Enemy Aliens in America During WWII ~ By Michelle Shocklee

 

Enemy aliens.

Those two words represent thousands upon thousands of people throughout history. Dating back to the War of 1812 when British subjects were considered enemy aliens in America, the term has been used to describe foreign-born people of various nationalities who found themselves in the United States at a time of war. During World War I, Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Turkish citizens were considered enemy aliens. Some naturalized citizens and American-born individuals were also labeled enemy aliens based on family ties. Even American-born women who married men from enemy nations were viewed as enemy aliens during World War I.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

In my new novel, All We Thought We Knew, I tell the story of Gunther, a German enemy alien caught up in the turbulent days of World War II. To understand everything he and others like him went through, a little history is necessary.

Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued three Presidential Proclamations that authorized the United States to detain allegedly and potentially dangerous enemy aliens. In the days following the attack, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies arrested thousands of suspected enemy aliens, mostly individuals of German, Italian, or Japanese ancestry, living throughout the United States. 

One of several guard houses at Camp Forrest

How did the FBI and law enforcement know about these people?

Through the Alien Registration Program, a World War II-era national security measure that directed the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to fingerprint and register every alien age 14 and older living or arriving in the United States. Between August 1, 1940 and March 31, 1944, the Alien Registration Program registered over 5.6 million noncitizens.

The Department of Justice oversaw the processing of the cases and the internment program. Although some detainees were released or paroled after hearings before a local hearing board, for many the adversarial hearings resulted in internment that lasted the duration of World War II and beyond. Of those interned, there was evidence that some had pro-Axis sympathies, but others were interned based on weak evidence or unsubstantiated accusations of which they were never told or had little power to refute. Often families, including naturalized or American-born spouses and children, of those interned voluntarily joined them in internment.

Japanese enemy aliens arriving at Fort Missoula internment

camp in Montana, where Italians and Germans were also imprisoned,

ca. 1941; photo:Lawrence DiStasi.

By the end of the war, over 31,000 suspected enemy aliens and their families, including a few Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, had been interned at INS internment camps and military facilities throughout the United States, including Camp Forrest in Tullahoma, Tennessee, the setting for my novel.

Gunther Schneider, the German character in my book, is a medical student in New York City when Pearl Harbor is bombed. His arrest, hearing, and detainment is based on actual stories I read, told by men and women who experienced those terrifying days. 

Many terrible things happen during wartime that would not be tolerated under normal circumstances. The detainment of thousands of people considered enemy aliens, whether they were a danger to our society or not, is a situation I pray our country never has to repeat. 

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including   Appalachian Song, a 2024 Christy Award Finalist; Count the Nights by Stars, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award; and Under the Tulip Tree, a Christy Award and Selah Award finalist. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two sons and mother-in-law to two beautiful daughters, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online  at www.MichelleShocklee.com

ALL WE THOUGHT WE KNEW

1942
Ava must put her life back together after her husband is killed at Pearl Harbor. A job at Camp Forrest provides income, but it also puts her in contact with Enemy Aliens interned on the military installation. Can she trust the German medical student whose friendship means more to her than it should?

1969
Mattie ran away from the pain when her brother was killed in Vietnam. Now she’s back in Tullahoma facing another devastating loss. Yet it is the bundle of WWII letters Mama insists she reads that makes her question everything she thought she knew about herself.

https://www.tyndale.com/p/all-we-thought-we-knew/9781496484178