December 1941 (67 page)

It was an especially busy season as shopping, cooking, wrapping, church services, caroling, decorating, and school plays, intermingled with meetings and lectures on incendiary bombs and the ethics of leaving children in school during air raids as opposed to parents taking them home. The
Post
took note of “Gay Caroling Ushers in Christmas Week.”
⁴³

As always, Americans were flocking to their favorite movie theatres to see their favorite actors and actresses. One new film had no actors though. It was a documentary entitled
Target for Tonight
, and the newspapers ads for it shouted, “How Would You Like To Bomb Germany Tonight?” The film was a feature-length depiction of an RAF squadron from takeoff to dropping bombs over Germany, dodging harrowing anti-aircraft fire and attempting to return safely to England.
⁴⁴
Still, the Motion Picture Board that represented women's and civic clubs selected
Citizen Kane
as the best picture of the year, followed by
How Green Was My Valley
. Also appearing on the list were
Dumbo
and
Meet John Doe
.
⁴⁵

War Bonds were also popular Christmas gifts, especially Series E. They sold in denominations of $25, $50, $100, $500 and $1,000, but this was their value at maturity after ten years. Their purchase price, respectively, was $18.75, $37.50, $75, $375 and $750. They paid a respectable 2.9 percent interest annually and could be cashed in for their full face amount after 10 years. Of course, the full faith and credit of the U.S. government backed up the principle and the interest of every bond. For the small patriotic investor including tykes, war stamps were available at 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, $1 and $5 dollars. Bonds were also available in Series F, but these were large amounts, beyond the reach of nearly all Americans, going as high as $10,000.
⁴⁶

Americans—at least those of a marriageable age—also had something on the minds, namely matrimony. The Cook County Clerk said a new record was set for marriage licenses, 350 in one day, December 19. “The spurt was attributed to the presence in Chicago of many soldiers, sailors and marines on Christmas leave.” Conversely, the county also reported that the number of divorces had plunged since December 7.
⁴⁷
The Post Office reported voluminous mail
⁴⁸
and crime was reportedly down across the nation.

An early Christmas present came for the family of navy man Oscar Thompson, 21, of Geneva, Illinois, whose family had received a telegram ten days earlier that their son was missing and presumed dead. Then his father, Fred, received a telegram saying that Oscar “was among the survivors, and there were apologies about the previous report being untrue.”
⁴⁹

For the first time since December 7, navy recruiting offices would close from 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 8 a.m. on the twenty-sixth. The navy also announced that all recruits, both active duty and on reserve, could go home for Christmas if they could make it. It was generous, as they would have off the twenty-second until the twenty-seventh.
⁵⁰

Before December 7, many servicemen and officers wore their civilian clothing as much as possible, as a military career was not held in high regard by many Americans. Now, everybody held them in high regard, especially those in the services themselves, who wore their uniforms with unbridled pride.

Most civilians had a tough time telling a staff sergeant from a seaman or a colonel from a corporal. To help American distinguish ranks and services, many of the papers helpfully displayed the stripes and stars of shoulder boards for generals and admirals as well as the insignias of lesser ranks.

Army servicemen wore khakis and a black tie, tucked neatly into their shirt between the second and third button with the “overseas” cap that looked like a large, #10 envelope when laid on a table. The army was updating its officers' uniforms, dropping the great looking Sam Browne belt that for years featured the across the chest from right shoulder to the left hip supporting leather strap over their suit coat.

Some thought the navy had the best uniforms, both officers and swabs. The officers wore dress whites in summer, dress blues in winter, and for daytime dress, wore khaki suits. For the summer, they also had the option of white shorts, short sleeve shirts, stretch white socks, and white bucks. Some of their formal uniforms were eye-catching. The seamen also had dress white and blue uniforms for going ashore and got to wear dungaree pants and denim shirts when shipboard. The round “gob's” cap was classic, as were the buttoned-not-zippered pants with bellbottoms and the flap on the back of their pull-over tunics. The flap was popularized by the British navy to keep uniforms from being soiled by greasy pigtails (not an issue for American sailors in 1941.)

For many, the marines had the others beat hands down, both for the officers and the lowly privates. The mix of light blue, dark blue, red trim, and white officer cap for their formal dress uniform was smashing. That the most important general in the marines wore the same dress uniform as the men in the ranks told of a singleness of purpose which screamed “always faithful.”

Two Admirals who had new braid added to their uniforms were Admiral Ernest J. King, whom Roosevelt promoted to commander-in-chief of the United States Naval Fleet, replacing Admiral Husband Kimmel; and Rear Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, who was appointed commander of the Atlantic Fleet. The replacement of Kimmel was pro forma, as he'd already been relieved of command of the Pacific Fleet.
⁵¹
King was unique among the elder gentlemen of the navy in that he knew how to fly an airplane and had served aboard submarines, as well as ships during the Spanish-American War. He was one of the most rounded and experienced men in the navy.
⁵²
Because King outranked Chief of Navy Operations Admiral Harold Stark, he only had to report to the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and the president of the United States. King was tall, no nonsense, described as “a pleasant gentleman ashore but a tough hombre at sea.”
⁵³
King's nickname at Annapolis had been “Old Eagle Eye.”
⁵⁴

At train stations and bus depots, volunteers for the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, often pretty girls, were there to hand out free coffee and doughnuts as well as pencils and writing papers.

Restaurants and coffee shops in those terminals were jammed with travelers. At some of those restaurants and at others across the country, they were in the process of changing their menus and “rechristening Italian spaghetti” as “Liberty Noodles.”
⁵⁵

CHAPTER 22
THE TWENTY-SECOND OF DECEMBER

Major Battle Is Raging in Phillipines

Birmingham News

GOP Chiefs Agree Party Must Keep Eye on New Deal Actions

Birmingham News

Holiday Mail Breaks Record

Los Angeles Times

Three More Attacks On U.S. Ships by Jap Submarines Revealed

Evening Star

U
.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle began creating seventy “Alien Enemy Hearing Boards” situated around the country to determine the fate of the thousands of Japanese, Germans, and Italians being held by the government at various detention centers. “The quasi-judicial panels, which start functioning as soon as they are appointed, will hear the cases of all enemy aliens brought before them individually and will make recommendations to the attorney general, who will render the final decisions.”
¹

Like the local Draft Boards, the Enemy Hearing Boards would be comprised of civic leaders, businessmen, local politicians, and clerics. Each board, after reviewing each case, could recommend to Biddle the “unconditional release” of the incarcerated individual, their parole, or that they be “interned for the duration of the war.” Further, “the alien enemy may be accompanied by a relative, friend or adviser, but will not be permitted to be represented by anyone in the capacity of an attorney.”
²

Among the 35,000 reported Japanese nationals living on the various Hawaiian islands, 272 were being held as accused Fifth Columnists. (The number of Japanese in both America and the Hawaiian islands swung wildly around.) All known subversives were imprisoned, but the search continued for others.
³

The treatment of Germans, Italians, and especially Japanese living in the United States was on the minds of many. The
Washington Post
generally supported the internment policy but also urged caution. “How necessary is the roundup, how strict must be the security, needs no emphasis after the revelation of what the Fifth Column did in Hawaii. We must give the benefit of doubt to our own security.” However the paper also noted the need to not jump to conclusions over “inoffensive, loyal aliens. The best way to create disaffection among an otherwise loyal alien population would be to treat them as enemies in our midst.”
⁴
The
New York Times
also addressed the matter in an editorial entitled, “The Slanting Eye.”
⁵

Americans were worried though. Over the weekend, civilian guards and Santa Barbara police at the Miguelito Canyon Reservoir had gotten into a gun fight with unknown saboteurs, suspected of wanting to destroy the water supply for the city and nearby Camp Cooke. It was the second attempt, and though they were chased off, “a dozen leaders in colonies of Japanese vegetable workers in the vicinity were rounded up . . . and sent off to Midwest concentration camps.”
⁶
There was also the occasional violence against Japanese in America. In Los Angeles, unidentified assailants had shot a Japanese man in the back.
⁷

Roosevelt received yet another in a interminable and unceasing line of memos on “Dealing with the West Coast Japanese Problem,” authored again by his secret operative, John Franklin Carter. The document complained about overblown comments by Navy Secretary Frank Knox about “Fifth Columnists. This term is loose and has been widely abused.” Yet it also went into great detail about saboteurs, but mostly doubting the danger they posed.

The document counseled caution for FDR. “The loyal Japanese citizens should be encouraged by a statement from high government authority . . . Their offers of assistance should be accepted . . .” Other documents that day making their way to the president covered North Africa, food supplies, the Supreme War Council, and more British memoranda.
⁸

Roosevelt also met that day with his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. That afternoon, he and Eleanor had cocktails in the Red Room and several hours later, hosted a dinner with seventeen guests including Churchill, Lord Beaverbrook, Hull, Hopkins, and others. Roosevelt turned in just before 1:00 a.m.
⁹

Henry Luce, publisher of
Life
magazine and
Time
—both hugely influential publications—had been all for going to war in the guise of Charles Foster Kane, beating the war drums for months. Luce's magazines had also been cruelly dismissive of any point of view other than total internationalism.

Luce also had his own ideas on how to treat “aliens.” Now that America was at war with Japan, both of his publications ran side-by-side photos of Chinese and Japanese, complete with diagrams and charts, explaining how Americans could tell the difference between the two races. Explaining the reason for the full page depictions,
Life
magazine explained, “U.S. citizens have been demonstrating a distressing ignorance on the delicate question of how to tell a Chinese from a Jap.”
¹⁰
For the Japanese subject, Luce picked a photo of General Tojo—not the most popular man in America as of late December, 1941. For the Chinese subject, he chose a low-level “Chinese public servant.” Whereas the Chinese subject had “lighter facial bones” and a “higher bridge” the Japanese had a “flatter nose” and “earthy yellow complexion” and a “broader, shorter face” the publication patiently explained.
¹¹

The Chinese had received better press in America than had the Japanese for a number of years, thanks in part to Pearl Buck's hugely popular novel,
The Good Earth
, about American missionaries in China, which won a Pulitzer in 1932, Frank Capra's movie
Lost Horizon
, and Charlie Chan, the popular B-movie detective.

Biddle's efforts were proving more successful than others in the administration, who were running into bureaucratic resistance over moving the Patent Office out of Washington. Patent lawyers deluged the White House with letters and protests and the staff of 1,400 complained over the moving of 20,000,000 files. They estimated those files weighed 4,717 tons and the cabinets they were stored in weighed another 3,325 tons. Through all the previous wars, the Patent Office had stayed put, even during the War of 1812, when their records were stored in the only government building not burned by the British.
¹²

The Roosevelt White House held the hand of the Patent Office employees and reassured them that they would only have to move to New York for the duration of the war. The government had agreed to pay for the cost of moving the employees and their household items, but not the cost of moving their families. The bureaucrats spent the better part of December thumbing “through law books . . . trying to find a law under which transportation costs of an employee's dependents could be paid. They found none.”
¹³