Report (Book)
HERE, IN AMERICA? Immigrants as "The Enemy" During WWII and Today
Written and edited by Helen Zia
84 pages, 2006, ISBN: 1-881506-14-2
A newly published report, HERE IN AMERICA? Immigrants as “The Enemy” During WWII and Today, was presented to the U.S. Congress in May by representatives of the Assembly on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (AWRIC).
The report combines excerpts of testimony from AWRIC witnesses from WWII and post-9/11, as well as narrative text taken from “The Enemy Alien Files: Hidden Stories of WWII,” a traveling exhibit developed in 2001.
The handsomely designed book includes many items useful for WWII curricula:
- historical photos
- maps
- chronology
- glossary
- background information about the WWII Enemy Alien Program and its relevance for all Americans today
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Video
HERE, IN AMERICA? Overview and Highlights of the Assembly on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
Edited by Casey Peek, Peek Media
Approx. running time: 15 min.
The video contains highlights from the emotional, powerful two-day Assembly.
We hear hidden stories from German, Italian, and Japanese from both the U.S. and Latin American, as well as Muslim Americans.
Though separated by sixty years, the stories shared many similar elements: immigrants arrested and detained without charges, trials or access to attorneys, interned for years or deported into war zones.
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About the AWRIC:
On April 8-9, 2005 at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco a two-day public testimonial event was held, called the Assembly of Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (“AWRIC”).
This event documented the little known experiences of US citizens and immigrants of Japanese, German and Italian ancestry in the US and from Latin America who were classified as “enemy aliens” and suffered civil and human rights violations due to US government policies and actions during World War II. Members of local Muslim, Arab and South Asian American communities also spoke of their own experiences and the importance of education and dialogue about issues and lessons from our nation’s past which resonate today.
This public testimonial event was inspired by the Congressional commission hearings held in 1981 which investigated the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. The AWRIC became an extension or continuation of the 1981 hearing by broadening the scope of the inquiry to include the personal testimonies of individuals from the German and Italian American communities as well as those taken from Latin America.
The AWRIC also focused attention on historical information which has come to light since the 1981 hearings, especially the coram nobis cases (which revealed that there was no military necessity to intern the Japanese Americans and that the US government lied to the US Supreme Court by suppressing such evidence); the hundreds of Japanese Americans who have been denied redress because of narrow interpretation of redress legislation or technicalities; and the WWII enemy alien program.
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