Una Storia Segreta

History books are filled with tales of the internment of Japanese citizens and residents of the United States during World War II. Some 100,000 Japanese were forcibly relocated to prison camps on the orders of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. Fully two-thirds of those imprisoned were American citizens

However, there is another dirty, secret little story about which little is known. This story is about a similar fate that befell Italian Americans at the same time. By the same authority that interred the Japanese, (Title 50 of the U.S. Code, based on the Alien and Sedition act of 1798) some 600,000 Italians were forced to carry identity cards branding them “resident aliens during the War. Over 1,000 Italians were sent into internal exile in Montana.

But even more devastating to us as people and to our culture in the U.S. was the government's closure of many Italian-language newspapers and schools at that time. Writer and blogger Lawrence DiStasi says this action on the part of the U.S. government was an important factor in the loss of spoken Italian in the U.S.

While the federal government was clamping down on Italian communities and culture, Italian Americans were enlisting and being drafted in great numbers into the struggle against fascism in Italy and elsewhere. Over one million men and women of Italian heritage served in the Armed Forces of the United States during World War II. That represented 7.5% of all the American fighting forces.

For more information on this sad, but forgotten chapter in American history read Uncivil Liberties by Stephen Fox and una storia segreta, or The Secret Story, with a foreword by Lawrence DiStasi.

Today the population of Italian Americans is nearly 18 million, some 6% of the U.S. population. All of us who are Italian American have felt the sting of bigotry and prejudice at one time in our lives. It might have been as severe as internment or as subtle as a denied mortgage. But for all of that, Italian Americans remain patriotic and strong defenders of this country.

As Italians we don’t dwell on the past. At least not the bad part. Our contributions to this country are never to be questioned again. Unfortunately, the loss of Italian culture because of la storia segreta has left a vacuum that has been filled by movies and TV shows about the Mafia, commercials with cartoonish Italian Americans and ersatz Italian food in every city and hamlet.

The silver lining in this sad story is that we have had 60 years of acculturization. We’ve intermarried with the americani, as my grandmother would call them (us?). We have given the United States towering literally intellects like Gay Talese, esteemed jurists like Samuel Alito, and in sports, the incomparable DiMaggio. But above all else, we are Americans. For us, it’s more important to elect a good president than an Italian one. And that’s a good thing.

Just thought you might want to know.