The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“WARTIME VIOLATION OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S4616 on May 21, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WARTIME VIOLATION OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT
Mr. TORRICELLI. Mr. President, on October 19, 2000, more than 50 years after the end of World War II, Congress passed the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act. I am pleased to have been the Senate sponsor of that bill which directed the U.S. Department of Justice to study the treatment of Italian-Americans at the hand of the Federal Government during the War and to deliver a report on its findings to the Congress.
This report has now been completed. The 42-page report, prepared by the Department's Civil Rights Division concludes: ``After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, citizens and aliens of Italian-American descent were subjected to restrictions, including curfews, searches, confiscations of property, the loss of livelihood, and internment.'' While the report can obviously not undo the injustices suffered by Italian Americans in the past, it is important that mistakes of the past be understood and acknowledged so that they are not repeated. This report will finally shine light on a largely unknown era of this nation's history--the injustices perpetrated by our government against thousands of Americans of Italian descent during the war.
While most Americans are aware of the mass evacuation and internment of Americans of Japanese descent shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 1941, very few are aware that because the United States was also at war with Mussolini's Italy, approximately 250 Americans of Italian descent were arrested and detained in internment camps throughout the United States. Like Japanese Americans, the internees were not informed of the charges against them or provided legal counsel, and the vast majority were arrested and detained without any evidence that they had done anything wrong. Their only crime was their Italian heritage or their involvement in Italian organizations.
By early 1942, all Italian immigrants, estimated to be approximately 600,000 people, were labeled ``enemy aliens'' and were forced to register at local post offices around the country. They were fingerprinted, photographed and required to carry photo-bearing ``enemy alien registration cards'' at all times. Their travel was restricted to no further than five miles from their home and any ``signaling devices''--cameras, shortwave radios, flashlights--or weapons were considered contraband and had to be turned in to authorities or were confiscated.
Italian Americans living on the West coast were subject to a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and some were forced to evacuate areas the military deemed sensitive military zones, leaving their homes and jobs behind. Ironically, in areas where Italian Americans were the majority population, these restrictions caused serious employment and food-
supply problems at a time when all human and food resources were needed for the war effort.
The injustices suffered by Italian Americans during the war touched all socioeconomic classes. The parents of baseball legend Joe DiMaggio were forbidden to go any further than five miles from their home without a permit. Enrico Fermi, a leading Italian physicist who was instrumental in America's development of the atomic bomb, could not travel freely along the East Coast. The most disturbing irony was that at the time these injustices were being perpetrated, Italian Americans were the largest immigrant group in the United States Armed Forces and were fighting abroad to defend this country.
Twelve years ago, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and rightfully admitted and apologized for the atrocities committed against American citizens and immigrants of Japanese ancestry during World War II. With the passage of the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act, the truth has now been told about the mistreatment of Americans of Italian descent during the war. This should not only be important to the Italian-Americans whose rights were violated and unjustly disrupted during the war but to every American who values our Constitutional freedoms. By increasing our Nation's awareness of these tragic events, we ensure that such discrimination will never happen again in this country.
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