The Enemy Alien Files Exhibit

During WWII, the U.S. government operated an “enemy alien” program which affected nearly 1 million immigrants from the Italian, German and Japanese communities in the United States and from Latin America. This program was separate from the internment of the 120,000 U.S. citizens and resident immigrants of Japanese ancestry.

Following the Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, nearly 1 million law-abiding immigrants were labeled “enemy aliens.” No distinction was made between resident immigrants and aliens in the U.S. on a temporary basis. The U.S. government also went outside its borders and violated the rights of civilians in 15 Latin American countries. More than 6,000 men, women and children of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry – both immigrant residents as well as citizens of those countries – were taken from their homes, forcibly deported and interned in U.S. concentration camps for the purpose of prisoner exchange.