German And Italian Internment During Ww2 In The Us

[Mr King]

Americans of German and Italian decent were interned right next to the Japanese during WW2. I can not speak for anyone else, but I personally was never taught about it during my primary or my short stint of college education. It was not until I happened to be watching the history channel a few years back that I first learned of it. I find this really curious as we are constantly reminded about how horrible the internment of the Japanese was. The coverage of one and not the others has puzzled since first learning of it. Can anyone educate me as to why this is? Why were they never given reparations like the Japanese were? I know some of them had connections or were involved with fascist movements with in the US. Is this another case of political correctness at work?

[Richard Lindquist]

The internment of Germans and Italians was very selective. The government had some evidence that you had a serious connection to the German or Italian governments. The Japanese internment was more "you are Japanese, you are interned".

 

Generals Krueger, Eisenhower, and Eichelberger weren't interned.

[Rocky Davis]

I am most familiar with the German POWs held at Camp Maxey in Powderly, TX – about 10 miles north of Paris, TX. My unit trained out there for years. Most of the foundations and some of the chimneys of the former buildings of the POW camp were still there, rendering those areas to be unworthy of cross-country tank training. It is said that lots of those POWs worked for local farmers as day laborers and that most stayed in north Texas rather than to return to Germany after the war ended.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qug01

According to the link above, there were many other places in Texas like Camp Maxey. Among the former POW sites listed in the link, I have personally trained at Camp Bowie, Ft. (Camp) Hood, Camp Maxey, Camp Swift, Camp Wolters and Ft. Bliss while I wore a uniform.

[Richard Lindquist]

I am most familiar with the German POWs held at Camp Maxey in Powderly, TX – about 10 miles north of Paris, TX. My unit trained out there for years. Most of the foundations and some of the chimneys of the former buildings of the POW camp were still there, rendering those areas to be unworthy of cross-country tank training. It is said that lots of those POWs worked for local farmers as day laborers and that most stayed in north Texas rather than to return to Germany after the war ended.

 

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qug01

 

According to the link above, there were many other places in Texas like Camp Maxey. Among the former POW sites listed in the link, I have personally trained at Camp Bowie, Ft. (Camp) Hood, Camp Maxey, Camp Swift, Camp Wolters and Ft. Bliss while I wore a uniform.

 

The poster was talking about civilian internees, not military POW. It was cheaper to send POW to the US on returning empty ships than to send food over there to feed them.

[Colin]

A lot of German POW worked the farms in Canada as well and at the end of the war staying here. We had one incident here were some nutbar CO allowed the Nazi's in camp to court martial a captured German deserter and borrow rifles to execute him.

[Rocky Davis]

The poster was talking about civilian internees, not military POW. It was cheaper to send POW to the US on returning empty ships than to send food over there to feed them.

 

OK . . . never mind!

[Ken Estes]

The internment of Germans and Italians was very selective. The government had some evidence that you had a serious connection to the German or Italian governments. The Japanese internment was more "you are Japanese, you are interned".

 

Generals Krueger, Eisenhower, and Eichelberger weren't interned.

 

+1

 

The numbers of Italian and German citizens/residents interned were ridiculously small [in number and %] compared to the Japanese, most of whom also lost their property to 'neighbors.'

 

Definitely not our proudest moment in US history.

[Mikel2]

There was a rather touching documentary about German POWs interned in the UK who had stayed there after the war. They interviewed a few elderly POWs and one couldn't help but be moved at the love and appreciation they had for their adoptive country.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Mikel2

[R011]

A lot of German POW worked the farms in Canada as well and at the end of the war staying here. We had one incident here were some nutbar CO allowed the Nazi's in camp to court martial a captured German deserter and borrow rifles to execute him.

That happened in the Netherlands right after the war. The Germans convinced the local Canadian autrhorities that they should be able to court-martial and shoot two German sailors for desertion. It seems that we were at the time keeping the command structure of Surrendered Enemy Forces intact to maintain control over them.

[Mr King]

Thanks for the info guys.

[shootER5]

This page has a brief history of the detention center that was in my hometown during the war. The house my grandparents lived in was later built right next to the former location of the camp and, when I was in high school, I lived with my dad and stepmother in a house that was built within the actual footprint of where the camp was. A few detainees who died during their detention are buried in the local cemetery in a plot separate from the rest of the "local" graves.

 

BTW, the author of that article has written a book about the camp. He's the unofficial "historian" of that county and is a really good guy. Sadly, his daughter was killed in a car accident just last week.

Edited April 29, 2012 by shootER5

[rmark]

POW camps, internment camps, and relocation centers are all different things. All the belligerents imprisoned pow's, all interned or restricted foreign nationals, and in the US persons of japanese descent were required to move from the west coast (initially voluntarily, later required). The relocation centers were intended to be temporary but remained open as some of the occupants had nowhere to move to (many states refused their entrance).

[TRYTRY]

www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/ch7.htm

When General Short submitted his report of the action to the War Department on 12 December, he had not yet heard of the drama being acted out on the isolated island of Niihau, west of Kauai. A crippled Japanese plane landed on Niihau on Sunday afternoon, about 2:00 p.m. After first being disarmed by a native Hawaiian, the Japanese pilot persuaded one of the two men of Japanese descent on the island-an American citizen-to free him, return his weapons, and join him on a rampage. The affair ended on Saturday morning, 13 December, and before help summoned from Kauai had arrived. Another Hawaiian, Benhakaka Kanahele, and his wife were captured by the two Japanese; but they jumped their captors and, after Kanahele was fully aroused by bullets in his stomach, groin, and leg, he picked up the Japanese pilot and smashed his head against a stone wall. The Nisei took one look, shot himself, and the "Battle of Niihau" was over.

 

This perhaps made the army thought Nisei is not loyal.

[Marek Tucan]

More like politicos and "concerned citizens" IIRC - wasn't Hawaii actually pretty behind the West Coast in taking these measures? After all it was also the first place to raise Nisei unit... It would seem (as it is often the case) that the most hysteria was perhaps stirred by people who had no ontacts with the Nisei community?

[Ken Estes]

Beginning with the commanding general of the Western [Army] Command Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt. Of note, the territorial governor of Hawaii took no interest in the so-called Niihau Incident, rejected all calls for internment.

 

Of 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, 112,000 resided on the West Coast.^[18] About 80,000 were nisei (literal translation: "second age"; Japanese people born in the United States and holding American citizenship) and sansei (literal translation: "third age"; the sons or daughters of nisei). The rest were issei (literal translation: "first age"; immigrants born in Japan who were ineligible for U.S. citizenship

 

Another proud page in US racism history.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Ken Estes

[ickysdad]

I've read of cases where you had a white person married to a Japanese-American(i.e. US Citizen) and the non-Japanese-American parent wasn't even allowed to keep their children with them outside of the camps. Alot is made of the so-called "Duel-Citizenship" in debates on this subject today but even today I don't think the uS government recognises duel-citizenship and certainly didn't back then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited May 20, 2012 by ickysdad