The Italian-American Interment During World War II Research Paper

The Italian-American Interment During instauration War II - Research Paper ExampleThe Italian-American Interment During World War IIRoosevelt who at first value the ways of the Italians via his affinity with the soon to be dictator Benito Mussolini, and then mulish that the very person he admired was now a threat because of Mussolinis solid offendnership with Adolf Hitler under the Pact of Steel. It was this paranoia on the part of Roosevelt that led to acts of Congress in the years of 1935-1939 that allowed for the illegal immurement of Italians and eventually, the Germans and Japanese. Examples of this legislative work include the alien Registration Act of 1940 and the Dangerous Cargo Act. All of the actions which the American government took against the enemy aliens on their add led to the creation of Nazi- standardized internment camps where Italians were held indefinitely without any charges being filed and their movement limited within the field of their incarceration. Thus, they were not allowed to hold jobs or own any businesses in their community. These inhumanities were but the tip of the iceberg when it came to the atrocities of contend against the Italians residing in America without any legal status, though. If one were of Italian descent and maintenance in the get together States at that time without the benefit of citizenship, he and his family would most likely end up in an internment camp, regardless of the fact that the Italian Americans were one of the largest immigrant groups in the country at the time. The Italian immigrants were just like any other immigrant family in the United States. They struggled to retain their heritage while doing their best to become a part of the new culture that they chose to involve themselves with. It was these types of people who became the targets as alien threats in America. Mainly because of their adjustment issues, the old time Italians who could not adjust to the American way of life found th emselves agreeing with Mussolini in equipment casualty of Fascist ideology, which they came to view in terms of a renewed spirit of their homeland that they needed to honor. 2 These sentiments also caused a great divide between the immigrant Italians and their first generation born Italian-American offspring who now identified more with the land of their birth in terms of heritage rather than the homeland of their parents. The arrests of the Italians living in America began on December 7, 1941. People arrested were part of the so-called Custodial List of the FBI that Pres. Roosevelt had the histrionics compile in the event that the United States needed to get involved in the ongoing World War. The list was meant to protect the country from being infiltrated by enemy forces and was set into action through the military group of Title 50 of the U.S. Code, based on the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act which allowed for the arrest of alien threats during propagation of emergency. 3 Such w as the perceived threat from the Italian immigrants during this time that the government began a rigorous fight back to quash the Italian heritage of first generation Italian Americans by declaring Italian an enemy language. The slogan for their campaign was Dont Speak the Enemys Language Speak American These posters lined the Italian-American communities during the war time era and byword a rapid decline in the use of Italian in the country since business owners decided not to speak the language in their place of