Testimony

Mr. Dominic DiMaggio

Judiciary Committee

Subcommittee on the Constitution

October 26, 1999

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I am pleased to be here today to participate in this hearing. This legislation, the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act, is important to the Italian American community and it is important to me. I am here today in hopes that we can bring to light the tragic events of the past and honor those who had to endure them.

After completing the 1942 baseball season I enlisted in the United States Navy. It was an honor to serve my country and I gladly put my baseball career on hold to do so. However, I had no idea that while I was away fighting for my country, the United States government declared Italian Americans enemy aliens. It saddens me to think that my mother and father were considered enemy aliens by the country they adored so much.

I was not the only son who came home from the war to find that their parents, or other members of their family, had suddenly become enemy aliens. Over 500,000 Italians served in the United States Armed Forces. Many of these brave soldiers were fighting to protect the very rights and privileges revoked from their families. In fact, their are several accounts describing how some Italian Americans, so saddened and shamed by their enemy alien status, ended their lives. Should the deaths of these innocent people go unnoticed. I think we should honor those who endured these terrible injustices by, at the very least, acknowledging that they happened.

I remember my father was forbidden from fishing or even visiting his friends at the wharf because it was in a prohibited zone. I do not know the extent, but I am sure my father was changed after his experience as an enemy alien. The number of people affected by these events will never be known and the effect on the Italian American community can never be measured. What we can do is acknowledge these terrible events and work to ensure that it will never happen again. I want to express my strong support for the legislation before us today and urge the Committee to move this bill forward.