''They have come to
arrest me.''
We knew that all Italians were classified as ''enemy
aliens'' during the war, but we had not heard that they could
be arrested indiscriminately as the Japanese had been. We never suspected this
could happen in the United States.
When they had finished their search of every room,
closet, drawer and file and found nothing of interest except a
bill of sale for our boat, they told us they were going to take Ezio to the
Foley Square Court House in Manhattan.
When they arrived there, Ezio was searched again, fingerprinted, photographed
and questioned at length. He was
then taken by boat to Ellis Island and handed over to uniformed guards who took
away his necktie, belt and
shoelaces. Finally, Ezio was assigned an upper cot in a huge dormitory. A
photograph of the dormitory is attached as
Exhibit A.
Page 58 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
I had utter confidence in my husband, and although I was
confused, I felt certain that some horrible mistake had
been made and that he would be released quickly. But I was soon told that he
could not be released until after a
hearing that would take place in 12 days time—that was chilling news.
A hearing? About what?
We were told that the United States Department of Justice
would not disclose to us what charges had been
brought against Ezio! Needless to say, that seemed to us a highly unusual and
unfair policy for an American Court.
Ezio was totally innocent of any wrongdoing against the
country. He was due to receive his final citizenship papers
in four months, and we had not the slightest idea of what allegations had been
made. How, we agonized, could we
prepare for a hearing in 12 days? What would we talk about? What allegations
did we have to rebut?
While Ezio was at Ellis Island, I was allowed to visit
him once each week by taking a ferry to the Island. When it
docked, there was a great rush to get to the head of the line to enter the
facility. Then we waited patiently to have our
packages, pocketbooks and all of our clothing inspected by the hands of a male
guard.
We met in a huge room—sitting on wooden benches and
again, being watched carefully. In 15 minutes or so, a
bell signaled that it was time to leave.
Page 59 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
At Ellis Island I found my husband in a state of deep
depression. The very next morning after his arrest, his picture
had been on the front page of the New York Times stating he had been arrested
as an enemy alien and implying that
he might be guilty of some subversive activities. Similar articles had also
been carried in every other New York paper
and in the newspapers of every major city in the country. He was humiliated and
felt certain that his operatic career,
which depended on the goodwill of the public, was doomed.
Living as he was with untidy clothing, open latrines and
a lack of fresh air was also difficult for him. He felt helpless
to defend himself.
Ezio suspected that jealousies within the opera house
might be at the root of any accusations against him. But how
could we know if not presented with the charges? How could I sort it all out
and make successful arguments at a
hearing in 12 days? I couldn't!
Since we had no idea of the charges, the attorney I went
to could only suggest taking affidavits and witnesses to
the hearing who would attest to Ezio's honesty and his apolitical nature—and we
did so.
At the hearing, my father and I spoke in more detail
about Ezio's character and the fact that in 1939 he had
disposed of everything he had ever owned in Italy including his home, three
apartment houses, his car and all Italian
investments. Ezio told the judges why he had decided to become an American
citizen and how he had attempted to
help the American war effort by performing, without remuneration, for the U.S.
Treasury Department at rallies to sell
Defense Bonds and for the American Red Cross in their drives to collect funds
and blood. He tried to help them
understand that he cared only about his family and his musical career. He later
told me that he was so nervous and
confused by the ordeal that he had put on the worst show of his life.
Page 60 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
The part of the hearing that was most startling to me—as an
American—was that our attorney was not permitted
to be in the courtroom with us.
Ezio and I were forced to face a stern panel without
legal assistance and without knowledge of the charges against
him. We did our best to defend against the ghosts lined up against us. Not
surprisingly, we failed.
Two judges voted for acquittal, and one did not. We were
told that Ezio would be shipped to a camp in some
distant state until the end of the war. He would never be allowed to have any
visitors, and I could send him only one
letter each month!
What was he being punished for? My parents and I agreed this could not happen in America!
To make a long story as short as possible, within a few
days I found a new attorney and with great energy on our
part and the help of friends sympathetic to Ezio's plight, we were able to
persuade Attorney General Biddle to grant
us a second hearing. Then several of Ezio's colleagues from the Opera House
stepped forward and volunteered to
tell the facts about how this drama had been invented. They testified under
oath at the second hearing about that as
well as about Ezio's character and the impossibility of his being any type of
threat to America. We presented other
evidence in Ezio's favor as well. This time, we succeeded.
Ezio had been confined for nearly three months when he
was finally released. When he felt strong again, he
returned to his profession, and to our joy, audiences everywhere greeted him
with affection. Ezio had never spoken
of this episode publicly, but they seemed to have guessed the truth.
Page 61 PREV
PAGE TOP OF DOC
Perhaps because Ezio was a well-known person, he managed
to gain his freedom within months, rather than
years. Even so, the terror of being arrested and imprisoned without knowing the
charges against him, the fear that he
could be separated from his family for years and lose his career and the
difficult conditions on Ellis Island
contributed, I am sure, to the high blood pressure and heart ailment that
eventually took his life at the young age of
64. His brother and sister lived to the ages of 91 and 93.
On July 2, 1945, Ezio was honored to have been chosen to
sing the Star Spangled Banner at the welcoming home
ceremonies for Generals Patton and Doolittle.
Thank you.
04
EXHIBIT A
60413a.eps
This is where Ezio slept during his stay at Ellis Island—he had an upper berth.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Ms. Pinza.
Mr. de Guttadauro.
STATEMENT OF COLONEL ANGELO DE GUTTADAURO, RETIRED, SAN ANTONIO, TX
Page 62 PREV
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Mr. DE GUTTADAURO. Gentlemen, thank you having me here today.
Very briefly, my father was born in 1899 in Italy and was
drafted into the Italian army at the tender age of 17. He
immediately was sent to the front. I want to emphasize the fact that at this
time Italy was an ally of America, and Italy
was fighting with the American forces against the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. My
father fought on the front for
almost a year until he was seriously wounded. He received Italy's War Cross for
Military Valor, which was the
equivalent of our Silver Star. He then came to the United States, married my
mother, who was a native-born
American citizen, in San Francisco.
His problems began even before December 7, 1941. Under
the provisions of FOIPA, I have received a number
of documents from the Department of Justice and the FBI. I have one here dated
March 19, 1941 from the Special
Agent in Charge of the FBI in San Francisco to the Director, Mr. Hoover.
Everything from ''Dear Sir'' to ''Very
Truly Yours'' has been sanitized. Another document, dated April 20, 1941, was
an interrogation and investigation by
the FBI of my father. Again, you can see the sanitization that was done.
In these documents, going from 1941 to 1944, my father
was always referred to as having an alias. My father's
first name was Antonino, but he went by Nino. The FBI continued to refer to
Antonino Guttadauro, alias Nino. Alias
in the dictionary is defined as ''An assumed name: The swindler worked under
various aliases.'' So this gives a sinister
background to my father by having his name going from Antonino to Nino. It said
alias, and this continued.
Again, this manipulation was done by the Justice
Department and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to try to
prove a preconceived point of a subversive activity, which did not exist.
Page 63 PREV
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I have here a letter personally signed by J. Edgar
Hoover, a memorandum for Mr. Smith, LMC Smith, Chief,
Special Defense Unit of the FBI in San Francisco: ''It is recommended that this
individual be considered for custodial
detention in the event of an actual emergency,'' dated September 30, 1941,
prior to Pearl Harbor. And that is Mr.
Hoover's signature.
Mr. Hoover issued my father a copy of a custodial
detention card, which he had to use, again, as an assumed
subversive. Wendell Berge, the Assistant Attorney General of the United States,
wrote a memorandum to Mr.
Hoover regarding my father—this is February 10, 1942—stating that ''there is
not sufficient evidence upon which to
institute a criminal prosecution against the subject at this time.''
However, the FBI and Mr. Hoover continued to the point
that on September 1, 1942 he received an official order
from General DeWitt stating that he had to report to an individual exclusion
hearing board in San Francisco in less
than a month. If he failed to do so, he would be fined a penalty of $5,000
and/or 1 year in jail, or both.
Five-thousand dollars compounded quarterly at 7 percent is over $250,000 today.
I am afraid my father, as an
accountant, simply did not have that kind of money, as I am sure most of the
people treated in this fashion did not.
At the exclusion hearing, he was told in writing—and I
have the documents here—that he would not be told who
his accusers were, he would not be told what the accusations were, and he would
not be allowed to bring counsel
with him. This is, I believe, a nullification of the civil liberties we were
all granted. I would like to remind you again, at
this time my father was a citizen of the United States.
Page 64 PREV
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If I look back just a few years, that horrible happening
in Oklahoma City—the man responsible for that was
allowed to examine his witnesses, he was allowed to see evidence, he was
allowed to have counsel. My father was
not.
The exclusion hearing barred my father from over 50
percent of the United States. This is a map of the military
areas and it runs all the way from Washington State to Maine. He could not go
to any of these parts of the United
States. Attempts to extinguish his United States citizenship continued,
however, in the case entitled ''Antonino
Guttadauro, with alias, Internal Security-I, (again from J. Edgar Hoover)
Denaturalization Proceedings'' while he had
already been excluded within the United States. A report, dated May 19, 1943,
again from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, continued the denaturalization proceedings—again sanitized.
I spent almost 32 years in the service of our country—I
retired in 1991—and during that time I commanded a
nuclear warhead detachment, was a member of the Strategic Studies Institute at
the Army War College, which is our
senior think tank for the U.S. Army, and was on the personal staff of the
Supreme Allied Commander Europe
(SACEUR), and I know when we have to sanitize documents. I know when it is
reasonable to have classified
information deleted. This is not the case, especially now that we are talking
60 years after the fact. But they continue
to hide behind this veil of secrecy.
My father's exclusion order was finally rescinded, I
believe in April 1944. Between the investigations by the FBI,
the interrogations, and the exclusion, it ran from March 1941 to April 1944. So
there was a period of 3 years. In that
time, my father was an accountant. He had to find work. The first job he could
find was as a grocery clerk in Salt
Lake City, where he knew no one. It really destroyed the family fabric. And
this is something, gentlemen, that I think
should never again be repeated to any ethnic group for any reason. At least the
restraints and the due process of law
should be applied in every case.
Page 65 PREV
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I thank you for hearing me.
[The prepared statement of Colonel de Guttadauro follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF COLONEL ANGELO DE GUTTADAURO, RETIRED, SAN ANTONIO, TX
Last winter, my son Andrew, a graduate of the United
States Military Academy at West Point, sent me a copy of
Tom Brokaw's 1998 best seller, The Greatest Generation, as a Christmas present.
It is a riveting account of personal
integrity and courage as documented by the lives of Americans who were destined
to confront World War II. But I
was totally dismayed and offended that Brokaw continues to assert the widely
held canard that Italian Americans
were not persecuted during that period. His following passage makes this
fictitious position quite clear:
''Italian and German aliens living in California coastal areas were ordered
to move in early 1942 but by June of that
year the order had been rescinded, and there was no major relocation for those
groups. Italian and German
immigrants were picked up and questioned closely; they may have had some
uncomfortable moments during the war,
but they retained all their rights.''
Some moments, some rights.
My father, Nino Guttadauro, was born in Italy in 1899 and
as a teenager was commissioned an infantry second
lieutenant in the Italian armed forces. He served for over a year in combat
against the Austrian Army in World War I
until he was seriously wounded on the front lines. At that time, Italy was
allied with America, England, and France to
defeat the invading German and Austrian forces in Europe. For his gallantry in
action, he was awarded Italy's War
Cross for Military Valor, the equivalent of America's Silver Star.
Page 66 PREV
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Following the war, my father emigrated to the United
States, married my mother (a native-born American citizen),
continued his profession as an accountant, and became a naturalized American
citizen residing in San Francisco,
California. Because of his status as a veteran of World War I, he joined The
Federation of the Italian World War I
Veterans in the U.S.A., Inc., an organization very similar to America's VFW.
His later position as president of the
Federation's San Francisco branch, however, would have very damaging
consequences for him and his entire family.
Under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information-Privacy Acts (FOIPA), I have received dozens of documents
from the FBI covering the period from 19 March 1941 to 13 July 1944. A number
of these documents were signed
by John Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and by Wendell Berge, Assistant
Attorney General of the United States.
A brief summary of these documents will illustrate the unconscionable manner in
which my father's most basic civil
liberties were abused and the core principles of the Constitution were
abrogated. Even today, almost sixty years after
the fact, the names of my father's accusers to the FBI and, indeed, their very
allegations have been blacked out, or
sanitized, in these documents.
My father's interrogations by the FBI began in March 1941
and continued until September 1942. At no time was
he allowed to know the names of his accusers or the nature of their
accusations. During his 28 March 1941
interrogation, the FBI agent recorded that the ''Subject denied there was any
Fascist activity in the Italian Colony in
San Francisco'' and further noted my father's statement that ''Communism was an
international ideology and Russia
sought and would, if the chance came, inflict its system on the whole world.''
History has proven my father correct on
both counts.
Page 67 PREV
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Notwithstanding my father's consistent denials over a period
of one and a half years of any inappropriate or illegal
activities, a Board of Officers was convened by the Commanding General, Western
Defense Command and Fourth
Army, to determine if he should be issued an exclusion order prohibiting him
from living in over half of the United
States. The board was held in Room 483 of San Francisco's Whitcomb Hotel at
9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 8
September 1942. As Lt. Col. Frank E. Meek, the board president, informed my
father in writing, ''Materials in the
hands of the Board will not be made available for your inspection'' and you
will not ''be permitted to examine
witnesses.'' These are exactly the arbitrary procedures exercised by the
infamous ''Star Chamber'' courts of the
Middle Ages, and these same processes were utilized during the FBI
interrogations.
The board's decision, for which there was no appeal,
resulted in my father being served Exclusion Order F–1 at
10:18 a.m. on 29 September 1942. He was ordered to report two days later at
10:00 a.m. to a Maj. Ray Ashworth
for ''processing.'' This processing included having a photograph and
fingerprints taken and a specimen signature
supplied. Documentaries of military tribunals treating civilian citizens in
such an arbitrary manner can be seen almost
weekly on the History Channel, but most such examples were filmed over half a
century ago in Nazi Germany or
Communist Russia.
The immediate result of Exclusion Order F–1 was my
father's automatic expulsion from California, the loss of his
professional position, and, most importantly, his forced separation from his
wife, his seven-year-old daughter, and
five-year-old son. In fact, he was not only expelled from California, but he
was also prohibited from living in or
traveling to the following states:
Table 1
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Prior to departing California, my father was ordered by
Lt. Gen. J. L. DeWitt, Commanding General of Western
Defense Command and Fourth Army, ''to communicate in writing the time of your
departure, initial and ultimate
destinations, route to be followed and means of travel; upon arrival at
ultimate destination, you will report in person
the fact of your arrival and your address at such destination to the Special
Agent in Charge of the nearest office of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice.'' This military
notification and personal reporting mandate
remained in force anytime my father traveled more than five miles or changed
his residence, even in the same city.
Although an American citizen, my father was, in effect, a prisoner in his own
country.
It was impossible for my father to find qualified
accounting positions because he would have to inform prospective
employers that he was excluded on security grounds from half of the United
States. It is understandable that
employers would not trust such an individual with financial ledgers and cash
payments. After an extensive search, the
first job he was able to find following the exclusion was as a grocery clerk in
Salt Lake City, Utah. This economic
disruption and hardship, as well as the psychological scars, remained with my
father for the rest of his life.
But the entire family also suffered. Due to the swiftness
of the expulsion order, household goods were either
stored or simply abandoned. We were forced to rent, in numerous cities,
furnished apartments or homes at high
costs due to our transient status. We had become, by military fiat, a family of
involuntary gypsies. It fell upon my
mother to create an artificial home atmosphere as best she could while my
father roamed the Rocky Mountain states
(in the non-prohibited areas) searching for a living. Because of this arbitrary
and coercive action, a man's value to
himself, to his family, and to his community and society was dramatically and
permanently diminished.
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Three years after my father's initial FBI interrogation
in March 1941, his Exclusion Order F–1 was finally
cancelled and rescinded effective 13 March 1944.
Despite the hardships and injustices inflicted on a loyal
citizen by his government, my father was always proud of
my decision to enter the United States Army from which I was honorable retired
as a colonel after almost thirty-two
years of commissioned service.
Had he lived, my father would have been a centenarian
this year. By exposing the indignities he was forced to
endure, you can relay to his spirit, and to all citizens, that our country is
truly based on liberty and justice for all. Not
only is this the right thing to do, it is the American thing to do.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Colonel.
Mr. WATT. Mr. Chairman, would it be appropriate to move
at this point that all of these attachments that have
been referred to be made an official part of the record so that we can get
copies of them into the record?
Mr. CANADY. Without objection, all the materials referred to will be made a part of the record.
[The referenced documentation follows:]
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Mr. CANADY. Mr. DiMaggio.
STATEMENT OF DOMINIC DIMAGGIO, OCEAN RIDGE, FL
Mr. DIMAGGIO. Mr. Chairman, I am referred to as the
little professor, due to my short stature and large
glasses, and to the fact that I look more like a scholar than an athlete.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am pleased
to be here today to participate in this hearing. This
legislation, the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act, is
important in the Italian-American
community, and it is important to me.
I am here today in hopes that we can bring to light the
tragic events of the past and honor those that had to endure
them. Half-way through the 1942 baseball season, I enlisted in the United
States Navy. The Navy was very, very
reluctant to accept me because of my eye deficiency, but after a long
conversation with the optometrist that examined
me, I convinced him that he should draft a letter, have it signed by all the
members of the Federal building in
Massachusetts, send it to the War Department in Washington, D.C. recommending
to them that they accept me on
the basis that perhaps my athletic ability offsets some of my eye deficiency.
That was done, and in due time I was
accepted in the United States Navy.
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And it was an honor to serve my country. I gladly put my
baseball career on hold to do so. But I had no idea that
while I was away fighting for my country, the United States Government declared
Italian Americans enemy aliens. It
saddens me to think that my mother and dad were considered enemy aliens by the
country they adored so very
much.
I was not the only son who came home from the war to find
that their parents or other members of their family had
suddenly become enemy aliens. Over 500,000 Italians served in the U.S. Armed
Forces. Many of these brave
soldiers were fighting to protect the very rights and privileges evoked from
their families. In fact, there are several
accounts describing how some Italian Americans, so saddened and shamed by their
enemy alien status, ended their
life. Should the deaths of these innocent people go unnoticed?
I, too, feel we should honor those who endured these
terrible injustices by at the very least acknowledging that
they did happen. I remember my dad was forbidden from fishing or even visiting
his friends at the wharf because it
was a prohibited zone. I do not know the extent, but I am sure that Dad was
terribly hurt after his experience as an
enemy alien.
A number of people affected by these events will never be
known, and the effect on the Italian-American
community can never be measured. What we can do is acknowledge these terrible
events and work to ensure that it
will never happen again.
I want to express my strong support for the legislation
before us today and urge the committee to move this bill
forward.
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Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. DiMaggio follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DOMINIC DIMAGGIO, OCEAN RIDGE, FL
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I am pleased to
be here today to participate in this hearing. This
legislation, the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act, is
important to the Italian American
community and it is important to me. I am here today in hopes that we can bring
to light the tragic events of the past
and honor those who had to endure them.
After completing the 1942 baseball season I enlisted in
the United States Navy. It was an honor to serve my
country and I gladly put my baseball career on hold to do so. However, I had no
idea that while I was away fighting
for my country, the United States government declared Italian Americans enemy
aliens. It saddens me to think that
my mother and father were considered enemy aliens by the country they adored so
much.
I was not the only son who came home from the war to find
that their parents, or other members of their family,
had suddenly become enemy aliens. Over 500,000 Italians served in the United
States Armed Forces. Many of
these brave soldiers were fighting to protect the very rights and privileges
revoked from their families. In fact, their
are several accounts describing how some Italian Americans, so saddened and
shamed by their enemy alien status,
ended their lives. Should the deaths of these innocent people go unnoticed. I
think we should honor those who
endured these terrible injustices by, at the very least, acknowledging that
they happened.
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I remember my father was forbidden from fishing or even
visiting his friends at the wharf because it was in a
prohibited zone. I do not know the extent, but I am sure my father was changed
after his experience as an enemy
alien. The number of people affected by these events will never be known and
the effect on the Italian American
community can never be measured. What we can do is acknowledge these terrible events
and work to ensure that it
will never happen again. I want to express my strong support for the
legislation before us today and urge the
Committee to move this bill forward.
Mr. CANADY. Thank you, Mr. DiMaggio.
Mr. Di Stasi.
STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE DI STASI, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ITALIAN HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION, WESTERN REGIONAL CHAPTER, BOLINAS, CA
Mr. DI STASI. Thank you.
I just wanted to answer a question that was raised earlier.
First, I suppose I should greet the committee. I would
really like to thank Chairman Hyde. I wrote recently,
''When will Italian Americans get their hearing?'' in a piece I wrote about
Ezio Pinza. I would like to thank Chairman
Hyde and Chairman Canady for making this hearing possible now. It is an honor
to be here.
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I would also like to thank Representatives Lazio and
Engel for introducing this legislation on behalf of millions of
Italian Americans.
I wanted to correct or amend what somebody said earlier.
The Italian Americans interned were all non-citizens.
That is, those who were put in internment camps were non-citizens. There were
citizens who were affected, as we
just heard from Colonel de Guttadauro. They were excluded from certain military
zones. But the people who were
interned, as far as we know, were all non-citizens.
The truth of the matter, however, is that we really do
not know who all those people were because we have not
been able to get their names. That is one of the reasons for this legislation.
Even 50 years later, we still do not know
all the people who were interned because we have to have the exact names of the
internees before we can get any
records from the FBI, and we do not have all those names.
I would like to focus in my remarks on two wrongs that I
feel were committed during this time. One, the actual
restrictions and violations that took place, and secondly, the denial for over
50 years that these events ever
happened. In fact, the United States Government's official response has been
that it targeted only selected
individuals, which is equivalent to saying that the restrictions on the Italian
Americans only hit those who had done
something wrong. I believe this is a further wrong.
The events themselves come in two different categories.
The first is those who were targeted as individuals,
however wrongly—that is, the people who were interned and the people who were
excluded from military
zones—and second, those who were targeted en masse because they were Italian.
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First, the internees and the excludees. I think the main
point to bear in mind here is that people were interned and
excluded from military zones for no action that they committed. They had been
put on the list since 1939 of so-called
dangerous individuals. That ''dangerous'' categorization was gleaned from
newspapers. The FBI simply looked to see
who were the most prominent people in Italian-American communities and in most
cases put people on that list. They
were members of the Federation of Italian War Veterans, which had fought on the
side of the United States in World
War I. They were broadcasters, teachers in Italian schools.
When they were arrested, as we have already heard, they
were never told of any charges against them because
there were no charges against them. They were arrested for what the Government
thought they might do. They had
no lawyers.
So the first wrong is that their 14th Amendment right to
due process was violated. These people were arrested for
what they might do, not for what they had done.
Secondly, I think it is important to note that the whole
basis for their apprehension was later repudiated by the
Attorney General of the United States, Francis Biddle. He said in a memo to J.
Edgar Hoover in 1943, ''The
Department fulfills its proper functions by investigating the activities of
persons who may have violated the law. It is
not aided in this work by classifying persons as to dangerousness. The notion
that it is possible to make a valid
determination as to how dangerous a person is in the abstract and without
reference to time, environment, and other
relevant circumstances, is impractical, unwise, and dangerous.'' So in fact,
the Attorney General repudiated the entire
process upon which Italian Americans were deemed dangerous and interned and
excluded.
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The same is true, of course, of excludees, except that
they were citizens of the United States. They had done
nothing wrong. They were exiled and their lives and reputations ruined on the
basis of hearsay and accusations about
past associations.
The second category of violations of civil liberties are
the raids on homes and the evacuations from prohibited
zones. Now we come to people violated not as individuals, but violated as a
group because of their Italian origins.
They were permanent resident aliens and citizens, but most of them were
permanent resident aliens. I think it is
important to note that the Civil Rights Act of 1988 specifically applies to
permanent resident aliens of Japanese
extraction. I think it is important that we know that the same liberties must
apply to the resident aliens of Italian
extraction.
First, the raids and searches on people's homes—these had
started from the very beginning, late in 1941, but they
were stepped up in February 1942 in response to a demand by the
military—namely, General DeWitt, of the
Western Defense Command—he wanted blanket authority to search all homes in
given ethnic neighborhoods without
a warrant. The Attorney General of the United States refused. He said that you
still needed a warrant to search
homes. But on January 4th, in a memo which is contained in Personal Justice
Denied, the record of the Japanese
internment story, he capitulated on probable cause. He said, ''The question of
probable cause will be met only by the
statement that an alien enemy is a resident in such premises.'' That is,
premises that authorities wanted to search.
Probable cause means that—what this meant was that no
evidence of a crime was needed, no suspicious activity
was needed. The operating principle had become, if you were Italian-born and
lacking U.S. citizenship, it is probable
that you have committed a crime and your home can be searched. Thousands of
homes were so searched and
property was confiscated that is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Many of
these homes were owned by citizens,
but it did not matter because the operating principle was that if an enemy
alien lived there—he did not have to own
the place and did not have to be in charge of the place—as long as he lived
there, the entire house was subject to
search and seizure.
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This happened to my own uncle in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
He was an enemy alien, his home was searched, and
the radio was taken. And I never learned about this until 2 years after I had
been working on this story.
One might say that the Government had to search these
homes. Let me read to you a memo that was written by
the same Attorney General—Attorney General Biddle—sent to President Roosevelt
in May of that year—in which
he made it plain that these searches were really to no useful purpose. He said,
''We have not uncovered, through
these searches, any dangerous persons that we could not have otherwise known
about. We have not found among
all the sticks of dynamite and gunpowder any evidence that any of it was to be
used in a manner helpful to our
enemies. We have not found a camera which we have reason to believe was for use
in espionage.'' In other words,
all of these violations were for no purpose.
Finally, the evacuations. I have a photograph I would
like to show you that gives you an idea of who the people
were that had to leave their homes. This is a photograph of the people from
Pittsburg, California. These are all
people in advanced years. They are all Italian immigrants. Most of them could
not speak English. These are the
people—in the number of almost 2,000—who had to leave one single town in
Pittsburg, California at this time.
So these prohibited zones were set up. And what is
important to notice about this evacuation—they had to leave
by February 24th—is that 10,000 Italian Americans had to leave their homes.
Nothing gets put in the books about
this. You can read through Personal Justice Denied, you can read about all the
accounts of what happened to the
Japanese Americans, but all the emphasis is on the debate—and rightly so—of
what should be done with the
Japanese Americans, but the fact that all these Italian Americans had to leave
their homes—you never find anything
mentioned. That is why nobody really knows about this story.
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Thus, with these two categories—raids and searches and
evacuations which were done to people en masse—the
Government's position that only individuals were affected is nonsense.
Finally, the denial of all this. Books have routinely
overlooked the evacuations, the fact that 600,000 Italian
Americans were affected by these measures, and the fact that the military
seriously considered—as I think we heard
before—moving millions of people from the east coast of the United States. The
reason that movement was stopped
was not because it was unjust. It was stopped because the President and the
rest of the Government understood that
the economic and political implications of moving that many people would have
been detrimental to the war effort, if
not devastating to the war effort. That is why those people were not moved, but
the military wanted to move those
people.
In 1992, the Commission for Social Justice of the Order of
Sons of Italy wrote to the President of the United
States asking for an apology for these events. The Justice Department wrote
back to the Sons of Italy a letter which
I have here. The relevant information is this: ''According to the Commission's
report, a relatively small number of
ethnic Germans and Italians received individual exclusion orders, in contrast
to the mass detention of Japanese
Americans.'' That is the Government's official position so far. This did not
happen to Italian Americans en masse.
This is a complete misrepresentation of what happened to
Italian Americans and it gets perpetuated daily. The
latest comes in Tom Brokaw's 1998 book, The Greatest Generation, in which he
does admit that Italian and
German aliens had to move, but he says, ''There was no major relocation for
these groups. They may have had some
uncomfortable moments during the war, but they retained all their rights.''
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This was 1998, after our exhibit had been travelling for
5 years. Uncomfortable moments is what Mr. Brokaw tells
the American public about the Italian-American experience. This trivializes and
flat-out denies the truth of what
happened to Italian Americans during the wartime. And this denial of a whole
people's story must stop.
That is what this hearing is about. That is what H.R. 2442 is about. I thank you very much for listening.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Di Stasi follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE DI STASI, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ITALIAN
HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION, WESTERN REGIONAL CHAPTER, BOLINAS, CA
Space prohibits me from rehearsing the entire history of
the internment, restrictions and evacuation of Italian
American resident aliens during World War II. That story is well and briefly
told in the 32-page booklet Una Storia
Segreta. Here I will only remark that more Italian Americans—600,000
nationwide—were affected by the basic
wartime restrictions than any other group. An additional 52,000 in California
had to abide by an 8 PM to 6 AM
curfew which amounted to virtual house arrest. And an estimated 10,000 were
forced to move from homes and
businesses that were located in the ''prohibited zone'' set up on the West
Coast in February of 1942.
The above facts have been routinely denied in history
books, in newspaper stories, and in official responses by
the U.S. Government for over 50 years—which is the reason for this hearing, for
HR 2442, and indeed for the
exhibit Una Storia Segreta, which has been traveling and astonishing those who
see it for five years now. The
general claim has been that no action was taken against Italian resident aliens
as a group, but only against selected
individuals—a claim which suggests that only those few who were ''guilty'' were
affected. What I would like to show
is that this claim is untrue. What I would like to focus on are the several
levels of civil liberties violations suffered by
Italian Americans during those years.
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To begin with the internment of the so-called 'dangerous'
aliens. Aside from the fact that not a single case of
sabotage or espionage was ever brought against an Italian alien at this time,
the remarks of Attorney General Francis
Biddle in 1943 suggest that the whole process by which they were classified was
flawed from the outset. In a memo
to J. Edgar Hoover dated July 16, 1943, the Attorney General stated what should
be obvious: The department
fulfills its proper functions by investigating the activities of persons who
may have violated the law. It is not
aided in this work by classifying persons as to dangerousness . . . the system
is inherently unreliable. The
evidence used for the purpose of making the classifications was inadequate; the
standards applied to the
evidence for the purpose of making the classifications were defective; and
finally, the notion that it is possible
to make a valid determination as to how dangerous a person is in the abstract
and without reference to time,
environment, and other relevant circumstances, is impractical, unwise, and
dangerous. If this were not enough, it
is necessary only to look at the experience of Ezio Pinza, the great opera and
musical star. In his autobiography,
Pinza describes the process whereby he was arrested and given a 'hearing,' and
it is chilling. He was never told what
he was charged with. Instead, he was expected to convince a hearing board of
his innocence, without knowing what
he was accused of, without benefit of a lawyer. Pinza failed in his first try
at this, but managed to win his freedom in a
second. Upwards of 250 Italian Americans like him did not, and had to spend two
years in internment, not for what
they had done, but for what they might do.
It is hard to imagine such violations of basic rights
today. Likewise, it is hard to imagine other arrests being
sustained—arrests for violation of curfew laws, for example. One man, Aristide
Bertolini of Santa Rosa CA, was
arrested for returning late from delivering an order for tomatoes. He spent two
months in detention. Another, Marino
Sichi, of Arcata was arrested for visiting his girlfriend after hours. He was
put behind barbed wire for several months.
Did such severe measures help the war effort?
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Egregious as they were, the above instances of injustice
belong to a class we might call ''individual injustices.'' The
government targeted single individuals for a 'reason', be it an action or a
presumed intention. Indeed, when Italian
Americans have pressed government officials about the wartime violations, their
usual response is to take refuge in
precisely this justification: 'no action targeted Italian Americans as a
group,' they say; actions were taken against
individuals who, presumably, had done something wrong. But the next two
categories of action cast doubt on this
justification. In both the evacuation of Italian Americans from 'prohibited
zones,' and in the raiding of homes to search
for contraband, people were targeted simply because they were non-citizens or,
in some cases, because their names
were Italian.
Start with the evacuation. In late January and early
February, the Justice Department, under intense prodding
from the War Department, agreed to a plan which would establish 'prohibited
zones'—mostly near the coast, or
defense plants, military installations, power plants, etc.—from which all enemy
aliens would be banned. Those who
lived in such zones would have to move, most by February 24, or face arrest.
Because of demographics, those most affected were Italian
Americans. The entire town of Pittsburg on the
Sacramento delta was declared off limits, and nearly 2,000 Italian aliens had
to move. Many had been legal residents
of America for fifty years. Ninety-seven-year-old Placido Abono had nearly one
hundred American-born children,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but he still had to be removed—on a
stretcher. Catherine Buccellato had
three sons in the service, yet she still had to move. In Monterey, Rosina
Trovato found out one day that her son and
nephew, both in the U.S. Navy, had been killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor;
the next day she was told she had to
leave her Monterey home.
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U.S. citizens were also affected. Rose Scudero,
American-born, was twelve years old when her mother, a
non-citizen, was ordered to leave. Rose had to accompany her because she was
under fourteen years of age. Yet at
least they found a house to stay in. Bettina Troia of Pittsburg had such
difficulty finding a place that she ended up
living in a chicken coop.
Those with jobs in prohibited zones lost them. Fifteen
hundred fishermen in San Francisco, among them Joe
DiMaggio's father, were idled because the wharf was off limits to non-citizens.
Fishermen in Monterey, Arcata,
Boston and many other ports were similarly idled; many had their boats
requisitioned by the Navy. Al Bronzini's
father lost his vegetable stand because it was on the other side of the
prohibited line in Oakland.
What must be borne in mind is that none of these
individuals, nor the nearly ten thousand more like them, had
done anything wrong. They were part of a group—Italian immigrants—whose country
of origin had become the
enemy. As part of that group, their rights were summarily stripped from them
when they were branded 'enemy
aliens.' But though this was technically ''legal,'' was it necessary? or just?
If parents who have given their sons to fight
and die for their country do not deserve the full protections of that country's
laws, then who does?
Lastly, we must turn to the raids and searches of aliens
in their homes, which began in December, but which
were stepped up to a much higher level in February of 1942, due mainly to the release
of the Roberts Report, which
put the blame for the U.S. military's defeat at Pearl Harbor on fifth-column
activities by Japanese residents of Hawaii.
Though these allegations were later proven to be false, at the time they caused
panic among officials on the West
Coast and in the Western Defense Command. Gen. John DeWitt demanded that the
Justice Department issue
blanket authority for law officers to enter the homes of all aliens and search
for 'contraband' such as radios that might
be used to signal the enemy. In fact, DeWitt requested that authorities search
entire neighborhoods for contraband.
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Attorney General Biddle vehemently objected, knowing that
this would be a serious violation of rights. ''Under no
circumstances will the Department of Justice conduct mass raids on alien
enemies,'' he said. The Attorney General
knew that protecting the individual from searches without a warrant was one of
the bedrock rights inscribed in the
Constitution's 4th Amendment. Under our system, law officers cannot search
someone just because he looks guilty,
or because he fits a certain ethnic or racial profile, or because he lives in a
certain neighborhood. They must have a
reason to suspect him of a crime (probable cause), and state that reason in
applying for a warrant. Should the Army
insist on searches without warrants, said Biddle, he would go directly to the
President to fight the request.
The Attorney General won this part of the battle. But he
won it at a price. There would be no mass raids on ethnic
neighborhoods. There would be no ''blanket authority'' to enter alien premises
and ''search and seize immediately
without waiting for normal processes of law,'' as General DeWitt wanted. But
there would be a compromise, or,
more precisely, a capitulation, and it would be the first in a series of
capitulations by the Justice Department which
would eventually lead to the mass relocation of Japanese Americans.
That capitulation was this: the Attorney General of the
United States wrote in a memo on January 4 that, when
seeking a warrant to search any residence,
The question of probable cause will be met only by the statement that an
alien enemy is resident in such
premises. (Personal Justice Denied, Chapter 2, note 81)
In other words, an FBI agent had only to say, 'An enemy
alien lives here,' and a judge or a U.S. Attorney would
issue a warrant to search that place. No evidence of a crime was needed. No
suspicious activity was needed. The
enemy alien did not need to even own the place, or live there alone—which many
did not, most living with their
citizen families. The operating principle had become, If you are Italian-born
and lacking U.S. citizenship, it is
probable that you are violating the law.
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That is nothing less than to infer guilt by birth; guilt
by ethnic origin. And just such inferences were made by law
enforcement officials. Frank Brogno remembers that his father, an American
citizen, but one well-known to be
Italian, had his house in Gary, Indiana searched and his prize Philco radio
taken. His only crime: being Italian.
Brogno was not alone. During February of 1942 and thereafter,
the FBI and local police did indeed redouble their
raids in Italian neighborhoods. Usually an alien resided in the target home,
and usually officials had a warrant, but
many law officers entered without one. Inside, they turned homes inside out,
seizing short wave radios most often,
and suggesting to the press that this work of uncovering 'dangerous' items was
both vital and just. But aside from the
fear, the loss of prized possessions, the fact that many such homes were owned
by U.S. citizens whose constitutional
rights were violated, there is the statement by the Attorney General of the
United States to take into account. For
when he wrote his autobiography, In Brief Authority, Francis Biddle made it
plain that these raids netted virtually
nothing of value. Most of the 'contraband,' he writes, was harmless, and he
pointed this out in a memorandum to the
President in May, 1942:
We have not uncovered through these searches any dangerous persons that we
could not otherwise have
known about. . . . We have not found among all the sticks of dynamite and
gunpowder any evidence that any of
it was to be used in a manner helpful to our enemies. We have not found a
camera which we have reason to
believe was for use in espionage. (p. 221)
In short, the 4th amendment rights of countless Italian
Americans were violated to no useful purpose. The net
result was simply fear, humiliation, and a legacy of shame.
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Some have tried to take refuge in another 'explanation'
for these violations—that they took place only in California
where the Japanese invasion of nearby Hawaii had caused panic. But several
documents show that the War
Department intended to impose similar prohibited zones and evacuations on the
East Coast and in the Southern
Command as well. Indeed, the U.S. Senate held hearings on exactly this; the
testimony therein (U.S. Senate Report
of Proceedings held before Committee on Military Affairs, S. 2352, March 13,
1942) makes clear that the Army
was ready to evacuate many more thousands of Italian Americans in the eastern
and the southern United States.
It is possible to bring this debate close to home. A memo
from the Attorney General to the President on April 23,
1942 refers to two proposals regarding enemy aliens in Washington, DC. One
proposal, to fire all such people
working in Washington, was opposed by FBI Director Hoover on the grounds that
the 'dangerous' ones were
already in custody and the rest were being kept under surveillance. The other,
a proposal to remove all 3500 alien
enemies from the District of Columbia (as happened during WWI), was favored by
Hoover, who suggested it was
needed both for the safety of public officials and to relieve wartime
overcrowding. Biddle's memo objected thus:
If this Department evacuates alien enemies from the District, the
Army and Navy will be encouraged to
evacuate much larger numbers from the West and East coast areas where most of
them live. If the Government
finds them too dangerous to have in Washington, employers cannot be expected to
keep them in industry. We
should not make more untenable our present awkward position of discrimination
against aliens in public
employment and insisting that private employers not do likewise . . . (FDR
Library)
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The Attorney General won this argument as well. Had he
not, Italian American waiters in Washington hotels,
workers in government, and residents would have been subjected to the same humiliation
already endured by those
in California. Once begun, the same removal policy could have spread to the
massive populations to the north.
In fact, a close look at the record indicates that this
consideration—that further removals would spread to the
massive Italian American populations of the northeast, jeopardizing not only
the war economy and morale, but the
election chances of Franklin Roosevelt in the upcoming election—became a
paramount reason for limiting the
extreme measures to the West Coast, and for the ultimate lifting of
restrictions on Italian aliens in October 1942. Not
the principle of justice, that is, but economic and political considerations
saved the day for millions of Italian
American immigrants.
It is time for the principle of justice to operate.
Though the wartime injustices cannot be erased, they can at least
be acknowledged by passage of HR 2442. Thus can a form of justice, albeit
lesser, albeit 50 years late, finally be
done.
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
July 16, 1943
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MEMORANDUM FOR
HUGH B. COX, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
AND
J. EDGAR HOOVER, DIRECTOR
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
I refer to Mr. L.M.C. Smith's memorandum to me dated June
28, 1943, which reviews the history, development,
and meaning of the Special Case work and of the danger classifications that
were made as a part of that work.
After full re-consideration of these individual danger
classifications, I am satisfied that they serve no useful
purpose. The detention of alien enemies is being dealt with under the
procedures established by the Alien Enemy
Control Unit. The Special Case procedure has been found to be valueless and is
not used in that connection. There is
no statutory authorization or other present justification for keeping a
''custodial detention'' list of citizens. The
Department fulfills its proper functions by investigating the activities of
persons who may have violated the law. It is
not aided in this work by classifying persons as to dangerousness.
Apart from these general considerations, it is now clear
to me that this classification system is inherently unreliable.
The evidence used for the purpose of making the classifications was inadequate;
the standards applied to the
evidence for the purpose of making the classifications were defective; and
finally, the notion that it is possible to
make a valid determination as to how dangerous a person is in the abstract and
without reference to time,
environment, and other relevant circumstances, is impractical, unwise, and
dangerous.
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For the foregoing reasons I am satisfied that the
adoption of this classification system was a mistake that should be
rectified for the future. Accordingly, I direct that the classifications
heretofore made should not be regarded as
classification of dangerousness or as a determination of fact in any sense. In
the future, they should not be used for
any purpose whatsoever. Questions raised as to the status or activities of a
particular person should be disposed of
by consideration of all available information, but without reference to any
classification heretofore made.
A copy of this memorandum should be placed in the file of
each person who has hitherto been given a
classification. In addition, each card upon which a classification appears
should be stamped with the following
language:
''THIS CLASSIFICATION IS UNRELIABLE. IT IS HEREBY CANCELLED, AND SHOULD NOT
BE
USED AS A DETERMINATION OF DANGEROUSNESS OR OF ANY OTHER FACT. (SEE
MEMORANDUM OF JULY 16, 1943 FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO HUGH B. COX AND J.
EDGAR HOOVER).''
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice,
Civil Rights Division,
Washington, DC, June 25, 1992.
Mr. RICHARD F. ARMENTO, President,
Social Justice Commission,
Palm Springs, CA.
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DEAR MR. ARMENTO: This is in response to your recent letter
written to President Bush regarding the
internment and relocation of Italo-Americans during World War II. Your letter
has been forwarded to the Office of
Redress Administration for response.
The Office of Redress Administration has been established
within the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department
of Justice to implement the redress provisions of the Civil Liberties Act of
1988. The Act authorizes payments to
American citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who were
evacuated, relocated or interned in
the United States during World War II.
According to the 1982 report Personal Justice Denied, by
the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians, the evacuation, relocation and internment was ''executed
against 120,000 people without
individual review, and exclusion was continued without regard for their
demonstrated loyalty to the United States.''
These orders were executed against United States citizens and permanent
resident aliens of Japanese ancestry.
Congress reiterated the Commission's findings in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 by recognizing that
a grave injustice was done to both citizens and permanent resident aliens of
Japanese ancestry . . . [and] these
actions were carried out without adequate security reasons and without any acts
of sabotage or espionage
documented by the Commission.
According to the Commission's report, a relatively small
number of ethnic Germans and Italians received individual
exclusion orders in contrast to the mass detention of Japanese Americans (see
attached excerpt from Personal
Justice Denied).
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Based on this finding, the Commission recommended that
Congress limit compensation to individuals of Japanese
ancestry. Congress incorporated this recommendation into the Civil Liberties
Act of 1988. Thank you for your
inquiry.
Sincerely,
John R. Dunne, Assistant Attorney General,
Civil Rights Division.
Enclosure
60413a1.eps
Some of the Italian Americans forced to move from Pittsburg, CA. Photos like
these were published in the local
newspaper.
Mr. HYDE [assuming Chair]. Thank you very much, Mr. Di Stasi.
Mr. Canady has had to go to another meeting, but he will return. Meanwhile, I will try to fill in.
Our next panelist is Anthony E. LaPiana, of Lombard,
Illinois. He is a very valued constituent of mine and he is
here on behalf of the National Italian American Council. He is the gentleman
who very forcefully brought this entire
sad saga to my attention and is very instrumental in our being here today.
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I want to say this before I forget, in the record I would
like to get copies, if possible, Colonel, of the
correspondence that was so sharply redacted. Time has now passed and I would
like to resubmit those to the
Director of the FBI to see if he would submit unredacted copies.
Mr. DE GUTTADAURO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would be happy to do that.
Mr. HYDE. Maybe we can get a practical result from these
hearings as well as the importance of getting the story
told.
Mr. LaPiana.
STATEMENT OF ANTHONY E. LA PIANA, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL ITALIAN AMERICAN
COUNCIL, LOMBARD, IL
Mr. LAPIANA. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am here today
to seek your assistance in passing H.R. 2442. I
believe the passage of this bill will not only improve the quality of life of
all Italians globally, but will also raise the level
of awareness on how different cultures should be treated in the future in
American society.
The date March 4, 1999 will remain in my memory for the
rest of my life. It was a day of not only complete and
utter shock to me, but amazement, and most importantly a rude awakening. While
during my years living in our great
country I had experienced bigotry toward my nationality, I would have never
imagined an outrageous act of reckless
behavior would have occurred in the United States of America by its Government.
We sincerely hope that today's
date, October 26, 1999, marks the start of a significant day in the historical
record.
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Many of those who suffered the abuse passed down on them
by the same Government in a moment of peril are
still screaming silently inside themselves for justice. This day, October 26,
1999, is a great day in our Nation's
history, for finally those 600,000 plus Italians who experienced injustice,
branded enemy aliens by the same
Government that they served to protect, will be heard.
It took an article in a major Chicago newspaper, written
by a man of character and courage, Raymond Coffey, to
ignite the fire inside an emerging group of activists to engage themselves in a
political battle that has been long
overdue. Activists from across this country worked together in unity to bring
these hearings before the citizens of our
Nation.
To say my experiences of the last 9 months have all been
positive and filled with joy would be a lie. I cannot tell
this committee how much sadness I have had to endure day after day listening to
hundreds and hundreds of Italian
Americans expressing their anger and sorrow about the way we, as a culture, are
treated by our Government, and by
the Hollywood bigots who have a field day depicting Italians negatively in
movie films.
I mention the Hollywood media issue, not because I
believe this body is responsible for changing the portrayal of
stereotypes in films, but to demonstrate that the same attitudes which led to
the internment of innocent citizens still
exists today.
Mr. Chairman, the Italian people are outraged at the way they
have been treated by their Government. May I
make a very strong recommendation, sir? Please, do something to help correct
these unwarranted acts of injustice
that a culture has had to endure without justification.
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On a daily basis, activists as well as organizers worked
the streets in the rain, heat, and well into the late hours of
the night bringing this important issue to the forefront of the minds of
Americans across this Nation. Italian Americans
and other cultures cared enough to donate their time away from families working
on a cause that they felt in their
hearts was worth sacrificing for.
Mr. Chairman and other members of this committee, allow
me to take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
express myself before our Nation. I am proud to be Italian and I am proud of
the Italian people. The activists in this
movement were astonished at how many people reacted with such vigor.
Italians and other cultures alike clamored to sign petitions.
They are still arriving at a tally of 50 to 250 per day.
Our movement continues to grow rapidly and with intensity. The Italian people
believe these hearings will hold a
better future for all Italians globally.
While always confident that our goal would be obtained,
at times there were doubts. You see, this movement had
no political clout, had no PAC money, and had no corporate connections. We had
only ourselves to throw into the
battle. More importantly, we had hopes, and we believed this day would come.
I would like to end my remarks today by thanking Chairman
Hyde, Chairman Canady, and each of you for
allowing me the time to address this issue. We know that there are many issues
competing for your valuable time and
we appreciate the attention and support you have given us. Once again, I ask
that you draw on your sense of fairness
and compassion, and support H.R. 2442 to help set the historical record
straight.
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Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. LaPiana follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ANTHONY E. LA PIANA, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL ITALIAN
AMERICAN COUNCIL, LOMBARD, IL
Good morning Mr. Chairman. I am here today to seek your
assistance in passing Bill HR 2442. I would like to
thank the honorable chairman Hyde, and Canady, as well as each member of this
committee for the opportunity to
address this esteemed body.
I believe the passage of this bill will not only improve
the quality of life for all Italians globally, but will also raise the
level of awareness on how different cultures should be treated in the future in
American Society.
The date March 4, 1999, will remain in my memory for the
rest of my life. It was a day of not only complete and
utter shock to me, but amazement, and most importantly a rude awakening. While
during my years living in our great
country I had experienced bigotry towards my nationality, I would have never
imagined an outrageous act of reckless
behavior would have occurred in the United States of America by its government.
We sincerely hope that today's
date, October 26, 1999 marks the start of a significant day in the historical
record.
Many of those who suffered the abuse passed down on them
by the same government in a moment of peril are still
screaming silently inside themselves for justice. This day October 26th, 1999,
is a great day in our nations history, for
finally those six hundred thousand plus Italians who experienced injustice,
branded enemy aliens by the same
government that they served to protect, will be heard.
Page 96 PREV
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It took an article in a major Chicago newspaper written
by a man of character, and courage, Raymond Coffey, to
ignite the fire inside an emerging group of activists to engage themselves in a
political battle that has been long
overdue. Activists from across this country worked together in unity to bring
these hearings before the citizens of our
nation.
To say my experiences for the last nine months have all
been positive, and filled with joy would be a lie. I cannot
tell this committee how much sadness I have had to endure day-after-day
listening to hundreds and hundreds of
Italian-Americans expressing their anger and sorrow about the way we as a
culture are treated by our government,
and by the Hollywood bigots who have a field day depicting Italians negatively
in movie films.
I mention the Hollywood media issue not because I believe
this body is responsible for changing the portrayal of
stereotypes in films, but to demonstrate that the same attitudes which led to
the internment of innocent citizens still
exists today.
Mr. Chairman, the Italian people are outraged at the way
they have been treated by their government. May I
make a very strong recommendation?, sir. Please, do something to help correct
these unwarranted acts of injustice
that a culture has had to endure without justification.
On a daily basis, activists as well as organizers worked
the streets in the rain, heat, and well into the late hours of
the night bringing this important issue to the forefront of the minds of
Americans across this nation. Italian-Americans
and other cultures cared enough to donate their time away from families working
on a cause that they felt in their
hearts was worth sacrificing for.
Page 97 PREV
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Mr. Chairman, and other members of this committee, allow
me to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to
express myself before our nation. ''I am proud to be Italian'', and ''I am
proud of the Italian people''. The activists in
this movement were astonished at how many people reacted with such vigor.
Italians, and other cultures alike, clammered to sign
petitions. They are still arriving at a tally of 50 to 250 per day.
Our movement continues to grow rapidly, and with intensity. The Italian people
believe these hearings will hold a
better future for all Italians globally.
While always confident that our goal would be obtained,
at times there were doubts. You see, this movement had
no political clout, had no pac money, and had no corporate connections. We had
only ourselves to throw into the
battle. More importantly, we had hopes, and we believed this day would come.
I would like to end my remarks today by thanking chairman
Hyde, and Canady, and each of you for allowing me
the time to address this issue. We know that there are many issues competing
for your valuable time and we
appreciate the attention and support you have given us. Once again I ask that
you draw on your sense of fairness,
and compassion, and support Bill HR 2442 to help set the historical record
straight.
Thank You.
Mr. HYDE. Thank you very much, Mr. LaPiana.
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Our next witness is Matthew DiDomenico, Sr., who is the
executive vice president of the National Italian
American Foundation. NIAF is a non-profit organization representing an
estimated 20 million Americans of Italian
descent.
We are pleased to hear from Mr. DiDomenico.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW DIDOMENICO, SR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL
ITALIAN AMERICAN FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. DIDOMENICO. Good morning and thank you, Mr. Chairman
and distinguished members of the House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution.
My name is Matthew DiDomenico, Sr., and I am the
executive vice president of the National Italian American
Foundation.
The NIAF is a non-profit organization based here in
Washington, D.C. and we represent an estimated 20 million
Americans of Italian descent, the Nation's fifth largest ethnic group. We fund
scholarships, internships, conferences,
and other programs that help preserve Italian-American history and culture.
I have come here today to tell you of the NIAF's support
of H.R. 2442, the Wartime Violation of Italian
Americans Civil Liberties Act, and of the NIAF's efforts over the years to
inform Americans about this little-known
chapter in our history.
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For nearly a decade, the NIAF has waged a campaign to
educate Italian Americans, the media, and the public
about the serious civil rights violations of thousands of Italian-American
residents in the United States during World
War II. Many of these people were elderly parents whose sons were serving in
the U.S. Armed Forces, yet all were
classified as enemy aliens. Some were arrested, forced to relocate, or interned
in camps around the country. Others
had to register every month at their local post office, had their radios,
binoculars, and other possessions confiscated,
were given curfews, and had their travel restricted.
We began by publishing articles about these events in our
national magazine and national newsletter. We then
developed a fact sheet which we posted on our web site and sent to the
Italian-American media as well as to
interested individuals. We also gave grants to film makers and historians
investigating this issue and helped reporters
and documentary makers find experts and eyewitnesses for their stories and
films.
I was directly involved in one of our earliest and most
important initiatives. In 1995, the NIAF brought ''Una
Storia Segreta,'' a popular west coast exhibit on the internment issue, to the
east coast for the first time. We exhibited
it at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia and held a press
conference when it opened. For the press
conference, we found a number of local eyewitnesses to these wartime events,
including a judge and a former school
administrator.
We received further evidence of these Government policies
during the weeks that the exhibit was open to the
public. A number of visitors signed the exhibit guest book. They left not only
their names and addresses, but brief
summaries of what happened to their families as a result of being classified
enemy aliens. The NIAF has a photocopy
of this book, which we would be happy to give to this distinguished panel.
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In 1997, the NIAF brought the exhibit to Washington, D.C.
and set it up in the Rayburn House Office Building on
Capitol Hill so that Members of Congress could become familiar with this issue.
We also have encouraged other
Italian-American groups to bring the exhibit to their cities as part of the
education process.
It has been a source of wonder to the Foundation that
such a remarkable story should be largely unknown not
only to the general public but to Italian Americans as well. Since these
Government policies toward Italian Americans
were never mentioned in history books, most people do not believe that they
ever took place.
I, for one, know from my own family's personal
experiences that they did indeed happen. My grandfather, Matteo
DiDomenico, had his radio confiscated because he was of Italian heritage. At
the time he was an air raid warden,
had two sons serving in the U.S. Army—one in the Pacific and the other in
Europe—and was himself an American
citizen.
I urge the members of this committee to give the most
serious consideration to this bill, which would make this sad
chapter part of the record and help ensure that such civil rights violations
during wartime would never again be
tolerated.
I would also like to thank John Calvelli, Congressman
Lazio, and Congressman Engel for their support in this
matter.
Thank you.
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[The prepared statement of Mr. DiDomenico follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MATTHEW DIDOMENICO, SR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
NATIONAL ITALIAN AMERICAN FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, DC
Good morning Mr. Chairman, and distinguished members of
the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on
the Constitution.
My name is Matthew DiDomenico, Sr. and I am the executive
vice president of the National Italian American
Foundation.
The NIAF is a non-profit organization in Washington, DC
which represents an estimated 20 million Americans of
Italian descent, the nation's fifth largest ethnic group.
We fund scholarships, internships, conferences and other
programs that help preserve Italian American history and
culture.
I have come here today to tell you of the NIAF's support
of HR 2442—The Wartime Violation of Italian
Americans' Civil Liberties Act and of the NIAF's efforts over the years to
inform Americans about this little-known
chapter in our recent history.
For nearly a decade, the NIAF has waged a campaign to
educate Italian Americans, the media and the public
about the serious civil rights violations of 600,000 Italian residents in the
United States during World War II.
Page 102 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Many of these people were elderly parents whose sons were
serving in the U.S. armed forces. Yet all were
classified as ''enemy aliens.'' Some were arrested, forced to relocate or
interned in camps around the country. Others
had to register every month at their local post office, had their radios,
binoculars and other possessions confiscated,
were given curfews and had their travel restricted.
We began by publishing articles about these events in our
national magazine and national newsletter. We then
developed a fact sheet which we posted on our website and sent to the Italian
American media as well as to
interested individuals.
We also gave grants to film makers and historians
investigating this issue; and helped reporters and documentary
makers find experts and eye witnesses for their stories and films.
I was directly involved in one of our earliest and most
important initiatives. In 1995 the NIAF brought ''Una Storia
Segreta,'' a popular West Coast exhibit on the internment issue, to the East
Coast for the first time.
We exhibited it at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies
in Philadelphia and held a press conference when it
opened. For the press conference, we found a number of local eye witnesses to
these wartime events, including a
judge and a former school administrator.
We received further evidence of these government policies
during the weeks that the exhibit was open to the
public. A number of visitors signed the exhibit guest book. They left not only
their names and addresses, but brief
summaries of what happened to their families as a result of being classified
''enemy aliens.''
Page 103 PREV
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The National Italian American Foundation has a photocopy
of this book which we would be happy to give to this
distinguished panel.
In 1997, the NIAF brought the exhibit to Washington, DC
and set it up in the Rayburn House Office Building on
Capitol Hill so that Members of Congress could become familiar with the issue.
We also have encouraged other Italian American groups to
bring the exhibit to their cities as part of the education
process.
It has been a source of wonder to the Foundation that
such a remarkable story should be largely unknown not
only to the general public but to Italian Americans as well.
Since these government policies toward Italian Americans
are never mentioned in history books, most people do
not believe that they ever took place.
I for one know from my own family's personal experiences that they did indeed happen.
My grandfather, Matteo DiDomenico, had his radio
confiscated because he was of Italian heritage. At the time he
was an air raid warden, had two sons serving in the U.S. Army . . . one in the
Pacific and the other in Europe . . .
and was himself an American citizen.
Page 104 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I urge the members of this committee to give the most
serious consideration to this bill which would make this sad
chapter part of the record and help ensure that such civil rights violations
during wartime would never again be
tolerated.
Thank you.
FACT SHEET: ITALIAN AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR II
Few people are aware that more than half a million
Italians living in the United States during World War II
suffered serious violations of their civil rights.
Shortly after the United States declared war on Italy in 1941, the
federal government classified more than 600,000
Italians living in the United States as ''internal enemies.''
From February through October 1942, the United States imposed
restrictions on these 600,000 Italians, most of
whom had been living in the United States since the turn of the century.
As ''enemy aliens,'' Italians were required to register at the nearest
post office, carry identification cards, and report
all job changes. They could not travel more than five miles from their homes,
had to adhere to curfews, and were
forbidden to own guns, cameras, and short-wave radios.
The Army forced more than 100 U.S. citizens of Italian birth to
relocate from the east and west coasts and the Gulf
of Mexico to ''safe'' inland zones.
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The restrictions caused many Italians to lose their jobs and limited
the freedom of movement of thousands of others,
including a fisherman named Giuseppe DiMaggio, who could not visit the San
Francisco restaurant owned by his
son, Joe DiMaggio.
During World War II, an estimated 1.5 million Americans of Italian
descent served in the U.S. military, constituting
one of the largest segments of the US combat forces of about 12 million.
However, elderly Italian mothers and
fathers were not allowed to visit sons in the U.S. armed forces, who were
assigned to military installations.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service held nearly 3,300 Italians
in internment camps for varying lengths of time
during the war.
During the same period, the mayors of two of America's largest cities
were Italian Americans: Angelo Rossi of San
Francisco and Fiorello LaGuardia of New York. Both were sons of Italian
immigrants.
For more information, see ''The Unknown Internment'' by Stephen Fox.
The book is available from the author in
McKinleyville, California for $10.00. To order, call or fax 707/839–1919.
Prepared by: The National Italian American Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Telephone: 202/387–0600 Fax:
202/387–0800 Web: www.niaf.org
Mr. HYDE. Thank you very much.
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Our final witness on this panel is Dr. Philip Piccigallo,
who is here on behalf of the Sons of Italy of Washington,
D.C.
Dr. Piccigallo.
STATEMENT OF PHILIP PICCIGALLO, NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ORDER OF THE
SONS
OF ITALY IN AMERICA, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. PICCIGALLO. Thank you, sir. Gentlemen, thank you very
much. I will be brief and I will also take
advantage of the fact that I think it is quite appropriate and it works well
that I am the final speaker of this
distinguished panel because I will try to validate some of the things they have
said in a different but impacting way.
I am Dr. Philip Piccigallo. I am the national executive
director of the Order of the Sons of Italy in America,
commonly known as the Sons of Italy, our acronym is OSIA. The reason I can
speak with such authority—and am
proud to be here today—is that we are the largest organization representing
Americans of Italian heritage with
members. We have 550,000 members. We are the longest established organization
representing Americans of Italian
heritage in the world, dating to June 22, 1905. The reason that is important is
that while my testimony cannot nearly
be as dramatic as everyone else's—I do not have personal experiences—virtually
every one of the people here who
have spoken from personal experiences, or the relatives thereof, have been in
some way or another members of my
organization, are constituents that I represent.
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We have nearly 800 chapters in 35 States. Few issues over
the last years have resonated, percolated up, have
refused to go away as this particular one because it offends Italian Americans.
I will not have a lengthy testimony here. I think
everything that could be said has been said. The Order Sons of
Italy in America has done everything it could from day one to support this
project. We have done it financially—one
of the most important—but we have also done it with advocacy. We are proud that
we have underwritten the travel
of some of the individuals on this panel to a prior press conference, and we
have helped fund the origins of the
program itself.
Let me conclude with two or three observations. We are
not saying that there is necessarily anything honorable or
noble in victimization. But in truth, being brought to light, there is.
I have a Ph.D. in American history. I have had published
two books. My expertise is the period covering World
War II. I have to say that I did not know anything of this. I had actually
written articles on the Japanese internment.
When it was first brought to my attention, I was skeptical. It was not until I
had received a draft of the excellent work
by Professor Steven Fox, of Brown University—I believe it was called ''The
Unknown Internment''. I read it and
passed it on to a few of the more erudite members of my organization. They,
too, were stunned—older gentlemen
and ladies who should have known more about this. This is important because it
is an opportunity to rescue this very
important issue from historical oblivion.
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And there is another matter, which I think is extremely
relevant. As an advocacy group, as we are called, the
grassroots organization—and I get complaints, as I am sure each member of this
committee gets complaints from
people in their districts that they represent—there are few issues that are of
more concern to Italian Americans—and
I thank Mr. LaPiana for bringing it up—than the issue of defamation,
stereotyping, and bigotry.
Without going off on a tangent, there seems to be a
virtually endless stream of stereotyping of Italian Americans.
Indeed, in July of this year The New York Times referred to Italian Americans
as the ethnic stereotype that
Hollywood cannot refuse. We deal with it every day in multifarious ways.
Wrongful misrepresentations hurt. They
impede, they are insidious, they stigmatize, they cut off potential
opportunities.
Here is an opportunity for you, on behalf of the United
States Government, and with the imprimatur of the
President, to help us correct what is a wrongful misrepresentation, and we ask
for your help.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Piccigallo follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF PHILIP PICCIGALLO, NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ORDER
OF
THE SONS OF ITALY IN AMERICA, WASHINGTON, DC
Good Morning, I am Dr. Philip Piccigallo, National
Executive Director of the Order Sons of Italy in America,
OSIA. OSIA is the largest and longest-existing organization of Italian
Americans in the United States. Established in
1905, OSIA was founded by Dr. Vincenzo Sellaro with the purpose of bettering
the lives of Italian immigrants and
Italian Americans. Our creed states that we believe in the government of the
United States and promise to abide by
all laws as set forth by the U.S. Constitution; we believe in government by
orderly process; we believe in respect for
the land of our forefathers; we believe in the brotherhood of man; we believe
in equal rights and duties for all; we
believe in freedom of thought, conscience, and education.
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OSIA's two not-for-profit branches, the Sons of Italy Foundation
(SIF) and the Commission for Social Justice
(CSJ), also strive to better the lives of all Americans. The SIF supports
medical research, educations, disaster relief,
cultural preservation, and many other special causes. The CSJ is the anti-defamation
arm of OSIA that fights to
ensure equality for all, especially Italian Americans.
It is based on these beliefs that OSIA endorses H.R.
2442, the ''Wartime Violations of Italian American Civil
Liberties Act.'' This legislation calls on the president of the United States,
on behalf of the U.S. government, to
acknowledge the atrocities towards Italian Americans during World War II. The
legislation also calls for the
Department of Justice to prepare and publish a comprehensive report detailing
the government's systematic denial of
human rights and freedoms of Italian Americans.
During World War II, about 600,000 Italian Americans were
deemed enemy aliens—forced from their homes,
separated from their families, forced to give up everyday items like radios and
flashlights, and even warned through
posters hung around towns not to ''speak the enemy language.'' Italian
Americans that had been in the country since
the turn of the century and even those who had children fighting in the armed
services were subjected to these
atrocities.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D–NY) and Rep. Rick Lazio (R–NY) are
co-sponsoring this legislation which they originally
introduced as H.R. 2090.
Mr. HYDE. I certainly want to thank this panel. I want to
also suggest to you that your testimony was so
compelling today that I am going to do what I can—and I think I can very
successfully—have this testimony printed
up as a booklet so that it may be distributed to schools and writers and
historians, so the light can shine in on what
you have told us today. Very compelling.
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Mrs. Pinza, your testimony would make an Oscar-winning
movie. The wind-up with Ezio Pinza singing the
Star-Spangled Banner when General Patton returned—what a finish. [Laughter.]
Mr. HYDE. That is magnificent.
But everybody has told a story of unrequited loyalty, how
you love this country, how you have done so much for
this country, this country has done so much for you, and this bleak, shameful
experience is shoved under the rug. It
ought to be out on top so people can say, ''Hey, it can happen here. It should
never happen here again.''
You have made a very important contribution. It will not
stop here. It is not going to be confined to this room. I
assure you that we will do as much as possible on it.
Mr. DiMaggio, I saw you play. Yes, I did.
Mr. DIMAGGIO. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed doing it.
Mr. HYDE. I did indeed. I met your wonderful brother at
an Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame dinner in
Chicago some years back. I have some great stories about that organization and
some wonderful evenings. I
presented a trophy to Rocky Graziano—they had 23 boxing champions, all the
great ones—but one did not come,
and that was Rocky. I was supposed to present the trophy to him. That is quite
a story and I must tell it sometime.
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But anyway, thank you. We are going to continue to shed
light on this situation. What you are asking for is honesty
in history. We will see if we can't get some of that correspondence unredacted.
Mr. DE GUTTADAURO. Thank you, sir.
Mr. HYDE. Mr. Watt.
Mr. WATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am reluctant to even say anything after your powerful
eloquence. I join with you and second everything you have
said.
I wanted to note that earlier in the hearing one of the
other cosponsors of the bill, Congresswoman Rosa
DeLauro, was in the room and present for a period of time in support of the
bill. I wanted you all to be aware of that.
I just wanted to join with the chairman of the full Judiciary Committee in
saying how powerful I thought all of your
presentations were. I thank you for having the courage and tenacity to stay
with this issue and bring it forward.
I was reminded—and I am always reminded when I hear
people talk about things of this kind—when my
great-grandfather was 94 years old and he could not read or write, finally,
after living all his life, rounded up another
relative of mine who would sit long enough to record some of the experiences
that he had had during the course of
his lifetime because he could never write them. He never had the ability or
training to do that.
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It always struck me that there were only two sentences in
all of what he dictated about his experiences with
slavery, just a reference that basically said, ''We were slaves and there
wasn't anything else to say about it.'' Then all
the rest of his time he spent dealing with the positive things that had
occurred in his lifetime.
It takes a lot of energy to focus on injustices and I
think I realized that today as I heard you all struggle with your
presentations. I want to pledge to you that I certainly will join the chairman
and the cosponsors of this bill to do
everything I can to try to address this issue in a just way.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. HYDE. Thank you very much, Mr. Watt.
Without objection, three statements which have been
submitted to the subcommittee—one by Costanza Foran,
another by Vitina Spadaro, and a third by Rose Scherini—will be admitted into
the record.
[The prepared statements of Ms. Costanza Foran, Ms. Vitina Spadaro, and Ms. Rose Scherini follow.]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF COSTANZA ILACQUA FORAN
To the Committee:
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I am unable to appear in person because I will be out of
the country traveling with my husband, and our plans
were made before I knew the date of this hearing.
I would like this bill passed because the internment of
Italians during World War II was arbitrary, depending on
where they lived in the U.S.A. and who made the decisions in that particular
area rather than the actual danger to the
U.S.A. from these people. The civil rights of individuals were violated, which
is against the U.S. Constitution. I do
not ever want this to happen again in this country of mine, not to Japanese
Americans, not to Italian Americans, not
to any Americans, nor to any other people who are here to become Americans.
My father was interned right after Pearl Harbor, and did
not come home again until 1944. I was six in 1941, so
my memories are a child's, but I remember the F.B.I. coming to search our home
after my father was taken, I
remember visiting my father at 801 Silver Avenue, now Simpson Bible College,
where all the San Francisco
internees were taken. I remember Christmases with no Dad. My mother had never
worked and had no income, so
my uncle and aunt, both single, moved into our house where my mother did the
cooking and the laundry and the
shopping while they worked. I met other women whose husbands had been taken.
Many were the wives of
fishermen; some were the wives of radio announcers, newspaper men. There was an
agency, the Italian Welfare
Agency, who tried to help these families by helping them get clothes or by
writing letters or in other ways. Those
families who had more tried to help those who had less. Many of these families
I had met at meetings of the
ExCombatenti, a group of Italian veterans of World War I who would meet mainly
for comradery. The wives would
continue to see each other socially during the war because they could learn
about their husbands from each others'
letters. Often these women were lonely because other Italian Americans would
shun them, being afraid that their
families would be next to be interned or excluded.
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During the war my father wrote often. He tended to be
stoic about his experiences, since he had not been
deported (he had been given the choice of being deported or being an
internee—since he would have been an officer
in the Italian Navy if he had returned to Italy, and since he had no desire to
turn his back on America, his chosen
country, he chose being interned). He would tell us after the war that they had
a sign in the camp ''Join the Army and
See the World; Join the Internees and See the United States''. He would also
tell us how every time the internees
were moved they would be led from the trains to the new camp between armed
soldiers with bayonets. After a few
days the internees would request the opportunity to cook their own rations
rather than having army cooks. After a
while the American officers would eat in the cafeteria of the internees. Since
there was such a variety of educations
among the internees, the better educated ones would give classes for the others
to pass the time. Most of these men
were over forty and after a while their guards realized that they were not
dangerous at all. I wonder if that is why they
were moved so often, so that their guards would not let down their guard.
After the war my father was hired by the United States
Army to teach Italian to GI's being prepared to invade
Italy. He was amused, since he went in a very short time from saluting officers
to having officers saluting him.
For those of us at home, the greatest difficulty aside
from the loss of the breadwinner and the lack of a father and
husband, was the fear of the other people, both Italian American and other
Americans, that we were unamerican,
that we were allied to the Japanese. It felt so shameful, that even now some of
the children of internees or excludees
will not discuss the events of World War II.
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I want this story told in the history books, so that it
need never happen again. There is a book, The Unknown
Internment by Stephen Fox (Twayne Publishers, Boston, 1990) and an article,
''Executive Order 9066 and Italian
Americans: The San Francisco Story'' by Rose Scherini in the Winter 1991/92
California History, Volume LXX,
number 4, which tell this story in much more detail about many
Italian-Americans. I hope that this committee is aware
of this book and this article, since both were based on interviews with many of
the internees and excludees and on
FBI records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Although World War
II was a long time ago and most
of the internees and many of the excludees are dead, there will be other times
when hysteria leads people to act in
ways that are against our Constitution. Perhaps passing H.R. 2442 and
acknowledging that the violation of civil
liberties is wrong will prevent such happenings in the future.
I urge that HR 2442 be passed.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF VITINA SPADARO
This is a story that must be told. It begins when I was a
little girl in Italy, listening to grownups about all the
wonderful things America stands for: freedom, the opportunity to work. I came
here at age seven, and my father said
since he was a citizen, I was automatically one too. I was very proud. He said
to me, ''Here is where we will make
our home. We will always obey the laws of this country.'' Fishing was my
father's livelihood. He had his own boat,
the Marettimo. I always went to school. We had our house on 291 Larkin Street.
All was fine until the war came. I felt betrayed by this
country. All I learned in school and believed in was different
than what was taking place. Everything changed. We were Italians, and we were
looked at as enemies. My mother
had to register because she was an alien. She had been going to school in
Monterey to get her citizenship, but with
the war she had to stop. When orders came for my mother to leave Monterey, I
went with my parents to look for a
house in Salinas. When we would ask for a place to live, they would ask why we
had to move. We told them, and
they said, ''Are you those Italians from Monterey? You're aliens. We're not
renting to you.'' I felt devastated.
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I would say to them, ''I'm an American citizen, my father
is an American citizen.'' My father would say, ''Keep
quiet.'' But how could they hurt my mother like this? She was crying all the
time. When we were getting ready to
move to Salinas, there were moving vans all over the neighborhood, and all the
women were crying. After we found
a place, my father would go back and forth to Monterey, to check the house
there, and fish. I was only thirteen and
had to move with my mother. I went to Salinas' Washington Junior High.
Then the 8:00 PM curfew came. I was always scared when I
went shopping with my mother. There was fear
because someone could hear me speak Italian with her. There were signs saying
not to. We heard on the radio about
how they were going to move the Italians. From news at school and from other
friends in the same predicament there
was fear of the concentration camp. I knew I would have to be locked up if my
mother was. When I would come
home from school there was a terrible fear that they had taken my mother, and
maybe me too, that they'd be waiting
for me.
I remember asking my father, ''Why, why, when we didn't
break the law, are they doing this to us?'' He would
say, ''There's a war going on. People in command don't know what they're
doing.''
His boat, the Marettimo, was a purse seiner. There was a
fishing fleet in Monterey, all owned by Italians, all
citizens. Then I remember my father saying there was someone from the
government who wanted our fishing boats.
''What can we do, the government needs our boats,'' my father said. So he had
to deliver his boat to San Francisco,
to the Navy. Seventy boats from Monterey were taken; it was a deal agreed to by
the boat-owner's association.
Being good Italians, they wanted to help the government so they were willing to
let the boats go. But up north they
had a fishing fleet, mostly Slavonians, and down south, they also had a fishing
fleet. I feel the reason they wanted the
Monterey boats was because they were Italians. They had to charter boats from
up north and bring them down here
to fish, to support their families. Why not take the boats up north?
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Anyway, after several months, my father was notified that
he could get his boat. He found the boat in bad shape.
They had put cannons and guns on it. He was very upset. He asked about the
skiff, which was missing. All fishing
boats had to have skiffs-they were big enough for a 12-man crew. They told him
all the skiffs were destroyed
because the Navy had no use for them. My father said, ''I need money to get my
boat back into condition.'' They
said they'd give him $3,000. He didn't like it, said he'd think it over,
because he knew it would take $3,000. to
replace the skiff alone. He checked and found he would need much more, maybe
$15,000, which he told them.
They said, ''Either you accept what we give you, or we keep your boat.'' They
forgot boat owners were citizens. My
father called home, told my mother about it. She said, ''Bring the boat back.
We'll do what we can to continue.''
So here he was with a boat in poor condition, no skiff,
and he had already chartered a boat for the season. He
had to tie the Marettimo at anchor. A terrific storm came in December. The
Coast Guard called to say the boat was
in danger. My father was anchored out in a cove, unable to come in. My mother
asked me to talk to the Coast
Guard, and I said, ''Please, see what you can do to save the boat.'' They
refused. The boat was wrecked. The
insurance covered very little; most went to try to salvage the boat.
Eventually, my father sold the Marettimo to a boat
builder for next to nothing. Then he had to get a loan, from the Bank of
America, to get a new boat. It cost $45,000.
Many other fishermen in Monterey had to do the same thing to repair their
boats. The Navy fixed up the first three
boats they returned, in better shape than before. But the rest, they just had
to take it or leave it.
My mother and I came home to Monterey in September 1942.
But no one complained. Even when the orders
came to move out, and no one said we'll help you, it was difficult, but these
good Italians just went ahead and
obeyed the law. My father, even when he lost his boat, kept on being a good
American citizen. This was our
country.
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I had a lot of anger, though, especially against General
DeWitt. I told my teacher, and she encouraged me to write
a letter to him. I remember saying I wanted to go back to my home in Monterey.
I actually got a response, saying for
me to be patient, we'd get home in due time. Which we did. So it was a very
difficult time for us. My father lost his
life savings to get the new boat. I felt betrayed of everything I believed in.
This was an injustice to the Italian people.
They came for a better life. They came to work hard, and they had a lot of
pride. They didn't expect to take away
from the country but to contribute, and they have and still are. But during the
war everyone lived in fear. We heard
what they were doing to the Japanese. We were always afraid we were going to be
next.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROSE SCHERINI, PH.D.
I am the daughter of two Italian immigrants. I am an
anthropologist who first learned that some Italian Americans
were interned or excluded in WWII when I was studying San Francisco's Italian
American community in 1973.
When I was interviewing a woman active in social organizations, she told me the
Italian groups were ''not the same
since the war . . . some of the best people were sent away'' and that now
people were afraid to be ''too Italian.''
Because it took a lot of time to learn the whole story, I did not complete this
research until I retired in the late 1980s
from my position at the Office of Student Research, University of California,
Berkeley.
Over the past ten years, then, I have reconstructed this
history using records in the National Archives, the FDR
Library, the FBI Reading Room, and FOIA-requested individual FBI files and
records of the Italian War Veterans
and through interviews with family members of internees and others affected by
the restrictions on enemy aliens and
naturalized citizens, including two excluded men themselves, one member of an
enemy alien hearing board, and
many who were forced to relocate or otherwise suffered from the curfew and
travel restrictions. I did not find any
evidence of subversion, sabotage, or any wrongdoing on the part of these
individuals. What I found was that the
immigrants' attachment to the land of their ancestors and—in the case of the
internees—membership in pro-Fascist
associations prior to the US entry into the war were their only 'crimes'.
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My own father was one of the more than 600, 000 Italian
non-citizens categorized as enemy aliens, and one of
the 52,000 Californians subject to the registration, curfew and travel
restrictions between January and October,
1942. I was a teenager at the time and I was hired in January to help with the
registration of the enemy aliens at the
Post Office. Many years later, in 1994, I became the curator of the exhibit,
''Una Storia Segreta: When Italian
Americans Were Enemy Aliens''.
Why has this story been under cover for so long? There
are many reasons: it has been difficult to find internee
families because no researcher has found anywhere in the Archives a list of
Italian American internees; the records of
the WWII Detention Camps combine the names of permanent residents with those of
Italian nationals; moreover,
some families will not discuss the internment: they are ashamed and angry both
at the government's action and at
some segments of the Italian American community who assumed these interned
parents or spouses must have been
'guilty' of some anti-government activities. Also, the Italian American
community on the West Coast is much less
cohesive than is the Japanese American population, who, nevertheless, took many
years to tell their story and
achieve redress. Finally, there is, still some residue of the prewar conflict
between the anti- and pro-Fascist elements
of the Italian community.
This legislation is an important first step in
acknowledging violations of Italian Americans' civil rights that occurred
during WWII. Archival documents of the Justice Department reveal that
unconstitutional actions occurred amidst the
chaos of war and the ongoing conflict between the Attorney General and the War
Department over the removal or
detention of legal residents and some citizens without evidence of any
wrongdoing. Besides passing HR 2442, I urge
Congress to review Title 50 of the US Code, which provides for the detention of
any non-citizen in time of conflict,
and to consider restricting the power given to the FBI to detain persons
without evidence of illegal activities.
Attorney General Francis Biddle in a July, 1943 memo to FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover requested that the FBI
cease the use of lists identifying individuals as dangerous solely on the basis
of their associations rather than on the
basis of specific illegal actions. Unfortunately, it is common knowledge that
this practice has continued.
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Finally, I hope that Congress will make it impossible for
any group of permanent, loyal residents of the United
States to ever again be classified as enemy aliens. Let us take a lesson from
history in the action President Thomas
Jefferson took when he pardoned everyone who had been imprisoned under a
provision of the Alien and Sedition
Acts that targeted French immigrants in reaction to fear of a French invasion.
That same provision spawned Title 50
of the US Code which authorized the detention of the enemy aliens in WWII. Two
hundred years later, will the
Congress take steps to keep this from happening again?
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THOMAS P. MAGGIO
Dear Chairman Hyde:
I, Thomas P. Maggio, am honored and grateful to submit
this testimony regarding my dear parents who came to
the United States as Italian immigrants.
In August 1907 Salvatore Maggio left his beloved country
of Trapani, Sicily and entered Ellis Island to an
unfamiliar land and language, bringing with him only his hopes and dreams of a
new life of freedom and fortune.
He settled in Flint Michigan and became employed with GM
Buick Motor Car Company as a machinist. He
joined the US Army in 1915, received his basic training at Jefferson Barracks,
MO, and soldiered at Camp
Humphries, which is now Ft. Belvoir, VA. He also served at Ft. Washington and
at Ft. Leslie J. McNair,
Washington, DC. He met Catherine Vereka, where they married and raised my
brother Steven E. Maggio, Sr. and
me. My mother came to the US from Portsmouth, England, her birthplace, in 1905
with her parents at the age of
seven.
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In 1941 the United States declared war on Italy and
Germany. My parents had not yet become citizens, although
my father had belief that he was a citizen when he joined the Army. He became
naturalized in 1943, my mother in
1944. In 1941 Federal agents came to my parents home and informed that they had
to surrender their radio because
they were considered enemy aliens. My parents were terribly distressed over
this order as they were honest, law
abiding and they loved their new country. My father actually kissed the ground
when he landed in America.
However, they complied with the law and were not able to get back the radio
until the war ended. Having to give up
a very important access to daily programs, news, and entertainment was very
stressful and frightful to my parents.
They were terrified that they could be deported. This period in their lives had
a troubling effect on our families and
friends. My parents left their homelands because of oppression and dictatorship.
Never did they dream that they
would come to a land of freedom and opportunity only to face this aggression in
the United States.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman
The book entitled The Unknown Internment by Stephen Fox
was submitted into the hearing record and is on file
with the Subcommittee on the Constitution.
Mr. HYDE. With that, and with our compliments to you, the subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:25 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned, to reconvene subject to the call of the Chair.]
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END