Testimony of Representative Rick Lazio

on the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act

before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Committee on the Judiciary

October 26, 1999

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, I want to thank you for holding these hearing today. This issue, the violation of Italian American civil liberties during World War Two, is one that is very important to me, my constituents, and Italian-Americans across the nation.

I also want to thank all the people who have come from all across the country to testify today. I genuinely appreciate their time and effort, and admire their commitment to set the record straight.

Mr. Chairman, late in the night of December 7, 1941, only hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Filippo Molinari heard noises outside his San Jose home. When Mr. Molinari went to investigate, he found three policemen at his front door. They told him that by order of President Roosevelt, he must come with them.

Filippo Molinari had served in the Italian army during World War One, fighting along side American troops. He was well-known in his community as a door-to-door salesman for the Italian language newspaper L'Italia. He was the founding member of the San Francisco Sons of Italy. And now, he was under arrest. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Molinari was shipped to a government detention center in Fort Missoula, Montana.

Filippo Molinari's story is not unique. He was one of hundreds of Italian Americans arrested in the first days of the war, and shipped off to distant internment centers without benefit of council or trial--where they were held against their will until Italy surrendered two years later. Early in 1942 another ten thousand Italian Americans across the nation were forcibly evacuated from their homes and relocated away from coastal areas and military bases.

In all 600,000 Italian nationals, most of whom had lived in the United States for decades, were deemed "enemy aliens" and subject to strict travel restrictions, curfews, and seizures of their personal property. These so-called "enemy aliens" were required to carry photo-bearing ID booklets at all times; forbidden to travel beyond a five mile radius of their homes; and required to turn in any shortwave radios, cameras, flashlights and firearms in their possession. In California, 52,000 Italian residents were subjected to an 8 p.m. curfew. In Monterey, Boston, and other port towns, Italian American fishermen were grounded, and many had their boats impounded by the navy--all this while half a million Italian Americans were serving, fighting, and dying in the U.S. armed forces during World War II.

To this day, few Americans have any idea that these events took place. Indeed, few Italian Americans know what happened to their ancestors during the war. Most believe that President Roosevelt's infamous Executive Order 9066 applied only to Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the western states. But clearly there is another chapter to this sad story, "Una Storia Segreta"--a secret story. The bill we are discussing today represents an attempt to begin setting the record straight.

The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act calls on the Department of Justice to conduct a comprehensive study of our government's policies toward Italian Americans during the war, to find out exactly what took place and to whom. This report will include an examination of ways to safeguard the civil liberties of minority groups during future national emergencies.

The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act would also encourage relevant federal agencies to support educational projects to heighten public awareness of this unfortunate episode in our history, including exhibitions, seminars, and documentaries.

Finally, this legislation calls upon the President to acknowledge formally our government's systematic denial of civil liberties to what was then the largest foreign-born ethnic group in the United States.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to say that this bill has attracted more than 80 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. The diversity of this list is indicative of both the national scope of the injustices that took place, and the widespread belief--felt across ethnic and geographic lines-- that justice be done.

The noted poet and philosopher George Santayana observed that, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." But the truth must be established before it can be remembered. That's why I introduced this bill: to establish the truth. We owe it to the Italian-American community, and indeed to the American public, to find out exactly what happened and publicize it. A complete understanding of what took place during this sad chapter of American history is the best guarantee that they will never happen again.

Mr. Chairman, thank you again for holding these hearings. I look forward to working with you and your committee on this important issue.

# # # #