Crucible of a Generation
Page 26
had done something that neither an invasion of Thailand nor even an assault on
the Philippines could have done. It had united the nation as no presidential proc-
lamation or congressional act could.
“It is war now, grim and to the death,” The Baltimore Sun solemnly declared,
adding this warning: “Let no American think that this is a one-ocean war. . . .” 41
To
The Washington Post , the country’s peaceful efforts had been rebuffed in a
response violating every canon of honor and decency. The nation would address
the grim task that lay ahead. “From this task there can be no retreat, no faltering.
The command is forward.” 42
To
The Atlanta Constitution the attack on Pearl Harbor called for an end to
quibbling. In its surprise attack, Japan had forced our hand; the country could no
longer be a benevolent neutral but must fight back to the utmost of its ability. 43
The Houston Chronicle agreed that it would not be long before the United States was at war with Germany and Italy, and anyway, it would be useless to defeat Hitler
while allowing Japan “to gobble up half the world.” 44
The Los Angeles Times called for an end to internal dissension and debate, “to the foolish if well-meant isolationist obstructions” and, above all, “an end in the
efforts of disloyal, self-seeking labor misleaders to hamstring our arms program.” 45
The paper was cheerfully optimistic about the prospects of victory. It pro-
nounced Japan’s formidable navy outgunned, outweighed, and out sped by the
combined fleets it would face. Her need for air defense at home would keep
Japan’s air fleet busy and hence less threatening to our own forces, adding that
the Japanese army would be of little use in a predominantly naval war. It went on
to say that Japan could easily be blockaded and was poorly placed to carry out a
long war. 46
An Associated Press story in the Houston Chronicle agreed with this low estimate of the effectiveness of Japanese air power. Confident observers, it said, believed
that Japan’s air force could not play any major role in a Pacific War. Japan, it
162 First Week at War: December 8–13, 1941
said, lacked first-line airplanes, it was shy on pilots and had long depended on the
United States for aviation fuels. By way of contrast, the United States had the fin-
est fleet aviation in the world. Other problems for Japan were its accident rate in
both civil and military aviation, which was the highest in the world. And finally,
the article proclaimed, that the performance of Japanese planes could not match
that of comparable U.S. planes. 47
Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana had been a leader of the isolationist
cause. His response was typical of that of so many of his colleagues: “The Japanese
have chosen war. We must all exert our energy, not only to win, but to give the
Japs such a whipping that they will not want war again. . . . The only thing now
is to do our best to lick the hell out of them.” 48
*
Optimism was prevalent, the Los Angeles Times found, in a series of man-on-the-
street interviews. Horace Goodrich, twenty-seven, a service-station attendant,
said: “We should be able to clean up on those fellows in six weeks or less.” Irene
Noble, thirty-five, was a candy store clerk: “They asked for it. I feel certain we
can whip the pants off them. And it shouldn’t take very long.” Restaurant chef
Anthony Terminello, twenty-five, agreed: “Once we start fighting it won’t last
long. I don’t think that the Japanese will be able to hold out long.” Mrs. Lillian
Oliver, forty, a housewife concurred: “I think the job of beating the Japs won’t
take long. There’s one very important development the war will bring—it prob-
ably will mean an end to labor strikes for a long time to come.” There were
thoughtful, even prescient responses such as that of Maurice Sundahl, twenty-
six, an upholsterer: “Lord help those Japanese when our planes begin dropping
bombs on some of those paper and wood cities. They’ll start an inferno that will
spread over all Japan. It won’t last long.” Madeline Evans, eighteen, was a mem-
ber of the Women’s Ambulance and Defense Corps of America. She was ready to
go, she said, if she could be of help.
Brigadier Guy Pace, thirty-nine, of the Salvation Army said: “I am a man of
peace. But not a man of peace at any price.” The Japanese attack, he thought,
would promote unity. He looked to all to aid the government in resisting aggres-
sion. Georgia Grant, twenty, a theater cashier, spoke for America when she said:
“They’ve had it coming for a long time and, well, let’s give it to them. ” 49
*
Amid the air of optimism there were those who had grave concerns. Like many
newspapers, The Atlanta Constitution experienced a rush of telephone requests
for information about the fate of family members and close connections. Hoke
Smith, the son of a prominent Atlanta attorney, was reported to be serving
aboard the destroyer Barker in the Far Eastern squadron based at Cavite outside Manila. That f leet of aged vessels, few in number, relics of an earlier war, would
soon be wiped out in a series of naval battles in the Pacific seas. Athletes always
command special interest and respect; Lt. Commander Walt Godwin, a former
All-Southern football guard at Georgia Tech, was reported serving in the Pacific.
Monday, December 8, 1941 163
No story could be more poignant than that of the Cox family. Mrs. Cynthia
Cox was in Manila to bring her grandchildren home to Denver. The mother of
the two-year-old twins, Cynthia Ann and Henry Harris, Jr., had recently been
killed in an automobile accident in Manila; their father was an officer in the U.S.
Army in the Philippines. They could hardly envision on that Monday morning
the fate that awaited them. The Denver Post reported on “socially prominent Denverites” in Hawaii, among them Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Gates; in her picture
she was further referred to as a “widely known Denver matron.” The family had
planned to spend the winter in Hawaii.
Besides the crème de la crème, other Denverites in the islands included the
manager of the Denver Club, a sugar chemist, an engineer for the U.S. Public
Highway Administration, several physicians, the assistant manager of an Army
housing project at Hickam Field in Honolulu, a professor of agriculture, and a pair
of honeymooners whose plans clearly had not included bombing and strafing. 50
A War of Nerves
For one group, the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor was excruciating.
These were Japanese nationals and Americans of Japanese descent. In New York
special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reinforced by city
detectives, rounded up Japanese nationals; they were sent to Ellis Island to be
held pending further action in Washington. Police went directly to the Japa-
nese Consulate at Rockefeller Center. They escorted Consul General Morishima
and his staff to their homes, instructing them not to leave without police in
attendance. 51
In Georgia, all Japanese nationals were ordered to stay at home. The guard
at the Atlanta Municipal Waterworks and at defense manufacturing plants was
doubled and the Commanding General of the Fourth Corps Area directed manu-
facturers to take all possible precautions against sabotage. 52
TWA Airlines announced the barring from its flights of any Japanese national
or person suspected of being a Japanese national. Both American and United
Airlines received orders that they were not to transport Japanese. 53
In Los Angeles there was a roundup of “Orientals, mostly Japanese,” who were
detained under guard behind a fence at the Sixth Street ferry landing in San Pedro.
Gun crews were readying .50-caliber antiaircraft guns at plane factories in the area,
while Navy patrol boats turned back a fleet of Japanese fishing boats which were
re-entering Los Angeles Harbor. 54
Howard Nomura, a Portland pharmacist and President of the Japanese Ameri-
can Citizens League, expressed the anguish of his position: “This is something we
hoped and prayed would never happen. As far as the Nisei [second-generation
Japanese] is concerned we know our lot is going to be a tough one.”
He could only rely, he said, on the fairness of Caucasian Americans to help
them through. “At best our position is not good—we look like Japanese and
nothing can be done about it. We only ask for the chance to show we are good
Americans.”
164 First Week at War: December 8–13, 1941
Nomura said that his League would report suspicious Japanese activity to the
FBI; and he noted that at that moment, there were as many at 300 to 400 American-
born Japanese serving at Fort Lewis, Washington, in the U.S. Army. 55
If the attack on Pearl Harbor preempted war news of the day, still there were
reports of a tank battle raging in the Tobruk corridor in Libya and Russian break-
throughs in the German lines before Moscow. 56 In the Pacific gasoline had been poured on a world in flames.
Liberty and Justice for All: In the Matter of Race
However sensational the news from the Pacific, there would still always be a
place for human-interest stories. As a new war erupted, Mrs. Martha Jordan
Muller of Chicago looked back at another war now fully lodged in history. She
had once owned fifteen slaves, willed to her by her father when she was only
twelve. Celebrating her 101st birthday at the home of her granddaughter, she
claimed to have seen Abraham Lincoln when she was twenty-one. He was, she
said, “the homeliest man I ever saw.” 57
In Los Angeles, a special branch of the YWCA had been established in a black
community of 15,000 persons in 1920. That community had now grown to num-
ber more than 50,000. This “special branch” of the YWCA served “negro girls
and young women.” Its facilities were now inadequate and a banquet was held at
the Ambassador Hotel to raise funds for a newer and larger building. The living
Lincoln that Mrs. Muller remembered had long since taken his place in history
but the separation of the black and white races was still a vivid, socially approved
reality in the Los Angeles of 1941. 58
Notes
1.
New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
2.
Washington Post , December 8, 1941, 2
3.
Chicago Tribune , December 8, 1941, 8
4.
Houston Chronicle , December 8, 1941, 7A
5.
Washington Post , December 8, 1941, 2
6.
Houston Chronicle , December 8, 1941, 4
7.
New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
8.
New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
9.
Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, 1
10. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
11. Denver Post , December 8, 1941, 1
12. Denver Post , December 8, 1941, 1
13. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
14. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 14
15. Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, 1
16. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 4
17. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
18. Denver Post , December 8, 1941, 15
19. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 10
20. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 12
Monday, December 8, 1941 165
21. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 10
22. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 2
23. Atlanta Constitution , December 8, 1941, 7
24. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 4
25. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
26. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 9/5
27. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 5
28. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 8
29. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 5
30. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 1
31. Washington Post , December 9, 1941, 1
32. Atlanta Constitution , December 8, 1941, 8
33. Atlanta Constitution , December 9, 1941, 8
34. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 39
35. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 39
36. New York Times , December 9, 1941, 64
37. Chicago Tribune , December 7, 1941, 1/18
38. Chicago Tribune , December 8, 1941, 1
39. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 22
40. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 5
41. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 5
42. Washington Post , December 8, 1941, 14
43. Atlanta Constitution , December 8, 1941, 12
44. Houston Chronicle , December 8, 1941, 1
45. Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, 2
46. Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, 2
47. Houston Chronicle , December 8, 1941, 7A
48. Houston Chronicle , December 8, 1941, 1
49. Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, E
50. Denver Post , December 8, 1941, 13
51. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
52. Atlanta Constitution , December 8, 1941, 1
53. Houston Chronicle , December 8, 1941, 4A
54. Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, 3
55. Oregonian , December 8, 1941, 9
56. New York Times , December 8, 1941, 1
57. Chicago Tribune , December 8, 1941, 19
58. Los Angeles Times , December 8, 1941, 2/4
16
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1941
The War of Nerves
The President’s brave words notwithstanding, and despite the airy optimism of
some and the patriotic responses of almost all, a state of grave apprehension
settled over the country. The shock and awe of the attack on Pearl Harbor and
the repetitive Japanese assaults across the Pacific and Southeast Asia reverber-
ated in the national psyche. An uncertain nation wondered where the enemy’s
next blow would fall, and it seemed to find the answers on both the Pacific and
Atlantic coasts.
In San Francisco, Brigadier General William Ord Ryan of the Fourth Inter-
ceptor Command announced that a large number of unidentified aircraft had
approached the Golden Gate Monday evening but that they had been turned
back. The General did not say by whom and by what means. What he did say
was that “They came from the sea, were turned back, and the Navy had sent out
three vessels to find where they came from.” He didn’t know, he said, precisely
how many planes there were but it was a large number. Other Army sources esti-
mated the formation as two squadrons of fiftee
n planes each. “They got up to the
Golden Gate and then turned about and headed southwest,” General Ord added.
Asked whether he thought these were Japanese bombers, the General replied:
“Well, they weren’t Army planes, they weren’t Navy planes and you can be sure
they weren’t civilian planes.” He dismissed reports that it had been only a test,
firmly declaring this was the real thing.
Lieutenant General John L. Witt of the Fourth Army and the Western Defense
Command confirmed General Ryan’s report. He said the “enemy units” had been
detected north and south of San Francisco Bay, possibly over Mare Island and Fort
Barry. “I don’t think there’s any doubt they came from a carrier,” he said. But
carriers move and the American interceptors had been unable to track the enemy
planes back to their carrier. They might not have been bombers, Witt observed,
but reconnaissance planes reconnoitering and gathering useful information. 1 , 2 , 3
Tuesday, December 9, 1941 167
San Francisco police ordered a blackout at 6:20 p.m. Air-raid warnings began
to sound at 6:50. Under a prearranged system fire trucks cruised through the
streets sounding their sirens. An all-clear at 7:30 p.m. was followed by a second
blackout before most lights could be turned on again. In the Marina district near
the Presidio, soldiers knocked on doors ordering householders to douse all of their
lights. The blackout was less than a complete success. Many neon signs continued
alight, including a large sign advertising personal loans directly across the street
from the Associated Press office. A mobile antiaircraft search light blazed into
action on a San Francisco beach and soon after the Army Air Corps brought
fifteen others into action illuminating the skies between the Golden Gate and the
southern boundaries of the city. 4
In Seattle, like General Ryan in San Francisco, Brigadier General Carlyle Wash
of the Second Interceptor Command dismissed doubt it had been a real raid,
stoutly maintaining, “I wouldn’t black out all of this territory for nothing.” Mean-
while, the entire Pacific coast from British Columbia to San Diego prepared for
possible raids. The Eleventh Naval District ordered a blackout, advising citizens to
stay at home, remain calm and listen to police broadcasts. Two great aircraft manu-
facturing plants, Vultee and North American, were blacked out and their night