Text 13767, 77 rader
Skriven 2008-03-31 15:05:57 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
     Kommentar till en text av Roy Witt
Ärende: Re: Interned Germans, Italians and Japanese
===================================================
RW>WD> According to what I read the first wave attacked at 07.48am, that
RW>WD> means 12.48pm in Washington DC. Right? Or did I miss one?
 
RW> I think you did. It was nearly 2pm in Washington.
 
Hmmm ... I thought it was 2hrs from Hawaii to California and then 3hrs more to
the eastcoast. But OK.
 
RW> Congress declared war on Germany on December 11th...
 
So they awaited Hirler's declaration first?
 
RW>WD> So there must have been a pre-conceived plan that could be set in
RW>WD> motion.
 
RW> Yeup...preconceived from the 1798 document mentioned above.
 
RW>WD> Rounding up of Germans and Italians had already started long before
RW>WD> that, half a year or more before Pearl Harbor even.
 
RW> I don't think so. AFAIK, they may have been under observation, but no
RW> Germans or Italians were rounded up earlier than Dec 11th.
 
I did some reading first prior to responding and it is different.
 
Several German, Italian and Danish (yes!) ships were stuck in American ports
and near the locks of the Panama Canal since 1939 when the war in Europe had
started.
 
Britain had made certain that all civilian German, Italian and Danish vessels
would be considered hostile, boarded, its crew interned, the ship and cargo
confiscated.
 
On the last week-end of March 1941, 8 months before Pearl Harbor, President
Roosevelt under the authority of the _1917_ "espionage act" that made it a
crime to damage a ship whether foreign or domestic, harbored in the territorial
waters of the USA, ordered 69 German Italian and Danish vessels seized. The 775
Italian and 100 German seaman were taken into "protective custody". Danish
sailors were left on their ships.
 
This was explained as being necessary because of worsening tensions between the
government of the USA and Nazi Germany. Rumours went around that ships were
being sabotaged or could be scuttled in essential coastal waterways.
 
So in April 1941, 7 months before Pearl Harbor, these sailors were already
interned and shipped to Fort Missoula in Montana. Prior to the outbreak of
hostilities photographs of Benito Mussolini were allowed on the walls.
 
The seizing of the ships is well documented in the issue of "LIFE" magazine of
April 14 1941.
 
The newspaper "Missoula Sentinel" ran a bunch of articles and photos of the
Italians arriving in Missoula MT on May 9th 1941. They were first detained on
Ellis Island and then shipped by train to Montana, that was a 3-day train ride.
 
I'm assuming I do not need to publish ISBN-numbers nor scans from authentic
articles?
 
RW> They were detained in Souther California too...one 'historical site'
RW> marker remembers those Italians who lived and worked near Campo, CA...
 
Where would that be about?
 
RW> I ran across a mention of a German detention center in Texas, but I
RW> didn't go look at that site and now I've forgotten the name...
 
Well if you ever do, then write about it.
 
Quite often we are better informed about what the Romans did than what happened
50-60 years ago.
 
A pity,
 
 \%/@rd

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 * Origin: Many Glacier -o=O=o- Preserve - Protect - Conserve (2:292/854)