December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  The army also announced with great fanfare the purchase of almost thirty-nine thousand acres in rural Virginia to add to the existing Ft. A.P. Hill facility. The cost was $1,206,000.5 Additional housing for nurses at Ft. Belvoir post, also in the Commonwealth, was announced, as well as expansion plans in other parts of the state.

  Back across the river, the District of Columbia began to mandate fingerprints for business licenses, including “operators of massage, bowling, billiard . . . establishments, solicitors, private detectives, fortune tellers, clairvoyants and mediums . . . boxing promoters and applicants for liquor licenses.”6 The Young Democrats were planning to descend on Washington December 12 and 13, but they probably would not be fingerprinted.

  Along with all the bureaucrats, Washington was filling up with women, as ever-more numbers of young ladies flooded into the nation’s capital in search of employment with the national government on account of the war effort. The Consumer and Welfare Committee and the District Defense Committee of the city of Washington announced plans to form groups to meet them at the train and bus stations “in an attempt to keep girls . . . away from questionable rooming houses.” Their stated goal was to call “attention to the bad character of some of the establishments encountered.”7 In simpler language, they wanted to keep these impressionable young girls—some literally just off the farm—from falling into prostitution. And the best way to promote clean living, it was thought, was by associating with decent people in decent parts of town with decent housing.

  These were not “Rosie the Riveter” blue-collar laborers but instead “Tessie the Typist”—sprightly young girls in search of white-collar employment in steno pools, as clerk typists, filing clerks, secretaries, and certainly as “Girl Fridays,” though undoubtedly there were more than a few men in Washington who wanted them for “Girl Friday Nights.”

  Problem was there was little good housing to speak of in Washington, which despite its status as the nation’s capital was a dirty and humid backwater. Indeed, there has been little decent housing since its founding as the federal city—especially since the residents of the better neighborhoods fought the city’s Zoning Commission when it planned to allow for rooming houses in their neighborhoods with zoning variances.

  After a protracted fight and over objections from civic groups, the Zoning Commission shoved through the desired changes in the law and announced a new plan to allow up to four tenants to rent rooms in residential homes. It would only be “abandoned at the end of the national emergency proclaimed by President Roosevelt or by December 31, 1945, whichever date is reached first.”8 The lead editorial in the Washington Evening Star the next day was not about the war in Europe or the situation in the Pacific, but the decision of the Zoning Commission and the newspaper’s concern about the new regulations.9

  The state of affairs was worse in New York and other defense “boom towns” for young women. Though money was flowing out of Washington to defense contractors and as many as 1.5 million people had relocated to take jobs in national defense, “for the average woman and girl employee it’s a story of inflated living costs and inadequate rates of pay.” A study was issued by the U.S.O. and the Y.W.C.A. saying, “No one takes responsibility for their welfare, and girls, many of them never having held jobs before and drawn by the thousands into these boom towns, have found their wages, averaging from $18 to $20 a week, almost entirely consumed by board and high rentals, with little or no money left over for clothing and recreation . . . Involved is a pay rate of 40 cents an hour, 45 cents on night shifts with . . . facilities often so poor that the ‘morale’ service had put up tents with cots and equipment for doing laundry. . . . Girls are sharing not only rooms, but beds, with native commuters resenting intruders as ‘trailer trash’ and refusing to house single girls because they are waitresses or munitions workers.”10

  One could not help notice the change in Washington and across the country with the growing number of working women, and not just in the war effort. So many women now had jobs that department stores began having “Night Sales” to accommodate women who could not get out of the office for daytime sales. To keep the girls from being taken advantage of by renters, the city instituted rent control and appointed a “Rent Czar.”11 A number of profile stories were devoted to some of the young women who had streamed into Washington. They worked long days, socialized in the evenings, and did charity work, such as volunteering for “Bundles for Bluejackets,” where they learned to knit windbreakers and sweaters for American sailors operating in the cold north Atlantic.12

  Sumner Wells, the undersecretary of state, and his wife offered to the American Women’s Voluntary Service the use of their stables on Massachusetts Avenue, but they were rejected as they could only accommodate around two hundred girls, said Miss Anita Phipps, chairman of the A.W.V.S. On the morning of December 3, on the front page of the Washington Post, “an attractive girl . . . Miss Lila Quick, a 19-year-old Veterans Administration worker” was reported missing. Miss Quick had only arrived in the nation’s capital several months earlier from Birmingham, Alabama.13 The city also announced its “first woman air raid warden, Miss Mary Mason.” She worked for the National Broadcasting Company as well as serving as a member of the Home Economics Association.14

  The Birmingham News ran an entertaining regular feature on the front page entitled “No Man’s Land in Washington; Lulu Tells Betty What’s Going On.” In the guise of a letter, it opened, “Dear Betty, I have been too busy with defense work to write you lately. Let us make a New Year resolution ahead of time to write more often in the future. Speaking of the future, in some ways it looks brighter, in others more depressing. From all I hear, the ‘peace emissary’ from Tokyo, Suburo Kuruso, came to Washington just to stall for time. There are few persons here who believe his intentions were ever honorable. If all negotiations fail between Tokyo and Washington, then look out for trouble P.D.Q.”15

  Traffic fatalities had skyrocketed in Washington over just one year, possibly because more drivers were speeding, certainly because there were more drivers, and possibly because of the growing sense of crisis in the city. It was not unusual for a child, alighting from a school bus, to be mowed down by a car.

  Perhaps some drivers had become impatient, as some most surely had when a convoy of two thousand cars “containing infantry and mechanizedtroops” rolled through Washington on a weekday “en route from the Carolina maneuvers to Camp Edwards, Mass. Washington traffic police routed the division over Key Bridge, Canal Road, Foxhall Road, Nebraska and Wisconsin Avenues to the District line.” And later that afternoon, an additional 350 army vehicles were expected to make the approximate same route through Washington.16

  In California, it was just the opposite. Drivers were pulled over for driving too slowly because of troop convoys or because their cars were “jallopies” that could not maintain a rate of speed.17

  It didn’t help matters when Washington and all of the East Coast were enveloped in the worst fog in years. The gleaming new National Airport, built near the banks of the Potomac River in 1941, was closed, as were airports from New York to Atlanta, but also west to Pittsburg and Kansas City. The fog and “low lying smoke from defense-busy factories caused semi-blackouts.” Ferryboats collided in Norfolk, five ocean-going passenger ships had to layup in the Chesapeake, and traffic ground to a halt for the day.18 In Boston, the R.C.A. Company picked the foggy night to test out its new air-raid siren, and the moist air contributed to a weird sound that pierced Beantown. Across the region, people called the local police and fire departments asking what was going on.19

  A senator from New York, James Mead, complained that men in uniform were being ill-treated in the District. On the floor of the Senate, Mead said that some Washington establishments “discriminated” against the military. A bill had been introduced earlier in the year that would “make it unlawful for any restaurant, hotel or other place of public assembly to bar men in uniform from its facilities or service.”20 A move was also afoo
t in Congress “to continue the fight for legislation giving residents of the District the privilege of voting. . . .”21 As it was the cold and flu season, the District Health Department and the Pneumonia Control Committee asked sick people to stay home. As of 1940 in Washington, 80 out of every 100,000 individuals died of pneumonia.22

  Congress was making plans to quit Washington sine die on December 20, giving members from long distances just enough time to get home to their districts, especially those traveling by rail, car, or bus. But before the Senate could depart, they would have to take up the bill regulating strikes in war industries, as labor unions were beginning to mount a lobbying campaign to defeat the controversial bill. Many were aghast it had so easily passed the House, with its overwhelming control by the Democrats, long aligned with the labor movement. But the unions found themselves on the wrong side of the patriotism argument. Industrial America saw the temporary advantage and they exploited it, pledging to put “patriotism above personal gain,” and even William Knudsen, a high official with the Office of Production Management, said, “Let’s, by the Almighty God, see to it that the boys, if they have to go, go with guns in their hands and not with a broom handle.”23 The War Department issued press releases claiming strikes had cost “7,000,000 man-hours.”24

  Henry Ford’s plants in Detroit had already been partially converted to manufacturing to support the war effort. Ford himself was supportive. “[O]ut of the present conflict in Europe I see emerging a world federation, a union of all peoples in which there will be no customs, monetary or economic barriers,” he said.25 The Ford Motor Company was already churning out tanks and planes, but the old man was, as always, a visionary, quoting Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” speech of one hundred years prior.

  At Union Station, where members of Congress and Washingtonians could catch trains leaving town, it was disclosed that government officials under the Wage-Hour Division were trailing Red Caps porters around to see if they were disclosing all their tips for tax purposes. “The checkers would dog the steps of the porters and compel them to disclose the amount of the tips they received. Arthur Brown, negro porter at the Camden Street Station . . . in Baltimore testified that the check system was a ‘nuisance’ which annoyed customers and Red Caps alike. He stated that Red Caps would do as well without any check system or guaranteed minimum wage.” At the time, Red Caps could keep everything over 10 cents per customer to help with their luggage.26

  The Washington social scene was in full swing in the early days of December, and the newspapers were filled with stories about this cocktail party, that black tie dinner, and hoity-toity embassy parties. “Delightful Parties Held” and “Air Attaché and Mrs. Kenny Honored at Informal Party Given by Canadian Minister” were some of the headlines.27 One party honoring “Senhor Paulo Bettencourt” and “Senhora de Bettencourt” was hosted by Nelson Rockefeller and “Mrs. Rockefeller.”28

  But one Georgetown socialite was having trouble with the help, according to the Post. “A popular Georgetown hostess tells this story on herself. Seems that along with a number of other Capitalites, she has had her share of servant trouble lately. A couple of days ago, however, she interviewed a colored maid whose qualifications appeared to be ideal. Arriving with the domestic for the interview was her brother.” At the conclusion of the tour, the hostess welcomed the maid, telling her “you will feel like home here. She ought to,” put in the brother with a wide smile. She was bawned in this very room.”29

  In December of 1941, newspapers in America often published the impending military transfer of army personnel. In long columns, the names of men being assigned to the Medical Corps, the Infantry, the Coast Artillery, the Air Corps, the Ordinance Department, the Quartermaster Corps, the Dental Corps, the Field Artillery, the Veterinary Corps, and the Sanitary Corps were all right there in black and white along with the location of their new assignments. Anybody could read it, including jealous girlfriends, old enemies, collection agencies, and Japanese and Nazi spies.30 The notion that anyone could enlist in the military, pack up their troubles, and get a fresh start was absurd.

  The newspapers also thoughtfully listed shortwave radio broadcasts, including war news and broadcasts from London, Berlin, and “Tokio.”31 Also right there in black and white were details about how the navy’s newest dive-bomber, the “HELL-DIVERr,” was being made in Columbus, Ohio, at a newly dedicated twenty-six acre facility. The plane, to be manufactured by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, was a continuation of American pioneering in the new art of naval dive-bombing. The plant was opened by Rear Admiral John B. Towers, who helpfully told reporters, “Germany copied its dive bombing technique from the Unites States Navy. Ernst Udet witnessed a demonstration of Navy dive bombing in this country eight years ago and took the idea back to Germany.”32

  The war continued its steady spread across the globe. In Lebanon, “war widows and orphans” of men who died fighting were receiving Red Cross aid.33 President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba wanted his national legislature to grant him emergency powers to act in the event of hostilities. “He also declared that Cuba must be ready to carry out her commitment to the United States, with which the island’s policy is linked.”34 The Argentine government was looking to clear up a previous misunderstanding with Washington, so as to gain access to its funds and pay for its own army.35 Great Britain was moving ahead with declarations of war against “Finland, Rumania and Hungary.” Churchill’s policy was that “any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe.”36 Finland had attacked Russia, an English ally.

  The famed war correspondent Royal Arch Cunnison was in the Far East documenting, “Here in the Philippines the United States Army and Navy and the Filipino troops are on a ‘war alert’ 24 hours a day” and that the daily activities by America to strengthen its position in the region might dissuade Tokyo from military action.” He was not hopeful, though, that the Emperor would put a halt to his country’s militarists. “It is not logic that will govern the Japanese. If they were logical, there would be no war.”37 Others in Washington’s diplomatic circles were convinced that the Germans’ complications in North Africa and the Russian Front would give the Japanese pause; that maybe there was a chance Hitler might not win the war, especially after two Italian divisions had surrendered to the Russians. Moscow issued a statement proclaiming that Josef Stalin was personally directing the Russian defense as “supreme commander in chief of the Red Army.” The statement also claimed the Red Army had “severely defeated the Adolph Hitler Elite Guard.”38

  But Senator Claude Pepper of Florida, a staunch supporter of FDR in general and of Lend-Lease in particular, publicly predicted that the Vichy French government and the Japanese would engage in a “pincer” move into Thailand and toward the Burma Road.39 Meanwhile, the Vichy French would support pinning down the British in Libya, thus reducing the armaments they could send to the Far East to strengthen their garrisons. But there were also rumors in Washington that the Japanese navy—thought to be a moderating force in Tokyo—was squabbling with the militarist elements inside the government. “[T]he conservative element struggles with the military group to prevent aggravation of the Pacific crisis to the point of war against the United States.”40

  This slim reed was grasped by many, that internal discord and food riots among the populace would prevent Japan from going to war. “If there is a ray of hope that a solution other than general war in the orient will be found, it rests on the uncertain attitude of the Japanese naval high command. . . . Reports to the State Department declare that” riots, provoked by unemployment and shortages of rice and fish, the main staples of the Japanese diet, are rapidly spreading over the country.”41

  “Finally, Japan is confronted in the present situation with overwhelming naval and air supremacy of her potential enemies. An American fleet, bigger than her own, is poised at Pearl Harbor in the mid-Pacific.”42

  Suffice it to say, opinions as to Japanese intentions were sharply divided.

  On December 3, The
Tatuta Mara, a Japanese passenger ship, was stopped from departing San Francisco for Japan until sixty tons of U.S. mail destined for that country had been removed, though there was no mention of this being for security reasons. Because of the American embargo against Japan, longshoremen went aboard and off-loaded “a huge shipment of electric refrigerators, binoculars and electrical equipment.” The ship also contained a large number of bankrupt businessmen who were going home to Japan after FDR had ordered a freeze of credit for Japanese in America. “One of the passengers was Jiuji G Kassai, member of the Japanese Diet, who warned the United States against going to war with the Japanese in a speech last week to the Commercial club.”43

  In Mexico City, it was reported that Japanese diplomats and their families, including the Japanese minister, were making hurried preparations to leave the country and head back to Japan. “In diplomatic circles, it was reported their decision was prompted by the arrival of a courier bringing from Washington confidential reports of the progress of United States-Japanese negotiations. A number of Japanese residents were reported to be trying to dispose quickly of their property preliminary to leaving.”44

  Japan also revealed that they had a response to the American position, though they did not indicate if they were responding to Secretary Hull’s “principles for peace in the Pacific” of late November or the president’s question on Japanese intentions when it came to Thailand of two days earlier. Whichever they were responding to, they let it leak out that Washington would not be happy with Tokyo’s response.45

  Thailand—renamed from Siam in 1939—was a prized possession for either side. The new name meant “Land of the Free” but the Japanese were thinking otherwise. It remained the only independent nation on the Asiatic Peninsula. “The nation’s extensive mineral wealth includes tin, gold and silver, coal, tungsten, lead, antimony, copper, manganese, some iron and precious stones. Rubber production has been of increasing importance in southern and eastern Thailand.”46