Wartime Curfew and Travel Limits on Italian Aliens to be Lifted
U.S. military authorities in charge of the military zones on the West Coast, where the evacuation of all Japanese-Americans occurred, announced that on this day the curfew and travel restrictions on Italian aliens in the U.S. would be lifted.
The order affected an estimated tens of thousands of Italian aliens and others of Italian background who became officially stateless as a result of the war.
The story of the evacuation and internment of the Japanese-Americans during World War II is etched in American memory, but it is often forgotten that thousands of Italian-Americans and German-Americans were also interned or subject to other restrictions on their freedom during the war.
On November 7, 2000 Congress passed the “Wartime Violations of Italian-Americans Civil Liberties Act,” authorizing a study of the subject. (Read the law here.)
Learn more: Lawrence Di Stasi, Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II (2004)
And about the German-American internment: Stephen Fox, Fear Itself: Inside the FBI Roundup of German Ameicans During World War II (2005)
Read about the Japanese-American internment: Greg Robinson, By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (2001)
Learn about the government’s miscarriages of justice in the Japanese-American cases before the Supreme Court: Peter Irons, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese-American Internment Cases (1983)