Show Notes
During World War II, the United States incarcerated more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry. But Japanese Americans weren't the only people imprisoned, relocated, or restricted as suspected "enemy aliens." Thousands of German and Italian immigrants—and some of their American-born children—were also caught in the government's wartime policies. Historian John Schmitz, author of Enemies Among Us, joins Bob Crawford to explain how fear of an enemy within led to arrests, forced relocation, family separation, property loss, and internment camps across the country. Some prisoners were even held at Ellis Island, within sight of the Statue of Liberty. John also shares his family's experience: his father spent three years behind barbed wire, and his aunt was born inside the Crystal City internment camp in Texas. How did these policies differ from the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans? Who was targeted—and why has the German and Italian experience largely disappeared from our history? Have a question about American history? Record it at AmericanHistoryHotline.com, and we may answer it on a future episode.
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