Italian American Internment during World War II

(This is one of the reasons why the Italian language suffered in the U.S.) (I'm teaching Italian to adults at night trying to make up for this.)

The internment of Italian Americans during World War II has often been overshadowed by the Japanese American experience. Recently, however, books such as Una Storia Segreta (ISBN 1-890771-40-6) by Lawrence DiStasi and Uncivil Liberties (ISBN 1-58112-754-5) by Stephen Fox have been published, and movies, such as Prisoners Among Us have been made. These efforts reveal that during World War II, roughly 600,000 Italians were required to carry identity cards that labelled them "resident aliens." Some 10,000 people in war zones on the West Coast were required to move inland, while hundreds of others were held in military camps for up to two years. Lawrence DiStasi claims that these wartime restrictions and internments contributed more than anything else to the loss of spoken Italian in the United States. After Italy declared war on the U.S., many Italian language papers and schools were forced, almost overnight, to close by the U.S. Government because of their past support for an enemy government.

Involvement in World War II
During World War II, many Italian Americans joined or were drafted into the U.S. armed forces to fight the Axis Powers; many women also enlisted. An estimated 1.2 million Italian Americans served in the armed forces during World War II; this represented 7.5% of the 16 million total who served.

Italian American service assistance was pivotal during the Allied invasion of Sicily, where United States government troops worked with locals, including Mafiosi, to secure and fortify the newly-acquired foothold in Europe. Numerous texts document the delicate relations the United States government established with Italian American organized crime figures in the U.S. and the manner in which these were used to help ensure a successful landing. It is rumored that even Lucky Luciano helped smooth relations between the two communities during World War II.

Thank you for such an informative article! I knew that the government at the time of World War 2 had put up anti Italian posters that carried such messages as 'Speak American!' (http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa102500a.htm)
but did not know about Italians forced to carry cards or were imprisoned.
Are there any civil liberties that won't be broken in the name of national security and war?

Many Italian-American families that were not interned were simply watched. During the war my great-grandfather and many other Italian-American fishermen had to carry a special ID with them on the waterfront and onboard - the government were afraid of spies.

Many of my town's fishing fleet took their fish to the boston wharves, where a spy could monitor not only the naval yard but also the submarine screen that closed off the harbor. I have never heard of anyone caught spying in this way and most of the fishermen were well known. But just ten years earlier Mussolini was hugely popular with Southern Italian Immigrants and so it was not a stretch to think there would be spies.

I'm glad someone brought up this topic since the US Gov't does not like to remember such things.

Good posts stephaniealexis8 and justindemetri

"Speak American!" I love it! I always tell my class "Stiamo in America, parla Italiano!"

Throughout history and throughout much of the world, the lives of the working classes have not been widely written about. (Working class would include I would think about 100% of the people on this forum)

At any rate another example of the above post is when the U.S. government rounded up Mexicans and Mexican Americans during the Great Depression and sent them back to Mexico in freakin box cars like the Jews were trasported around in by the maniac racist Hitler. Many of these poor people were born in the U.S. Some of the ones born in the U.S. came back later after growing up in Mexico. I have met many of them. They were American born rasied in Mexico and mostly only spoke Spanish. (Was a Spanish and bilingual teacher for years in a Hispanic community.)

The book "Unwanted Mexican Americans During the Great Depression" talks all about this.

It is rumored that even Lucky Luciano helped smooth relations between the two communities during World War II.

I have studied this aspect a bit. From what I read, Lucky was approched "for his expertise" as he sat in a jail cell on a prostitution charge. A number of supply ships destined for England had been torpedoed about a day and a half out of the port of NY, leading the inteligence community to believe someone was passing the port activity logs to the germans. Knowing the mafia had influence down on the docks, they approached Lucky to request his assistance in "ratting out the rat". They approached the right guy, because Lucky and his Sicilian relatives knew the Germans were "bad for business" and hated Musolini. The story goes that after a few weeks, the sources of information were "dealt with" using organized crime tactics as opposed to law enforcement tactics. The attacks on shipping close to US shores also stopped abruptly.
I have also read that Lucky hoped his cooperation would result in his citizenship being restored. He may have acted as a "power broker" in Palermo, prior to the US landing, by offering "good positions" to selected buruecrats after the transition from German directed government to US directed government. "You can be mayor, you can be in charge of the harbor, you can provision the US Army, etc" cutting enough deals that it is said the US Army entered Palermo without a shot being fired.
Lucky hopes were dashed however, and the best he could arrange was being deported to Italy, never to be a US crime boss again.
The "happy ending" is that he died not by violence, like many other US crime figures, or in jail like most of the others. He died of old age on a bench in an airport, if memory serves me, older than any other US crime figure.

Grazie Capsu.

World War II, freedom and deportation

Luciano was imprisoned in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where he was treated fairly well. He would use his influence to help get the materials to build a church at the prison, which became famous for being one of the only freestanding churches in the New York State correctional system and also for the fact that on the church's altar are two of the original doors from the Victoria, the ship of Ferdinand Magellan.

During World War II, the U.S. government reportedly struck a secret deal with the imprisoned Luciano. United States Army Military Intelligence knew that Luciano maintained good connections in the Sicilian and Italian Mafia, which had been severely persecuted by Benito Mussolini. Luciano considered himself to be a loyal American who was devoted to Sicily, the Mafia, and the United States alike. His help was sought in providing Mafia assistance to counter possible Axis infiltration on U.S. waterfronts, during Operation Avalanche, and his connections in Italy and Sicily were tapped to furnish intelligence and ensure an easy passage for U.S. forces involved in the Italian Campaign. Albert Anastasia, who controlled the docks, promised that no dockworker strikes would arise. Both during and after the war, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies reputedly also used Luciano's Mafia connections to root out Communist influence in resistance groups and local governments.

In return for his cooperation, Luciano was allegedly permitted to run his crime empire unhindered from his jail cell. During the 1940s, Luciano used to meet US military men during train trips throughout Italy, and he enjoyed being recognized by his countrymen, several times taking photos and even signing autographs for them.In 1946, as a reward for his wartime cooperation, Luciano was paroled on the condition that he depart the United States and return to Sicily. He accepted the deal, although he had maintained during his trial that he was a native of New York City and was therefore not subject to deportation; he was deeply hurt about having to leave the United States, a country he had considered his own ever since his arrival at age ten.

Luciano's confederates saw him off at the docks with envelopes stuffed with cash, reportedly as much as $100,000.

Che tipo!!! What a guy!!!

I was composing my comments from memory, but your comments provided some excellent details I had never read before. I know from an organized crime perspective, he was credited with installing the "family territory" concept, saying in effect, we can't grow the organization if we are all killing each other. I actually have a 250 page Time Life series book on the Italian Campaign, and Luciano doesn't even get a footnote.
I read Monty was fairly tweaked that he had fight his way to through the narrow corridor from Catania to Messina, while Patton was making 10 miles a day; Local cooperation had to have helped but it is under reported aspect of the invation of Sicily. (PS. Full disclosure: My Father in Law was a logisitics grunt under Patton, so I studied the Italian Campaign for this reason)

Another interesting story was told to me in Sicily from a guy I befriended in Rometto. I had never heard the story before, and have not since, but maybe you have.

He said after VE day, there was an effort to pursuade the USA into naming Sicily a US Territory, similar to Guam, or even using Puerto Rico as a model. They knew the US would still need a navel presence for shipping through the Med, and hoped the USA would build bases, the ecomomy would grow, Sicily would be able to control it's own destiny, rather than be treated as a second cousin in Rome. He said there was a powerful local outside politican who was pushing for this, who he compared to Robin Hood.
Well, when the new government in Rome caught wind of this, and the Sicilian families realized that their "privacy to do business the family way " would be at risk, the "Robin Hood" advocate was whacked. Sicily never got an official response even though advance teams from the US state department had done some significant preliminary investigation.

Once again, I have never seen this anywhere, but the Italian who told me this brought it up to me only after he found out I was interested in the invasion of sicily, and was quite passionate about his story.

Does any of this sound familiar to you Villa?