How Italians Were Treated As 'Enemy Aliens' During WWII

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During World War II, 10,000 Italian citizens living in California were forced to leave their homes as part of security measures meant to protect the West Coast from enemy invasion. Others were forced to register as enemy aliens, and were subject to property seizures, curfews and travel restrictions. On this week’s show, Pauline Bartolone investigates what West Coast Italians faced during WWII, how it was different from what Italians experience elsewhere, and why many people — including Italians – don’t know this history. Additional Reading How Bay Area Italians Were Treated as 'Enemy Aliens' During WWII Read a transcript of this episode Una Storia Segreta: When Italians Were Enemy Aliens Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Pauline Bartolone. Special thanks to Historian Stephen Fox and to James King for writing in to Bay Curious with the question. This episode of Bay Curious was made by Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale and Pauline Bartolone. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Jenny Pritchett, Bianca Taylor, Holly Kernan and the entire KQED family.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED. Around the holidays, family stories sometimes surface when we gather together. In my family,
0:09.6	we talk about Grandma Joyce and how she rode a motorcycle. Very cool. Or great-granddaddy
0:15.9	Willie and how he scrimmed and saved for long after the Great Depression was over.
0:21.1	Beggurious listener, Becca Galardi, recently heard one from her grandmother that she hadn't heard
0:25.8	before, about how her family was forced from their California home during World War II.
0:32.4	It was sort of with that, wait, why did you have to move across town kind of thing?
0:36.0	And then she said, oh, it was because we were Italians.
0:38.0	And then we kept prompting her with questions to say,
0:42.0	what do you mean it was because you were Italians.
0:44.0	In the early 1940s as more than a hundred thousand Japanese Americans were being sent to
0:48.8	incarceration camps other ethnic groups were also being targeted.
0:53.0	About 10,000 Italian citizens living in California were forced to relocate.
0:59.0	We had all heard so much about Japanese internment growing up
1:02.0	and I think we were all just so surprised that this had
1:06.0	happened to this whole other population of people.
1:09.2	Becca and her husband wanted to know more so they wrote to be curious to find out how this bit of family history fits into the California textbooks.
1:19.0	What types of restrictions were placed on Italian Americans during World War II and why don't more people know about it?
1:26.4	Today on Bay Curious, we're doing a deep dive into what Italians experienced in California during World War II,
1:33.0	and how it was different here than the rest of the country.
1:37.0	I'm Olivia Allen Price.
1:41.0	Support for Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family owned, operated, and argued over.
1:49.0	Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold and taste how trailblazing runs in the family.
	...

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