An alien place

by Carol Bulger Van Valkenburg

During World War II, Fort Missoula was turned over to the Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, for use as an Alien Detention Center. Between 1941 and 1944, the ADC held 1,200 non-military Italian men, 1,000 Japanese resident aliens, 23 German resident aliens, and 123 Japanese Latin and South Americans. Fort Missoula's ADC was established to hold foreign nationals and resident aliens, to distinguish it from the 10 better known War Relocation Act camps that held 120,000 Japanese Americans.