Lynness: April read

    I read "Penny from Heaven" by Jennifer Holm yesterday (a 2007 Newbery Honor book, she also had a 2000 Newbery Honor book).  Set in 1953, it tells the story of an 11 year old girl who lost her father when she was a baby and her relationships with her mother's family and her father's Italian family.  It was a good story and well written, but the best part about it was that the characters and events were based on the author's own family and that it taught me something.  The main character, nicknamed Penny, is her mother.  Experiences and memories and family lore and the events of the 50's era were combined together fictionally to make the story flow, but the main context of the story was very real (as an event- this did not actually happen to the author's grandfather, although he did die while his wife was pregnant with their daughter, the author's mother) and what taught me something new:  Penny never knew how her father died- no one ever talked about it.  She eventually finds out that he was arrested during WWII as a spy and died in an internment camp.  I'll quote from the author's note:
    "The story of Penny's father is a hidden piece of American history.  During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Proclamation 2527, which designated six hundred thousand non-naturalized Italians "enemy aliens."  All "enemy aliens" of Italian descent were obliged to carry pink "enemy identification" booklets and turn in "contraband," including weapons, shortwave radios, cameras, and flashlights.  In addition, they were warned against speaking Italian, "the enemy's language."
    Many of these Italians were longstanding, respected community members and have American spouses and children.  Homes were searched, thousands arrested, and hundreds sent to internment camps.  All Italians on the West Coast were put on curfews and forced to move out of certain areas.  "Famed baseball player Joe DiMaggio's father was not permitted to fish off the coast of California and was even forbidden to go to his own son's restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco."
    It was actually not until 2000 when an exhibit by a chapter of the American Italian Historical Association brought national attention to this that the US government formally acknowledged these events.
    I knew this had happened with the Japanese during World War II, but had no idea about those of Italian descent.  I can't even imagine the government doing something like that today, even against people we are at war with.  (Although I can imagine some might like to try, but the public uproar would be too great, I would think).  I mean, they weren't even allowed to have flashlights?!?  Come on!
    What do you think?  Could something like this happen again in America?