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EXHIBITS

This groundbreaking traveling exhibition combines for the first time a comparative and multicultural presentation of how the United States government violated the civil and human rights of 31,000 German, Italian and Japanese immigrants from 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 used as hostages in exchange for US 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 the US 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.

To bring this exhibit to your community, download exhibit specification or contact National Japanese American Historical Society.