View source for Columbus Day Which Will Live in History: October 12, 1942

'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''

''by Deanna Paoli Gumina, Ph.D''

''Originally published in ''The Argonaut,'' Vol. 34, No. 2, Winter 2024''

<big>'''A Proclamation by the U.S. Attorney General Rights a Grievous Wrong '''</big>

[[Image:Biddle-at-desk2-1942.jpg]]

'''U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle at his desk in Washington, October 19, 1942.'''

''Photo: AP, courtesy Alamy Inc.''

It took the military lieutenant general an entire week before he acknowledged the announcement that U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle made on Columbus Day, October 12, 1942: that Italians, both citizens and aliens, across America were no longer considered "enemy aliens."(1) Biddle exonerated all and termed the enemy aliens as American-Aliens. It was the beginning of the end of a chapter in one of America's most egregious national stories, one that played out in the throes of World War II.

[[Image:Dewitt2.jpg|400px|right]]

'''Lieutenant General John. L. DeWitt.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

The chief offender in this story is Lieutenant General John L DeWitt for his role in the internment of the "enemy aliens" on the West Coast in 1942. Headstrong about the internment of not only the Japanese, but also the Germans and Italians, he would spearhead some of the worst abuses of civil liberties in the United States during the WWII era. As the commander of the Fourth Army and Western Defense Command at the Presidio of San Francisco extending from Alaska all along the Pacific Coast, DeWitt fervently believed that fifth columnists (enemy collaborators) from these alien communities were waiting for strike orders from Rome, Berlin, or Tokyo to hit the United States internally, crippling the government. He could point to Italian pro-fascist radio broadcasts that told their listeners that "Roberto will win the war." The "Ro" stood for Rome, "ber" for Berlin, and "to" for Tokyo.(2)

<big>'''Fear of Fifth Columnists'''</big>

West Coast politicians, the Department of the Army, and notable political commentators stoked the fires of wild hysteria about fifth columnists—secret sympathizers or supporters of the country's enemies engaging in espionage or sabotage within the U.S.—who would obstruct the government. This fear, in later years, was determined to be unfounded as there were no fifth columnists hiding under any rocks. The only prominent person in the government not to believe in the fifth columnists was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who, in her daily column, "My Day," appealed for calm and reminded her readers that the Bill of Rights was paramount and that wartime emergencies should not override civil liberties.(3)

But DeWitt was the one most strongly convinced that the fifth columnists were poised to strike at the heart of the U.S. government. A modern-day conspiracy theorist, DeWitt was unsuited to command the West Coast military. Up until then, he had served as quartermaster, had no battle experience, and was described as an "excitable, myopic man" known to screech out orders. He also did not engage with civilians or work well with San Franciscan civil officials, calling them "damn fools" shortly after Pearl Harbor. He firmly believed that only he understood the gravity of the situation. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he ordered searchlights to scan the night skies and claimed that unidentified radio signals and ship-to-shore signal lights indicated that the Japanese were set to invade San Francisco. Based on what he called an "absolutely reliable source," he maintained that a Japanese battle fleet 164 miles out at sea had thirty-four warships and aircraft carriers ready to bombard the city. None of this came to pass. When asked by reporters to confirm his source, he ignored them and then went on to cancel the Rose Bowl, the annual East-West game, horse racing in both Bay Meadows and San Anita racetracks, as well as other public events.(4)

<big>'''The Wrong Commander at the Wrong Time'''</big>

DeWitt came from a military family; his father was a general and his brothers would also go on to be generals. Leaving Princeton University, DeWitt enlisted in the Army during the 1898 Spanish-American War, an enlistment that was followed by four tours of duty in the Philippines. He became a supply officer and rose through the ranks, working in the office of the quartermaster general in Washington from 1914 to 1917 and then as assistant chief of staff for the army's War Plans Division in the early 1920s. He became quartermaster general in 1930 and then, in 1939, commander of the Presidio's Fourth Army and Western Defense Command.(5)

Was DeWitt's Army experience the source of his enmity toward ethnic Japanese and his lack of trust in their loyalty as Americans? Perhaps it was his experience during his 1904-1905 tour of duty in the Philippines after Japan's victory in the 1905 Sino-Japanese War. That war emboldened Japan as the first Asian power to defeat a European power and was later reinforced during Japan's war with China in the mid-1930s. Although these experiences may have contributed to DeWitt's negativity toward the Japanese, what grievances did he hold toward the Italians and Germans in this country? None, except that their countries of birth were at war with the United States.

Lieutenant General Walter Short and Pacific Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel were relieved of their duties on December 17, 1941, for not having their forces in Hawaii "on the alert" at Pearl Harbor. DeWitt was afraid that he might suffer the same fate if he didn't take a forceful, proactive stand. Two days after Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded up sixty Germans, sixteen Italians, and ninety Japanese citizens on the orders of Attorney General Francis Biddle. DeWitt ordered fourteen hundred Italians from San Francisco's fishing industry to stop fishing because they had intimate knowledge of the strategic waterfront. As these events unfolded, DeWitt focused on the ghost in the closet: fifth columnists, whom he feared almost as much as the Imperial Japanese Navy. He began advocating that the German and Italian aliens be relocated immediately after the Japanese were interned.(6)

[[Image:Rossi-and-asian-woman.jpg|375px|left]]

'''On the first birthday of ''Current Life,'' official publication of the Nisei (American-born Japanese), Mayor Angelo Rossi congratulated Fumiko Okuma.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

Without a doubt, this was the shame of America and a discreditable episode in the Roosevelt Administration.(7) The American Civil Liberties Union called the evacuation and internment of the Japanese "the worst single wholesale violation of civil rights of American citizens in our history" and included the violation of the constitutional rights of unnaturalized Italians and Germans. In one fell swoop, the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments to the Constitution were swept under the rug, as the following rights were denied to these three groups: the right to be informed about accusations against them, the right to suffer no unreasonable searches and seizures of their homes, the right not to be a witness against themselves, and the right not to be denied property without due process of law. No questions asked; no explanations given. This was war.

<big>'''The Emergency Detention Program'''</big>

Italian aliens now became suspect "alien enemies," whose names were on a "custodial detention index," a master list of civilians whom the FBI would arrest without regard for their constitutional rights, even if they or their children were American citizens.

History would later reveal that the FBI was notoriously irresponsible, biased, and a constant source of irritation to the alien communities, disrupting their lives and revealing no credible evidence of subversion.(8) In San Francisco's Italian community, the FBI hunted for fascist supporters of Mussolini; after all, didn't Americans think highly of Mussolini when he first came to power? Charismatic, but a thug, Mussolini booted out the socialists and communists in 1922, unifying Italy into one nation, advocating education and a standard language—the Tuscan dialect—and successfully negotiating with the Catholic Church over Vatican property. In the end, when they had their fill of his bombastic rhetoric, the Italian people strung him up feet first. But for the moment, Italians praised him, and who could deny their pride in a national leader? Many Italians residing in San Francisco shared these sentiments.

But war was war, and the FBI under J.Edgar Hoover had its orders. Knocking on the doors of enemy aliens, the agents confiscated their cameras, guns, and firearms, as well as radios that had short-wave capacity. My paternal grandparents, who had completed their first papers toward citizenship, were hard-working folks with modest incomes. My grandfather worked as a mason on the construction of the Palace of Fine Arts, and my grandmother plucked and cleaned chickens for a poultry house. They dutifully turned in their radios and cameras, hopeful that the receipts they received for these possessions would enable them to reclaim them after the war. However, the receipts were lost. Personal photographs with military installations in the background were confiscated, and dams, relay towers, docks, harbors, wharves, and hydroelectric plants were deemed off limits. Curfews were established, and identified enemy aliens could not travel more than five miles from their homes without permission and had to report changes of address and employment. The [[Italian Fishing Ban WWII|fishing boats of San Francisco Bay fishermen were taken from them]] and used by the Army and Navy for patrols; they were returned later in poor condition. Unfounded stories of secret broadcasts to offshore enemies were rampant, including flashing lights and other signals falsely indicating that an invasion was imminent. On February 4, 1942, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that the entire coastline of California, from 30 to 150 miles inland were restricted for all enemy aliens and regulated by strict curfew laws.(9)

<big>'''The Fear Grows'''</big>

By February 1942, Californians were gripped by fear and intolerance, coupled with suspicion of all foreign aliens. Italian aliens apprehended by February 18 of that year numbered 277 in San Francisco, 115 in San Diego, and 983 in Los Angeles. This was before FDR signed Executive Order 9066 that month.(10) 

Political commentator Walter Lippman, once a supporter of New Deal liberties, called the Pacific Coast a combat zone. He was joined by Westbrook Pegler, another popular columnist but an anti-New Dealer, who screamed "the hell with habeas corpus" and emphasized that the United States should first win the war. The pressure on President Roosevelt to instill a vigorous internment policy was enormous. All unnaturalized aliens were to register at their local post offices and, if need be, furnish their own interpreters and be fingerprinted according to the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The president had in his authority the power to expel dangerous aliens, as well as to detain them and confiscate their property.(11) Latin America became a hot zone as the United States was greatly concerned that Germany would seize power in the southern hemisphere and lay claim to the Panama Canal, threatening the security of the United States. To counter this imagined threat, FOR created a Special War Problems Division within the State Department to track and monitor enemy aliens that aimed to repatriate thousands of American citizens.(12) These detainees provided a group of people who were to be exchanged for Americans detained in Germany and Japan, pure and simple. They were pawns to be traded.

[[Image:Gov-Warren-Dewitt-and-third-guy2.jpg]]

'''Governor Earl Warren, Lieutenant General DeWitt, and Ernest Ingold.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

The winter months at the start of 1942 were bleak and filled with ominous news. The United States operated in two theaters: one in Europe and one in the Pacific, a theater that they seemed to be losing. The war in Europe seemed a continent away for most Americans, but for Californians the threat of a Japanese invasion was terrifying with news reports of suspected Japanese submarines patrolling the California coastline.

Against this backdrop, intolerance for enemy aliens increased. Local and stateside officials clamored to intern all enemy aliens without regard for their guilt or innocence. California's attorney general, Earl Warren, who would later become governor and then chief justice of the Supreme Court, viewed fifth columnists as traitorous agents and feared bacteriological and gas warfare.(13) In Washington, the War Department and Department of Justice locked horns as to who would control the internment of the enemy aliens. The government saw these aliens as prisoners of war. Unless Attorney General Biddle agreed immediately to a program of enemy alien restrictions enforced by the FBI, the president could transfer authority from the Justice Department to the War Department. In this game of chicken, Biddle blinked first, and the Army took control of the internment and relocation of the aliens with the president siding with the Army. This would result in FDR's infamous Executive Order 9066, signed on February 19, 1942, that put in charge the mercurial Lieutenant General John DeWitt, commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco and a staunch believer in the treachery of fifth columnists. Whatever he suspected of the Japanese Americans he projected onto German and Italian enemy aliens.

In San Francisco, the Committee to Aid Italians Loyal to the United States warned the Army that moving the Italians was a greater logistical problem than relocating the Japanese, given the greater number of Italian aliens. The committee stated that the mass evacuation of Italians and Germans was unnecessary and undesirable, as there were 51,923 Italian aliens in California and 19,422 Germans, as compared to 33,569 Japanese.(14) Furthermore, these proposed mass relocations would take fighting soldiers away from all theatres of the war to guard enemy aliens. In February and March of 1942, the House Select Committee's Tolan Committee held hearings in four West Coast cities to evaluate the consequences of the large-scale evacuation and relocation of the Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. Given the number of German and especially Italian aliens, the committee's report concurred with the earlier warning issued to the Army by the Committee to Aid Italians Loyal to the United States: that these massive evacuations and relocations were neither needed nor acceptable. On the East Coast, the threat of interning thousands of Germans and Italian enemy aliens would be demoralizing, seriously affecting national security and war production. DeWitt, however, wanted the FBI to search every house and residence and "not fool around." Justice acquiesced and gave the FBI authority to oversee the government's mandated relocations and interments.

Biddle compromised with a plan of expelling everyone from a specified zone if a military necessity existed. Two zones were created: Zone A-1 and Zone A-2.(15) At the outset, Biddle thought that the Executive Order 9066 applied only to the Japanese, but he soon found out that it applied to German and the Italian aliens as well. The Italian aliens were never considered a serious threat by FDR, counseling Biddle that they were a bunch of "opera singers," unlike the Germans, whom he feared were dangerous.(16) Nonetheless, to Dewitt, the Italians became a "potentially dangerous" group; he would intern them as well as the Germans.

<big>'''A Proud History'''</big>

[[Image:Giannini2.jpg|300px|right]]

'''A.P. Giannini, president of the Bank of America.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

But how did the Italian aliens become suspect? Since the 1850s, the San Francisco Italian community had prospered in California. They regarded themselves not so much as gold seekers but more as entrepreneurs. They opened grocery and dry good stores, liquor firms, small hotels, boarding houses, and restaurants, expanding their enterprises throughout San Francisco and California. From North Beach to the upscale Marina District and the Outer Mission District (where my paternal grandparents purchased an affordable set of flats), the Italians made their mark on the city. From their base in North Beach, the Italians farmed California's rich agricultural lands; produced awarding-winning wines; created a solid fishing enterprise and a produce industry that, in part, led to the Del Monte Corporation; contracted with the city for garbage collection services; established schools and education centers for their children; built churches; became leading florists; circulated a number of Italian-language newspapers and a radio station; and established a social welfare agency and other benevolent societies. They also supported a number of variety theatres that contributed to the founding of the San Francisco Opera Company under the baton of Gaetano Merola and traded through the Italian chamber of commerce. Possibly the greatest achievement was A. P. Giannini's Bank of Italy (the future Bank of America), which by the 1930s had become a national banking institution. Across the continent, San Francisco-born Joe DiMaggio, known as the "Yankee Clipper," helped the New York Yankees win the World Series. And in 1942, the long-time mayor of San Francisco was Angelo J. Rossi, a native-born California of Italian parentage, who would be accused of being a fascist during the witch-hunting Tenney Commission hearings. Rossi did not even know how to speak Italian, only his parents' Ligurian dialect.(17)

[[Image:Conductor-Merola.jpg|250px|left]]

'''Gaetano Merola, founder and conductor of the San Francisco Opera.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

Did they assimilate into the fabric of America? While some historians at the time said "no," the evidence of their economies in California say "yes." Slowly adapting to America was Armando Zucchi, who stated that "after 71 years I am now an American but there is an inner core within me that will always be Italian."

Others assimilated by incorporating the American economic and social values into their way of life as they found a better way of life in this adoptive state that they called ''La Regina del Pacifico'' ("The Queen of the Pacific"). They belonged to two cultures with their American-born children leading them to complete the transition to becoming full-fledged Americans. Jerre Mangione repeated an immigrant's reaction to his classification as "enemy alien," saying, "Don't those imbeciles in Washington understand that to have American-born children is to become an American for the rest of your life?"(18) They believed that having American-born children automatically conferred citizenship on them. This is how they understood citizenship, not by law but through family.

[[Image:Dimaggio-w-kids.jpg]]

'''Joe Dimaggio.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

<big>'''The Travail of Italian "Enemy Aliens" Begins'''</big>

Before Biddle made his Columbus Day proclamation on October 12, 1942, there were 600,000 Italian aliens in the United States, including 52,000 in California; before the war, 254 were designated as dangerous and were ordered to move out of the Pacific coastal states.(19) Aliens apprehended in the San Francisco area during the war were held in a temporary detention center on Silver Avenue and at an Immigration Service facility in Sharp Park, Pacifica. Later, some would be transported under armed guard by train to Fort Missoula, Montana. Among those apprehended were Fernando Lucchini, a machinist with a sixth-grade education, who had held first papers toward citizenship and was interned locally. Nereo Francesconi, a radio announcer for the Italian Radio station, who lived in my maternal grandparents' Columbus Avenue flats, would be interned at Fort Missoula, Montana. An anti-fascist, his only crime was a misunderstood devilish wit that got him interned and taken away in handcuffs by the FBI in the presence of his screaming wife and children. 

[[Image:Silver-Ave-center.jpg]]

'''Silver Avenue Internment Center.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

Many of these aliens were hard workers who struggled to learn English. Some of them knew only their regional dialects, not the standard Italian language. Some did not apply for citizenship papers, citing these difficulties in addition to their struggles to gain a basic understanding of the U.S. Constitution required for citizenship. Many of them had acquired a sense of ethnic nationalism as "Italians" on the streets of America, with allegiance to their hometowns in a spirit of ''campanilismo'', that is, loyalty to one's hometown. They did not understand the meaning of citizenship, even on Italian terms. It was only under the tutelage of the Salesian Fathers at Saints Peter and Paul during the war years that some Italian aliens learned English and how to become naturalized citizens at the church's Americanization School.(20) Alphonso Zirpoli, an assistant U.S. attorney at the time (and later a U.S. district judge), recalled chat many of the Italian aliens were teaching one another about the Constitution.

On the night of February 23, 1942, a California highway patrolman stopped traffic on U.S. Route 101, the main coastal highway, because of reports of explosions. A newly married couple, my parents, were traveling down the highway on the way to their honeymoon destination in Santa Barbara. They had been married two days before. The patrolman asked them about their travel plans, and then told them that there were reports that a Japanese submarine was firing shells. Frightened, they turned the car around and drove all night back to San Francisco, where their parents confirmed the patrolman's account.(21) 

Around February 24, Biddle ordered the initial enforcement of restrictions. All enemy aliens were to surrender contraband items and could not travel past the boundaries of their home communities. Italian aliens who Lived near the waterfront in the northern California communities of Eureka, Arcata, and other areas in Humboldt Bay were forced to move, give up their homes and livelihoods, and were not permitted back to this "sensitive" area. From the Mad River to the Eel, enemy aliens found living west of Highway 101 would be interned for the duration of the war. For years, Italian aliens reminisced about living on F Street in Eureka or G Street in Arcata, or their beloved communities of Samoa and Manila, which they had to vacate to comply with these restrictions. Families were separated. The movement of naturalized aliens was restricted, while those who were naturalized could live outside these areas. American-born children lived with one parent or the other or went back and forth. Life as they had known it was totally disrupted as families suffered the shame and humiliation of being regarded as "enemies" of the country they had come to love. And they were angry, asking why the government was doing this to them. Some cried that they had sons who died at Pearl Harbor; some were Gold Star Families. But their protests were to no avail. By virtue of their births and the perilous times, they were enemy aliens.

In Pittsburg, California, where the Italian aliens were facing expulsion, they requested preferential treatment from the War Department, but their request was denied. Three thousand Italian aliens in Pittsburgh were relocated. One man being relocated said, "I helped build the town."(22) In Monterey, fishermen's purse seiners were required to have American crews, and several boat owners telegraphed FDR pledging $50,000 in defense bonds and volunteering to donate an eighty-foot diesel craft to the Navy. San Francisco crab fishermen offered 250 boats for coastal patrolling. All of these offers were refused. Fishermen cried out: "Doesn't the government need fish to feed the soldiers? Who's going to do that work? At the least, can't you use our boats?"

Nonetheless, Italians were sent to internment camps at Camp Sharp Park, California; Ft. Missoula, Montana; Crystal City, Texas; San Pedro Immigration Station, California; and Fort McDowell, Angel Island, California. Others were sent farther away.

<big>'''The Tide Begins To Turn'''</big>

On March 11, 1942, DeWitt spoke to the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, which had responsibility for the evacuees' property, and it was expected that the bank would care for the needs of the German and Italian aliens. By the last week in March, DeWitt issued his orders excluding everyone of Japanese ancestry from the designated areas on the West Coast. Military zones were established with the Army in charge. DeWitt's superiors in Washington grew worried, as there was no congressional support to remove the Germans or the Italian aliens. FDR became alarmed about the Department of the Army taking action against the Germans and the Italian aliens. Although DeWitt continued to focus on his plan to evacuate them, his support staff backed down on the evacuation of the Germans and Italian aliens as Roosevelt planned for the invasion of Sicily.

Distrustful of the Justice Department, DeWitt saw its officials as "inefficient" civilians.(23) San Francisco's John Molinari, then an attorney with Italo-American clients (and future justice of the state court of appeal), spent his days at the immigration stations. He told FBI agents of the worthiness of prospective detainees who were questioned at loyalty tribunals, as did Alphonso Zirpoli. Neither man felt that DeWitt understood the Italians or Germans or· their application for naturalization, even if cleared by the Justice Department. DeWitt did not comprehend that Washington wanted the least number of Europeans involved(24) if the United States was to win the war, even as the urgency of this sentiment grew. On June 4, 1942, at the Battle of Midway, the tide turned against the Japanese offensive and the United States began offensive action in the Pacific. The United States was on the march toward victory. On the home front, DeWitt was advised to rescind curfew and travel restrictions because they were unenforceable and were hampering the war effort. The President understood that reclassifying aliens would help the war effort, but DeWitt was stubborn. By June 26, DeWitt was told to abolish the six-month prohibition and restricted zones, even though loyalty hearings continued. Italian aliens were bitter, saddened, angry, and shamed that their loyalty was being questioned. Marino Sichi said of DeWitt, "... that son of a bitch ... took us to Sharp Park. ... one thing though, the Army handed me my citizenship papers with an M-1 rifle." Stories surfaced about the anger of Italian detainees, with some wearing a "green" patch saying "Italy" when they were furloughed from their internment camps. Remo Basia was court-martialed and prosecuted because he enlisted in the U.S. Army after he had been ordered by DeWitt to leave his home and move no less than 150 miles from the Pacific Coast. He later wrote ''The General and I'', an account of his experience, in which he blasted DeWitt. Bosia, who was educated in Italy and had been editor-inchief of ''L’Italia'', the Italian-language newspaper in San Francisco with a distribution of 200,000 subscribers, was anti-fascist and unsympathetic to Mussolini. He was seen by DeWitt as a dangerous alien and ordered interned, even though Bosia was an ace flyer. The War Department rescinded DeWitt's order and ordered Bosia to be freed, but DeWitt held to his order. Finally, FDR's administration exonerated Bosia.(25)

<big>'''Biddle's Momentous Address to the Nation'''</big>

The Roosevelt Administration gave Attorney General Biddle the go-ahead to address an assembled audience at an evening concert at Carnegie Hall on October 12, 1942—Columbus Day. The program was broadcast to a national audience from a radio hook-up. Biddle told his listeners that the unnaturalized Italians living in the United States were now "free from the stigma of being enemy aliens of this country." They had earned their "loyalty to the United States" and "there [is] no doubt in my mind that with a very few exceptions, these 600,000 Italian 'alien enemies' [are] not enemies at all."(26) Breaking from the traditional speech of recounting Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World and the pride that Italians, as Americans and unnaturalized, had in this celebration, Biddle delivered a speech that exonerated them. Henceforth, he would refer to them as American aliens. With this ban lifted, those Italian aliens incarcerated in internment camps were released after the surrender of Italy to the Allies on September 8, 1943. Several months later, my paternal grandparents received notification from the Department of Justice that they were no longer "enemy aliens," but were now persons loyal to the United States.

In the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this was a "masterly stroke of international statesmanship and ''good'' politics." But ''good'' politics for whom? Roosevelt's words concealed his two underlying goals: wooing of Italian Americans for their votes and having their support of an allied invasion of Italy that was in the making. Roosevelt's advisors had weighed carefully the options available to them regarding Italians' and Germans' political power. Some members of these voting blocs had bolted from FDR's camp in the 1940 presidential campaign, and his advisors were fearful that more would switch allegiance during the 1944 campaign.(27)

It would take DeWitt a week before he grudgingly lifted all military restrictions on Italians. Op the other hand, Biddle hoped that Congress would eliminate the literacy test, enabling Italians to participate in the war effort-namely, the invasion of Italy that would strengthen the anti-fascist underground. On the same day that Biddle's announcement was made, Sylvester Andriana was suspended from his chairmanship of the San Francisco draft board. He was a former San Francisco supervisor and police commissioner(28) who was sent by train to Chicago because DeWitt wanted him out of the area. In the end, DeWitt's superiors were so worried by his recalcitrant stance that in a private ceremony at the Presidio in 1943, Roosevelt authorized a parting gift to him of an Oak Leaf Cluster for Distinguished Service and then retired him.(29) Booted out and gone.

[[Image:Andriano-testifies-at-Tenney-Commission.jpg]]

'''Sylvester Andriano testifies at the California Tenney Commission, May 26, 1942.'''

''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''

But the harm that DeWitt had done to the "enemy" aliens—Japanese, Germans, and Italians—was indefensible. The Italians had suffered humiliation and insult, with- out any redress of grievances. They had lost their pride in being Italian Americans and suffered the loss of property, homes, and livelihoods. Their families had been forcibly separated. After these indignities, parents cautioned their children not to speak Italian openly. And they refused to discuss the humiliating events, relegating them to the margins of awareness. Their descendants were left having to peel away the layers of shame as they learned Italian, discovered family recipes, made trips to Italy, and some, like myself, became dual citizens.

In 1942, the policies of internment shattered the lives of the Japanese, Germans, and Italian American aliens. Racism, fear of foreigners, anger over the attack at Pearl Harbor, and irrational fear of fifth columnists all came together in an evil confluence that brought out the worst in America.

The fabric of this story is spun over decades. The story is interwoven with the threads of long-standing prejudice against newcomers, government xenophobia and restrictive immigration policies, and resentment toward immigrants who worked hard to achieve economic advantage and land ownership in their new country.

On October 17, 1869, the Italian Colony of San Francisco held a festival they called Discovery Day, which became an annual event commemorating the blending of the "Old World" traditions Italians held dear with the newness and individuality of their lives in America.(30) They espoused, then as now, the values of citizenship: respect, responsibility, understanding, tolerance, and inclusion in the fabric of America.

<big>'''Notes'''</big>

1. Note that the terms "enemy alien" and "alien," used herein were the terms used in 1942.

2. Stephen Fox, ''The Unknown Internment: An Oral History of the Relocation of Italian Americans during World War II'' (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990), 34.

3. Eleanor Roosevelt, [https:www2.gwuerpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1942&_f=md056112 "My Day, February 19, 1942,"] ''The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers. Digital Edition'' (2017), accessed 1/15/2023.

4. Arnold Krammer, ''Undue Process: The Untold Story of America's German Alien lnternees'' (London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997), 45, 50, 52, 57.

5. Bryan Niiya, "John DeWitt" (July 15, 2020), [https://encyclopedia.densho.org/John%20DeWitt Densho Encyclopedia], L3:19, accessed 5/15/2023; Bill Yenne, ''Panic on the Pacific: How America Prepared for a West Coast Invasion'' (Washington, DC: Regnery History, 2016), 11, 44, 94, 117.

6. Francis Biddle, ''In Brief Authority'' (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1962), 213; James MacGregor Burns, ''Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom'' (New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1970), 216; Doris Kearns Goodwin, ''No Ordinary Time'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 321-322.

7. Conrad Black, ''Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom'' (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), 720.

8. Frank S. Donner, ''The Age of Surveillance'' (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1980), 163.

9. Krammer, 55.

10. Lillian Raker, ''American and Japanese Relocation in World War II: Fact and Fiction and Fallacy'' (Medfield, OR: Webb Research Group, 1990), vi.

11. Burns, 216; Krammer, 55.

12. John E. Schmitz, ''Enemies Among Us: The Relocation, Internment, and Repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans During the Second World War'' (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2022), 82.

13. Yenne, 187.

14. Fox, 4.

15. Yenne, 124.

16. Biddle, 207.

17. Rose Marie Cleese, "Days of Infamy: What happened in San Francisco on December 7, 1942, as well as the months before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor," in ''The Argonaut'', Winter 2022, 32:2, 34.

18. Rose D. Scherini, "Executive Order 9066 and Italian Americans: the San Francisco Story," in ''California History'', Winter 1991/1992, 366, 377.

19. Scherini, 367.

20. Deanna Paoli Gumina, ''The Italians of San Francisco 1850-1930'' (New York: The Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1978), 177.

21. "Submarine Shells Ellwood Oil Field," ''Santa Barbara News-Press'', February 24, 1942.

22. Fox, 66.

23. Fox, 130-134.

24. lbid., 129, 160, 164.

25. Ibid, 94, 168-173.

26. "U.S. Italian Aliens Not to Re 'Enemies'" and "The Text of the Attorney General's Speech," ''The New York Times'', October 13, 1942; Schmitz, 4; Sylvester Andriano—"Andriano Is Suspended as Chairman of Selective Service Board," ''San Francisco Chronicle'', October 13, 1942, 6.

27. Biddle, 229; Schmirz, 4, 185-186.

28. "Of Selective Service Board," ''San Francisco Chronicle'', October 13, 1942.

29. Yenne, 225.

30 Gumina, 47, 49.

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<big>About the Author</big>

Deanna Paoli Gumina is a native San Franciscan and a graduate of the University of San Francisco. She was the assistant archivist under the late Gladys Hansen, the founding archivist of the San Francisco History Room at San Francisco's Main Library. She also worked under Kevin Starr. Dr. Gumina has published articles in the journals of ''California History, Pacific Historian, The Argonaut'', and ''Studies in American Naturalism''. She is the author of a bilingual history, ''The Italians of San Francisco 1850-1930, Gli'Italiani di San Francisco''; and ''A Woman of Certain Importance: The Biography of Kathleen Norris''.



[[category:Italian]] [[category:Military]]  [[category:Presidio]] [[category:Japanese]]  [[category:1940s]]