For the first 30 or so years of my life, I would here pundits talk about Japanese American internment, by Roosevelt. But my understanding is that about 20,000 Germans and Italians in America, were also sent to camps....we were ar war afterall. I leaned about this on the History Channel, which some of you find a bit dubious. But in this case, I think the info is correct. I wonder why, that part is always left out?
It has also been mentioned in a few of the threads on the Japanese-American internment. There were also the internment of the Aleuts and some others. The Canadians also interned some.
We all know about the internment of Japanese American's during WWII. Did you know "3,000 Japanese, Germans, and Italians from Latin America were deported to the United States, and most of them were placed in the Texas internment camps? Twelve Latin-American countries gave the United States Department of State custody of the Axis nationals. Eighty percent of the prisoners were from Peru, and about 70 percent were Japanese. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/WW/quwby.html Another part of the story; http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Canada/internment/intro.html http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/22977-japanese-american-internment-camps.html
To quote Clint/brndrt1 ,always a good source of info ,from the thread mentioned above, "In early 1942 there were also about 58,000 Italian and 22,000 German aliens in the Pacific states alone. A good many of the other German aliens were recent refugees from Nazi Germany and settled in the "east coast" areas. Many of them ended up interred in Texas at Crystal City. Most of the Germans, and a large proportion of the Japanese and Italians, lived in or near the principal cities and adjacent strategic areas. So was it wrong in the existing times? Or was it a totally justifiable protection of our coasts? The Japanese-Americans living outside of the mileage exclusion zones were not forced into the "relocation camps". Many actually choose to go to the camps due to the "hostility" of their former neighbors however, even though they were NOT required to do so by "law" due to their area of residence. Residents of such centers were free to leave when outside employment and living arrangements for them could be obtained away from the exclusion zones." "As to the Italians and Germans, there were some 600,000 Italian citizens in the United States classified as "enemy aliens" after World War II began. And ALL were put under extreme travel restrictions. On the west coast alone, about 10,000 Italian-Americans were forced to move from their homes in California coastal communities to "relocation" camps, just like the Japanese. 10,905 Germans and German-Americans as well as a few Bulgarians, Czechs, Hungarians and Romanians were also initially "interned". And one small group was only finally released from Ellis Island internment (shipped in from Crystal City and other camps) long after the end of WW2. I think most were deported to West Germany, Portugal and Spain. While it is only "humorous" in retro-spect, Joe Dimaggio's father was "travel resticted" to the point that he couldn't cross the bay to see his son play in San Fran."
