The photo above shows Italian, German and Japanese residents of Latin America leaving a temporary internment camp in the Panama Canal Zone to join their male relatives in the U.S. internment camps, April 7, 1942. Courtesy of SF Public Library

When I was 22 years old, I was abducted from Bolivia, where I had lived for 3 years... No explanation was given... We were hearded into DC3 planes marked with American symbols. The windows of the plane were boarded up, and we were not told where we were being taken. We were guarded by armed U.S. military personnel. – Sadaharu Sakamoto, Japanese Bolivian internee, plaintiff in Mochizuki v. USA lawsuit

What would I do in Germany? Everything there was destroyed, my parents were dead, I had nothing there... My wife, my children, were ... in Guatemala. I wanted to...come back right away and start working again. – Hugo Droege, German Guatemalan internee who was sent to Germany against his will

Welcome!

This website serves as a portal to unique educational resources that shed light upon a hidden chapter of American and world history: the United States' World War II Enemy Alien Program, which affected nearly one million immigrants from the Italian, German and Japanese communities in the US and from Latin America. This program was separate from the internment of the 120,000 US citizens and resident immigrants of Japanese ancestry... read more

Produced by the Enemy Alien Files Consortium & Partners, this site also provides valuable links and activities that examine this history in light of current wartime circumstances, post 9/11. Major funding support for this project was received from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

June 28th Event

The Enemy Alien Files Consortium & Partners
and the Oakland Museum of California present

"New & Emerging Voices" Program
at the Oakland Museum of California
to feature DVD highlights of
"Inalienable: Immigrant Rights - Youth Voices from World War II and Post 9/11."

June 28 , 2008
2 - 3:30 p.m.

at the Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street (at 10th St) Oakland

FREE Admission; RSVP appreciated!

For information/RSVP, contact NJAHS: (415) 921-5007 or email: njahs@njahs.org

Read more