![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/files\/2017\/10\/Columbus-Day-kids-248x210.jpg\")
Children at a New York City public school salute the flag during a Columbus Day assembly, October 1942. Photograph by Marjory Collins, from Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n
Italy\u2019s declaration of war against the United States did not stop the speakers at the rally from praising the loyalty, the anti-totalitarian sentiments and the war efforts of the 6 million Americans with Italian heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Italy are just as much at war with their contemptible fascist government as we are,\u201d New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, who is of Italian descent, said in his address to the rally. La Guardia went on to characterize President Roosevelt as \u201cthe new explorer setting forth to bring freedom to the oppressed people of Europe,\u201d citing imagery similar to the famous voyager, Christopher Columbus, the federal holiday\u2019s namesake.<\/p>\n
In a reply to the president\u2019s statement that encouraged harmony among all ethnicities within the U.S., an audience-endorsed message stated: \u201cIt is Mussolini and his gang of Quislings, and not the masses of the Italian people, who are the enemy in this war.\u201d Many political leaders made it a point to paint the Italian people in a positive light.<\/p>\n
According to Lieutenant Governor Charles Poletti of New York, the patriotism of Italian-Americans and their \u201cdevotion to democratic ideals\u201d can best be seen in the records of this war. He stated that 10 percent of American soldiers under arms \u2013 about 500,000 out of 5 million \u2013were Italian-American men. Also, according to figures derived from the \u201calien enemy identification program\u201d and FBI investigations, only 228 foreign Italians have been interned as opposed to 1,228 German immigrants. Over 2,100 Japanese and Japanese-Americans have been interned. This was enough to statistically prove in the minds of U.S. government officials that Italian immigration does not pose a threat to national security.<\/p>\n
Assistant Secretary of State A. A. Berle Jr. reassured those of Italian heritage that regardless of the present circumstances, they should not be ashamed of their Italian traditions even as their country has been \u201cbetrayed by her shoddy crew of Fascist leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although most speakers kept their messages optimistic in the midst of the celebration, Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York reminded all in a sobering address that \u201cthere is no place in this country for dual allegiance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian-American Labor Council\u2019s motto for the event was \u201cAmerican Victory is Italy\u2019s Freedom.\u201d President Roosevelt connected with this in his Columbus Day message, expressing his faith in the Italian people and the power of American liberty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur cause is not only liberty for ourselves, but liberation for others,\u201d he said. \u201cIn unity, we shall find strength to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cU.S. ITALIANS AIDED: Biddle Announces Lifting of the \u2018Alien Enemy\u2019 Stigma on Monday.\u201d The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 1.<\/p>\n \u201cITALY\u2019S RULERS DENOUNCED: Italian-American Rally Fills the Metropolitan Opera House.\u201d The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 13.<\/p>\n \u201cLIBERTY AT STAKE, PRESIDENT ASSERTS.\u201d The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 12.<\/p>\n \u201cHE WHO HAS FAITH IN ITALY.\u201d The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 22.<\/p>\n \u201cRoosevelt Pays Tribute to Columbus.\u201d The Washington Post, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 3.<\/p>\n \u201cLoyalty of Italian-Americans Lauded at Columbus Day Rally.\u201d The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 13.<\/p>\n \u201cEXPLAINS BENEFITS TO ITALIAN ALIENS.\u201d The New York Times, Oct. 14, 1942, p. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Giuseppe Garibaldi, the 19th-century general in Italian unification, once said to his troops while on the battlefield: \u201cHe who still has faith in Italy, let him follow me.\u201d In spite of their native country being at war with the United States and its alliance with other dictatorial regimes like Germany and Japan, thousands of Italians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3780,"featured_media":1256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","category-the-home-front","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/files\/2017\/10\/Columbus-Day-kids.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8bpwr-kf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3780"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1257,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions\/1257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}