This groundbreaking traveling exhibition combines for the first time a comparative and multicultural presentation of how the United States government disregarded the civil and human rights of 31,000 German, Italian and Japanese immigrants in the United States and Latin America. Through stunning photographs, narrative texts, and oral history quotes from internees, the exhibit examines the impact of an international crisis on those "enemy aliens" that settled in North and Latin America.

The display illustrates the story of "enemy alien" Latin Americans who were deported and held captive in exchange for U.S. civilians. Unlike the ten War Relocation Authority camps, that confined West Coast Japanese Americans, this exhibit presents the lesser known facilities used to imprison "enemy aliens" under the auspices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice and U.S. Army. Enemy Alien Files cautions that the fragile nature of our constitutional and human rights in times of crisis is something that should concern us all, citizens and non-citizens alike.

Preparing for War

Throughout the 1930s, as turmoil in Europe and Asia rose, the United States government prepared for possible involvement in war. Preparations included surveillance of German, Italian and Japanese immigrants both in the U.S. and Latin America, compiling lists of "potentially dangerous persons," and planning for internment and deportation.

On the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, FBI and INS agents began arresting these "enemy aliens" many of whom were interned for up to seven years. During World War II the United States seized, shipped and interned 2,264 Latin American Japanese, against none of whom was a formal charge of espionage, sabotage or subversion ever leveled. Residents of thirteen Latin American countries, they experienced the violation of the civil and legal rights, both by their country of residence and by various branches of the American government.

Wartime Policies

The poor treatment of Japanese Americans reached out to include Japanese Latin Americans (JLAs) living on the Pacific side of Latin America, from Mexico to Chile. One country in particular, Peru, was home to approximately 75 percent of the people of Japanese ancestry affected by this new wartime policy. From December 1941 to 1945, the U.S. government participated in the forcible deportation of thousands of men, women and children of Japanese heritage. Of these, about 1,800 (80%) were Japanese Peruvians.

The U.S. government financed their transportation over international borders and their incarceration in U.S. Department of Justice internment camps. It justified its control over the JLAs by confiscating their passports upon entry to the country and labeling them as "illegal aliens". Most of the JLAs were interned in a former migrant labor camp at Crystal City, Texas. This facility also held persons of Italian and German ancestry from the United States and Latin America as well as Japanese Americans.

A Trying Ordeal

Over 500 Japanese Peruvians were included in the two prisoner of war exchanges that took place in 1942 and 1943. This left about 1,400 JLAs who continued to be interned in the U.S. Their ordeal did not end with the close of WW II in 1945. The remaining JLAs were told that they were "illegal aliens" and would be deported from the U.S.

At first, the Peruvian government refused to readmit any Japanese Peruvians, even those who were Peruvian citizens or married to Peruvian citizens. As a result, between November 1945 and June 1946, over 900 Japanese Peruvians were deported to war devastated Japan. 300 Japanese Peruvians remained in the U.S. and fought deportation through the courts. Eventually about 100 Japanese Peruvians were able to return to Peru. It was not until June 1952 that the Japanese Peruvians who stayed in the U.S. were allowed to begin the process of becoming U.S. permanent residents. Many later became American citizens.

The photographs displayed in this exhibition are courtesy of the public domain archives of the Library of Congress and the National Japanese American Historical Society. To learn more about life in internment camps, visit the following websites: