lutions were issued, they said, on behalf of all of the people of Greater East Asia.
They were adopted in the face of what Prime Minister Tojo called the gravest
crisis Japan had faced in all of its two thousand years.
The resolutions were as unyielding as they were expansive. The first was to rid
the nation of hostile pressure against the fulfillment of Japan’s historic mission.
The next called for the establishment as soon as possible of the Greater East Asia
22 Last Sunday at Peace: November 30, 1941
Co-Prosperity Sphere and, if all that were not enough, for the foundation and even-
tual creation of a New Order in all the world. Were there overtones of Hitler here?
If a New Order in East Asia and in the world were the goals, the final resolu-
tion identified the means. It was to prepare for the decisive battle uniting all of the
billion people of Asia.
These were, the resolutions asserted, the ideals for which millions of loyal offi-
cers and men were fighting on land, at sea and in the air, for which men and
women, young and old, were bearing indescribable hardships on the home front,
ready to sacrifice their lives for the Empire.
The resolutions identified the enemy, Britain and the United States. They stood
in the way of Asia for the Asiatics. Their acts, it was said, are an offense to God
and humanity.
So long as they failed to understand Japan’s mission and the ideals that inspired
it, so long as they maintained their hostile attitude, “we are strongly resolved to
crush them.” There was this final declaration: that there was a limit to the suffering
and to the patience of the Japanese people.
The Threat of War: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
If America remained at peace, war and the threat of war were very much on its
collective mind. The current euphemism for preparations for war was “defense”
and in the aggregate “the defense program.” In a full-page ad, The Washington
Post proudly announced that its carrier boys would “do their bit” for the defense program by selling Defense Savings Stamps as they delivered the newspaper.
They would act without pay or profit for the convenience of their customers
who would be able to purchase an Official Album holding 187 ten-cent Defense
Stamps, exchangeable, interestingly enough, with five cents in coin, for a $25
U.S. Defense Bond. A large sketch of Uncle Sam placing an avuncular hand on
the newsboy’s shoulder attested to the guaranteed appeal of this program.
Meanwhile, on this day, American troops were returning from the field, not of
combat but of training—295,000 men of the First Army and the Fourth Corps
from a 10,000-square-mile tract in the Carolinas.
Large numbers of these soldiers had been drafted under the Selective Service Train-
ing and Service Act of September 16, 1940, the nation’s first peacetime draft. The
one-year term of service had been extended to thirty months by a narrow 203 to 202
vote in the House of Representatives on August 18, 1941, a scant four months before
December 7. Hanson W. Baldwin, military correspondent of The Times , reported the opinion of General Lesley J. McNair that in tactics, leadership, administration, staff
work, discipline, and morale the troops had shown marked improvement over Septem-
ber’s Third Army maneuvers in Louisiana, which had emphasized tank defense and the
plane / tank team. General Hugh A. Drum of the First Army worried that after four
or five months in the Army the troops were far from being experienced soldiers. He
added that given plenty of ammunition for firing practice and completely equipped,
they could become a combat army, eventualities he dryly found improbable.
Significantly, the troops would return to their home bases largely by motor
vehicle convoy rather than by rail as they had two years ago. Most of them were
Facing the Gathering Storm 23
looking forward to Christmas furloughs. Baldwin noted the welcome of the local
populace who befriended the troops and offered them a hospitality that obviated
the need to spend their $21 or $30 monthly pay.
The Denver Post reported another aspect of the maneuvers. General Drum said
they had placed emphasis on military ceremony, esprit de corps, snap and dash on
the parade ground and personal and regimental pride. 10
A feature story in The New York Times focused on the individual impact upon
the soldier who took part in the maneuvers, on the hardships of the rifleman,
and details of his pack. Many northeastern soldiers were having their first taste of
Dixie. In one unit camped near a cotton field, the regimental chaplain organized
a cotton-picking detail. As they went about their tasks, the regimental band stood
by and played a Stephen Foster medley “in a strictly modern tempo.” 11
*
Meanwhile, another kind of civil-defense army was gathering. These were the
Senior Service Scouts, high school–age Girl Scouts, 44,000 strong. They were
organized on the advice and with the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and
hyperactive New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Wearing overseas caps and
red arm bands, they would provide daycare for children in boomtown areas,
bicycle brigades, and rapid-fire messenger services.
Bicycles would indeed be central to the performance of their duties, but these
girls would be as versatile as they were patriotic, performing their duties on ice
skates, roller skates, horseback, skis or snowshoes, and for older girls, in automo-
biles and motorboats. That was not all. They would know and use Morse code
and flag and smoke signaling in circumstances where telephones might be out of
order. While older girls were busying themselves with these important tasks, the
Brownies were “scurrying about learning how to take care of themselves.” They
planned to shine by their absence while concentrating on not getting in the way. 12
While Senior Service Scouts were embarking upon their duties, the Citizens
Committee for the Army and Navy in Los Angeles was coordinating thousands
of offers from citizens of southern California to “Keep Them Smiling.” Among
other things, they would provide a Christmas carton of cigarettes for every soldier
at nearby Camp Elliott. Another unsolicited gift funded the purchase of six pho-
nographs and 750 records for Camp Seward, Alaska. Proceeds from the sale of the
music would be placed in an entertainment fund for soldiers in forty camps in the
Southwest. The committee called for 200,000 knitted “V for Victory” sleeveless
sweaters from southern California before New Year’s Day. The spirit of this effort
was embodied by screen star Lola Lane, who said that Hollywood actresses were
going to out-knit their theater audiences—woman for woman. 13
While southern California was providing cigarettes to servicemen, Chicago
was undertaking to provide girls—that is to say, dancing partners. Mrs. Ernestine
Badt, working under the Chicago Board of Education, was organizing a list of
some 5,000 girls from all sections of the city to dance with soldiers and sailors
at events sponsored by churches, YMCAs, and fraternal groups. Mrs. Badt was
no stranger to Chicago’s dancing daughters. She had organized successful mixers
at local high schoo
ls for the past three years. The rules reflected the spirit of the
24 Last Sunday at Peace: November 30, 1941
FIGURE 3.2 “Sleeping sickness.”
Cartoon by Rollin Kirby. By permission of the Estate of Rollin Kirby Post. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62–134618.
time. A girl could not register as a dancing partner unless she had a certificate of
permission signed by mother, father and, if that were not enough, a witness. The
parents had to undertake to provide transportation. Servicemen would not be
permitted to take the girls home—or any place else. They had to be at least seniors
in high school and no younger than eighteen years old. Besieged by requests, the
agile Mrs. Badt was from time to time able to rustle up some 200 girls at a few
moments notice. She undoubtedly had a hand in organizing the mixer program
that included grand marches, countermarches, and robber dances. 14
Large and small, these preparations for “defense” were shifting the economic
weathervane toward prosperity, and war.
Economic Indicators: Happy Days Are Here Again
“Happy Days Are Here Again” was the theme song of the 1932 Democratic conven-
tion that nominated FDR for president. It may have been associated, too, with the
repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. As prognostication, the song was premature.
The country had passed through the shadow of the Valley of Depression for eight
Facing the Gathering Storm 25
long years. But as the year 1941 drew to a close, there were signs of a vigorous eco-
nomic revival. If not here again, it seemed that some happy days might be at hand.
“Christmas Buying Off to a Good Start” headlined a New York Times report
that many items were not to be had, even on reorder, especially toys and electri-
cal goods. 15 Compared to the sober assessment of The Times , The Denver Post was euphoric. The shopping season, it claimed, had the verve of a hundred-yard dash.
Local merchants agreed that they were on the threshold of the greatest shopping
season in the city’s history, outstripping even the phenomenal season of 1920.
And what was the reason for Saturday’s immense upswing in Denver shopping?
A straightforward answer: people were making money and were ready to spend it
in a giddy atmosphere where Depression was a word from a forgotten era. The
stores and streets were filled in a remarkable opening of the Christmas season.
November buyers were usually “lookers,” according to department store lore. But
they were buying Saturday, not just looking, and even traditional last-minute items
like neckties and silk stockings were selling at an accelerated pace.
A similar retail phenomenon was taking place in Atlanta where “the biggest one-
day shopping crowd within memory” was underway. Transport officials had been
utterly unprepared for the size of the crowds on Friday and Saturday. They had to rush
into service extra transportation equipment, busses, and trackless trolleys, not to mention virtually every man who could handle the equipment and the crowds. It was all truly
remarkable given that there were still three more shopping weeks before Christmas. 16
Nor was the upswing in sales a phenomenon confined to Denver and Atlanta.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that retail sales by independent
stores in thirty-four states had shown a gain of 9 percent in October over the
same month of the preceding year. And this was less than the increase in the year’s
earlier quarters, when there had been an increase of 12 percent in retail sales in the
first quarter, 18 percent better at the end of the first half, and an accumulative 20
percent better after the first three quarters of 1941. 17
*
Where there are retail sales, there must be jobs and payrolls to sustain them.
And America was going back to work after all those dreary years of double-digit
unemployment. America was building what The New York Times called “a bridge
of ships” at hundreds of shipyards along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts,
producing the merchant vessels that could carry all-out aid to the nations fight-
ing against German and Italian aggression.
All this activity brought to mind the experience of the First World War when
American shipyards had produced more than fifteen million deadweight tons of
merchant shipping in 1921. If this performance illustrated America’s genius for
high-volume production, nevertheless most of the ships had been built too late to
be of any use before the war ended, and suffered the ignominy of being laid up in
vast fleets of idle and rusting merchantmen.
That would not happen now. A million deadweight tons were scheduled for deliv-
ery in the first quarter of 1942, 146 vessels of 1.4 million deadweight tons in the second quarter, 154 vessels of 1.65 million tons in the third quarter and 184 vessels of nearly 2
million tons in the last quarter. These ships would be built more quickly, in four and a
26 Last Sunday at Peace: November 30, 1941
half to six months against ten to twelve months in the earlier era. Lighter-weight, more
fuel-economical ships would feature high-pressure turbines in place of old-fashioned
reciprocating engines and in place of the riveters, who later became famous through
the eponymous Rosie, they would be far more quickly and securely welded.
While America was preparing for war, there was a curious report that Ger-
many was preparing for peace, at least in the transatlantic passenger trade. It was
reported that six 23,000-ton liners had been laid down in Hamburg, one of which
had already been completed. They were to have two classes, cabin and tourist.
No third class would be included since it was anticipated there would not be the
usual flow of emigrants leaving Europe for the United States or South America. 18
*
Where there are government orders, as in shipbuilding, there will be government
rules and regulations. So, at a conference in Los Angeles attended by officials of the
Office of Production Management (OPM), industry was forcibly reminded of the
restrictions attending to defense orders. It was made clear that defense contractors
must fill defense orders first, using only excess productive capacity for regular cus-
tomers. There was concern that repair orders could be abused. While the Los Ange-
les conference was in session, a House committee was preparing an investigation
into other aspects of defense contracting. Lobbying for contracts raised the peren-
nial concern of accepting fees for aid and influence in the procurement of defense
contracts. Indeed, the President had told a recent press conference that he favored
legislation directly and specifically forbidding former federal officials from accepting
fees for promoting government contracts. A bill was in the process of being drafted.
The President had expressed his concern about fees and priorities under
OPM guidelines. As so often was the case, a priority system, while solving some
problems, raised others. Thus, a mass protest was planned by New York City’s
dry-cleaning industry, whose supply of carbon tetrachloride had been shorted in
favor of higher priorities. The Synthetic Cleaners Committee, headed by Hyman
Mitowsky of Empire State Cleaners and Dyers, represented a thousand s
mall busi-
nesses. How small? Their average sales were some $400 a week. They needed to
keep their businesses alive and their employees at work. Instead of a mass protest
there was a meeting with OPM representatives to prepare a presentation to Wash-
ington that might be a model for the resolution of problems in other industries.
*
A consequence of rising industrial activity and employment was the inevitable
pressure on prices. Since February, the cost of living had increased by 8.5 per-
cent, wholesale commodities by 14 percent and prices received by the farmer by
35 percent. Bernard M. Baruch, of the First World War War Industries Board,
had proposed ceilings on all prices, rents, wages, and salaries. In the past week
Representative Albert Gore of Tennessee had introduced such legislation: the
measure failed in the House by 218 to 63.
But on Friday the House approved a bill controlling prices on a selective basis.
It envisioned legislation appointing a price administrator who would control all
prices during a national emergency and a five-man board of review empowered
to overrule the decisions of the price administrator. 19
Facing the Gathering Storm 27
What did it all add up to? To the Houston Chronicle editorialist, the price-control bill passed by the House lacked any control of wages, and the limits placed on the cost
of farm products were illusory. He noted that the additional $7 billion for defense
the President had requested—which surely, it was thought, would be approved—
would bring total defense appropriations since 1940 to nearly $68 billion, numbers
that compelled attention. He calculated that the national income was running at
an all-time record rate of $92 billion a year. According to the latest Department of
Commerce report it was presently over $100 billion. Divided among all American
families, this would produce an annual income of $2,875, a stunning figure in a coun-
try emerging from the depths of depression. Of course there would be a per-family
allocation of $1,700 of the national debt. What to do? The Chronicle called first for a “non-political system of control of all prices and all wages and rents.” It targeted
government spending, which it suggested should be hit by “a double-bitted ax.” The
Crucible of a Generation Page 5
