HCR 3 – AS INTRODUCED
2005 SESSION
09/01
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 3
A RESOLUTION urging Congress to require the Department of Justice to conduct a review and release information to the public regarding mistreatment and restrictions placed on Italian-American citizens of the United States during World War II.
SPONSORS: Rep. Pepino, Hills 11; Rep. DiFruscia, Rock 4; Rep. Movsesian, Hills 22; Rep. Zolla, Rock 5; Sen. D'Allesandro, Dist 20
COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs
This house concurrent resolution urges the Congress to require the Department of Justice to conduct the review mandated by Congress in 2000 to document and release information to the public regarding wartime mistreatment and restrictions placed on Italian-Americans during World War II.
05-0049
09/01
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five
A RESOLUTION urging Congress to require the Department of Justice to conduct a review and release information to the public regarding mistreatment and restrictions placed on Italian-American citizens of the United States during World War II.
Whereas, more than 500,000 Italian-Americans served in World War II for the United States of America; and
Whereas, since 1999 it has been known that up to 600,000 members of the families of those who served in World War II were placed under wartime restrictions which included random arrests, searches of their person, federal raids of their homes, curfews, forced relocation, so-called “prohibited zones,” and internment camps; and
Whereas, these individuals were placed under such restrictions solely based on their Italian-American heritage; and
Whereas, Italian-Americans nationwide were affected by these wartime restrictions and were considered enemy aliens even when they were born in the United States; and
Whereas, the United States government has acknowledged the wartime campaign against Japanese-Americans and enacted a reparations law in August, 1988 that awarded over 1 billion dollars in restitution to Japanese-Americans interned in camps in or evacuated from the West Coast; and, but to date has ignored the plight of Italian-Americans affected by wartime decrees; and
Whereas, the full extent of the United States government’s wartime restrictions on Italian-Americans is not known because the Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to declassify 60-year old World War II documents describing the nature of these events; and
Whereas Congress has mandated that the United States Department of Justice conduct an inquiry for the purpose of documenting and making public the mistreatment of Italian-Americans during World War II; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:
That the United States Department of Justice complete its inquiry into the mistreatment of Italian-Americans during World War II with all due speed and release the results of such inquiry to the public and the news media; and
That the Federal Bureau of Investigation take the necessary steps to make it known that public access is available to the documents regarding the mistreatment of Italian-Americans during World War II; and
That copies of this resolution shall be sent by the house clerk to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the attorney general of the United States, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the chairpersons of the Judiciary Committees of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, the New Hampshire congressional delegation, and the New York headquarters of the Associated Press.