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Monday, April 19, 2010

1942: JAPANESE, GERMANS AND ITALIANS FACE RESTRICTIONS

Early in WWII, I remember the mental panic many Americans went through as increasing incidents of fifth column sabotage were happening all over America. During that early period of the war, Japanese submarines were sighted off the coast of California and there was an incident or two where they actually lobbed shells onto the mainland. German U-Boats were seen off the Atlantic coast. Germany, Italy and Japan were all a part of what were termed "Axis" countries with whom America was at war. Unfortunately, many pro-America citizens whose lineage was traced to the Axis countries were also victims of the restrictions. Naturally, there were many at the time who were against the restrictions, However, fifth column fever was running high and the majority of Americans approved of the restricted areas.

2 comments:

Mack said...

Hi Tom:)
Great post.. and I agree 100%
on your comments about it:)

Tom Glover said...

THANKS, MACK. NOTE THAT I CHANGED THE TEXT AT BIT, NOTING THAT THERE WERE 3 AXIS COUNTRIES AT THE TIME, AND UNFORTUNATELY, MANY LOYAL AMERICAN CITIZENS WHO WERE NATIVES OF THOSE COUNTRIES WERE RESTRICTED IN THEIR TRAVELS.

TOM GLOVER