Enemies among us: The relocation, internment, and repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War

Enemies Among Us is a comparative analysis of the relocation, internment, and repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The German and Italian American wartime experience remains largely overlooked by historians and generally unknown to Americans. This dissertation investigates the causes, conditions, and consequences of America's selective relocation and internment of its own citizens and enemy aliens and examines the experiences of all three major groups of relocatees and internees. It analyzes policymaking from the local to the national level and then places internment in an international context. This study also recounts the repatriation and exchange of thousands of internees and discusses America's leading role in these endeavors. A primary goal is to tell these neglected tales by writing the first comprehensive work on the subject. Building upon numerous secondary sources, but incorporating new findings from a wealth of archival documents---including personal papers, diaries, films, memoirs, camp newspapers, letters, and oral testimonies---my dissertation contributes to our understanding of America's treatment of its enemy aliens and citizens in several important ways. First, it fills an historiographical void. Second, it reveals remarkable consistencies in the government's treatment of all its enemy aliens and citizens, regardless of race. Third, it addresses shortcomings and fallacies by offering a more comprehensive analysis and proposing a fresh interpretation of America's relocation and internment policies. Traditional accounts focusing on the Japanese and arguing that widespread racial prejudice drove policies are incomplete and often inaccurate. The federal government's perception of domestic and hemispheric threats coupled with military fears and economic concerns heavily influenced dual-coast relocation policies while political, social, and diplomatic considerations guided the selective, nationwide internment of enemy aliens and citizens. Underlying both processes was a tremendous fear of Fifth Columnists. Ultimately, the nation accepted relocation and internment as necessary expedients in dealing with those officially categorized, indeed ubiquitously called, enemies among us. What emerges, then, is more than just a story of enemies among us. Indeed, those German, Italian, and Japanese Americans who experienced relocation or internment personified the deeper social and cultural rifts of a democracy under stress.