December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.108

  Roosevelt’s six-and-one-half minute address was interrupted several times with ovations and cheers and whistles and rebel yells from Congress and again, at the end, sustained applause was heard as he waved his hand to the members.

  Roosevelt often wrote his own speeches, or at least provided substantial edits. Reading the president’s original manuscript of his address revealed the sheer power of words. He initially wrote December 7, 1941, would be a day that would live in “history,” but he later crossed out that word, inserted a proofreader’s carrot, and scribbled “infamy.”109 As Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”110 In his speech to Congress on December 8, the president had captured lightning in a bottle. Churchill, who had long lobbied for America’s entry into the war, was jubilant. And the American media was breathless.

  The United Press reported, “Democracy was proving its right to a place in the sun with a split second shiftover from peace to all-out war.”111 Journalist Louis M. Lyons of the Boston Daily Globe was on hand, one of the few privileged reporters allowed to sit in the eighty-six seats in the press gallery that five hundred other journalists were denied. Of the crowd in the House Chamber, Lyons wrote, “All rose in a mighty crash of supporting applause as he asked in one simple sentence that Congress declare a state of war exists between the United States and Japan.”112

  The war resolution (in language identical to 1917, with the exception of substituting Japan for Germany)113 passed the Senate thirty-two minutes after FDR’s speech to the joint session began and less than fifteen minutes after he concluded his impassioned remarks.114 The refrain “Vote! Vote! Vote!” echoed throughout the chamber.115 It passed the House twenty-two minutes after that.116 The Senate vote was 82–0 for war with Japan. The House vote was 388–1 for war with Japan.117 In 1917, Congress had debated for four days to go to war with Germany. This time, they did so in a little over forty minutes.118

  There were still some in Congress now, who had been in Congress then, who had voted against war with Germany. Not this time. Even the most rabid isolationist, anti-Roosevelt Republican voted to go to war with Japan. Save one. The one dissenting vote was Jeannette Rankin from Montana. She had voted no once before, in 1917 when Congress was asked to vote on the Declaration of War. At that time she stood weakly, and said, “I want to stand by my country but I cannot vote for war.” Then she broke out in tears.119 This time there were no tears. But boos and hisses rained down on the silver-haired woman. A Democratic member could be heard saying sarcastically, “Sit down sister!”120 Speaker Rayburn gaveled for the chamber to come to order.

  Rankin had remained seated, along with Congressman Clare Hoffman, Republican of Michigan, while everyone else stood as the president entered the House. Hoffman was a vocal opponent of government-initiated fluoridation and polio immunization. Rankin was the daughter of a rancher, a Republican, a pacifist, a suffragette, and utterly principled. She’d first been elected in 1916 and in 1917 and had voted against entry into the European War. In 1918, she lost a primary bid for the U.S. Senate. She kicked around for twenty years, working on social causes, until once again elected to the House in 1940. After her vote against war with Japan, she was essentially hounded out of office and did not bother to seek reelection in 1942. Following the vote, she told reporters, “As a woman I can’t go to war and I refuse to send anyone else.”121

  Both houses of Congress adjourned almost immediately after passing the war resolution. Very little discussion had taken place in either body prior to the vote. Of the thirteen senators and forty-two representatives who missed the vote due to distance or illness, all declared they would have sided with FDR to go to war. Several rushed back, only to walk onto the floor as the voting had finished.122

  At 4:10 eastern standard time that afternoon, Roosevelt signed the declaration of war against Japan at his desk in the Oval Office. In cursive he wrote, “Approved—Dec 8th 4:10 p.m. E.S.T. Franklin Roosevelt.”123 Also signing the Declaration of War, as stipulated by the Constitution, were the vice president and Senate president Henry Wallace, at 3:23; and Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House of Representatives, at 3:15.124 Roosevelt was photographed surrounded by congressional leaders while he signed the document.

  As the New York Times reported, “The United States went to war today as a great nation should—with simplicity, dignity, and unprecedented unity. The deep divisions which marked this country’s entrance into the wars of 1776, 1812, 1861, 1898 and 1917 were absent. Overnight, partisan, personal and sectional differences were shelved.”125

  After the leaders departed, Roosevelt took an hour-long nap on the sofa in the Oval Office. “When he arose he checked reports again (still piled with bad news).”126

  And then, everything changed in America.

  All troops out on passes were immediately recalled to their posts. All leaves and furloughs were canceled and men ordered to return to their duty stations immediately. Military posts were closed to civilians. Nationwide, recruiting offices were flooded with applications for all three branches. “Young boys of ‘teen age’ and grizzled veterans of the last war—swamped Army, Navy and Marine recruiting stations here today, ready to give their lives if need be to whip Japanese. White and colored, the uneducated and professional men, joined together.”127

  The recruiting office of the navy in Washington usually had three applicants on an average morning, but this morning, two hundred young men showed up. The phones of recruiting offices across the country began ringing Sunday afternoon. The navy was accepting candidates from the ages of seventeen to fifty, the marines sixteen to thirty.128 The first elected official to volunteer was Senator Albert “Happy” Chandler, Democrat of Kentucky, who was a veteran of the last war.129 Recruiting offices also offered training for women in “first aid, diet and canteen ambulance corps.”130

  Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams had been classified 3-A, but his draft board in Minneapolis announced that he would shortly be reclassified as 1-A.131 Every newspaper carried photos of young men gathering outside of recruiting offices. Women descended in the droves onto defense training centers in New York, asking, “What can we do?” “You can wash dishes,” answered a member of the American Women’s Voluntary Services. Shortly, the contributions of American women would become more substantive. “A police instructor for women air raid wardens opened his usual Monday morning meeting with the words, ‘our subject for today is incendiary bombs.’ His class was most attentive.”132

  While voting to declare war on Japan, Congress had also voted for supplemental funds for the war effort and a bill to “freeze” all currently enlisted men into the services “for the duration of the national emergency.”133

  After the bill signing, FDR met with the Soviet ambassador, Maxim Litvinoff; La Guardia; and the chairman of the Red Cross, Norman H. Davis.134

  The mayor of San Francisco declared a state of emergency and ordered a halt to all strikes in his jurisdiction while calling for thousands of Civil Defense volunteers. The metropolis had an especially heavy concentration of Japanese citizens, and city fathers feared sabotage.135 Big tuna fishing boats owned by Japanese in Monterey were ordered to stay at their berths or anchorage. The West Coast felt doubly vulnerable to sabotage and the possibility of a Japanese invasion. Blackouts were ordered up and down the coastline. A “Jap Boat” was spotted off of Laguna Beach “flashing messages to the shore from that point.” The local police issued an APB to find and apprehend the vessel.136

  Government officials began to discuss the possibility of rationing commodities such as rubber, tin, and gasoline. The government also took out ads in newspapers, calling for blacksmiths, boat builders, machinists, boilermakers, and other s
killed labor for work in the Panama Canal Zone. The pay was good, too, as much as $1.66 per hour.137 Air-raid warden schools were opened in Rhode Island. Stevedores called off their strike in New London, Connecticut.138 Harvard hosted a debate on its role in the war, “its role in a country at war,” and what the war meant to Harvard. Dean Paul Buck foresaw no “radical change” for his school. More practically, Emerson College “suspended classes” and hosted a pro-American rally. “An American history exam was cancelled while war in the Pacific made current history.”139

  Roosevelt immediately ordered the arrest of all Japanese “dangerous to the peace and security of the United States,” said Attorney General Francis Biddle. At the time, ninety-three thousand Japanese had registered with the government as a result of the Alien Registration Law.140

  The FBI was ordered to implement the arrests. Almost immediately, 738 Japanese aliens were picked up and the Bureau had another 50,000 on their watch lists.141 The government also began rounding up Japanese “in the jurisdiction of the Fourth Army, which takes in the west coast and Alaska, and the Hawaiian and Canal Zone departments.”142

  Those arrested were placed in “immigration detention centers” and from there would be turned over to the U.S. Army. The U.S. attorney in charge of the program announced his office would remain open twenty-four hours per day until further notice. They already had in custody 1,200 Germans and Italians locked up in facilities in Montana and North Dakota.143

  In Baltimore, a municipal judge, William Coleman, was supposed to preside over a pro forma citizenship swearing in ceremony but instead, he denied the thirty-four individuals of German, Italian, and Finnish origin their application to become U.S. citizens.144At the time, Japanese could not become American citizens. Over the objections of President Calvin Coolidge, Congress had passed the Asiatic Exclusion Act in 1924.145

  A number of Japanese nationals were arrested in New York under the Enemy Alien Act and taken to Ellis Island for holding. Japanese newspapers were ordered closed.146

  The secretary of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau, announced “the seizure of all Japanese banks and business in the United States,” to be carried out by his agents.147 He warned “that anyone hiding or destroying, or helping anybody else to hide or destroy, any of the Japanese property ordered seized would be risking ten years in prison.”148

  Morgenthau also ordered all communication with the empire of Japan banned as well as commerce under “Section 3 of the Trading with the Enemy Act.”149 The order covered all indirect commerce or communication as well. He also closed the borders of Mexico and Canada to all Japanese nationals and placed a ban on any financial transaction in America by “Japanese aliens.” Those intercepted at the borders were detained and additional security was added.150

  Additionally, Morgenthau ordered the impoundment of over $131 million in Japanese holdings in U.S. banks, and all exit visas out of the country were canceled for Japanese nationals. Customs officials were ordered to stop and detain any Japanese national from leaving the country. Morgenthau’s order was complete, absolute, and harsh. “All general licenses, specific licenses and authorizations of whatever character are hereby revoked in so far as they authorize, directly or indirectly, any transaction by, on behalf of, or for the benefit of, or any national thereof.” The order was not only aimed at preventing commerce with Japan; it also prevented the conduct of commerce by Japanese citizens in America or any territory controlled by the United States. The United States had $217 million in banks and holdings in Japan, and all assumed they would freeze those as well.151 Morgenthau hinted that his actions might also apply to Germans and Italians.152 It was unclear how the new edits from Washington would affect second generation Japanese Americans, known as “Nisei.”153

  One Japanese-American, grasping at straws, speculated that it might have been possible for the Germans to get a hold of Japanese planes to carry out the attack. Another young Japanese man, a truck driver, said, “This is it. I guess I’ll join the Army. ‘He meant the American Army.’”154

  Public facilities around the country immediately took on a “nation at war” cast. There was an increased military presence, and spontaneously, Americans began showing up at Red Cross stations to donate blood for the war effort. As men returned grimly to their bases, the Los Angeles Times noted, “There were no gay farewells in sharp contrast to the usual scene of men returning to duty.”155

  Brandishing M-1 carbines, the standard military issue, affixed with bayonets, armed marine, army, and navy guards stood at post around Washington’s government buildings, including the Capitol, something that had not been seen since 1917 and before that, since 1865. They were under orders to be “strict.” Carrying full field packs and wearing steel helmets, they were on guard twenty-four hours a day.156

  The phrase war footing was injected into the lingo while the word theater took on a whole new meaning. Rather than the local movie theater, now it was used in the context of “Pacific Theater” and “European Theater.”

  An increased police existence was noticeable in Washington, as were increased Secret Service agents, though not as noticeable. But in other cities and towns, the reality of men and women in all sorts of uniforms and others wearing officious badges and armbands took root. The civilian guard around the Boston Navy Yard was doubled and other precautions were taken, including increasing the boats patrolling the Inner Harbor and “guarding of the different Japanese business concerns in the city proper. Guard posted at the Emperor Hirohito Club, Braddock Park, South End, headquarters for the greater Boston Japanese.” Riot squads were also reconstituted in Boston, and an air-raid system was announced.157

  The America First event scheduled for Boston Garden was up in the air for the coming Friday evening. Lindberg was slated to speak, along with other leading isolationists. Mrs. Sohler Welch, head of the Boston office, sheepishly said, “If they do go through, I imagine the plans will have to be radically altered.”158 Other America Firsters came forward and issued statements of support for FDR. Herbert Hoover, Gen. Robert Wood, and Alf Landon all came forward.159 Senator Gerald Nye, however, accused the United States of “doing its utmost to provoke a quarrel with Japan” and said that America was being led around by the nose by Churchill and the British. He said the attack on Pearl Harbor was “just what Britain had planned for us. Britain has been getting this ready since 1938.” Even knowing of the attack, Nye went forward with an America First speech in Pittsburg.160 An antiwar rally in Baltimore, sponsored by the Keep America Out of War Congress, featuring noted socialist Norman Thomas, was also slated to go forward.161

  The Coast Guard issued a sweeping order preventing any ship from departing Boston Harbor and all sailing permits were confiscated. The order affected several ships carrying war materiel under Lend-Lease. The FBI also ordered the Boston and Maine railroad to not sell any tickets to Japanese citizens, and conductors were instructed to notify the local police of any Japanese on board any train.162

  In New York, ships in the harbor were put under extra guard, and police closed the Nippon Club. “Twelve Japanese who were there when the police came were escorted to their homes.” The State Department ordered the halt of all ships departing from New York for foreign ports. “New York City policemen extended their visits to all Japanese restaurants in the five boroughs. They permitted diners to finish their meals, then escorted owners and their staffs to their homes. Various Japanese commercial units seemed to have had some official signal of what was to come. Many did not renew leases.”163 Government officials seized control of six Japanese banks based in New York.164

  Adm. Adolphus Andrews, commander of the North Atlantic Coastal Frontier, was in charge of protecting New York Harbor, though he was not too concerned about an attack. Asked why, he replied nonchalantly, because “there is no Japanese Navy in the Atlantic.”165

  Those Japanese apprehended by FBI agents were told they were “prisoners of the Federal authorities” and then removed via paddy wagons and patrol cars after
they were allowed to pack a suitcase. Upon arrival, their background records were checked and then they were “taken to the Barge Office at the Battery and to Ellis Island by ferry.” Many “underwent extended questioning. Federal stenographers and clerks were called in to [record] the pedigrees of the prisoners. All the prisoners were treated with every courtesy, although they were well-guarded.” Many of the Japanese nationals seized by the government hadn’t been to their native country in years. “Some of the Japanese were crestfallen, some were smiling, but none offered resistance.”166

  Revisions to the Draft Act were being hurriedly contemplated as the quota for January was not big enough. The pool of eligible young men needed to be expanded, especially as the first solid casualty reports were slowly coming in from Hawaii. First Lt. Hans Christiansen, a marine aviator, of Woodland, California, age twenty-one was killed. Sergeant James Guthrie of Republican Grove, Virginia, an Air Corps engineer, was killed. No age given. Private George G. Leslie of Arnold, Pennsylvania, age twenty, with the Army Air Corps, was killed. Dead American boys came from other small towns including Ravenna, Ohio; Janesville, Wisconsin; and Bloomfield, New Jersey.167 The lists were swelling as bodies were still being recovered in Honolulu and elsewhere. Nearly all killed were little more than small town boys; no one in America yet knew the full story of the thousands of deaths of military and civilian alike. The first Hawaiian casualty may have been a civilian, Bob Tyce, who owned a civilian airport on Oahu. He was seen attempting to “hot prop” the propeller of a plane, but was strafed from the air by a Japanese fighter.168 The Navy Department put out a statement asking reporters to stop making inquiries about the status of military personnel. The department would only respond to the inquiries of families.169

  Nor did Americans fully understand yet that the Japanese had practically declared war on America two hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Curiously, Tokyo instituted complete wartime blackout measures, but Washington did not do so immediately. Bridges and important points of transportation in Maryland and Virginia were put under guard. Air raid wardens prowled the streets of Washington, yet without proper identification papers some were stopped for questioning by the police as “suspicious characters.”170