Fort Missoula Alien Detention Camp

Fort Missoula Alien Detention Camp. . During World War II, Fort Missoula was turned over to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), for use as an Alien Detention Camp. The Camp was established to hold foreign nationals and resident aliens, which distinguished it from the 10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps that held over 110,000 Japanese Americans. Between 1941 and 1944, the Fort held 1,200 non-military Italian men, 1,000 Japanese resident aliens, and a handful of German resident aliens. , The 1,200 Italian men were merchant seamen, New York World's Fair employees, and the crew of an Italian luxury liner, the Conte Biancamano, seized in the Panama Canal. Many of the Italians, who referred to the Fort as "Bella Vista," spent the war as paid laborers replacing American men working in forestry, farms, the sugar beet industry, and contracting US Highway 12. , Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the FBI arrested many prominent Japanese leaders on the West Coast who were considered to be a potential security risk. Over 1,000 Japanese men, all resident aliens barred by law from US citizenship, were held at Fort Missoula for loyalty hearings. No one was ever charged with any act of disloyalty, but all were held at Fort Missoula or other camps for the duration of the war. These Enemy Alien Hearings were conducted in a courtroom in the Post Headquarters building T-1. , Fort Missoula is one of the most intact world war two internment sites, with most major buildings of the era still in use. This includes the Post Headquarters with its courtroom, the hospital, connivery, officer and staff housing, barracks, and other support structures.