DECEMBER 7 THE FIRST THIRTY HOURS

101 567

WARTIME

ASSIGNMENT TO BERLIN

by Harry W. Flannery

DESERT WAR M E N ON BATAAN

by Russell Hill by John Hersey

PRELUDE TO VICTORY

by James B. Reston

FIRE IN THE PACIFIC

by Simon Harcourt-Smith

BERLIN DIARY

The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941
by William L. Shirer

MOSCOW WAR DIARY

by Alexander Werth

DESIGN FOR POWER

by Frederick L. Sdhuman
maps by George E>. Brodsky

THE JAPANESE E N E M Y

His Power and His Vulnerability
by Hugh Byas

THESE ARE BORZOI BOOKS

DECEMBER

THE FIRST THIRTY HOURS

D E C E M

7

The First Thirty Hours

BY THE CORRESPONDENTS OF

TIME, LIFE, AND FORTUNE

NEW YORK: ALFRED-A-KNOPF : 1942

Copyright 1942 by Time, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by
a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce not more
than three {frustrations in a review to be printed in a magazine or
newspaper.

Manufactured in the United States of America
Published simultaneously in Canada by The Ryerson Press

FIRST EDITION

PREFACE

A great many people will unquestionably write a great
many books about this War. Some of those books will
be good and some bad. But, presumably, each in its
own way will be the final word on some phase or all
phases of the War the result, perhaps, of painstaking
research or deep analysis, or both.

In the sense that all those books will be historical
works, The First Thirty Hours is no book at all, and
must deny any claims to such pretension. It has no
historical perspective whatsoever. It was written in
just a little over tihdrty hours, not by one historian but
by 50 journalists 50 working reporters called from
golf courses and football games, from unfinished mid-
day dinners and symphony concerts and favorite
radio programs, to tell the Editors of TIME, LIFE and
FORTUNE how, on that quiet Sunday in December, war
came to the U. S.

These 50 reporters were well prepared for the as-
signment which resulted in this book. For months be-
fore Pearl Harbor, they had been regularly reporting

co i&o6 ff Sfel^fe.dF the U. S.: what the People were
seeksga^d doing; how they felt and what they said
about ^hew America, a new way of living. The in-
spiration for these nationwide reports came largely
from one of the Editors of TIME, Robert Cantwell,
who long ago foresaw the necessity for this fresh and
vital form of U. S. journalism.

We have already expressed our thanks individually
to the correspondents for their contribution to this
book. I would like to thank all of them again, here-
with, a little more publicly. Some of them are regu-
larly on the News Bureau Staff of TIME, LIFE, and
FORTUNE, and some of them are worldng newspaper-
men who report for us as a sideline to their day-to-day
jobs. Each of them, whatever his job, has never hesi-
tated to come to our aid when the Editors have needed
him for an assignment, no matter how rushed it was,
or how tougL

Since December 7 we have lost three members of
the News and Picture Bureaus. Carl and Shelley My-
dans, LIFE'S famous photo-reporter team who helped
prepare the cables to TIME and LIFE reporting those
first exciting moments of the attack on the Philippines,
were taken prisoner by the Japanese and interned in
Manila. And Melville Jacoby, who was with the My-
dans at Manila but escaped with his wife to Corregidor
and Bataan and then to Australia, was killed in an

vi

accident in Australia on April 29;

of Melville Jacoby, one of the really great

the War, appears at the end of this work, wfrere*Tie

would want it to appear along with the others who

contributed to The First Thirty Hours.

DA.VED HULBUED

Chief of the News Bureau
TIME, LIFE, FOKTUNE

PART I: SUNDAY

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2

WASHINGTON: wire from Wilmott Ragsdcde
at the State Department

1:00 p.m. Japanese envoys asked for an ap-
pointment with Hull. It was scheduled for 1:45 p.m.

2:05 p.m. Envoys arrived at the State Department,
twenty minutes late. They sat alone in the gloomy,
diplomatic reception room under the portrait of Elihu
Root. They were stared at from across the room by
the cold bronze busts of Washington and Lafayette
until:

2:20 p.m. They were led into Hull's office through
the office of the Secretary's office force instead of di-
rectly through Hull's office door as usual. To a score
of photographers and reporters, they nodded "yes"
when asked whether they had asked to see Hull. At
this time Hull must have known about the attack. The
Japanese may not have known the exact time or at all.

2:26 p.m. The radio flash gave Roosevelt's state-
ment that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. The Japs
had handed Hull the reply to his "document** or prin-

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

ciples presented last November 26. HuH "carefully
read the statement . . . turned to the Japanese Am-
bassador and with the greatest indignation said:
\ . . never seen a document more crowded with in-
famous falsehoods and distortions/ "

2:40 p.m. ( about ) Two Japanese masks walked
out of Hull's office, got their hats, and pushed through
forty reporters to the elevator.

"Is this your last conference?" No reply.

"Have you any statement? Will there be a statement
from the Embassy?" No reply.

"Did you reply to Mr. Hull's document?" "Yes."

2:50 pjn.A telephone conversation with an official
at the Australian Legation who said: "Of course I
can't tell the strategy but we will follow you immedi-
ately. We hope Russia will let us use Vladivostok, but
we don't know. We will ask immediately. Of course
we can't get there with ships, but we could fly in."

3:10 p.m. Department of State Chief of Informa-
tion Michael McDermott came from Hull's office to
the pressroom and read the Secretary's statement on
his meeting with the Japs.VForty British and Ameri-
can correspondents crowded around to get Mac's
husky words. One Japanese correspondent for the
Tokyo paper Asahi, Paul Abe, an American citizen
and former student of Oregon State College, wrote
the statement down carefully, presumably for dis-
patch to his paper. Chief Domei correspondent Kato

Sunday, December 7} WASHINGTON

was at title Embassy. He is a Jap citizen and will be
held with another Jap reporter for exchange for the
American newspapermen in Japan and Occupied
China. Abe and the other American correspondent for
a Jap paper, Clark Kawakami, are expected to stick
in the U. S, Clark was married two months ago to a
Japanese movie actress and had planned to send her
back to Tokyo cm the next boat Another correspond-
ent for the Tokyo Asahi, Nakamura, received the news
first from a UP reporter. His face contorted, his hand
went up to his shoulder, he said: "serious."

A reporter telephoned the Jap Embassy and asked
whether it would seek police protection. The spokes-
man replied: "No, we have great faith in the fairness
of the American people/*

3:38 pjn. Dutch Minister Louden called to see
Simmer Welles. He said Welles may have been sur-
prised by the character of the attack, T>ut you know
Mr. Welles, he certainly didn't look it/* Louden said,
"We will attack Japan with you. The Indies have been
notified of the attack and are ready.*'

Upstairs in the Far East Division, the foreign serv-
ice officers were gathered in the halls talking about
the attack. There was criticism of the Navy. **Where
were the patrols? How could they have let an aircraft
carrier get so near the Islands? The carrier must have
got within two hundred miles. Are they playboys or
sailors?"

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

5:14 p.m. Reporters were called into Howard
BucknelTs office (Assistant Chief of Information, De-
partment of State). Before he read a statement, the
crowd heard the radio flash from Tokyo that the Japs
had declared a state of war. BucknelTs statement was
that all official Japs and official Japanese establish-
ments in U. S. territories would be accorded full pro-
tection.

The question whether the U. S. can use Vladivo-
stokthe only near base to Japan is hot under the
surface. Hull and Roosevelt may see Litvinoff tomor-
row. Vladivostok is 600 miles, Manila 1,600 miles. Pre-
vious guesses have been that Russia would not let
Vladivostok be used because of fighting one war in
Europe. But I gather the Russians would let Vladi-
vostok be used "if they think it is in their interest/'

The Chinese in Washington were hilariously happy
at having for fighting allies both Britain and the U. S,
People in corner drugstores were not excited by the
news. Said one guard at the State Department: <c We-
have been talking about this since I was a boy. I'm
glad it's decided now."

The war with Japan means immediate "dislocation
of vital supplies of tin, rubber, etc. from Malaysia,
Dutch Indies, and India.'' The Department has one
report, not released, that the Japs have made a land-
ing on the Thailand coast and that a Japanese sub-
marine has been sighted 800 miles off the U. S. West

6

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

Coast. Off the record this Jap landing on the Thai
peninsula will be to cut the railroad from Singapore
to Bangkok.

Subs and raiders will immediately begin attacking
supply ships bringing vital materials from the fore-
going three areas to the U. S. "It is our first worry. It
all comes back like a nightmare to me now. How we
pleaded on our bare knees, four years ago, that the
U. S. buy and stock-pile these materials so the Navy
could be free when this happened, We have been get-
ting it fast these last three or four months, but before
that we didn't get enough. The first thing Japan will
do will be to dislocate these roots. Of course they can't
cut off our supplies, but they can divert much of our
Navy and cut some of them/*

Thailand forces: From a military intelligence re-
port, a State Department official told me these are the
military forces of Thailand: 80,000 regulars and
300,000 reserves. The Thai minister told me several
days ago: "Of course we have all our mechanized
equipment on the French Indo-China border." The
fellow telling me of the Thai f orces remarked, "Mech-
anized equipment means they have got spears."

There are 40,000 Japs in Peru, Some people here

fear they may attempt to blow up the Cerro de Pasco

mine which is American-owned and a big producer

of copper and lead essential to U. S. defense.

Japan has been importing half the rice necessary

7

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

for her city population from Formosa and French
Indo-China. The Navy may cut this.

Department of State has no new figures on Japan's
oil supplies. Last July the Army Military Intelligence
said Japan had enough oil for about a year of all-out
war. Since the freezing order Japan has not got a drop
of gasoline from the U. S. or the Netherlands Indies;
has got small quantities from Sakhalin, the island
they own half of with the Russians, directly north of
Japan.

The Japs forced the American oil companies in
Japan to acquire a six months' advance supply back in
1934.

Kurusu, who was then Director of the Foreign Of-
fice Economic Bureau, was the chief negotiator with
the American Embassy and oil companies in forcing
the companies to store this oil.

WASHINGTON: wire from Ed Lockett
At the White House

Tall, bald Eric Friedheim, INS roving news-
man in Washington, was having a drink in the Press
Club at eight-forty Saturday night. Just as he was fin-
ishing the scotch and soda, someone came up to the
bar beside him. He turned, recognized an acquaint-
ance: small, brown-skinned, black-haired Masuo Kato,
jovial little Washington correspondent of Japan's

8

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

Domei News Agency, "Hi, Kato," said Eric, "did you
hear about the President's message to the Emperor
of Japan?"

"Good God, no," said Kato, "I just cabled the office:
all quiet here tonight; no news.**

If Kato is telling the truth, he was as unaware of
Japan's plans to invade Hawaii and the Philippines on
Sunday at dawn as apparently was the U. S. Navy, the
U. S. Government at home, and, conceivably, Japan's
own Ambassador Nomura and Special Envoy Ku-
rusu.

Washington was recovering from Saturday night
peacefully enough on Sunday when the news came.
In the AP newsroom, on the third floor of the Wash-
ington Star Building, Bill Peacock, running the Sun-
day desk, was busily laying out the report for the
wires. In the UP newsroom, black-haired, swarthy
Arthur de Greve, veteran night-wire top reporter, was
at his desk going over the big batch of handouts, cull-
ing the useless material from that which would go
into the night report. Tall, lanky Arthur Hatchten,
INS oldster, was in the INS newsroom preparing for
the work that would come a little later when the night
wire opened at 3:00 p.m. Big, heavy Harold "Duke"
Slater, running the Sunday day wire, was reading the
paper, his work nearly done. At approximately two-
twenty the telephone rang in all these offices, and all
three -men picked them up. From the other end of the

9

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

wire came these words: << This is Steve Early. I am call-
ing from home. I have a statement here which the
President has asked me to read." Then Early read to
the three services the President's statement which told
the U. S. that Hawaii was being bombed. He closed up
the brief conversation with the observation that he
was going directly to the White House, and "I will tell
you more later."

Before Early could get out of his house, however,
he had to make another telephone call to the press
associations this time again on a three-way hookup,
to advise that at two-thirty-six there had also been an
attack on Manila.

Eddie Bomar, the AP's military analyst, was in the
office at the time of the calls; he and John Lear and
an AP feature writer set out for the White House, were
the first to get there, and were in the pressroom five
or ten minutes before other newsmen turned up. They
learned from the police guards that Mr. Early had
arrived, but wasn't quite ready to see them. Mean-
while, the offices started mobilizing their staff. Stocky,
black-haired, taciturn Douglas Cornell, AP White
House man, was painting a door in his basement when
his wife called him to the telephone, and the office
told him to get the hell over to the White House
pronto. He got.

Heavy, jovial, fat Mike Flynn of the Wall Street
Journal was getting ready to go to an oyster roast

i o

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

when Ms wife called Trim, just after his office called
him. His oyster-roast host telephoned, asked Tiim why
he was kte getting there. Mike said: "Sorry, but 111
see you after the war," and lit out for the White
House.

^$ferriman Smith, small, black-moustacked UP
White House man, was shaving when his wife told him
she had heard a radio announcement about the attack,
and as he picked up the telephone to call the office, he
found the office was calling him. He set out for the
White House too.

Eric Friedheim was at the Redskins-Eagles football
game as was his boss, bald William K. Hutchinson,
INS Bureau Chief in Washington. "Hutch" knew
where Eric was sitting, and after the boys in the press
box got the news and passed it around, "Hutch" sought
out Eric, sent him Whitehouseward. Half a dozen
other reporters were in Griffith Stadium watching the
ball game and didn't get into the busy scene of opera-
tions until afterward.

Hardly half a dozen reporters had got to the press-
room when the blue-coated policeman stuck his head
in and announced: "Mr. Early will see you." The re-
porters filed into Steve's office and found the red-faced
secretary hunched behind his desk, looking very se-
rious, unruffled. On his right sat his secretary, pretty,
blonde, blue-sweatered Ruth Jane Rumelt, her note-
book ready. "I have just a little additional information

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

to give you, besides that I have already flashed to your
offices," Steve began. "So far as is known now, the
attacks on Hawaii and Manila were made wholly with-
out warning when both nations were at peace and
were delivered within an hour or so of the time the
Japanese Ambassador and Special Envoy Kurusu had
gone to the State Department and handed to the Sec-
retary of State the Japanese reply to the Secretary's
memorandum of November 26.

"As soon as information of the attack on Manila and
Hawaii was received the War and Navy Departments
flashed it immediately to the President at the White
House, thereupon and immediately the President
directed the Army and Navy to execute all previously
prepared orders looking to the defense of the U. S.

"The President is now with the Secretary of War
and the Secretary of the Navy and steps are being
taken to advise congressional leaders/*

As reporters raced back to the pressroom, half a
dozen late arrivals tagged at their heels, demanding a
fill-in, and soon the pressroom was filling up.

At 3:23 p.m. Early's girl Friday popped her blonde
head into the room, interrupted top-speed preparation
of bulletins based on the opening press conference,
reading from the shorthand in her notebook:

"So far as present information goes, and so far as
we know at the moment, the attacks are still in prog-
ress. We don't know, in other words, that the Japa-

12

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

nese have bombed and left So far as we know both
attacks are still in progress. 77

She had hardly gone before she was back again with
another bulletin which she read from shorthand notes:

"The President has just received a dispatch from the
War Department reporting the torpedoing of an Army
transport, thirteen hundred miles west of San Fran-
cisco. Fortunately, the transport was carrying a cargo
of lumber rather than personnel."

Back the reporters raced to their phones and by this
time NBC had received permission from Steve Early
to set up its microphone right in the pressroom. This
had never been done before, but Steve said certainly
and the electricians moved in and started setting up
things.

At 4:09 p.m. and 50 seconds, Baukage of NBC was
on the air, cut directly into the national network from
the White House pressroom for the first time in his-
tory. Too late, CBS saw the NBC preparations under
way, got permission from Early, and started setting
up. CBS was more than two hours getting on the air
direct from the White House.

Shaiply at 3:35 p.m. Steve Early deserted his own
office, walked into the pressroom himself, said he had
an announcement: *The army has just received word
and reported to the President signals of distress sent
out by an American vessel believed to be an Army-
cargo ship, seven hundred miles west of San Fran-

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

Cisco." This concluded, he turned to go, then halted
a moment to say: "So you can see that the Japanese
submarines are well out in the Pacific."

This news threw the pressroom into another dither
of flashes, and reporters were battling for the two
booth telephones in the White House pressroom that
are for public use* All of the press associations and
many big newspapers have direct telephones into the
pressroom. Copy paper was getting scarce by a little
after 4:00 p.m.; the newshawks used it up taking notes
and a few were writing. Mostly the news went out
from the White House by telephone, however, and
was rehandled in the newspaper offices.

At 3:57 p.m. Miss Rumelt brought word that Steve
again wanted to see reporters, and they crowded into
his office. Steve looked very serious. He was looking
down at the floor intently as the newsmen crowded
around his desk. He carefully waited for them all to
get inside, had attendants close the door when the
men were in, Aid:

"I have just called you in to bring you up to date on
developments. The President now is with the Secre-
tary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, and the '
Chief of Staff, General Marshall. The President has
just decided to call a Cabinet meeting for eight-thirty
this evening, and at nine o'clock to have the congres-
sional leaders join with them in a joint meeting/*

Here a reporter inquired if the President intended

14

Sunday, December 7} WASHINGTON

to call in the leaders of both parties in Congress. Steve
said yes and added: "I call your attention to the fact
that is the same group he has been meeting with in
the past. I say that, so you can give this an interna-
tional meaning. He has not yet called in the chairmen
of the military committees of Congress. You can also
say that the President is assembling all the facts as
rapidly as possible, and that, in all probability, he will
as quickly as possible make a full report to the Con-
gress. That's all I have, gentlemen."

At 5:58 p.m. came another call from Steve Eaiiys
office to the pressroom, and by this time the press-
room was packed with reporters, radiobroadcasters,
and both CBS and NBC had set up microphones in
the White House pressroom itself.

The press packed Early's office to the walls, and this
time photographers, both stills and movies, were per-
mitted to go in, and cameras ground as Heig lights
tinned the office into daylight and sent sweat stream-
ing down the f aces of tired newsmen.

"I call you in," Steve said, "to tell you that both
the War and Navy Departments, since the first report
(of action in Manila), have been endeavoring to get
in touch with commanding officers in Manila, and have
been unable to do so, I suppose they are busy. There-
fore, the President is now disposed to believe, and to
hope, that the first report was an erroneous one.

THowever, the President has just talked by tele-

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

phone to Governor Poindexter in Honolulu, and he
confirms the report of heavy damages and loss of life
there, including the city. He said that a second wave
of planes was just then coming over/'

Only a few minutes later, at 6:07 p.m. exactly,
Early left his own office, came to the busy pressroom
where reporters were still handling the bulletins from
the latest press conference, and announced:

'The Navy has just reported a squadron of ijaiden-
tified planes over Guam."

By this tune, the photographers were taking pic-
tures of the hot, busy, noisy and crowded pressroom
itself. Some reporters had sent out for sandwiches and
coffee. It looked like a long vigil.

At 6:24 p.m., blue-sweatered Miss Rumelt came
back into the pressroom again, waved reporters to
silence and attention, announced:

<<f rhe Navy just advised the President of dispatches
that Guam has been attacked."

Again, at 6:54 p.m,, Ruth Jane was back in the press-
room, and for the first time, her announcement after
the pressroom snapped to attention was something of
an anticlimax. She had come, merely, to say that the
President had added white-haired Hiram Johnson to
the list of congressional leaders invited to the White
House tonight. She explained that Johnson was in-
vited in his capacity as ranking minority member of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

16

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

By 7:00 p.m. the pressroom was a mess of torn
papers, cigarette stubs littered the floor, the atmos-
phere was stuffy, hot, and reporters were growing
veiy tired. Glamorous Lee Carson of the INS was sit-
ting at a typewriter, hammering out a night lead, her
long bob, unusual dark coloring, and pretty gray suit
much the most attractive spot in the room. Big, fat
Fulton Lewis got on deck about 6:45 p.m., relieving
his pretty secretary; the Nelson Rockefeller office had
its bald, blue-suited Robert McGill sitting in on the
goings-on; Western Union had a flock of delivery boys
popping in and out.

The White House boys got bits of developments in
other departments by grapevine during the afternoon,
and a small portable radio in the corner was running
all afternoon. The folks in the White House pressroom
learned, for instance, that Speaker Sam Rayburn was
out riding in his automobile when the news of the
attack broke, that his frantic office was unable to get
him and notify him until he returned to his home late
in the afternoon.

Vice President Wallace was in New York City,
heard the news presumably over the radio, quickly
got in touch with the White House by telephone.

The President was in his study most of the after-
noon, close to the telephone, constantly in touch with
the Army and Navy by telephone, an anxious listener
who finally, dissatisfied with the reports he could get

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

indirectly, put in a telephone call direct to Governor
Poindexter in Honolulu.

Silendy, during the afternoon, the secret mechan-
ism always ready to swing into action for over-all de-
fense of the U. S. swung into action. Big, rugged Colo-
nel Ed Starling, White House Secret Service detail
chief, was quickly telephoned at his home after the
news of the attack came; quickly came to the White
House, started the process of calling in every one of
the men assigned to the White House. The White
House guard noticeably thickened; White House and
Capitol police were stationed at every one of the
entrances to the rolling White House grounds.

By 4:00 p.m., fully 500 persons had collected on
Executive Avenue just outside the west side entrance
to the Executive offices, attracted by the photograph-
ers* activities and the news they had heard over the
radio. For a while they gathered around the southeast
entrance to the State Department Building across the
street, but finally the activity around the executive
offices drew them away and to the White House en-
trance.

Shortly before 7:00 p.m., Solicitor General Charles
Fahy slipped into the White House, probably through
one of the living-quarter entrances, was only discov-
ered by reporters when he left at 7:09 p.m. He said
he had been closeted with the President for only a
few minutes, was very reluctant to talk at all. Finally,

18

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

as reporters crowded around hfm when lie was leav-
ing, he thought a few moments, intently, announced
in his whisperlike voice: "My visit had to do with the
aliensthe Japanese living in the United States."

It was just after this that the White House, fast
coming all-alert to the critical situation, clamped
down a ban against any photographs in the White
House grounds when George Dorsey, one of the news-
reel men, went into Steve's office, asked him what
about pictures of the Cabinet entering tonight, and
the congressional leaders to come later.

"No, sir, no, sir," Steve cracked. "We're not going
to have the White House lit up tonight. Absolutely no
pictures of the Cabinet.**

This was emphasized about ten minutes kter when
a Secret Service man called on the picture boys to halt
as they started taking pictures of Fahy.

"No more pictures on the White House grounds,"
said Mike, and that was that.

Shortly after this, Stephen Early told a half-dozen
pressmen, for their own information and not for pub-
lication, that henceforth reporters could expect re-
ports on developments following and concerning land-
based operations, but that nothing could be expected
from the Navy for obvious reasons.

"Every ship afloat has killed the radio, of course/*
he said. "We cannot expect to learn anything about
sea engagements. About all you fellows can do now

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

is clean up the story of land operations/*

At 7:44 p.m. tall, graying Bill Hassett, Steve's as-
sistant, came out into the lobby of the executive of-
fices, gathered newsmen about him, and announced:

"The War Department has supplied the White
House with a preliminary it is only preliminary re-
port on casualties. This report places the military dead
at 104, and the military wounded at more than 300,
on the island of Oahu alone. This is only a prelimi-
nary report, remember, and it gives no information
whatever on civilian dead and wounded."

By 8:20 p.m. the pressroom was a complete wreck,
with new telephone wires littering the place, tripping
reporters up occasionally as they dashed about; all
the radio networks had installed mikes by a little after
8, and each of the broadcasting announcers had little
staffs of secretaries, researchers and reporters clus-
tered about him.

Funniest diversion of the tense, wearing afternoon
and evening was when slight, extremely comical Fred
Paslay, crack reporter for the New York Daily News,
thought his telephone was installed. It looked very
formidable and official, wearing a sort of skirt of wires
around its base, and Fred picked it up to call the office.
But no office did he get. Instead, as he put the receiver
to his ear, the lilting, bree2y tunes of $ dance band
came to his ears. Nothing else could he get, for half
an hour. He tried innumerable times; each time he got

20

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

an orchestra. Finally, one of the two dumb-looking
telephone company workers tangling up the wires in
the room did some giggling, got the phone working
right.

The Cabinet got to the White House right on time,
for once although Secretary of the Navy Knox just
got in under the wire at 8:30, the appointed time.

The first member of the Cabinet to arrive was big
Jesse Jones, Secretary of Commerce, at exactly 8:20.
Vigilant police carefully checked his big limousine
through the Pennsylvania Avenue gate and into the
grounds of the White House. In the order named, then
came Wallace, Perkins, Ickes, Wickard, Morgenthau,
Stimson tall and white-haired Hull, with two body-
guards; Biddle, and finally Knox. They entered the
living quarters of the White House.

WASHINGTON: wire from Felix Belair
At the Japanese Embassy

Early in the afternoon the crowd began
gathering across the street from the Japanese Em-
bassy on Massachusetts Avenue. Occasionally, slant-
eyed housfejypys could be seen peering out from be-
hind dr^^*artains. Police orders were enough to
keep constantly growing crowd that kept on

the lookout for the storybook smoke that always comes
from the chimneys of foreign embassies of nations

2 i

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

about to sever their diplomatic relations with their
resident countries. The Japs had used more modern
methods. Just before three o'clock in the afternoon a
couple of lackies were seen by local reporters to carry
out half a dozen square five-gallon tins stuffed with
papers over which they poured an unidentified liquid.
There were a few whiffs of yellow smoke and, pre-
sumably, the papers were gone. Reporters were un-
able to go within fifty feet of the scene.

Around seven o'clock, Major Ed Kelly, Superin-
tendent of Metropolitan Police, approached the Em-
bassy gates but was refused admittance. He went
around to the side door to the kitchen, emerged a few
minutes later to say he had come to inquire how many
policemen the Embassy required. (As if he didn't
know. ) If he received any reply from the kitchen door,
Kelly kept it to himself. Then he got into his car, blew
the siren and moved down Massachusetts Avenue.

A Japanese correspondent said upon leaving for his
Embassy: "Am I happy that Otto Tolischus and other
American correspondents are in Tokyo."

WASHINGTON: wire from Wilmott Ragsdale
The Marines

War caught approximately 200 U. S. Marines
at post in North China. They are stationed in Peiping,
Tientsin and Chinwangtao.

22

Sunday, December 7} WASHINGTON

Roughly, there are 5,000 Americans in Occupied
China and 500 in Japan proper. Since last May, the
number of Americans in Japan proper has dropped
from 5,295 to 500. There have been several warnings
from this government that they should evacuate. The
figure for Occupied China is about the same as it was.
last May.

WASHINGTON: wire from Crosby Maynard
Army Statement on Censorship

"Gentlemen, I need not tell you that the U. S..
is at war. You all know that. I have no additional news,
for you, now. I have called this conference so that we
can have a clear understanding of the position of the
U. S. Army in the future, as concerns the news which
will be released and which you can print.''

The speaker was long, lean, hook-nosed Brigadier
General Alexander D. Surles, Chief of the Army's
Press Relations Section. The occasion was an emer-
gency meeting the Army and the Press held in the
untidy pressroom of Washington's Munitions Build-
ing at 7:30 p.m. tonight, scarcely five hours after the
announcement of ;the bombardment of Pearl Harbor.

More than 50 reporters were crowded in the small
room a few minutes before General Surles arrived.
Many of them were White House correspondents,,

23

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

comparative strangers to the War Department, seek-
ing an additional shred of news. Most were in evil
temper, because getting into the Munitions Building
had suddenly become very difficult The mild-man-
nered police who had patrolled the building on Satur-
day afternoon had been replaced with regular Army
men, in full equipment, gas masks, fixed bayonets, their
rifles loaded with live cartridges. The soldiers had
orders to exclude all who did not have full War De-
partment credentials and were doing so very effec-
tively.

Throughout the afternoon the radio had issued fre-
quent bulletins telling all officers on active duty to
report for work tomorrow in uniform. Most of those
at the War Department tonight had put away civilian -
clothes. General Surles was in mufti, apologized, said
he hadn't had time to change.

He came to his point immediately. After emphasiz-
ing the gravity of the occasion, he said:

"I know there will be questions you will want to
ask. I am here to answer them, so far as I am able. But
first, let me say this. Our relations in the past have
been very pleasant. Now, we reach a new phase in
those relations. All irresponsibility must stop.

"I shall do my best to keep you informed of all events
that concern me and would be of interest to you. But
the time has now come when any failure to protect
any information which comes to your possession can

24

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

mean the loss of American lives,

"So, it has become necessary for the War Depart-
ment to invoke the act of April 16, 1918 (50 U. S.
Code 34). It is a somewhat detailed act but, as it
concerns you immediately, I emphasize these points.
You and your papers cannot print any reference in any
way to troop movements, disposition, location, desig-
nation, components or strength outside of the conti-
nental U. S. No references can be printed to the move-
ments of troop transports, even if they are in the
waters of the continental U. S. That is about all. Are
there any questions?"

General Surles was asked almost at once to define
irresponsibility, in the sense which he intended it to
be taken.

"I mean," said Surles, "that in the past, certain in-
formation has been printed by certain publications
which must have given considerable comf ort to poten-
tial enemies. Now, all loose observation of our regu-
lations must cease. I don't want, even now, for the
word 'censorship* to be used, unless it becomes abso-
lutely necessary. Restrictions are necessary. Restric-
tions are what we are imposing tonight. They must
be observed and I am sure that they will be. 7 *

He added that there would be no relaxation of the
restrictions until conditions warranted, but that when
and if conditions changed, the regulations might be
modified.

25

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

Surles was not prepared to say tonight what the
penalty would be for violation of the April 1918 regu-
lations. The statute provides for fine and imprison-
ment but the severity of the penalty varies, depend-
ing on war footing. Presumably, the more severe pen-
alties will be meted to convicted ^violators but Surles
said that was entirely a matter for the courts and not
for him to say.

As Surles was finishing, an aide brought him a note,
and he announced that orders had been dispatched to
Hawaii and Panama authorizing the immediate ar-
rest, by the Army and the FBI, of suspicious aliens.

Finally, as an afterthought, General Surles said that
Secretary of War Stimson, Assistant Secretary Mc-
Cloy and General Marshall had been at their desks
when the news broke and, as he was going out the
door, he said in answer to a question that he did not
believe Christmas leaves would be cancelled.

WASHINGTON: wire from Jerry Greene

Color

Washington tonight is a city stunned, not
afraid, not excited, but like a Jboxer who, after three
rounds of sparring, catches a fast hook to the jaw,
rocks back, rolls with the punch. Tonight Washing-
ton is rolling back from the clout but in the rolling,
sets itself grimly, solidly for the counterpunch.

26

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

Thin, sharp remnants of the afternoon's cold wind
dither across bleak LaFayette Square directly in front
of the White House; tree limbs stick up bare and stark
above the scant light of the posted lamps. Benches
are deserted for the first night in weeks; two draftees
hurry past the bronze of Andy Jackson in LaFayette
Square, the snap in their steps, the square of their
shoulders a sudden contrast to the demeanor of the
draftee who slouched across the mall in early after-
noon. Across the square from the White House, the
massive Veterans* Administration Building remains
one of the few in Washington without lights burning
late into the night.

Pennsylvania Avenue is a mess for blocks on either
side of the White House, traffic jammed, moving
slowly with waits for from three to five light-changes
before cars can move a block. There is a silent delib-
eration in the movement of the cars. The driver and
passengers in each turn their heads, stare with un-
moving lips at the White House from the time they
come within range until they are beyond.

Hundreds of pedestrians in a steady flow ease past
the tall, iron picket fence separating the White House
grounds from the avenue. They are in groups of three
to five. They move along quietly, talking if at all in
whispers, subdued murmurs. Silence on the avenue,
despite the mob of cars, the mass of people, is appar-
ent, deep enough to gnaw at the nerves.

27

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

Significantly, two fur-draped "chippies/* passing up
business opportunities, grasp the iron pickets, stare
wide-eyed at the softly lighted white expanse of the
executive mansion, mumble to themselves until the
cops tell them to move along with the rest of the crowd.
Even then the gaze of the girls turns backward toward
the President's home, not toward business.

From outward appearances, there is little unusual
going on in the White House. Across the leaf -littered
lawn shine the soft beams of the great lamp hanging
in the portico in front. A chandelier blazes from a
thousand facets inside the main door. One cop walks
his beat in measured steps directly underneath. Up-
stairs, deep inside are other burning lights clearly
evident through uncurtained windows. A line of cars
reaching almost from the brilliantly illuminated ex-
ecutive offices to the Pennsylvania Avenue gate is first
indication that business progresses. Further evidence
is quickly apparent in the appearance of West Execu-
tive Avenue. Cars pack every parking space.

A stocky motorcycle cop, without his overcoat and
sneezing frequently, blocks the entrance, permits only
those cars which are on official business. Along the
iron picket fence, an occasional cop keeps the crowd
moving. But across West Executive Avenue, in front
of the State Department, a mass of neck stretchers
fumbles around unmolested and unseeing.
East Executive Avenue is bare, deserted, despite
28

Sunday, December 7] WASHINGTON

the lone light burning over the east portico of the
White House.

One cop and three smutty red lanterns block traf-
fic off East Executive Avenue at the Pennsylvania
Avenue entrance. The traffic block extends over the
entire White House area. On Fifteenth Street, at the
west side, lanterns, cops, barricades have closed the
entire ellipse to traffic.

There are few cops, comparatively, around the
White House itself . Patrolman Edward H. Ring of the
Third Precinct, pacing back and forth before the main
entrance gate, on duty six hours, cold and nursing a
pair of hurtful feet, had this explanation:

"They sent a bunch of us up here this afternoon but
we had to break it up. You know how people are. This
is the worst mess at the White House I have ever seen,
I mean in the way of traffic. But let two cops get to-
gether and four people come up to see whafs going
on. Let 10 cops gather around and a hundred people
come around. So that' s why there are only a few of
us here. Excuse me. You'll have to move along, there
(to the crowds). Sorry, people, but move one way or
the other.

"I hear the Army is coming up here tonight or to-
morrow. Now don't quote me. That's just a rumor. But
I guess they need it.

*I had a fine one while ago. A young draftee come
along with his girl and asked me what all the fuss was

29

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

about. I said, 'Brother, you better take your girl home
and get some sleep. You are in a war/ He says, 'You're
nuts. What war?* So I told him and his girl turned
pale and he give her the eye and they went off in a
hurry. I guess it was the old last-chance game/*

Strangely, there were few lights on in the State De-
partment Building, but those few, on the east side
facing the White House, were staggered in the form
of a rough "V," running from roof to basement.

At Treasury, as at State, there are more milling
crowds, moving around slowly, aimlessly. Yellowish
lights flicker out from scattered offices in the nation's
counting house without pattern.

Down on Constitution, past the dark, empty ellipse,
there is a renewal of the same quiet, questioning, end-
less stream of automobiles, all eyes turned toward the
squat, trim Navy and Munitions Buildings. And there,
Washington is seeing war close at home for the first
time in a generation.

There aren't many lights on in either building, pe-
culiarly. Navy flickers out at intervals like the orange
spots on a new checkerboard. But there are more of
the usual uniformed guards inside the brightly lighted
entrance.

The cold steel of war shimmers icily along the front
of the War Department Building. Troops in tin hats,
with full equipment, packs, rifles, ammunition, fixed
bayonets, stand stiffly before the entrances. The bayo-

Sunday, December 7] PITTSBURGH

nets are like swift licks of flame in the moving, switch-
ing glow of a thousand automobile headlights. Faces
under the tin hats are hard, lined, unsmiling. Before
the main door of the Munitions Building one non-
chalant husky eyes the mob, a submachine gun slung
over right shoulder, close at hand.

There are more of these troops at the new War De-
partment Building a few blocks to the north, where
the engineers are hurrying in and out with more signs
of hot activity than, was seen at any other one spot.

But most significant of all was this: Of all the gov-
ernment buildings seen in a quick survey of downtown
Washington, in only one were all lights flaring, were
all offices obviously occupied, with all help moving
at top speed. That was the narrow, tall office building
just to the north of the Munitions Building the head-
quarters of Selective Service.

PITTSBURGH, PA. : wire from Robert Hagy

The strangest development here involved
America Firsters assembled in Soldiers* and Sailors*
Memorial Hall in Oakland Civic Center, three miles
from downtown Pittsburgh. Senator Gerald P. Nye,
talk, dark, handsome North Dakotan, spoke to 2500
rank-and-filers (capacity) from hall-wide platform
above which Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is spread

PITTSBURGH [The First SO Hours

in huge dark letters against a dirty buff background.
I was assigned to cover it for the Post Gazette, and
just a few minutes before leaving the office, flashes
and bulletins came over the AP wire on the Hawaii
and Manila attacks.

I arrived at the hall at 3:00 p.m., the time the meet-
ing was scheduled to start, and found Nye in a two-
by-four room backstage ready to go on with the local
officials of the Firsters. I shoved the pasted-up news
at him. Irene Castle McLaughlin, still trim wife of the
dancer killed in World War I, another speaker, and
Pittsburgh Chairman John B. Gordon, clustered
around die Senator to read. It was the first they had
heard of the war and Nye's first reaction was: "It
sounds terribly fishy to me. Can't we have some de-
tails? Is it sabotage or is it open attack? I'm amazed
that the President should announce an attack without
giving details/* Cool as a cucumber, he went on to
compare the announcement with the first news of the
Greer incident, which he termed very misleading.

I asked him what effect the Jap war should have
on America First, whether it would disband. He re-
plied: "If Congress were to declare war, I m sure that
every America Firster would be cooperative and sup-
port his government in the winning of that war icu
every possible way . . . but I should not expect them
to disband even if Congress declared war." Nye and

32

Sunday, December 7] PITTSBUKGH

the others then paraded on to the platform as if nothing
had happened.

Although the news had come over the radio, ap-
parently nobody in the audience knew anything, and
die meeting went on just like any other America First
meeting with emphasis on denouncing Roosevelt as a
warmonger. Mrs. McLaughlin expressed concern for
America's wives and mothers, her voice catching as
she referred to Vernon Castle's not coming back;
dabbed a tear from her eye as she sat down.

The next speaker was ruddy, ruralish Charlie Sipes,
Pennsylvania State Senator, locally famed as a his-
torian. Routine America First stuff until, in the midst
of an attack on Roosevelt for trying "to make every-
thing Russian appealing to the U. S.," he cried: "In
fact, the chief warmonger in the U. S,, to my way of
thinking, is the President of the U. S.!" While the hall,
decked in red-white-and-blue balcony bunting and
"Defend America First" signs, was still full of roaring
approval, a white-haired, heavy-set man stood up from
an aisle seat well to the rear. The man, although no-
body knew him and he was in mufti, was Colonel
Enrique Urrutia Jr., Chief of the Second Military Area
(Pittsburgh District of Third Corps Area) of the Or-
ganized Reserve. "Can this meeting be called after
what has happened in the last few hours? 5 ' Colonel
Urrutia an infantryman 31 years in the Armyburst

33

PITTSBURGH [The First SO Hours

out, livid with incredulity and indignation. "Do you
know that Japan has attacked Manila, that Japan has
attacked Hawaii?**

Apparently the crowd took him for a plain crackpot
heckler. They booed, yelled "Throw him out" and
"Warmonger." Several men near Urrutia converged
toward him. According to Lieutenant George Pischke,
in command of a detail of ten policemen assigned to
keep down disturbances which usually mark America
First meetings here, the committee's blue-badged
ushers "tried to manhandle" the colonel. Cops were
in quick though, and Lieutenant Pischke escorted
Urrutia out of the hall (through a blizzard of "war-
monger" shrieks and reaching women's hands ) at the
latter's own request. "I came to listen," he told me in
the lobby, purple with rage. "I thought this was a pa-
triots* meeting, but this is a traitors* meeting/* Inside,
Sipes, a cool hand, tried to restore calm, said sooth-
ingly, "Don't be too hard on this poor bombastic man.
He's only a mouthpiece for F.D.R." Then Sipes went
on with his speech.

A couple of other people addressed the crowd.
Finally came Nye. Still no word from leaders about
the war. Nye started at about 4:45 p.m. For nearly
three quarters of an hour he went through his isola-
tionist routine. "Who's war is this?" he demanded at
one point (referring to war in Europe) . "Roosevelt's,"
chorused the rank-and-filers. "My friends,** said Nye

34

Sunday, December 7] PITTSBURGH

callously, "are betting 20 to 1 that if we don't stop in
our tracks now, well be in before Great Britain gets
in." Howls of laughter. A few -minutes after this, I
was called to the telephone. The city desk had a bul-
letin on Japan's declaration of war and asked me to
get it to Nye. On a piece of copy paper I printed in
pencil: <c The Japanese Imperial Government at Tokyo
today at 4:00 p.m. announced a state of war with the
U. S. and Great Britain." I walked out on the platform
and put it on the rostrum before Nye. He glanced at
it, read it, never batted an eye, went on with his
speech , . .

For 15 minutes more, Nye continued his routine, "I
woke up one morning to find that we had 50 ships less,
that the President had given them away despite laws
forbidding it." treason," yelled some. "Impeach
him," yelled others. Finally, at 5:45 a.m., more than
two and a half hours after the meeting started, Nye
paused and said: "I have before me the worst news
that I have encountered in the last 20 years. I don't
know exactly how to report it to you; but I will report it
to you just as a newspaperman gave it to me." Slowly
he read the note. An excited murmur swept through
the packed hall. Nye continued: "I can't somehow
believe this. I can't come to any conclusions until I
know what this is all about. I want time to find out
what's behind it. Previously I heard about bombings
in Hawaii. Somehow, I couldn't quite believe that, but

35

PITTSBURGH [The First 30 Hours

in the light of this later news, I must, although there's
been many funny things before. I remember the morn-
ing of the attack on the destroyer Greer. The President
went on |he radio and said the attack on the Greer
was without provocation; but I tell you the Greer shot
first. That was the incident the President said was
unprovoked and that's cheating/*

With that, he disposed of the new war, but more or
less upset and flushed in the face, he didn't do much
more than flounder through five or six more minutes
of stuff about America's prime duty being to preserve
democracy lest "victor and vanquished alike fall" and
communism "grow in the ruins." Loud applause.
"Keep your chins up," said Senator Nye and sat down.
Benediction, a couple of announcements and the meet-
ing was over.

Plowing through his fanatical followers, I gave Nye
a third piece of intelligence that Roosevelt had called
a 9:00 p.m. meeting of the Cabinet and Congressional
leaders. I knew he was scheduled to talk tonight at
the First Baptist Church (pastor of which is pacifist)
and I asked him if he intended to fly to Washington.
Flustered, grim-lipped, rosy-faced, sweating, he mut-
tered, "I must, I must try . . ." and strode quickly out
of the hall talking to somebody about plane reserva-
tions. . . Whether he couldn't get a plane or what,
he nevertheless ended up keeping the church appoint-
ment, announcing he would take the train to Wash-

36

Sunday, December 7] PITTSBURGH

ington later tonight. At church, before 600 people, he
was grim, bitter, defeated. "I had hoped for long that
at least the involvement of my country in this terrible
foreign slaughter would be left more largely to our
own determination/'

Then he reviewed events leading up to the war, ac-
cusing Roosevelt of "doing his utmost to promote
trouble with Japan," Inferring that we were already
at war with Germany, he declared: "I am not one to
say my country is prepared to fight a war on one front,
let alone two/ 5 When several people laughed at a ref-
erence (out of habit?) to "bloody Joe Stalin," Nye
said coldly: *1 am not making a humorous speech."
But on the Jap attack he said: "Here is a challenge.
There isn*t much America can do but move forward
with American lives, American blood and American
wealth to the protection of our people and posses-
sions in the Pacific.* 7

Leaving the church, another Post-Gazette reporter
caught him, asked what course he would prescribe
for die nation. Finally he gave in completely, the fight
gone out of him except for enough to make one more
crack at Roosevelt. "We have been maneuvered into
this by the President, 5 * he said, "but the only thing
now is to declare war and to jump into it with every-
thing we have and bring it to a victorious conclusion."

37

PITTSBUEGH [The First 30 Hours

PITTSBURGH, PA.: wire from Robert Hagy
Color

The weather is fine, sunny and clear and
brisk (in the thirties).

Many people were downtown with children looking
at the Christmas window displays at Kaufmann's,
Gimbel's, Home's and other department stores.

Everything is calm. There is no evidence of street
excitement in the afternoon. You wouldn't know war
had broken. "Calm Pervades the City on the War's
Outbreak," was the Post-Gazettes two-column Page 1
reaction-story headline.

The Post-Gazette editorial comment: ". . . wanton
attack . . . there is no doubt that the U. S. armed
forces will give a good account of themselves. There
must be redoubled effort at home to see that they have
the weapons and equipment which they need. Cer-
tainly tihis challenge must galvanize the entire nation
to immediate and effective action. Since Japan has
elected to fight, it is perhaps as well that she chose to
attack the U. S. directly. Nothing could have united
the American people so immediately and completely."

Sunday-night crowds were as big as usual in the
busy city. Hotel lobbies were quiet. Newsmen re-
ported seeing a railroader grab an extra at Pennsyl-
vania station, take one swift look at the banners and
say quietly to no one in particular, "Goodbye Tokyo."

38

Sunday, December 7] PITTSBURGH

"Well, that settles it," was common comment. Most
people appeared to be stunned briefly, then stoical
rather than aroused, determined but not excited, A
middle-aged newsy at the corner of Pennsylvania
Avenue and Tenth Street said, 'Well know how to
fight this war I was in the last one."

The nearest thing to excitement outside the news-
paper offices and radio stations was apparent in the
city's dinky little Chinatown, just one block in size.
The usually stolid Chinese padded up and down Third
and Second Avenues, shaking hands with each other,
slapping backs, smiling happily while the youngsters
hopped about them in the sunshine. *

Swiftly moving into action to protect this "stock
room of a far-flung arsenal" against they hardly knew
what, top city officials held a tense, serious half-hour
meeting starting at 7:30 pan. around Mayor Cornelius
Decatur Scully's big oval conference table on the fifth
floor of the City County Building. Department heads
gave the mayor, head of Pittsburgh's Civilian Defense
Council, brief, terse reports on what they were pre-
pared to do; what they might need in money and men
for fire-fighting, antisabotage work, etc.; what steps
they had already taken for emergencies. Half an hour
that was all. "We mustn't waste any more time on
discussion tonight," said the mayor finally. "There are
grave problems we must meet as best we can and
money will be no consideration in this emergency."

39

PITTSBURGH [The First SO Hours

Police Superintendent Harvey Scott later held a
special meeting of Ms inspectors, told reporters he
already had 150 men on extra detail guarding bridges,
plants, reservoirs and main highway junctions. Both
Scott and Fire Chief Nick Phelan said they would ask
City Council Monday for extra appropriations to aug-
ment manpower and equipment.

Army and Navy recruiting officers prepared for a
hrisk business Monday morning. Out for dinner to-
night, I walked behind five apparently carefree young
men who acted as if they were starting out for an
evening of fun. "Well, you guys," I heard one of them
say as they passed a newsstand, "what'll I do en-
list tomorrow?" He seemed very happy about the
whole business. "Why not?" said one, and then they
changed the subject.

A cab driver, after reading the Nye story in the Post-
Gazette, told me: "That guy committed treason out
there this afternoon. If Td known what was going on
out there, I would have had a hundred drivers out
there and we would really have strung that guy up/'
Man next to me (grabbing coffee in a greasy spoon),
a laborer, said between gulps of spaghetti, "Now may-
be Wheeler and Lindbergh and these other guys will
shut their traps."

The downtown theaters were jammed Sunday after-
noon and night, but I was unable to find any case

40

Sunday, December 7] PITTSBURGH

where the show was interrupted for a war flash. The
biggest crowds were at Loew's Pennsylvania, pkying
Crosby in Birth of the Blues and at the Fulton, pky-
ing Abbott and Costello in Keep *Em Flying.

Word was spreading today of bizarre ads in the lost
and found column of the Sunday Press classified sec-
tion (paper out Saturday night). Between two ads
about lost rat terriers appeared the following:

"Tokyo~8:05 p.m.-News in English JZJ, 15.10
MEG., 19.8 M; JZJ, 11.80 MEG., 25.4 M ."

Farther down the column there was another: *To-
kyo-12:25 a.m.-Chi!dren*s Hour. JZJ, 11.80 MEG.,
25.4 M; JZJ, 15.16 MEG., 19.7 M."

The Press was mum on where the ads came from.
FBI was flooded with calls from ad spotters. The local
FBI boss told me he saw no significance in the ads
but admitted he had never seen others like them in
Pittsburgh papers and that they certainly appeared in
a strange pkce. He said he had turned the matter over
to the Federal Communications Commission.

At 10:00 ajn. today, Pittsburgh police radiobroad-
cast an alarm to pick up men in a car with Michigan
license pktes, and query the occupants on taking pic-
tures of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing
Co. plant at East Pittsburgh, booming with defense
orders. A few minutes later, police radio, WPDU, an-
nounced that military police at West Point wanted

POBTLAND [The First 30 Hours

three Japanese in a brown sedan, adding: "These may
be the same men wanted in connection with the taking
of pictures at Westinghouse." Panic, probably.

PORTLAND, ME.: wire from Harold Boyle

Portland, a big new naval base for the At-
lantic fleet, is just recovering from the shock of the
Reuben James sinking after that ship left here for
Iceland. It received news of the Japanese bombings
with more excitement than is common to the Yankee
temperament. The news first came by radio (Colum-
bia chain ) . The newspaper office was bombarded with
telephone calls asking "Is it true?" "Does Associated
Press confirm it?"

A cold but sunny afternoon here with little going
on in a city still somewhat under the influence of the
old blue laws except for theatres being open. Most
excited were about a thousand sailors on shore leave
from boats just back from convoy duty. Many ex-
pressed real concern over the report that the Okla-
homa had been hit. Several in the newspaper office
commented that they had mates on the Oklahoma.

The most common statement in middle-class circles,
"Now we can be unified; no more strikes; let's get down
to business. Entrance into European war next." A
small isolationist group here, followers of Congress-

4*

Sunday, December 7] PORTLAND

man James Oliver, who is an outright isolationist,
changed its tune. One: "There's no answer to this one.
Give them (the Japs) as good as they send."

General reaction here, from bus drivers to a few
wealthy: "A typical, underhanded way of acting.
Americans are through taking it lying down." Typical
Yankee reaction: "They stabbed us in the back.**

There are very few Japanese in Portland; this city,
which is a No. 1 defense site with a naval base, two
large shipyards and four Army posts, is interested in
the reaction of the West Coast to talk of bombings,
blackouts, etc. Portland is the nearest Atlantic port
to Europe and expects similar reaction in the case of
war with Germany.

My honest opinion is that the news affected many
the same way as in 1917. People are serious; no wise-
cracking or grumbling about meddling. Said one news-
paperman: "I feel sure of one thing. Up to today, I
wondered whether we were another France: too soft.
What I have seen today convinces me that American
(at least Maine) people can fight in the old way."

Quote from the lead editorial in the Portland Press
Herald, largest newspaper (morning) in Maine, in
the Monday issue:

"No better proof of fundamental Japanese treach-
ery, of which the country has been hearing for many
decades, could be found than the foulness of conduct
that launched attack upon this nation while it was

43

BOSTON [The First SO Hours

earnestly trying to seek a peaceful settlement of the
Far Eastern question. In 50 years of public life, Sec-
retary Hull said he had never known a document so
filled with infamous falsehoods as that delivered on
Sunday to him by the Japanese emissaries in this coun-
try. Of that we shall hear more today.

"The issue is between democracy and despotism.
It is we democratic powers against world slavery. It
is the U. S. against Hitler, his satellites and stooges.
If Congress has the guts which an American Congress
ought to have, it will refuse from this day to blink at
duty. It will recognize verities. It will declare war
upon every enemy of peace and decency. We must
not only furnish the tools; we ourselves must help fin-
ish the job."

BOSTON, MASS.: wire from John Durant

In Boston, five days of unseasonable warmth
and fog lifted and a sharp, cold wind needled down
from the north across clear skies in which the fiery
sun was preparing for the final plunge into the west.
Boston was pervaded by Sabbath calm with folks,
after a hearty noon meal, slouched in their chairs be-
side the radio, in movies, Sunday driving in the coun-
try, or visiting neighbors. There were few people on
the streets. All was quiet. Then electrification came
at 2:29 p.m. as local radio stations announced, "Uni-

44

Sunday, December 7] BOSTON

dentified planes, presumably Japanese, have just
bombed Oahu. 7 *

Editorials in Boston Papers;

Herald: "America's period of Tblood, toil, tears and
sweat' is at hand"; Post: "This attack in one instant has
destroyed the disunity which has been disturbing
America. The causes of this war can be left to the his-
torians to evaluate. The twilight of peace is over";
Globe: "United as never before, we will meet this chal-
lenge"; Record: "We are all Americans now, united,
strong, invincible."

As people clung to their radios, announcements
came piling in Report for duty at once; Navy recruit-
ing stations will be open at 8 a.m.; all manufacturers
of defense materials are to take immediate precautions
against sabotage; metropolitan police ordered to 24-
hour duty to protect Boston's water reservoirs; John
McCormack, Majority House Leader, receives a tele-
phone call from Roosevelt, and his wife at Dorchester
home hastily packs his bag for his return to Wash-
ington; extra guards rushed to Charlestown Navy
Yard; ex-Governor Curley wrapped up the Japanese
decoration presented to him by the Japanese Em-
bassy in 1917 and mailed it to the Japanese; at all
power plants guards are detailed; Civilian Defense
workers are requested to stand by for instant action;
at Newton, hundreds of people were in the midst of
anti-airraid practice when the news came and they

45

NORFOLK [The First SO Hours

simply kept on with their rehearsal with grimmer
sense of reality; Mayor Tobin spoke, Governor Sal-
tonstall called out the National Guard. One sad note is
that Boston still has no airraid warning siren.

Immediate public reaction in the following order
was: unbelieving astonishment that the Japs would
have the nerve to attack Oahu; wrath at the treachery
of the Japs; spontaneous recognition that we are
united in the common goal to lick the Japs.

The most important developments were the speed
with which the people were notified for events and
mobilized for emergency via radio, and the unques-
tionable and immediate reaction of "at last we are
united."

For quotes of the man on the street, I like best the
fellow who said to me, "That settles it, we're united
now." A waitress "There's been too much talk and
not enough action. Let's get going." A schoolteacher
"Let them have it, they asked for it." A sailor "It's
me or them and 111 make damn sure it's not me." A
shopkeeper "This is one war the U. S. will approve
of." Everywhere you went it was the same, united at
last, go out and get those Japs.

NORFOLK, VA.: wire from Charlton Whitehead

The midday-dinner stupor of the majority
of Norf olkians, who were kept home by the coldest

46

Sunday, December 7] NOBFOLK

day of winter, was broken at 2:26 p.m. by a brief bul-
letin over local NBC outlet WTAR, stating that Pearl
Harbor bad been attacked. Incredulous listeners
swamped newspapers and radio, but 10 minutes later
NBC newsroom confirmed the report. Indignation
mixed with fear was most noticeable.

Within less than two hours, Police Chief John
Woods had rounded up and jailed 14 Japs in Norfolk,
all known.

Movies report no bulletins issued, moviegoers not
knowing of the war until they got out. However, after
6:30 p.m., the Navy's request that men on the Delta
and the Little report immediately to their ships, was
announced in all theatres. No falling off of attendance
was reported, although the day was poor due to cold.
No football or other big crowds were out today.

The first and only extra was put on the street about
7 o'clock, four pages, published by the Virginian, Pttot y
morning sheet All carrier boys were recalled from
morning and evening papers. The extra was a sell-out
within an hour, never reached the suburbs,

The local recruiting office announced that it would
remain open all night. Only one man has enlisted so
far. He wanted to beat the Japs with his own two
hands.

There was much consternation when the night train
arrived from New York as no passengers knew of the
war until their arrival here.

47

MONTGOMERY [The First SO Hours

As a typical Navy town, Norfolk is ready for what-
ever happens and the consensus is that our Navy can
whip the pants off the Japs in a hurry if given a chance.
No one seems sorry to see war come, except that they
hate to see youngsters killed.

MONTGOMERY, ALA.: wire from Grover C. Hall Jr.

When Jean Harlow died the telephone ex-
change here literally burned up; fuse after fuse was
replaced. The war flash did not jam wires nearly so
much, but the calls mounted approximately a third.
The flurry continued until nightfall.

Saturday night I attended a dance at the Officers*
Club, Maxwell Field, headquarters of Southeast Air
Training Center. Flying officers at my table agreed
that the Japs were only bluffing; returned to their
puerile pontifications about the dullness of British
cadets in training; paucity of trainer planes. There was
no sense of the immediacy of conflict at all.

Sunday I had dinner at a lawyer's birthday celebra-
tion. The phone rang. "Mr. Pickens says Pearl Harbor
and Manila have just been bombed by the Japs."
Everybody looked at their plates, while he turned on
the radio. "I don't see why in hell they don't let the
older men do the fighting," said a 47-year-old lawyer.
This was a typical scene.

48

Sunday,, December 7] MONTGOMERY

The war flash caught Montgomery at dinner. The
weather was crystal-clear, nippy. Christmas decora-
tions were up on Dexter Avenue, along which Jeff
Davis rode to the Capitol on Goat Hill. There was a lot
of talk about the Blue-Gray game in January.

A self-conscious flying cadet who wants to fly a
bomber lay down on the floor to listen to radio flashes.

At a suburban tavern dozens of young people sat in
booths at dusk drinking beer and whisky. I listened to
the radio, but even more to personalized chatter. I saw
one girl looking furtively at her draftee-fiance.

That night I watched a stenographer and a first-
grade schoolteacher. They indulged their escorts in
close attention to radio bulletins, but they didn't care
so much about the details.

A drugstore waitress: "This is it." The State's pur-
chasing agent: "Something, isn't it?** Our lady Sunday
editor: "Fight like hell."

Essentially, Montgomery was deeply shocked. They
had thought and never doubted that the Japs were
bluffing. They were deeply resentful over the treach-
ery. Vengeance-bent, confident of victory, dazzled by
cataclysm, but with little second thought yet of cost.
They think it's a damn good thing. There is a sense
of relief, like the passing of a painful kidney stone
"hop to it, get it over with."

From the Montgomery Advertiser: "Here was a dif-
ferent America, an America that had been surprised,

49

NASHVILLE [The First 80 Hours

but one in which surprise quickly gave way to deter-
mination. Whatever initial advantage Japan may have
gained by choosing Sunday morning for an unan-
nounced and unprovoked attack upon the U. S. bases,
has been more than offset by the effect upon the people
of this country.
P.S. Sergeant York is playing here to capacity.

NASHVILLE, TENN. : wire from William S. Howland

Most Nashvillians were at dinner when the
news came. Many heard it by radio on autos. Because
many did not hear it, as apparently dead listening time
is just after church, there was not a big rush on phones
then. The Tennessean came out with a swell extra at
4:30 p.m. Standard Time.

The general reaction was: "What are we going to do
about it?" That was heard on every side. There was
not much indication of amazement that Japan had
attacked but everyone was asking what the American
Navy was doing.

I honestly believe that Tennesseans generally are
greatly aroused. They always have been among the
first to fight for the country and I heard no pacifistic
comment tonight. Indication of how seriously people
are aroused is that recruiting stations in Nashville have
been jammed with calls for men wanting to enlist.

50

Sunday., December 7] NASHVILLE

Also the Union Station was jammed with soldiers,
who had been on weekend leave, rushing to get back
to their post at Camp Forrest. All were vigorously ex-
pressing eagerness to get at the Japs.

When the news came, Nashville and the middle
Tennesseans were enjoying a brisk, sunny Sunday.
Churches were well-filled. Most people were on the
way home. Sunday dinner was what most were look-
ing forward to. There were no football games, and
movies do not open until mid-afternoon.

The Tennessean slammed a hot editorial and cartoon
in the first edition:

"Like a gangster whose ego has broken all bounds,
the Japanese have decided to stake all in a desperate
challenge to the U. S.

'The Rising Sun they hope is to shine over the teem-
ing millions of the Asiatic world and even beyond. But
in reality that sun is destined to set. The war that
Japan has started will be ended by the U. S. on its
own terms.

"There can be no compromise with the Japanese.
They have staked their own fate on the sword and the
sequel must be victory or hara-kiri.

"And though we shall win, we may as well under-
stand at the beginning that it will not be an easy way.
But we can say here and now that the sun of Nippon
has reached its height and will rise no more."

MIAMI [The First SO Hours

MIAMI, FLA.: wire from Bob Munroe

The outstanding reaction here was first dis-
belief, then a rush to newspapers and radio stations to
confirm, swamping switchboards already congested
due to lack of trunk lines, apparently continuously
tied up with government and other emergency traffic.
It is estimated that more than 90% of callers express-
ing opinions said U. S. should have entered the war
sooner. Exceedingly vague geographical sense was ap-
parent. One man inquired seriously of radio station
WIOD: 'Will President Wilson speak tonight and if
so, what time?"

University of Miami, Coral Gables, was officially
ordered closed for the day, Monday, but neither of
two Deans in charge during the absence of President
B. F. Ashe from the city would say anything except,
"no special reason/' and no plausible reason was ap-
parent to the outside {observer. The university has a
large number of cadet fliers in training, both American
and British. Guards have been placed around the
campus.

The Miami Daily News, owned by former Ohio
Governor James M. Cox, presidential nominee in 1920
with Roosevelt as running mate, was on the street
with an extra edition at 5:13 p.m., claiming 12-min-
ute beat over the Miami Herald, morning-paper op-
position.

52

Sunday, December 7] CLEVELAND

CLEVELAND, OHIO: wire from Clayton Frttchey

There is a good angle here on the impact of
the Jap attack and how all conflicting opinion on the
Far East instantly crumbled before the reality of ac-
tual war. Yesterday and today eighty delegates to the
Institute of Pacific Relations met in Cleveland to
thrash out Oriental problems and find the best course
for the U. S. to pursue. Many of the nation's greatest
authorities on the Far East are in confab, along with
Congressmen, prominent industrialists and such jour-
nalistic experts as Hugh Byas and James R. Young,
both Tokyo correspondents.

The Institute met here under the auspices of Cleve-
land's Foreign Affairs Council, directed by Brooks
Emeny. Everything was done in a very swank way.
Delegates and guests gathered at the Cleveland Coun-
try Club Saturday, had lunch, cocktails, dinner, spent
the night at the club, then started over again Sunday
morning. No speeches were allowed; all back and
forth discussion. Almost a complete cross-section of
people. I never saw a greater mixture of men and
women and never heard a greater mixture of opinion
until the radio flashed out the stunning news.

News t>f the attack broke at the start of Sunday
afternoon's round table. There was dead silence for
two minutes* In those 120 seconds, 80 different opin-
ions were resolved. It was unanimously agreed, as

53

CLEVELAND [The First 30 Houn

one delegate put it, that "Japan has handed America
its long-needed unity on a silver platter."
* It is understood that everything said at these con-
ferences is off the record, but after a radio bulletin had
come in, the chairman of the meeting finally broke the
silence by turning to one Isolationist Congressman
and asking what answer America would give to the
Japanese attack. The reply was: "Our answer is prob-
ably being given by the American fleet right now."
Applause.

An interesting fact is that not one expert present
had foreseen such a drastic offensive. Up to the mo-
ment the news broke, the overwhelming opinion was
that Japan had no wish to fight the U. $., that the
peaceful solution of all Pacific problems was possible,
and the Japs were too intelligent to commit "national
suicide" by going to war.

The only speaker to come close to the mark was
James R. Young, who said the action of the Japs had
nothing to do with "Government" or "Intelligence" or
anything else. Japan, he insisted, was being run by a
gang of gangsters in the Army and Navy who were
responsible to no one. These "gangsters" he main-
tained, would do anything to perpetuate themselves
in power, no matter what the certain consequences to
Japan. Young brought a portent to the meeting. Four
days ago he suddenly received through the mails a
file the Japanese had kept on him since his arrest in

54

Sunday., December 7] CLEVELAND

Tokyo. There was BO note of explanation, fust the file,
sent from the New York Japanese Consul. There was
an air about the incident of someone cleaning out
papers before moving. Young also told Congressmen
present that in Washington there was available to
them Japanese war plans which had been seized three
or four years ago. These plans, he said, called for the
identical operations which the Japs followed today.
If what Young says is true, then the Germans didn't
plot the strategy of this attack.

Hugh Byas pointed out that the Japs had struck the
same kind of surprise blow at Port Arthur against
Russia, and recalled the story of how the Jap Ambas-
sador went to the Russian Court Ball while an attack
was being carried out without knowledge of the Rus-
sians. Byas said he had thought in the present situation
the Japs would try to keep the U. S. divided by pursu-
ing the war in such a way as to put us in the position
of helping British imperialism.

In an effort to explain the seemingly insane attack ?
one Institute official said the State Department had
received a story to the following effect: The Japan
war-lords knew they could not win in China, but
could not afford to admit and withdraw. A defeat by
the U. S. and Britain combined would cause no loss
of face. Therefore, the best solution was a short war
with the Allies and quick surrender.

BUFFALO [The First 30 Hours

BUFFALO, N. Y. : wire from Jack Medoff

Most interested person scanning the last war
news and listening avidly to the radio is Frederick W.
McMillin Jr., of 176 Sanders Road, Buffalo, a sales-
man for tie Federal Portland Cement Co., whose
brother is known as the Navy's "dictator" of the Pa-
cific Island of GuamCaptain George Johnstone Mc-
Millin, 52, who makes his home in Youngstown, Ohio.
Said McMillin: "My brother is known as 'King* by
the 23,000 natives of Guam the Island and, this is
little known is actually the property of the U. S.
Navy and not of the Government. My brother was
sworn in as Governor-Commandant of the Island
April 19, 1940, for a two-year term."

McJvtillin's last letter from his brother came two
weeks ago. McMillin said his brother has pointed out
in letters that Guam has no natural harbors and only
one landing field and there is a visible Japanese island
only forty miles away. Said McMillin: "In his last
letter my brother told me of evacuating the island of
all women and children six weeks ago. This left him
without his family, consisting of his wife and two
children, Adelaide, 16, and George Jr., 14. They are
in Long Beach, California, having arrived in this
country the day before Thanksgiving Day. Another
daughter, Ruth, 21, is with her husband, Lieutenant
William Mack, in China, at present. Captain McMillin

56

Sunday, December 7] DETROIT

is an Annapolis graduate, 1911; took part in Veracruz
disturbances and then was on the U.S.S. Delaware in
the World War and served aboard the battleship
Sacramento on convoy duty off Gibraltar; was kter
assigned to Mare Island Navy Yard off California. On
Guam Island he lived in a palace built by the Spanish
in the 1600's in the capital city of Agana, population of
12,500, a modern little city. The palace is as large as
a city block and its attached gardens also are a block
in area. Seven miles away is the seaport town of Kti
which is in command of a Marine Corps battalion
headed by a colonel. They supply the police force.
There are only 53 Japs on the island but they have
lived there a long time."

DETROIT, MICH.: wire from Robert Str other

The news that war was on reached Detroit
via radio. CBS had a flash at 2:29 p.m. and then led
off "The World Today" with a Washington announce-
ment at 2:31 p.m. An NBC flash broke in on the
"Chicago Round Table of the Air." The reaction was
an unsurprised: "Well, there it goes." It was a clear
crisp day after a succession of murky ones, and an
unusually large number of people were out riding
with car radios turned on. Many of them caught the
tail end of the bulletin or oblique ref erences kter, and

57

DETROIT [The First 30 Hour,

newspapers and radio stations had a flood of calls be-
tween two-thirty and four o'clock. Movie houses were
playing to capacity crowds, including many workmen
with pockets bulging with cash from paychecks fat-
tened by defense overtime. The Michigan Theatre
was playing Fibber and Molly in Look Who's Laugh-
ing and had a long queue in front of the box office.
Theatres didn't announce the outbreak, but new arri-
vals brought the word, and it spread swiftly. Many
outgoing patrons stopped at the office to ask if the
news was true. Station WJR in the Fisher Building
has a big bulletin board in the lobby. A throng
gathered at once and the consensus was: "Well, I
hoped it wouldn't come, but they asked for it and now
they're blankety-blank well going to get it."

Men who called newspapers were generally both
angry and cheerful. "Here we go. Happy landings,"
one said when told the news was true. One fellow was
good and mad. "Why those Japs. Sitting down in
Washington talking terms and then whambo!" Some
women callers burst into tears when the news was con-
firmed. "Oh gee, gee! Now he will probably get shot,"
one said as she hung up. Several men asked news-
paper switchboards where they could join the Navy.
A large proportion of callers wanted to know if the
U. S. had also declared war on Japan. Some asked how
far it was from Los Angeles to Hawaii and others how
many ships in the Japanese Navy.

58

Sunday, December 7] DETROIT

Attorney General Francis BIddle was addressing
1,200 Americans of Slavic extraction at a meeting of
the Slav-American Defense Savings Committee in the
Masonic Temple. He interrupted the speech and made
dramatic announcements. *I have just received word
that Japan, who only yesterday announced its peace-
ful motives, has bombed the harbor at Manila." Gov-
ernor Murray D. (Pat) van Wagoner and Detroit's
young Mayor Edward Jeffries were with Biddle. Vir-
tually every newspaperman in town was attending
the Newspaper Guild's annual bingo party at the
Book Cadillac Hotel. Shortly after 3 o'clock messages
for various ones to report to their offices began coming
in and most of the working newsmen among the 1,000
people present left. The Detroit Free Press was the
only paper to extra tonight, however, and the Free
Press as a morning paper had little difficulty in hitting
the streets at 6:45 pan. and again at 8:40 p.m. The
Detroit News and the Detroit Times both plan to have
extras out tomorrow morning around 7:30, but they
couldn't round up printers, etc. on Sunday afternoon.

The Chinese Merchants Association went into meet-
ing tonight. There are at least a thousand Chinese
here, but almost no Japanese. Hotel lobbies tonight
are strangely deserted, and managers guess everyone
has his ear glued to the radio. The radio stations are
breaking in often with bulletins and with messages for
all soldiers and sailors to report to their stations. This

59

CHICAGO [The First 30 Hours

seemed to bring the gravity of the situation home tgf
the listeners. There are no editorials yet. The most
important immediate reaction here will be a redoubled
precaution against sabotage of defense plants.

CHICAGO, ILL.: wire from Fill Calhoun

The Sun at 7:00 p.m. came out with a "War
Extra No. 2" which was virtually the same as "No. I"
except for fresh bulletins and a new banner "Japan.
War on IL S." The thought occurs that inasmuch as
the Herald American ran the first Hawaii attack news
as a regular peach edition and without the "extra"
slug, the Sun in one way can claim, in its first week of
existence, having beaten all other Chicago papers
with an extra on the biggest story yet. The Tribune,
for reasons I wish I knew, held up their plans for an
extra and didn't come out until the regular time at
7:00 p.m. with a "metropolitan" edition of tomorrow's
paper. The Tribune bannered "Japan attacks U. S."
and above a column of war bulletins ran the following
editorial:

"War has been forced on America by an insane
clique of Japanese militarists who apparently see the
desperate conflict into which they have led their coun-
try as the only thing that can prolong their power.

"Thus the thing that we all feared, that so many
of us have worked with all our hearts to avert, has

60

Sunday, December 7] CHICAGO

^appened. That is all that counts. It has happened
America faces war through no volition of any Ameri-
~can.

"Recriminations are useless, and we doubt that they
will be indulged in, certainly not by us. All that mat-
ters today is that we are in the war and the nation
must face that simple fact. All of us, from this day
forth, have but one task. That is to strike with all our
might to protect and preserve the American freedom
that we all hold dear."

Incidentally, note the Tribune's big scoop about
U. S. war plans followed the Tribune's previous blasts
about Roosevelt and his map of Nazi plans which the
Tribune pooh-poohed because any country naturally
has war plans. Now where is the Tribune again?

I was listening to the Chicago Round Table when
the argument over Canada's war effort was snapped
and a brief flash read of the Hawaii and Manila bomb-
ings. The next program, the New York Philharmonic,
was broken up, one time by an announcer so excited
or inept that he twice pronounced Philharmonic as
Philharminic, apologizing only for the first slip. There
was an added rush of telephone calls as friends called
friends, but no jam-up of lines.

The first flash came just as Chicago home dwellers
and suburbanites were digesting the roast beef and
mashed potatoes of Sunday dinner which traditionally
starts at 1:00 pjn. Many cancelled visits and plans to

61

CHICAGO [The First 30 Hours

go to the movies to sit by their radios awaiting later
bulletins. It seemed to me the radio took an unearthly
time getting background together and any color into
its newscasts, but it was telling the people long before
the newspapers.

First comments almost invariably were: "Well, it's
here, 7 * or "Those Japs must be crazy."

Typical comment from a formerly Isolationist
mother was: "If Hitler had just let the Japs alone this
would never have happened. How terrible for the
Japanese it's mass suicide."

Another mother, interrupted by the news while
playing rummy, said: "We're in it and well just have
to make the best of it" From younger men generally
came this comment: "Well, weVe got to whip the
whole world and we can do it/' What I m trying to
drive home is that nowhere did you hear comments
about the possibility of anything but a U. S. victory.
Some said, "What an insult to the President when he
was trying so hard to get things* settled peacefully."
And many were the comments here, as probably dif-
ferent from those on the West Coast, that "it really is
too bad for the Japanese people." Whether rightly or
wrongly, people seem to believe all the so-called ex-
perts* claims that Japan has only two bathtubs in the
Navy, no money, no oil and all Japanese fliers are so
cross-eyed they couldn't hit Lake Michigan with a
bomb.

Sunday, December 7] CHICAGO

Another lovely comment, which also indicates how
the war news first came to those who bought news-
papers, was from a fat woman at Michigan and Ran-
dolph. She approached a newsstand where the boy
was shouting inaccurately, "U. S. declares war on
Japan," and apparently paid no attention to what he
was saying. "What's this?** she asked when she saw
the big headlines. "We're at war, kdy, for crying out
loud." "Well," she said, "what do you think who

From all sides one first comment was: This may be
just what we needed to get us together and stop all
these strikes and funny business." No matter what
drivel they have been fed, the people occasionally
seem to hit down to fundamentals as exampled by
comments such as: "Now well start turning out some-
thing. , . Watch us go now. Well turn out planes
now or by God well know the reason why."

The Midwest, in my opinion, has known very well
that they weren't doing half enough and that we were
playing at business-as-usual.

Summing up comments and what they mean comes
to three main points: 1) Japanese attack has got peo-
ple mad because they think this is a dirty dead pulled
while the U. S. was trying all peaceful ways for a set-
tlement, 2) they don't blame the Japanese people so
much as they do "them war-lords" and the Nazis egg-
ing them on, 3) they are glad in many ways that a

63

CHICAGO [The First SO Hours

break came the way it did because now we Iiave God
and everybody on our side and, boy, just watch us go.

The city, as such, was just getting ready for a good
after-dinner belch when the war news came. The tem-
perature was 37 above, nippy and overcast with a
threat of snow that is now falling tonight. The usual
wind was revealing legs in silk and nylon on Michigan
Boulevard; torn up Loop streets were beginning to fill
with window-shoppers and matinee crowds. News-
papermen were spreading rumors about what was
going to happen with the new Sun cutting into Chi-
cago circulation and advertising. Cops were tweeting
their strangely shrill whistles, bookies were wishing
the newest gambling investigation would get over
with, drunks were beginning to show up on South
State Street and on North Clark where there is one
place which advertises: "2 Big Shots of Whiskey and
a Cold Bottle of Beer-10 cents."

There was a pro-football game between the Chi-
cago Bears and Chicago Cardinals, where, before the
game, the orchestra played "The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner" and the audience, as usual, rose and actually
sang it. By half time the Herald Americans extra was
out and there was a rush from the stands to buy it
with word spreading through the whole place that
"the Japs are raising hell and attacking Hawaii."
The audience buzzed and papers passed along the
rows. It was like Podunk High School suddenly walk-

Sunday, December 7] MILWAUKEE

Ing on to the field to play the Bears. Theatres, having
no sense of the theatrical here, interrupted no pro-
grams and matinee crowds learned about the news
when they came onto the darkened streets.

The biggest single development here is, of course,
that the Tribune has pulled in its horns and that for
all intents and purposes Isolationism and America
Firstism are deader than a bombed soldier at Hick-
am Field. I tried to reach General Wood fifteen min-
utes after the first flash but his telephone is "tem-
porarily disconnected." I presume hell come out with
a statement tomorrow ala Wheeler's, The Jap attack
was all that was needed to cut the ground from under
America First's feet. It will be ridiculous to talk Iso-
lationism in the next few days, dangerous to your own
health in a few more after that.

Some one just phoned to say the Tribune has re-
vived its banner reading "My country, right or wrong.**

MILWAUKEE, Wis.: wire from Harvey Schwandner

The war news came as a profound shock to
Milwaukee, strongly isolationist, happy hunting
ground of the America First Committee. Wisconsin
football fans were listening to the broadcast of the
Chicago Bears-Cardinals game (of interest because
Wisconsin is the home state of Green Bay Packers)
when the announcer interrupted the game to give the

65

MILWAUKEE [The First 30 Hours

first flash of war. The news was startling to Milwau-
keeans. Thousands telephoned to the Milwaukee
Journal for verification. The switchboard was jammed
with calls for hours. Reporters had to wait for 15 min-
utes to get through the telephone jam. Radio men
from WTMJ swamped out operators.

Lansing Hoyt, chairman of the strong Wisconsin
charter, America First Committee, told a Journal re-
porter at his home that the U. S. would "bomb to the
ground" Japanese cities. He said: '"We have been
for defense all along. Now we are for offense. It looks
like war against the Axis." Hoyt is Milwaukee Re-
publican chairman and a brother-in-law of John Cud-
ahy. Hoyt has been a leader in arranging Isolationist
mass meetings in Milwaukee, at which Wheeler et al.
spoke. Edmund B. Shea, prominent Milwaukee attor-
ney and president of the Milwaukee chapter, Com-
mittee to Defend America, said that all Americans
should unite in the common cause of defending the
nation. Shea had announced earlier Sunday a se-
ries of meetings to whip up sentiment in Milwaukee
against isolationism, with Senators Pepper, Murray,
Ball, Lee Bridges as speakers. Governor Heil sent this
telegram to President Roosevelt: 'The news of Japa-
nese aggression is a distinct shock to citizens of Wis-
consin. I pledge you the full and unified support of
our people. May the Lord give you help and strength
in this hour of grave peril/'

66

Sunday, December 7] MINNEAPOLIS

The general Milwaukee scene: It was a quiet Sun-
day afternoon, with, no big events to attract crowds.
The city's main street, Wisconsin Avenue, was jammed
with parents and their children looking at Christmas
store-window displays. A raw wind whooped in from
the south at 25 m.p.h., lashing Lake Michigan into
whitecaps and foam. Lead clouds hung over the city,
blotting out the sun. A favorite Sunday pastime of
Milwaukeeans is to drive slowly along Lincoln Memo-
rial Drive along Lake Shore through the city's beau-
tiful parks. Thousands were doing that Sunday when
their cars* radios gave them the first war flashes. Many
startled listeners parked along the drive to listen to
the bulletins. As word spread along Wisconsin Ave-
nue, crowds gathered in knots to exchange news.
Downtown bars suddenly were jammed with pedes-
trians who wanted to get close to a radio. They talked
earnestly and grimly. Milwaukeeans who have long
felt that the U. S. should stay out of Europe's war
were fighting mad that the Japs had attacked the U. S.,
killed U. S. soldiers. They felt that here at last was
something to get mad about, fight for.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.: wire from Arnold Aslakson

There were dozens of calls to the radio sta-
tions asking "Is it true? Will the boys home on Christ-
mas leaves have to go back?" One asked; *Is it an-

67

MINNEAPOLIS [The First SO Hours

other play?" Several women who called KSTP choked
up. One said she had a boy in Pearl Harbor. Another
one Iiad a boy in Honolulu. Number 1 couldn't be-
lieve her ears. A man who phoned WTCN exploded:
"Why those sons of bitches!" Radio switchboards were
not jammed, however, apparently because of fast
radio follow-up of the first flashes. We are unable to
check the phone company on traffic yet. But several
people, fifty of whom I called at random, told of run-
ning to friends* homes or phoning friends the news.

The St. Paul Pioneer-Press extraed at 4:00 or 4:15
p.m., the Minneapolis Morning Tribune at 4:30 p.m.
The Trib had two extra pages in the first extra, upped
it two pages more for each extra up to the fourth.

Curtis Edwards, WTCN announcer: "I didn't think
they'd stick their necks out I didn't think they'd have
the guts." A young newspaperman (not I): "Oh, are
they a bunch of damn fools." A painter and decorator:
"Oh, oh. We're in it. I didn't think it was going to
happen-yet. We got to go at 'em." A retired realtor,
who described his views as modified America First,
though not an A.F. member: "How in the hell could
we get caught napping like that? To think they were
able to come over our base at Pearl Harbor is beyond
my comprehension when we know how treacherous
those Japs are. I'm disgusted." Draft-age men to each
other several such conversations: "Well, we're in it.
Our number's coming." Bakery stock clerk: "Well, it

68

Sunday, December 7] TOPEKA

wont last long. They asked for it. We tried to be white
and they turned on us like rats." Shoe salesman's wife:
"Oh. It's happened. But Japan will take a beating."
16-year-old: "Japan must be about out of supplies.
But glad I'm not 17 yet"

An investment secretary and his wife: He: **The
U. S. will declare war now." She: "Do you think so,
really ?" He: "I wonder how long they'll be able to
hold out. Will the Russians attack Japan now?" A
credit man who said he wanted to "go get 'em" after
the P<may: "I think we ought to declare war on the
whole Axis. But how could they get caught napping at
Pearl Harbor?" A bank auditor: "That bunch of dou-
ble-crossers." An architect: "It's here at last Might as
well get it over with." Two neighbors to whom he
passed the news phlegmatically just said "thanks."
They went to turn on their radios. Numerous others
"hadn't thought much about it," "expected something,
but not so soon." A majority expected an attack on
Thailand or the Indies. Not Hawaii or the Philippines.

You can't help thinking that people are now more
aroused, but it is too early to use any superlatives.

TOPEKA, KANS.: wire from James Bell

War came to Topeka at 1:30 p.m. on a quiet,
warm, 56, sunshiny Sunday. Most Topekans had fin-
ished big Sunday dinners and were napping on their

69

TOPEKA [The First SO Hours

sofas. First flash over Columbia's WIBW came at the
end of the Spirit of ? 41 program, I got it over NBC
Blue network while listening to the Great Plays series.
I was in the bathtub. The second bulletin regarding
the attack on Manila made me sick. My parents,
brother and sister are in Manila.* My wife turned pale
and said, 'There it is."

My telephone rang a few seconds later. I was called
to help issue an extra and write a "What it's like over
there" story. Daily Capital switchboards were jammed
immediately. One man, with distinct rural midwestern
accent, asked: "What the hell's going on out there?
Has Uncle Sam declared war yet? Why in hell hasn't
he? How old do you have to be to get in the Army and
Navy?" Others wanted to know if it were true. One
mother, with a son at Pearl Harbor, choked up when
told that Hawaii had been bombed and said, "Maybe
theyTl kill my boy, but I know he will be avenged."
The telephone company says lines have been un-
usually busy since the first flash. Several persons have
attempted to put in calls to Honolulu and the Philip-
pines, without success. The Daily Capital's 4-page ex-
tra hit the street just before 7:00 p.m. The Kansas City
Star had its extra in town an hour and a half later.
Thousands of persons were waiting to get copy of the
Capital. They went like hotcakes. People drove in

* Correspondent Bell has since received no word from or about
his family. ED.

70

Sunday, December 7] TOPEKA

from the residential districts to get them.

There was no hysteria. Everyone was interested. No
one was very excited. My wife's first expression, "There
it is" was a common phrase. I would say that Topeka
is taking the news with grim determination. Most To-
pekans, I believe, didn't think it would ever happen.
When it did, they took it calmly. There are isolated
cases of panic. One woman called the Capital fran-
tically saying that a Jap plane had just dove on her
house. It turned out it was a private plane flying over
the city at high altitude. Capper and Ratner, with
radio addresses coming up, had to change their texts
in a hurry. Both pledged their wholehearted support
of the President. Alf Landon, in a telegram to Roose-
velt, said: "There is imperative need for courageous
action by the American people. The Japanese attack
leaves no choice. Nothing must be permitted to inter-
rupt our victory over a foreign foe. Please command
me in any way I can be of service."

Capper said, ^Japan's attack means war and we will
see it through. 1 will support our President."

Junior Senator Clyde Reed, ill in Parsons, left im-
mediately for Washington by plane. Capper is return-
ing by train. No moving picture shows were broken
into to give the flash. The biggest crowds were at Bob
Hope's Nothing but the Truth. I saw them come out.
They were laughing and gay. When they heard the
news, their faces sobered rapidly, then they went

71

TOPEKA [The First SO Hours

away quietly. One man said: "Guess well have to lick
the sons of bitches." An indication that Topeka is tat^
ing the news calmly is that all theatres reported nearly
normal attendance at night shows. The people are not
aroused in the usual sense of the word. They are quiet,
calm and determined that the U. S. will win.

Three members of the local Navy recruiting office
staff have requested sea duty. I've talked to several
dozen persons and none express regret that war has
come. All feel it is necessary. The feeling is this:

Right or wrong, we are in this thing now and weVe
got to win. No use singing The Star-Spangled Banner
or shooting Jap restaurant owners. We're ready to do
whatever is asked of us. Poor old Capper is broken-
hearted. He wandered about the Capital newsroom
with a long face. I believe there were tears in his eyes.
He kept saying: "It's too bad, it's too bad." Later in
the evening when preparing to leave for Washington
he was brighter and more determined. "I will support
the President it's the one thing left to do," he said.
The only sporting event in process was the State Field
Dog Trials (hunting). The news took the kick out of
the dog-lovers* sport. The afternoon, which started off
spirited, ended rather flat "I guess our hunting will be
confined to those god damned slant-eyed bastards
from now on/* said one sportsman. In Topeka, I would
say the single most important development of the day
was the joining of Capper and Landon behind Roose-

72

Sunday, December 7] KANSAS CITY

velt. London's statement was the most sincere he ever
made. When I talked with hire I got the impression
that he would gladly do any job the President required
of him. Capital won't have editorial comment before
Tuesday morning.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. : wire from William Vaughan

It was cloudy this morning when Kansas
Citians went to church, but by the time they started
home for the traditional Sunday dinner of the Middle
West the sun had come out It was another perfect,
unseasonably warm day in a string of similar ones.
The temperature was to rise to 55 by 4 o'clock. Be-
fore then the news had come that Japan was at war
with the IL S.

The first word came through radios and was missed
by many families who were at dinner when the flash
was read. A copy reader on the telegraph desk of the
Kansas City Star, down for an early trick, caught the
flash from the Associated Press and sprinted up a flight
of stairs to the studios of station WDAR At 1 :33 p.m.
the news of the first White House announcement went
on the air, interrupting the Chicago Round Table. At
1:39 p.m. Station KMBC broke in on the religious
Round Table, a panel of Kansas City pastors, spon-
sored weekly by the council of churches. Other sta-

73

KANSAS CITY [The First 30 Hours

tions hit at about the same time, but WDAF claimed
the first break, beating the regular network flashes by
about ten minutes.

Although it listened to its radio, quickly bought out
extras and flooded newspapers with telephone calls,
however, Kansas City took the news more or less in
its stride. There were cars on the streets, many of them
with horns tooting. They arrived downtown and on
the country-club plaza where colored lights outlined
the Spanish-type buildings in the spectacular annual
Christmas display.

At Loew's Midland Theatre, the manager, John Mc-
Manus, seized an opportunity in a B picture called
Niagara Falls when the sound track contained no dia-
logue and announced to his audience that Japan had
declared war. He was the only first-run theatre man-
ager to do so. The Midland, where Sundown was the
A picture, and the Newman with Skylark reported
good houses tonight, perhaps better than average. The
Uptown Stoamp Water and the Orpheum Look Whds
Laughing decided people were staying home to listen
to their radios.

Most conversation about the war, on the streets at
least, was good-humored, almost gay with a sense of
relief, of "Well, here it is at last." Newsboys yelled,
**Gotta whip those Japs," and their customers grinned
back at them. Calls to the newspapers indicated, how-
ever, that in many a Kansas City home, the bombing

74

Sunday, December 7] OMAHA

of Hawaii held more of sorrow than of adventure.
Mothers of sailors on the Oklahoma who had been
looking forward to Christmas visits from their soldier
sons, called for more information, many of them in
tears. Service men themselves wanted to know about
the cancellation of furloughs, about any orders for
reporting to ships or camps,

At the U.S.O. club soldiers danced to a juke box,
played ping-pong and gathered around copies of news-
paper extras. They spoke bravely of what "well do to
those blankety-blank Japs," but their interest did not
seem particularly deep.

In the afternoon, 1,000 Catholics gathered for the
dedication of a De La Salle Academy gymnasium,
heard the grim news from their bishop, the Very Rev-
erend Edwin Vincent OT3ara. Other Kansas Citians
heard further bulletins at a sparsely attended night
hockey game between Kansas City and Omaha.

OMAHA, NEBR.: wire from Edward Morrow

Omahans who generally follow the midwest-
em custom of dining Sunday shortly after 1 o'clock
were mostly finishing dinner when the radio programs
(one was Sammy Kaye's orchestra) were interrupted
to bring news of the bombing of Hawaii. Half-empty
theatres interrupted pictures to flash the news on the

75

OMAHA [The First SO Hours

screen and some customers got up and left. The show
at the biggest house, the Paramount, was Sergeant
York. Movie business thereafter was very light.

Telephone calls, both local and long distance, shot
up as friends and relatives called each other with the
news. The Omaha office of the Northwestern Bell
called 12 extra operators, mostly for long-lines work.
The World Herald did not have an extra until 4:45
p.m. The World Herald sold 19,200 extras containing
a fairly complete account of what had happened. This
was the entire run and newsboys were unavailable to
handle more. Many of those who bought said they
were going to keep the first extra, which had an 8-
column "War" across the top, as souvenirs.

There isn't the faintest doubt that people here are
aroused, as indicated by quotes of World Herald re-
porters picked up on the streets.

Best came from one of three soldiers who stopped
to read a radio bulletin. The one soldier whistled, said,
"Boy, take your last look at Omaha for a long time.
Which way's the war?"

The afternoon in Omaha, after a sunny morning,
was windy and cloudy and bleak. Soon after word
came here, FBI men plucked K. Hayashi, member of
the San Francisco Japanese Consul staff, from a United
Airlines plane here. He wanted to proceed by train
but was told to stay here. He refused to go to a hotel
and remained overnight in the airport waiting room.

Sunday, December 7] ST, LOUIS

The World Herald was swamped with calls from
relatives of soldiers, sailors and civilians in the Orient
and had to call three extra phone operators. Nebraska
has always been a great f eeder for the Navy and prob-
ably has more men per capita in the Navy than most

ST. Louis, Mo.: wire from Clem Hurd

No paper was published until about 6 o'clock
when the Globe Democrat got on the street with an
eight-page paper. The Post Dispatch and Star Times
each has its own radio* station, which supplied fre-
quent bulletins. The Globe Democrat's second extra
contains a disconcerting one-column headline MA-
NILA QUIT; Army placed on alert. It was merely
a typographical error quit for quiet At radio station
KSD of the Post Dispatch a local program of cham-
pion buglers of Jefferson Barracks and Fort Wood had
just finished a program at 1:30 p.m. with Sergeant
C. K. Bob Young, champion of Jefferson Barracks,
blowing to the colors. Few minutes after the program
ended the news came in by A.P. An interruption was
made in the University of Chicago Round Table pro-
gram Just started.

There was unusually heavy traffic through St. Louis
on long-distance calls to points west of here. Calls to
Denver and San Antonio were delayed up to one hour.

77

ST. LOUIS [The First 30 Hours

Extra girls were called to St. Louis exchanges, all of
which are dial operated, in anticipation of the rush,
which did not develop until 6:00 p.m. Telephone traf-
fic chiefs went to their offices on hearing the news on
the radio. Fifteen extra girls were called in to handle
long-distance calls, mostly to the West Coast; from
points east of here, all calls to the West Coast must
pass through St. Louis or Chicago.

People in St. Louis in general took the news quietly
there were few people on the streets downtown. The
day was cold, about 40, and sunny no professional
football game. Big movies as follows: Fox Theatres
showing Keep *Em Flying, Ambassador: Little Foxes,
Missouri: One Foot in Heaven, St. Louis: Appoint-
ment for Love, Loew's, which postponed Two Faced
Woman because of Archbishop Glennon's objections,
was showing Design -for Scandal. No announcement
was made at Loew's but a large radio in the lobby
drew a crowd of about two hundred there was little
comment except for expressions of incredulity at first.
The Jefferson Barracks Air Corps replacement train-
ing center, bordering the city, asked theatre managers
to notify any soldiers from that post to return imme-
diately, but no general announcement to that effect
was made. Many soldiers visiting St. Louis packed up
and left immediately for camps on hearing of the at-
tacks.

Quote from Globe Democrat editorial: "It is a stun-

78

Sunday, December 7] NEW ORLEANS

ning and ghastly act to undertake a major war. Only
with the deepest reluctance and realistic foreboding
does this country take up arms yet we will do so with
the staunchest confidence, grim and courageous ac-
ceptance of duty and an impregnable will for victory.
God grant this be a quick and decisive war. Whatever
its length or the sacrifices it entails, America is ready."

NEW ORLEANS, LA. : wire from Robert Kintzley

The flash came to New Orleans families as
they gathered about the dinner table or in the living
room waiting for the bell. The temperature was 50,
thin-blooded natives were mostly indoors, too early
for most for movies. There was a feeble, pallid sun.
The first and only extra was the Times-Picayune at
3:25 p.m. with double 8-column, 215 point banner.
The Picayune staff was the only Sunday crew here.
The switchboards, papers and radio were temporarily
congested. Most calls were on casualty identifications
since there were many from here in the war zone.

People in grog shops drank beer; shows ran no flash;
the general spirit was the awful realization rather than
flag waving. Civic leaders didn't find a ready tongue.
Association of Commerce President Robert L. Simp-
son said, **This is a horrible situation, but we've got to
see it through." Others were of similar tenor, not blast-

79

NEW ORLEANS [The First SO Hours

ing the Japs. The Orpheum Theatre interrupted The
Men in Her Life at 9:00 p.m. to announce from the
stage that all service men were ordered to report to
posts. About 25 arose, marched out grimly no dem-
onstration. Saenger Theatre with Sergeant York and
Loew's with H. M. Pulham, Esq. noted nothing un-
usual.

The best indication that the people were aroused
was the good business Navy and Marine recruiting
stations did when they opened after the flash. Twenty
seconds after Colonel Frank Halford, in charge of
Marines at the southern recruiting division, opened
his office, in came Lyman Crovetto, 29, dice dealer:
Tm rarin* to go/* and when told his married status
with a son, 10, might rule him out, his face fell: "I
just have to get in." He left after his physical to see
if his beautician wife would sign an affidavit releasing
him from support. When the Federal Building ele-
vator operator told a drunk prospective recruit that
the Navy recruiting station was closed, he said, "Ahll
wait/* and went to sleep on the chilly steps.

Best quote is from Gung-Hsing Wang, Chinese
Consul-General: ". . . This will be the last time Japan
has a chance to hit below the belly/* He added jubi-
lantly: "As far as Japan is concerned, their goose is
overheated." He was called from the bathtub to the
telephone after an attache had told a reporter: "He's
busy in the bathtub. What's the trouble?"

80

Sunday, December 7] NEW ORLEANS

The best news action was around the iron-fenced
Japan Consulate on aristocratic St Charles Avenue.
The crowd hit the 2,000 mark around 5:00 p.m. with
6 cops and 3 motorcycle patrols. Burning of Consular
papers in two wire trash burners worried a next-door
resident because of flying embers. Attaches chased
unburned wind-tossed fragments about while the
crowd hissed. The fire department doused tihe fire,
cops grabbed the wet pile over a foot high, and took
it to the precinct station. Around 11:00 p.m. to the
handful of cops and newsmen left, Consul Kenzo Ito
sent out eight cans of Schlitz and a thermos of tea. One
cop nabbed the beer to take home; the tea, eight cups
and saucers were taken back with regrets.

Picayune editorial excerpts: "The militarist gang-
sters at Tokyo will find they have worsened their own
bad case before the bar of world opinion and weak-
ened their military position by the foul and ineffectual
blow. . . Yesterday's sinister developments have
aroused Americans as no previous occurrence of this
war has done. . . The American people do not shrink
from the conflict thus forced upon them."

Most important development probably was the de-
termination to all-out smother Japan. Typical cock-
sureness: "We can lick 'em hands down. They got it
comin*.* They mean it, but they were solemnly un-
demonstrative.

Louisiana State University students massed in

81

SAN ANTONIO [The First 30 Hours

Baton Rouge, marched to see President Major General
Campbell B. Hodges, who came out in lounging robe
and told them it was their duty to study hard. He en-
visioned a long war and said students would probably
get their chance.

SAN ANTONIO, TEX. : wire from Holland McCombs

The day was coolish and switched from gray
to clear. People were lounging around homes and
apartments. Some were nursing hangovers from Sat-
urday's football games and Saturday night's jamboree-
ing. Soldiers and their gals were cleaning up after
picnics in Brackenridge Park, getting ready to visit the
zoo and "take pictures." The smart set was getting in
naps before later cocktailing. Some were headed for
a polo game, others for rides in park and country.
Many had gone to ranches and ranch parties for the
weekend. Downtown streets were quietly full of am-
bling salesmen, soldiers, girls, and school kids. Lines
were beginning to form in front of the picture shows.
Out in wooded Brackenridge Park, kids were riding
the ferris wheel and flying jenny; babies were being
held in swings; miniature trains were tooting and
whistling as kids were whirled by adoring parents.
Other lads were riding ponies around a little sawdust
circular ring. Still others were riding burros (free)

82

Sunday, December 7] SAN ANTONIO

down fenced lanes in the park. Here and there down
the downtown streets among San Antonio's polyglot
population you'd see a carload of Japs, Chinese, Ne-
groes, Mexicans, Italians, Germans, Bohemians, Poles,
even Hungarians. The main streets were pretty full
of wistful-eyed window shoppers. Some of the folks
at home were eating, lounging, listening to the Uni-
versity of Chicago Round Table discussion. These
were the first to hear a cut-in. It was a flash from
WOAI newsroom. This was about 1:35 p.m.

Into Batchelor House stormed a member who had
just heard the flash on his car radio: "Those s.o.b/s
have done it.** This man was getting ready to go hunt-
ing, and blurted: *To H. with hunting quail, I got a
notion to go out and hunt Japs. 7 * Another man at home
had just finished a quarrel with his wife, though he had
gone to lie down on the couch and pout. She went in
another room and pouted. Then Kaltenborn came on.
This was the first news in that home. After the first few
statements, the quarrel was forgotten, both joined in
listening, commenting with force, even held hands in
excitement, began calling friends, jabbering, cussing.

Men in the San Antonio Light heard it over the
adio at 1:45 p.m., called the AP bureau at Dallas who
3ad not heard about it. "We woke them up," say Light
nen. The Light had an extra on the street at 2: 15 p.m.
tnd kept crews on hand all Sunday. The San Antonio
Zocpress (morning) had to round up a crew, got out

83

SAN ANTONIO [The First 30 Hours

an extra at 5:00 p.m. Folks weren't so surprised that
it happened. But they were completely flabbergasted
at the way it happened. One guy called me and ex-
claimed: "Are the bums cra2y? Do they think they can
make a frontal attack on the U. S.?" Another said:
"There's something behind all this we don't know
about. If we were so much on the alert as they claim
we are out there, how in H. did they get in to bomb
Pearl Harbor? It's the most fantastic thing I ever
heard of."

Except for my friend going hunting, folks didn't
seem mad until later when reports came about spe-
cific loss of life.

SAN ANTONIO, TEX.: wire from Holland McCombs

We went downtown at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
The streets were crowded with soldiers and civilians
but except for an occasional "Damn those Japs" and
newsboy cries of <e War Extry," things were pretty calm.
Soldiers seemed more interested in whether they are
to get Christmas leave than anything else. In front of
the Majestic Theatre, where they are playing Skylark
with Claudette Colbert, was a long line of soldiers and
civilians. Just in front of us was a pretty, calm, self-suf-
ficient young Japanese woman with a cute little 2-year-
old girl. Folks didn't seem to mind and she was per-

Sunday, December 7] SAN ANTONIO

fectly at ease while newsboys kept shouting right in
front of her face, "War Extty!" "Japs Attack U. S.I"
etc. She bought her ticket right in front of me, walked
into the show, which was constantly interrupted with
announced flashes and when a newspix of Kurusu
flashed on the screen and the audience hissed him
heartily, she actually cheered news announcements of
Japs attacking Pearl Harbor, By this time folks were
getting a bit war-feverish. By nightfall San Antonio
police had begun rounding up Japs, investigating
them; and have already outlined their behavior, re-
quiring them to report to the police regularly.

Corpus Christi Naval Air Training Station was the
first military post in this territory to order all men to
their posts. Third Army Headquarters ordered all men
into war uniforms, to report to their commanders.
M. P/s flocked downtown, joined forces with the police
on rounding up anybody who looked suspicious. Extra
guards were thrown around San Antonio's great army
supply depots, airfields, machine shop;, etc. Tele-
phones to all army posts around here were jammed.
If the Japs were coming across the Bio Grande it
wouldn't be possible to advise some army posts by
phone. Phone service in these posts is always lousy,
now there just ain't any. Officers were stationed at the
home of the Jap Consul in Houston, The San Antonio
Light ran a sort of full-page call to arms, headed
"United Nation Marches to Victory.** Filipinos in Dal-

85

DALLAS [The First SO Hours

las were afraid to go out on the streets > asked Dallas
people to please learn "differences in our races." They
say they are being mistaken for Japs.

DAULAS, TEX. : wire from Clarke Netolon

Twenty-five hundred people sat in the Ma-
jestic Theatre at 1:57 p.m. Sunday. They had just
watched the finish of probably one of the most dra-
matic war pictures of the year Sergeant York. On the
film flashed the title. Then there was a break in the
sound and over the speakers came the announcement
that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, Manila. Japan
had declared a state of war with the United States.
There was a pause, a pin-point silence, a prolonged
"Awwwww" and then thunderous applause.

This., however, was not Dallas's first news of the
opening of hostilities. At 1 : 10 p.m. radio station KRLD
broke into its Columbia program "The World of To-
day" (a news program) to give Dallas and KRLD's
listeners the news. From then on its phones were
swamped and the station devoted more than half the
remainder of the day to news breaks and resumes.
NBC's WFAA broke the news at about the same mo-
ment and within the next three hours the station's tele-
phone operator estimated that 400 weeping women
telephoned, all asking the same question: "Do you

86

Sunday, December 7] DALLAS

have the casualty list yet? When will it be broadcast?"
All said they had sons or brothers or sweethearts in
Pearl Harbor or Manila. The men called too, They
wanted to know: "Is Roosevelt broadcasting tonight?
Are we in the war for certain now?" Both men and
women inquired if this meant the end of all furloughs,
WFAA broke into a local sustaining program with its
first war news break. The title, "You Might Be Right."
The station stayed on throughout the night, as did
Mutual s WRR.

The Dallas Journal issued three extras, at 3:50, 5:09
and 8 : 07 p .m. and delivered a free paper to every regu-
lar subscriber, Estimated sale: 46,000. The Dallas
News issued its first extra at 5:50 p.m. and sold 20,000
within fifty minutes. Switchboards of both the News
and the Journal were swamped with the same hysteri-
cal relatives of soldiers and sailors at the scene of the
Japanese bombing.

Dallas got the news as it sat, mostly, at the tradi-
tional southern Sunday dinner and took its war news
with fried chicken and hot biscuits. It was a raw and
cloudy day out with the temperature around fifty, un-
pleasantly cool for Texas autumn. There were a few
people on the streets, but up and down every business
and residential street the noise of radios drowned out
normal Sunday traffic sounds. The consensus of a score
of quotes: "I'm glad the suspense is over. Now we can
get busy and get something done."

PHOENIX [The First 30 Hours

PHOENIX, Araz. : wire -from Ben Aoery

News of die attack on Pearl Harbor hit Phoe-
nix at 1:00 p.m. via the Phoenix CBS station KOY in-
terrupting the CBS program "The World Today" at
12:30 p.m. Mountain Time, I was the only person in
the Arizona Republic newsroom and was immediately
swamped with telephone calls. The telephone com-
pany reported no trouble. We hit the street with an
extra at 4:45 p.m. All of our staff were scattered
around, some playing golf, some out joy riding, and
the news editor was in Tucson.

Remarks of some Phoenicians who called to ask if
the report was true:

"Well, ni be damned. What is our army doing-
have you got anything?"

"What* s this I hear about Japan declaring war?
Have you got anything on the game between the Chi-
cago Bears and the Cardinals? Aren't you getting any-
thing besides that war stuff ?"

Many of them, when advised about the war, just
said, "Well, I hope we blast them off the face of the
earth," or "How many of the yellow so and so's have we
killed?" There also were a number of calls from rela-
tives of servicemen in the Pacific asking about certain
ships. Arizonians definitely were aroused. There are
about a thousand Japanese farmers in the Salt River
Valley and for weeks Arizonians generally have com-

88

Sunday, December 7] PHOENIX

mented "If those Japs want to start something theyH
sure find a fight."

The news hit Phoenix on one of the quietest Sun-
day afternoons I've seen. The weather was warm and
sunny and most everyone was out riding arbund, play-
ing golf or just lolling on green lawns, almost no one
was downtown, just a few scattered cars and an occa-
sional pedestrian. Many were out in the country. The
news ended the siesta hour though, for within a short
while crowds were gathering around sidewalk radios
from Lord knows where. Many were in theatres. There
were no football games. Phoenix's two big theatres
were well filled. The Fox was showing Keep 9 Em Fly-
ing but did not interrupt the program. The Orpheum
interrupted International Squadron., an RAF picture,
and absolute silence followed the announcement for
about a minute, then the audience buzzed.

Dime theatres reported the same effect after making
the announcement. Governor Sidney P. Osborne heard
the news at his desk in the Capitol where he was catch-
ing up on his correspondence and immediately called
H. R. Duffey, in charge of the Phoenix FBI office, then
summoned the Arizona civilian defense coordinating
council into an emergency session at 4:00 p.m. The
meeting was held to tell all council members to stand
by for orders if needed in the event of an attack on the
Pacific coast and general evacuation of coast residents
to Arizona. After the meeting the Governor issued a

89

DENVER [The First SO Hours

statement asking all Arizonians to keep cool and do
nothing until orders were issued and to leave every-
thing to regularly constituted authorities.

Huge dams on Salt River already were under guard
and have been for months. No editorials are available
but I am air-mailing a special delivery with a picture
of bystanders holding copies of the Republic extra,
watching a wandering organ grinder with his monkey
perform on a downtown street.

DENVER, COLO.: wire from Henry Hough

I was waxing the floor when the radio gave
the first unconfirmed report about the Japanese attack-
ing Hawaii. It gave me a cold chill. Everybody is in-
terested but very few are excited except soldiers. One
waitress in a popular downtown bar said, "These sol-
diers have just gone wild. They are getting drunk all
over the place." Sunday night crowds downtown are
thin always, with soldiers in evidence everywhere. No
particular excitement is evident and no crowds congre-
gating as they do around Times Square in New York.
At eight tonight the city editor of the News in-
structed a reporter to query America First leaders to
see what they have to say. Papers and Associated Press
report no newsworthy incidents in the area around
Denver except for precautions to prevent possible sab-

90

Sunday, December 7] DENVEB

otage at defense plants and mines. Mutual Broad-
casting Co. outlet station KFEL in Denver received a
phone call from an irate listener who wanted to know
why the Lutheran Hour was canceled. When told that
some schedules had been upset by the war news ? he
snorted, "Do you think the war news is more important
than the Gospel?"

Telephone operators at newspapers and radio sta-
tions report not many calls, which surprises the hello
girls. Veterans of Foreign Wars and their ladies in
formal dress holding a big banquet in the ballroom of
the Albany Hotel to hear the national commander of
the V.F. W. on a talk broadcast by Mutual had made no
provision for the war bulletins to be read during the
evening. When I asked them about it, they said they
don't think it necessary. Movies didn't interrupt pro-
grams today with war flashes, left patrons to hear about
the war after they left the theatres. A big line of people
waited to buy tickets tonight at the Denham Theatre
where Major Bowes Amateur Hour is playing. In
homes, family gatherings are huddled about radios lis-
tening to war reports and exchanging opinions.

Denver today was sunny and warm with most peo-
ple out riding in their cars as usual on pleasant Sun-
day afternoons. No games were scheduled today.
The Junior Civic Symphony concert at Municipal
Auditorium had the usual small turnout at 11 cents
per ticket

9 1

SAN FRANCISCO [The First SO Hours

No important incident of development except for
steps taken by police and defense forces to safeguard
defense spots from possible sabotage.

To sum up, everybody is keenly interested but very
few are excited, some are mad. Nobody is afraid.

SAN FRANCISCO: wire -from Suzanne Hammond

I was up in the country when the news broke.
It arrived via radio, party-line telephone. The first
word was from a Hawaiian boy working at Hagel
ranch, who walked up, announced unhappily: "Well,
they just bombed Honolulu, the sons of bitches." From
then on news arrived sporadically as various peoples
drove up, plus what we learned from the radio. Our first
reactions were almost of relief tremendous pressure
building up for weeks finally resulting in an accom-
plished fact. People in the country were disbelieving
at first, then resigned, calmer than in the city. Perhaps
they feel they are protected by distance from vital
military objectives.

The weather was warm, sunny, typical California
winter-springtime, with the hills turning green after
the first rains. All roads and the ferry out of town were
jammed with Sunday tourists (this before the news
broke) ; roads were equally crowded later.

Returning to the city, the first thing noticeable was

92

Sunday, December 7] SAN FBANCISCO

the blackout on the Golden Gate Bridge, no lights
showing even at Toll Plaza, collectors dropping cheery
well-trained "Good evening" for brusque "Thanks."
The gate bridge ramps were also blacked out, although
the Presidio through which they pass was still show-
ing lights. One ramp was partially closed off with po-
lice guarding it. (Later it evolved the blackout was a
mistake someone thought he heard Japanese planes,
and ordered lights switched off. The lights came back
on later. )

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge remained
lighted, but regular state highway patrol units were
augmented by armed companies of the California
State Guard ( volunteer organization inaugurated after
the National Guard units were called to active serv-
ice ). A hundred men were guarding the Oakland side
approaches, Toll Plaza, and the bridge span through
the tunnel on Yerba Buena Island, site of the naval
receiving station and Treasure Island. Guards were
also stationed along the Embarcadero guarding the
state-owned belt railroad, wharves and warehouses.
Altogether, about four hundred guardists on the San
Francisco side. These men were ordered on duty from
the state adjutant generaTs office, Sacramento. An offi-
cer of the day at San Francisco Armory ( guard head-
quarters) said exultantly; "We dare anyone to get in
[Embarcadero warehouses, etc.]. They wouldn't get
two feet."

93

SAN FKANCISCO [The First 30 Hours

The general impression driving through all parts of
town war was still not an actuality to San Francis-
cans. They were talking about bombings, ship sinkings,
etc. but it still was distant, unaffecting them person-
ally. The most striking evidence of this was at the city's
hospitality house for soldiers and sailors. It was jam-
packed with gay, laughing, cheery men and gals. Al-
though we were told there were only about one-third
of the usual Sunday night crowd there due to leave
cancellations, there were still fully five hundred on
hand. The hostess said many men were writing letters,
sending wires, but that was the only difference from
the usual weekend. She was swamped with telephone
calls from men wanting to know what they were sup-
posed to do, friends trying to get track of others, but
those at the dance apparently were unaffected by the
situation. Apparently the news was too big to pene-
trate in such a short time or else they were expecting it
for so long that its final coming didn't make much dif-
ference one way or other. The bus was due to leave for
Tiburon Naval Base at midnight but was put forward
to eight. The sailors were irritated at leaving the gals
rather than worried or apprehensive.

The Japtown section of the city was blocked off to
all traffic for several hours this evening (making it
seem a complete isolated settlement) since the police
were expecting trouble. However none materialized.
The cops said they were sent out with orders to expect

94

Sunday, December 7] SAN FRANCISCO

anything, patrol in twos until relieved. They are ex-
pecting to be put on a 12-hour duty although no order
so far. The shades in all Japanese homes were drawn,
a few shops'continued to be open but the majority were
closed. There were few Japanese on the streets except
for the curious around the Hotel Aid from which the
FBI took the manager earlier, and the Fuji Transfer
Company across the street where the FBI men were
going through the files after packing the owner off to
the Hall of Justice, A candid expression of the sergeant
on duty: "Why in hell couldn't they have waited until
after Christmas?" One little Jap came streaking out of
the hotel in a great stew, said he was out fishing all day,
came back to see a girl, and the FBI held him for ques-
tioning all afternoon with others found in the hotel
The majority of the Japanese we saw were either sad,
bewildered, or else trying to appear unconcerned,
slightly belligerent or trying to appear nonchalant
The only ones outside the Japanese Consulate, some-
what outside the borders of the Japanese section, were
a cop and two curious girls. The cop said no crowd had
been up there probably because few people knew he
lived there. The fire in the afternoon brought consider-
able attention, however. The cop said the FBI went
over the debris ash by ash. One of the girls said she
noted with interest three new trunks arriving at the
Consulate last Wednesday.

"I thought something was up then/*

95

SAN FRANCISCO [The First SO Hours

The waterfront was dead in the evening, except for
the usual crowd of tourists at Fishermen's Wharf.
Chinatown was crowded with the usual Sunday mob,
Japanese-owned stores (of which there are many) re-
mained bravely open. Only serious Chinatown crowds
were around ideographic newsposters in the windows
of a Chinese newspaper.

Night-owl beaneries were not even bothering to
turn on news broadcasts, radios were giving out their
usual swing record programs.

Although local defense councils were flustered into
action finally, there was no fear that bombs would start
dropping on the coast. Most people viewed the war as
a naval engagement 7 nothing to touch the home shores.
Officialdom, however, rushed to man the barricades,
special guards were ordered for defense plants and
special anti-sabotage patrols were instituted or supple-
mented.

A sum-up of attitude would be: "They've got a lot
of guts. They're asking for it and now they're going to
get it, really/'

A service-station man: "Boy, this is important to me.
It means maybe I go to war. I used to be a marine."

A motorist in the service station: "I just heard about
it Down the street I almost ran over a Jap on a motor-
cycle. Maybe I should have hit him. That would be my
contribution."

Mayor Angelo J. Rossi proclaimed a state of emer-

96

Sunday, December 7] SAN FRANCISCO

gency for the city, setting aside emergency funds to
pay for civilian defense directors, calling on employee
and employer groups to "forthwith terminate their ex-
isting differences during the present emergency and
end all disputes so that San Francisco may present a
united front and so that every citizen may work for the
one end, the safety of our country J*

Previous to the Mayor's proclamation, John F.
Shelly, President of the San Francisco Labor Council
(AFL) and State Senator, had announced a meeting
of all A. F. of L. striking unions to compose differences
with employers. Strikes current in San Francisco: 16
hotels picketed in strike against 26 members of the San
Francisco Hotel Association. The Department Store
Employees Union is picketing three stores, including
the city's largest, The Emporium. Berkeley workers in
the park, street, corporation yard and garbage depart-
ments had scheduled a 24-hour work stoppage for
Monday; Welders, Cutters and Helpers' Union (inde-
pendent), seeking a breakaway from AFL crafts, had
threatened a nationwide strike on the basis of four
grievances in San Francisco shipyards. The Berkeley
strike, opening wedge in C J.O.'s national drive for
organization of municipal workers, was called off. So
was the Welders' strike. Rossi called the Monday meet-
ing of unions and employers in local strikes to seek a
settlement.

Important development: A terrific civilian response

97

SAN FRANCISCO [The First 30 Hours

to a hitherto lagging drive for 25,000 volunteers, 12,500
airraid wardens, 10,000 auxiliary firemen and 2,500
auxiliary cops. In the last two weeks of registration of
the drive only 3,200 people signed up. Tonight no one
knows the exact total on the day's registration but
Civil Defense Headquarters estimate conservatively
that at least 1,500 signed up, probably more. An oper-
ator on 24 trunk lines at the Fire Department Head-
quarters said she had handled 3,000 or 4,000 calls her-
self. Many are just fearful and asking for miscellaneous
information, but many are asking imperatively where
and how to sign up for civil defense work. The
swamped operator wailed: "I hadda call for help."
Sampling of 54 fire stations and 10 district police head-
quarters, which are the registration points, reveals 49
persons signing up at one fire station in an hour, 60 at
another. Consensus is that on an average 60 to 70 per-
sons signed up at each registration place. That would
mean better than 4,000 people and they're still
queued up all over town waiting to sign up.

SAN FRANCISCO: wire from Adie Suehsdorf

Herewith are details of the Associated Press
reception direct-from-Honolulu story: San Francisco
Associated Press is located on the second floor of the
bastard-Gothic Chronicle Building, Fifth and Mission

98

Sunday., December 7] SAN FRANCISCO

streets, Clyde Gilbert Bartel, 42, seven years with San
Francisco AP, now Sunday cable editor, says the office
had got the Steve Early flash in Washington and he
was busy answering civilian calls for information and
making AP business calls to member papers when the
operator cut in with information that the overseas op-
erator was on the wire with a Honolulu call. As Bartel
remembers it, this was at about 11:00 a.m. He dashed
into the stuffy little AP photographers* room across
hall to take the call. Bartel heard a voice, cool, but
little keyed with excitement, saying: "This is Burns,
Eugene Burns. We're being bombed." Bartel said:
"Yes, I know you're being bombed and so is Manila,"
Burns said: "Yes? Well, they're over us now and the
attack is still going on." He gave his story in about five
minutes. "Be sure to call us back," Bartel said at the
end. "Yes," said Bums. Bartel roared back to office,
batted out his first story by 11:28.

Burns called back about noon, spoke 10 more min-
utes with additional details. A third call was coming
through but before the connection was made War-
Navy Department censorship had gone into effect and
Burns was unheard from. Bartel says Burns calls came
in clearly although both were shouting at each other.
Occasionally the circuit would fade like short-wave
radio from Europe. But it was generally intelligible.
No bombs could be heard behind Burns' voice. Bartel
was struck with the fact that Burns, whom Bartel un-

99

PORTLAND [The First SO Hours

knows, doing routine job in best newspaper tradition.
Unhurried. No dramatics, no gags, no stammering,
strictly business. Bartel was too pressed by time to
think of own reaction.

United Press was lucky. The office was closed. James
Sullivan, bureau manager, had dropped in, however,
to do some routine work after attending church in
Berkeley and before the afternoon crew came on. The
telephone rang: "This is the overseas operator calling.
Just a moment while I complete the call." Sullivan
jumped for the radio wire, only ticker in operation on
a dull Sunday morning, there saw the Early flash from
Washington, got back to the phone to hear Mrs. Frank
Tremaine, wife of UP man in Honolulu, say: "We are
being bombed, there are fifty planes over the city." She
didn't identify them as Japanese. Sullivan then went
to work like crazy. Sullivan thinks the call came about
10:45 a.m.

PORTLAND, ORE.: wire from William P. Gray

Portland was warm Sunday, sky bright above
with a haze fringing the city. It was good golfing
weather. At Mount Hood, skiers had fresh snow.
Churchgoing Portlanders were listening to sermons
when the White House flash came at 11 :30 a.m. Pacific
Standard Time. Newspaper readers were sunk in the
funnies or scanning the headline, "F. R. Makes Final

100

Sunday,, December 7} PORTLAND

Plea." Home radios were timed to ^Chicago Round
Table" (NBC Red), *TTie World Today" (CBS),
"Swingtime Strings" (Mutual) when networfe news-
caster cut in. Listeners sat up shocked, turned up
radios, telephoned neighbors.

By evening, the telephone company had increased
the switchboard crew nearly 5035, long-distance lines
were jammed, calls to Chicago were delayed two
hours; to San Francisco two hours; to Tacoma Fort
Lewis one hour; all Seattle circuits were in constant
use. At 7:55 p.m. PST, the Pacific Telephone & Tele-
graph Co. bought radio spots to ask that citizens use
long distance only for most urgent business. Extra
guards were placed around telephone buildings.

To most Pordanders, the news was incredible. None
had expected the Japs to get as dose as Hawaii, which
is closer than New York to Portland. When one lad
rushed out of his house to tell a congregation leaving
church, some said: "YouVe fooling." Once convinced,
most Portlanders were calmly furious, determined.

When a reporter telephoned the news to Portland's
acting Japanese Consul Y. Oka, he snapped, "It is just
a wild rumor, I have had no word at all. I have just
heard what is cm the radio; I don't believe so. I don't
believe so at all. I think it is just rumor. I think it is just
wild rumors, very wild rumor ." Shortly he was burning
papers in the Consulate stove. Smoke filtered into the
eighth floor corridors of the Board of Trade Building.

101

PORTLAND [The First 30 Hours

Police threw a guard around that office and the Con-
sul's home. Oka told newsmen between 1 7 000 and 1,500
Japanese have been trying to leave the Portland area.
American-born members of the Japanese American
Citizens League, admittedly facing hard times, told
newspapers they hope the fairness of the Caucasian
Americans would ease their lot as citizens.

At Oregon Shipbuilding Corp/s vast plant beside
Willamette River, Mrs. Henry Kaiser christened the
SS Thomas Jefferson at 3 p.m. Sunday while shipyard
workers cheered it down skids. The launching guest,
Oregon Governor Charles A. Sprague, hurried from
there to the Oregonian office, sat down at the city edi-
tor's typewriter to peck out a wire to Roosevelt.". . . We
must not rest until menace of Japanese aggression in
the Pacific is definitely ended . . ."

Governor Sprague Sunday night proclaimed a state
of emergency for the State of Oregon, precise meaning
to be clarified Monday.

Sunday night* s wildest rumor here was that San
Francisco was being bombed. The region's military
and civilian defense forces sprang into action quickly.
Bonneville Power Administration doubled guard
around the dam, power plant, scattered substations.
Portland's city Water Bureau ordered out bureau em-
ployees to guard pipe lines, reservoirs; city bridges
were placed under armed guard. At Vancouver, Wash.,
ALCOA operated its new reduction plant Sunday

1 02

Sunday, December 7] SAN DIEGO

night with yard lights blacked out. All ships in Colum-
bia River ports Sunday were frozen in the port area
by Navy order.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. : wire from Harold Keen

The news came to San Diego between 11:30
a.m. and 12:00 noon Pacific Standard Time via radio
on a beautiful, sunshiny day as San Diegoans were
either cruising about idly in their autos, mowing
lawns, trimming hedges, loafing around the house, or
reading Sunday papers. The usual huge Sunday pleas-
ure-seeking mob of servicemen ware swinging through
downtown San Diego, frequenting bars and other en-
tertainment spots. For at least one hour after the radio
calls started asking men to return to posts, the number
of uniforms didn't seem to diminish. Then suddenly
they began disappearing, and by early afternoon, com-
paratively few servicemen were seen along San
Diego's various pleasure rows.

The major afternoon activity was the pro football
game, Los Angeles Bombers s, San Diego Bull Dogs,,
traditional rivals and big crowd attracter. However,
with servicemen eliminated and everyone else glued
to radios, the crowd, usually 10,000 for such a game^
was held down to 3,500.

Some reacted in forced humorous manner. **Wanny
buy a house cheap?" asked residents near the water-

103

SAN DIEGO [The First 30 Hours

front, where San Diego's defense industries and navy
and military bases are located, and where bombings,
if any, are likely to occur.

Slowly mounting anger was most typical, however.
It wasn't manifested in any violent outbursts, but was
best exhibited by the scene at the San Diego water-
front during the entire afternoon.

As Navy men rushed back to shore stations and
ships, civilians sped to the waterfront to watch the
activities. A transport was loading up at a dock; sailors
were boarding shoreboats; a great throng was standing
silently, glumly, without a smile, observing. That
crowd, looking west across San Diego harbor, and out
beyond Point Loma to the Pacific where the enemy was
rain ing destruction and taking lives, possibly of their
own sons and brothers, was the most grim, silent crowd
I've ever seen. From it rose an atmosphere of deter-
mination and unity.

Sailors' wives, some with children, were there to bid
husbands farewell, possibly for the last time. There
were no hysterical scenes; almost all the women were
sad but dry-eyed.

Not a Jap was seen on the streets here throughout
the day. Harold Nathan, FBI head here, said his crew
was completely mobilized and waiting for word from
Washington. A roundup of Japanese nationals is due
momentarily. The exact number of Japs here is consid-
ered secret by FBI, but at the local Buddhist Temple,

104

Sunday, December 7] SEATTLE

the Japanese church, they estimated there were 450
Japanese families in San Diego County, approximately
2,000 people. Parents mostly aliens, and dtildren born
here. The occupation of most is fanning. There are very
few Japanese fishermen in San Diego, where the Portu-
guese and Italians have the fishing fleet monopoly.

No Jap stores have been closed yet, and no anti-
Japanese outbreaks have been reported by the police.
The Japs seam to be keeping under cover, and in inter-
views professing loyalty to the U. S.

Outward signs of war police clearing all streets ad-
jacent to the Consolidated Aircraft Corp/s giant plant
and other defense industries of parked autos to permit
the fullest access of emergency vehicles; guards with
fixed bayonets at the Naval Training Station; compara-
tive scarcity of servicemen in night clubs, beer halls
and shows; people clustered about radios on streets
downtown. No greater restriction in peopled move-
ments than usual it has been very strict in the last year
in the vicinity of the naval bases. For the first time,
Camp Callan, selectee coast artillery training center,
forbade visitors to enter except on official business.

SEATTLE, WASH.: toire from Mark S. Sullivan

Police detail in the Oriental section in Seattle
was doubled to guard against disorders. Police and the
FBI guarded the home of Yuki Sato, Jap Consul, and

105

SEATTLE [The First SO Hours

officers refused admission to a group of neighborhood
children calling to give a Christmas present to one of
the Consul's children. But Gordon Lewis, 8, son of a
Navy lieutenant commander., talked his way in, handed
schoolmate Syuld Sato, 8, a toy automobile and a dime-
store dive bomber. The Consul's children leaned out of
the windows, talking to neighborhood children. Said
the Consul to the press: "I am very sorry, no state-
ment." Jap stores and restaurants stayed open but the
Jap quarter was almost devoid of Japs. They stayed in
their homes.

There are about 6,000 alien Japs in and around Se-
attle. Long distance telephone communications, when
war news broke, were tremendous in the Seattle area,
and the telephone company had to send out for all its
extra operators.

A few hours after the news broke, soldiers began
leaving Seattle by bus and truck for Fort Lewis, Fort
Lawton and other posts, sounding good-humored but
fatalistic goodbys.

The most immediate visible result of the war is
prompt patrols police, soldier, sailor, deputy sheriffs,
state police, company guards and others of defense
regions, bridges guarded, Seattle's 28-mile pipeline
guard tripled, extra guard around the water purifica-
tion plant up in Cascades, light, power, gas and other
utilities guarded.

Remarkably fast, Rear Admiral C. S. Freeman at
i 06

Sunday, December 7] SEATTLE

Bremerton, Commander 13th Naval District; General
Kenyon A. Joyce, Commanding IX Corps at Fort
Lewis; Captain Ralph Wood, Commanding Sand
Point Naval Air Station, Governor Arthur B. Langlie,
city officials, Civilian Defense leaders, all got in com-
munication with each other and agreed on what was to
be done protect all strategic points, calm citizens, be
on alert.

Comment:

"Well, this spoils our day at home, my husband is
being called down to the office** housewife.

"My husband will be working longer hours from
now on, and do we need the overtimedwife of a
defense worker.

"It's awful, what will we do? What are you going to
do? Well be bombed within a week" war-conscious
but rather neurotic woman business executive.

"I'm going back home to my folks in Wisconsin"
young woman nurse.

"And Fd have to pick a day like this to go see The
Man Who Came to Dinner 9 young girl who had a
Sunday afternoon date.

"Japan asked for it, and Japan will get it in the
neck" James Y. Sakomoto, Seattle-born publisher of
Japanese-American newspaper.

As twilight falls, people are calling each other on
telephones, talking it over more quietly. More intelli-
gent questions are coming to the newspaper offices.

107

SEATTLE [The First 30 Hours

The flippancy is nearly gone. State, city and county
agencies are functioning nicely, shutting off alarm and
hysteria, but grimly getting ready for the worst.

When the news came to Seattle the city was basking
in sunlight, the day was cold. People were going to
church, starting out on Sunday drives, eating late
breakfasts, listening to radios, reading Sunday news-
papers. At the Orpheum Theatre, a line stood waiting
to get in to see The Maltese Falcon and Target for To-
night, and other theatres were getting early Sunday
crowds. Over various districts of the city, an Army or
Navy plane would circle and people looked up with
lively interest

Sidelight: Marine Corps recruiting station opened at
6:00 p.m. (Sunday) "by demand," had 78 enlistments
by 9:00, 3 more in the office enlisting when the recruit-
ing officer called the newspaper. Navy and marine re-
cruiters are starting enlisting tomorrow from 6:00 a.m.
until 11:00 p.m. daily.

This is late, and reactions are calming down. Lots of
people on the street looking at Christmas windows,
buying newspapers. A line now a block long for The
Maltese Falcon and the stage play Man Who Came to
Dinner is packed. No theatre interruptions, but news
bulletins flash on. Servicemen left when the bulletin
said to go to stations.

John Boettiger in the editorial called "War Comes
to the U. S.": "We must now really go all out for the

108

Sunday, December 7] LOS ANGELES

war effort Now that the die has been cast, the thought
of defense is secondary. It is BOt altogether impossible
that a Jap aircraft carrier could slip through close
enough to our coast to conduct a foray upon our air-
plane and shipbuilding plants. In this war it will be
labor that has the greatest opportunity. Strikes of any
kind should be wholly outlawed."

Los ANGELES, CALIF.: wire from Sidney James *

Southern California never awoke to a less
warlike day. Before noon the thermometer climbed to
eighty, and a fickle, caressing breeze played up and
down the coast, moving now from the north, now from
the southwest, and even at times from the direction of
Japan. It was as handsome a day as any day in June
ever was. It was perfect for swimming in the Pacific,
for golf, for riding, for picnicking or for any midsum-
mer Sunday recreation. The "Little World's Cham-
pionship" between the Hollywood Bears and the Co-
lumbus Bulls professional football teams at Gilmore
Stadium in Los Angeles seemed singularly out of tune
with the lazy weather. It wasn't a day for physical com-
bat even on the field of sport. The talk until "the news"

* Although all Los Angeles wires were signed by Sidney James,
other members of the staff namely John F. Allen, Richard Pollard
and Edward Stansbury contributed information and helped write
the wires. ED.

109

LOS ANGELES [The First 30 Hours

came was mostly about how the U.C.L.A. Bruins had
managed a surprise 7-7 tie in their traditional game
against the Trojans of U.S.C. the day before, and the
incredible shellacking the Texas Longhorns had given
to the Oregon Webfoots. The front pages of the morn-
ing papers had suggested no better topic for discussion
among sports-loving Southern Calif ornians: "Roose-
velt Sends Note to Mikado," "San Quentin Called Hot-
bed of Reds," "Belgians* Leopold Weds Commoner,"
"Finnish Ships in U. S. Ports Taken Over," "Litvinov
Vows Russians Will Continue Battle," "U. S. Stalling,
Says Tokyo." The more devout were at their places of
prayer while "the news" was being made across the Pa-
cific. At Temple Baptist Church they were hearing be-
spectacled Dr. "Dad" Brougher discuss "The Power of
Personal Influence." At First Congregational Church
energetic Dr. James W. Fifield Jr. was preaching the
truth that "Waters Find Their Levels." At Angelus
Temple Aimee McPherson was singing through a pro-
duction called "One Foot in Heaven." At first Metho-
dist Dr. Donald H. Tippett was talking about "The
Bright and Morning Star." The Rev. McKinley Walker
at the Annandale Methodist Church was taking his
theme from the-single word "Courage."

The sum total of immediate reaction in Los Angeles
was highlighted by the exclamation that was uttered
in various forms and added up to what one house-
holder reduced to: "Why the dumb bastards." Such

i i o

Sunday, December 7 ] LOS

was the over-all feeling. The action itself seemed ia-
credible but what it meant war with Japan had long
been taken for granted. More than one person was
heard to say with resignation and a kind of finality:
"Well, this is it."

To continue with the thread of "the news" coming
to Los Angeles, the point must be made that the radio
was the Paul Revere in the picture. After the immedi-
ate facts of assault were broadcast it was radio that
saddled the ether waves and gave the door-to-door call
to arms.

Typical, from that point on, is the KNX log erf broad-
casts for local consumption. Broadcasts were sand-
wiched in between the newsbreaks which filled most
of the air time. At 12:38 p.m. KNX broadcast that all
army and navy furloughs had been canceled, and all
were urged to report back to their posts immediately.
At 12:50 p.m. the San Pedro Naval Base announced
cancellation of all leaves, at 1:22 the Sixth Calif omia
State Guard was called to immediate duty. At 2:31 all
city policemen and firemen off duty were called to
work. At 3:30 the public was urged to stay away from
aircraft plants and flying fields. At 5:54 all civilian and
military personnel of the Fourth Air Corps headquar-
ters at Mardb Field were ordered to report immedi-
ately to their duty stations.

Interspersed were such announcements as these:
motorists were asked to assist men in uniform retura-

111

LOS ANGELES [The First 30 Hours

ing from leaves to Camp Roberts. All members of the
sheriffs emergency reserve were asked to report to the
Royal Palms Hotel, 360 Westlake Avenue, Los An-
geles. In San Diego all plant special police were called
to duty at Consolidated^ 40 million dollar plant, and
all unofficial traffic was diverted away from the plant.
All personnel of Navy recruiting stations were called to
duty. All offices will be open continuously. Unlimited
wartime recruiting. All male citizens over 21 were
asked to report to their nearest fire or police station to
volunteer for aid in an emergency. All city firemen and
policemen who were off duty were ordered to report
for emergency duty. All firemen and policemen are
placed on two-platoon duty. All aircraft warning sta-
tions ordered fully manned for 24 hour duty. Colonel
Charles Branshaw, Chief West Coast Procurement Of-
ficer, ordered the public to stay away from the defense
plants, asked citizens to stay at home unless it was
necessary for them to be out, since traffic officers were
needed for duty elsewhere. Governor Olson called all
members of the California State Council for Defense to
meet with him at the State Building in Los Angeles
Monday.

And so it went. Radio station switchboards were lit
up like Christmas trees without a break. A check with
the three networks revealed that 95% of those calls were
from unexcited citizens who merely wanted to know
when their favorite commentator could be heard

i 12

Sunday, December 7] LOS AHGELES

again. One hysterical woman screamed over the tele-
phone to a KNX operator that "your station ought to
be ashamed of itself broadcasting all this terrible war
news" but those calls were few and far between.

There was some trouble early in the day from small-
fry municipal executives requesting the stations to
make hysterical warning announcements. For instance,
an unidentified man at the harbormaster's office called
KNX telling them that "you better broadcast all over
town that the Navy is going to blast the hell out of
every boat they see, large or small, in the harbor."
These calls were checked immediately with the Army
and Navy, who squelched them. Donald W. Thorn-
burg, CBS vice president in charge of West Coast oper-
ations, rushed back from a weekend in Del Monte;
Fox Case, in charge of special events broadcasts for the
Columbia Pacific network, was hustled out of town
mysteriously late this afternoon to set up supplemen-
tary listening posts up and down the coast CBS was
fervidly trying to make arrangements with the military
authorities to get two announcers to Honolulu imme-
diately. CBS sent a special policeman to the transmit-
ter building at nearby Torrance. A special guard, one
man, was placed outside the master control room in
the CBS building. Those, however, were the only pre-
cautions they took. Visitors were allowed to crowd
through the lobby and gawk at the Christmas display
and "the news" apparently didn't bother audience-

LOS ANGELES [The First 30 Hours

show addicts who swarmed into the several CBS radio
theatres for Sunday night feature shows.

At NBC's pale green Hollywood Radio City, sepa-
rated from the CBS building only by the Palladium,
popular jitterbug haunt doing good business as usual,
it was a different story. They took "the news" more
seriously. They supplemented their normal special
police force with hastily called Pinkerton men, Los
Angeles policemen and two FBI agents. All tourists
were barred from the building after 2:00 p.m. The
guard in master control room in the main lobby was
boarded off. A special guard was placed around their
Far-Eastern listening post in North Hollywood. An
NBC engineer came face to face with the barrel of a
policeman's gun when he tried to report to work at
the Engineering Room at 4:00 p.m., had to be identi-
fied before he could get in.

But there was no evidence that NBC had any more
cause than other stations for alarm. Even a small band
of LA.T.S.E. workers, who have been picketing the
Radio City building for a year because NBC wouldn't
recognize their maintenance man's union, called off
their picketing for the first time today. So it wasn't
strange that the NBC publicity department looked
pretty silly when they issued the following statement
about 7:30 p.m.: "It ["the news"] was a great shock
to our stars [Jack Benny, Victor McLaglen, Edmund
Lowe, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Irene Rich, Edgar

114

Sunday, December 7] JLOS ANGELES

Bergen, all Sunday 'night features]. They all went CHI
without a break."

Generally speaking people went about their usual
Sunday night routines without outward evidence that
"the news" had overwhelmed them. As a wiseacre
reported in a gossip column some months back, *Tf
Los Angeles ever had an air raid the people probably
wouldn't pay any attention to it They'd think it was
just another Hollywood preview.** But they weren't
just being blas, they were simply gradually accepting
a fact that they had been long expecting only they
had never expected it to become a fact on so fine a
Sunday.

Los ANGELES, CALIF. : wire from Sidney James
[Second take]

At Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre skittish
Edward Everett Horton played to a full house mati-
nee in a revival of Springtime for Henry, At the Music
Box, Hollywood's new review, They Cant Get Jou
Down, entertained a sizable TbargauT matinee crowd.
At the Theatre Mart The Drunkard hooted and slap-
stieked its way well into a ninth year of entertaining
Los Angeles audiences. And the movie audiences
turned out normally for a Sunday afternoon of cinema
entertainment Citizen Kane went into its eighth week

115

LOS AHCEUBS [The Ffrst 30 How

at the Hawaii One Fad m Heaven was at Warner's
Hollywood. Abbott and Costello in Keep 'Em Flying
pkyed at the Hollywood Pantages and the RKO Hill
Street (downtown) theatres. The big elaborate Para-
mount Theatre in downtown Los Angeles showed
Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan in Appointment
for Loe 9 while on the stage, a road show of the musi-
cal comedy Af eet the People entertained customers.
And at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the
morbidly curious, tipped off by the Legion of De-
cency's campaign against it, crowded in to see Greta
Garbo and Melvin Douglas in Two Faced Woman.

When "the news" did come it didn't hit Los An-
geles with a bang. It leaked in to the super-curious
and the shut-ins, who even on a perfect day can stay
by their radios. It got around at first almost by word
of mouth. "Did you hear the news?" neighbor asked of
neighbor. It spread limpingly, not like a fall brush
fire in the Hollywood' hills. There was no hue and cry
on the public streets where the outdoor loving were
bound for their Sunday pleasures. It moved through
backyard gardens, across golf courses, into bars where
more convivial citizens were braving some more of
the same to rehabilitate themselves from the rigors of
the night before, and finally to the beaches of the fate-
ful Pacific. Typical was the way it came to a group of
paunchy Hollywood newsgatherers and press agents.
The goings on in Herbert's drive-in bar in the San
116

Sunday, December 7] &os ANGELES

Fernando Valley were typical of the casual accept-
ance of "the news" by the nm of the mine Angelenos
two hours after it was out As bulletin after bulletin
broke into the regular broadcasts, the Franck Sym-
phony, a sermon, a swing fest, the occupants of the
small barroom fell into a jocular mood. **You guys
with the Japanese gardeners, how do you feel nowF*
cracked one. A stocky, medium-sized blond youth and
his taller companion became the butt of numerous bad
jokes. It was apparent that the blond youth was about
to be drafted and that the other recently had been re-
leased from army service under the new draft law,
but was subject to recall. There was a resounding guf-
faw when the already flash-tortured Franck Symphony
ended and a saccharine-voiced announcer blurted:
"Do your Christmas shopping early." Then an over-
painted female, slightly in her cups, sitting at the end
of the bar, giving no sign she had the slightest idea
of what the hell was going on, told (loudly) the story
about the "destitute prostitute." At a booth, five men
played hearts, talked vaguely about the war situation.
Brightest remark from this group: "Do you suppose
Hitler had anything to do with this?*

Typical of the small workingman's reaction is the
remarfe of a waiter at Romanoffs restaurant, in the
middle of the afternoon. "I don't want to think about
it. If s too hard to believe." Even the theoretically
more-informed classes were apparently lacking in any

117

LOS ANGELES [The Ffrst 30 Hours

real comprehension of what the hell it meant. Charles
Einfeld, Vice President and head of all advertising
and publicity at Warner Brothers, hearing the news
as he came in off the Hill Crest Golf course at 2:00
p jn., had only this to say, "I'm dazed."

The Los Angeles rich playgirls and playboys week-
ending at Palin Springs, hearing the news by accident
in midafternoon (because of magnetic disturbances
caused by the surrounding mountains, It is impossible
to get radio programs in Palm Springs until well after
dark) ware blase. A young aviation officer from March
Field, spending the weekend at the Springs* El Mira-
dor Hotel, got a hurry call from Headquarters to re-
port back for duty. He had to cancel his dates in town
and so the word spread through, leaked slowly by
telephone gossip until nightfall when people began to
gather at bars. Not singular were the remarks of one
pretty, black-haired socialite resort girl when she
heard the news. "Everybody knew this was going to
happen, so why spoil a perfectly good Sunday after-
noon worrying about it?* A little later she remarked,
They couldn't have bombed Pearl Harbor. That Ad-
miral I met in Coronado is in charge and he is a per-
fectly lovely person."

118

Sunday, December 7] &os ANGELES

Los ANGELES, CALIF.: wire from Sidney James
[Third take]

After all these excited local break-ins for
now every radio in the city was turned on it is no
wonder that by evening there was evidence of hys-
teria. By this time movie theatres were breaking in
f or flash news on the screen and newsboys were hawk-
ing extras everywhere. Finally every radio station be-
gan broadcasting intermittently at the request erf the
Chief of Police and the Sheriff, who had been
swamped with calls from hysterical citizeaos:
is no immediate cause for alarm."

Los ANGELES, CALIF.: wire pom Sidney James
[Fourth take]

We are breaking in here to give yoe a cogent
observation from LIFE'S Peter Stadqpole who spent
some time in Hawaii on assignment recently:

TSaving recently returned from a month's cruise
with the U. S. Fleet in Hawaiian waters, I got back to
the mainland with the opinion that I had fust seen
one of the world's best protected bases. I had believed
the encouraging boast of navy personnel that, due to
certain devices for detecting the presence of enemy
ships and planes, no enemy craft could approach the
Oahu area without first being detected and in tereepted

119

LOS ANGELES [The First SO Hours

before it ever reached the shoreline. Tonight when I
hear reports of heavy damage to Hickam Field, Ford
Island, and the possible sinking of two battleships in
Pearl Harbor, I can begin to realize a few of the pos-
sible reasons for our force's apparent failure to meet
the attack quickly.

The feet that a second wave of Japanese planes was
able to reach the base confirms the fact that damage
must have been heavy and the job of mustering flying
personnel and getting them out to the air bases must
have taken hours. Saturday night in Honolulu is not
ttnlike that in any large American town. Sailors and
officers usually enjoy a weekend shore leave. Officers
include most of the flying personnel and they are al-
lowed the whole weekend ashore without having to
report bade to the ships at Pearl Harbor until early
Monday morning.

This means that though many of the ships were
well manned with sailors, large numbers of officers
and fliers were still ashore. Because of a decided hous-
ing shortage, the whole Honolulu-Waikiki-Pearl Har-
bor area is jammed with defense workers, sailors and
soldiers, who, due to the region's bad transportation,
have netted on old rattletrap cars for which they have
paid a high price. Oahu's undersized highways have
thus become fammed with cars, serious traffic prob-
lems have developed. To make matters worse, the
cer prefers to spesd his weekends in Wai-
i 20

Sunday , December 7] MANILA

kiki, which is about twenty miles horn Pearl Haibor,
separated by downtown Honolulu. To cover this short
distance one can usually expect to remain in transit
from an hour to an hour and a half, whether he takes
a crowded bus, a taxi or his own car. The latter would
be quickest. Sunday mornings were the only periods
when I don't recollect having heard the constant drone
of planes overhead from army, navy and marine bases,
Ironically enough, the only plane which actually met
the attacking Japanese when they came in was a pri-
vate ship which the Japanese didn't bother to shoot
down.

"Taking for granted that the island's defense sys-
tem was taken by surprise, possibly because of an over-
confident feeling among its defenders, we can best
judge the extent of military damage by coming re-
ports of how many Japanese planes and ships our
forces were able to sink during this fateful Sunday.
Hie fact is that it is traditional in the service to get
blind drunk on Saturday night The Japs must have
been counting on this, apparently they were right*"

MANILA, P. L: cable from MdfotHe Jacoby
[Monday, December 8*]

10:00 a.m,
Manila has not yet digested the fact of war. Balloon

* December 8 in Manik was December 7 in the U. S.-Eix
121

MANH.A [The Firs* 30 Hours

and toy salesmen and vendors on the streets with extra
editions are just appearing as fully equipped soldiers
are appearing. Small groups of women in hotel lobbies
are beginning to collect children at their sides. All this
is happening, and simultaneously taxi drivers com-
ment: "Not serious not the Japanese Government's
doings only the Japanese military's small mistake in
Hawaii. 7 *

It is confirmed now that Davao was bombed at 6:30
aon., also Forthay and Baguio where all civilian emer-
gency officials are remaining.

MacArthur's headquarters were the grimmest place
at dawn this morning when the staff was aroused to
face war, send troops to their battle stations. Extra
headquarters guards arrived around 9:00 a.m. as offi-
cers began donning helmets and gas masks while grab-
bing hurried gulps of coffee and sandwiches.

Newsmen were waiting around headquarters delug-
ing the press office. Hart's headquarters were quiet.
Air force headquarters were the scene of most bus-
tling, helmeted men poring over maps, occasionally
peering out windows to the sky.

There has been no air alarm in Manila City yet but
it is expected by the minute. Rumors are flying very
thick everywhere. It is nearly impossible to get an
operator on telephone calls. The High Ck>mmission-
er's office is blocked off by military police. The whole
thing has busted here like one bombshell, though, as

122

Stim%, December 7] MANILA

previous cables showed, the military has been alert
over the week.

There is no censorship as yet but the voluntary basis
is adhered to.

Rumors are flying very thickly even among in-
formed people. Attacks and defense have not yet
taken a definite pattern, however, the Davao bcHnbing
possibly signalizing a blitz landing attack.

The Bangkok's radio silence and lack erf reports are
leaving us cut off from action anywhere else in the Far
East

MANILA, P. L: cdk&e from MeMHe Jacoby

Press Wireless lost contact with the U. S.

War feeling hit the populace about noontime, whee
there wane full runs on banks, grocery stores, gas sta-
tions. All faTfa and garage cars were taken by the mili-
tary, clogging transport systems. Our own planes
oveAead are drawing thousands of eyes now, while
they didn't earlier this morning. The High Commis-
sioner's office is stifl holding hurried meetings, while
Mrs. Sayre's Emergency Sewing Circle called off this
morning's session.

Downtown were building managers* daylight meet-
ings to make basement shelters hurriedly. They f orad
an acute shortage of sandbags over all Manila while

123

MANILA [The First 30 Hours

Quezon's palace bought the remaining supply of
20,000 bags to reinforce Malacanang shelter. There
was a frantic rush this morning to tape all shop win-
dows in town for the first time.

Philippine scouts, riding in big, special orange
buses, fully equipped with new packs and uniforms,
rounded up a majority of Jap nationals. They took
500 Nips from the Yokohama Specie Bank and count-
less others to concentration camps after surprise raids.

Soldiers raiding the Nippon Bazaar in the center of
Manila found twelve Japs barricaded inside. They
broke down the glass doors, capturing them, found a
thirteenth Jap hiding under the counter.

Police inspecting Jap nationals, many of whom ap-
peared with knapsacks packed with tinned goods, etc.,
found large rolls of bills in the sacks, also a few fire-
arms. Jap women, though not wanted, came with their
husbands. Police found one old but much used set of
harbor charts in a Jap building searched.

Hie general military situation is still flexible, hard
to analyze. You have press association reports which
are aH available tmHT t-liis evening.

Shipping from Manila has been halted. The French
steamer Marechdl Joffre, in the harbor, will probably
be taken.

Reportedly the U. S. Legation in Peiping has been
taken by the Nipponese.

PART II: MONDAY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 8

WASHINGTON; wire from Frank McNmighton
White House Conference

"As you already know, Japan has attacked
the U. S r

With these words, President Roosevelt, Siting in
his big armchair behind his desk in the second-floor
Red Room study at 8:45 last night, opened his confer-
ence with congressional leadare the conf erenoe that
led to Congress's all-time speed record for a declara-
tion of war at 1:32 pjn. today, exactly 48 minutes less
than 24 hours after the Japanese attack.

Congressmen were not caugjht by surprise. One
leader, John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, was
unable to get back to Washington for the conference.
Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley flew in from
Kentucky. Most of the others were in Washington,

They arrived at the White House singly and in
pairs, were received by the usher and seat to tibe sec-
ond floor. They were advised that the Resident would
receive them in a few minutes. A Cabinet session, grim

127

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

and deadly, was still going on in the Red Room. Out-
side this room, the men who speak for all parties in
Congress held an indignation meeting. Long, bellig-
erent Senator Tom Connally of Texas, Chairman of
tibe Foreign Relations Committee, smoking a cigar
violently, said the Japs had asked for it and they would
get it. The talk turned to the thousand and one rumors
that had swept Washingtonparachute troops land-
ing in Hawaii, battleships sunk, Wake and Midway
Islands captured,

A buzzer sounded, there was a scraping of f eet and
chairs inside the Red Room, and a girl announced that
the Congressmen should enter. They filed up to the
front of the room. The Cabinet discreetly moved to
the "back of the room, took other chairs and remained
throughout the session.

The President was deadly serious; there were lines
deeper than usual in his face; there was no smile, the
switch to turn that on was dead. The President held
a sheaf of papers, Navy reports, and his desk was
piled with than. He passed out cigars, Cuban Ha-
banas dressed in the label of the Comision Nacional
De Propaganda Defensa.

Thai Mr. Roosevelt began reading the Navy re-
ports to the Senators and House members. Has tone
was grave. He emphasized that the information he
had received was spotty and far from complete. Point-
edly, Mr, Roosevelt reminded the Congressmen that

128

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

while these attacks were under progress, the Japanese
diplomats Nomura and Kurusu were at the State De-
partment playing a game of diplomatic duplicity upon
sincere, peace-loving but now terribly enraged old
Cordell Hull

The President reviewed the major reports, said that
they were still coming in at a very rapid rate and that
no general over-all picture could be formulated in
detail. He said, however, that the Japanese had un-
doubtedly launched a craftily-planned ^attack in
force" upon every possession and strip of territay the
U. S. had

Mr. Roosevelt did most of the talking. He told the
leaders just what must be faced, and none of them
disagreed with him in any of his conclusions.

The President told them that this country 'frast face
tie prospect of increasing the size of its Navy; that
defense must be expanded, that civilian pancxiuctioii
must be cut and cut; that the people must be in-
formed what is ahead.

No decisions were made, except military decisions,
which are constantly being made through these hours.
TTie President, rather, told them that great decisions
ky ahead, and that all must meet problems, know
them, and face them*

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hotm

WASHINGTON: telephoned by John C rider
Economic action

U. S. business found itself submitting this
week to the necessity for tightened Government con-
trol The smoke had hardly cleared from Japan's first
treacherous attack on Hawaii when long-readied eco-
nomic machinery started moving in Washington:

Using his customs and asset-freezing mechanism,
Secretary Morgenthau loosed some 4,000 Treasury
agents to cover forcibly all economic ties between
Japan and the U. S. Every Japanese bank or business
concern in the U. S. was visited, taken over.

The economic def ease board invoked a "total em-
bargo" on shipments of every kind to Japan or its oc-
cupied territory.

President Roosevelt, meeting with heads of Govern-
ment financial agencies, decided to keep tie securi-
ties, bond and commodity exchanges open unless some
chaotic uncontrollable condition developed. How-
ever, the commodity exchange administration on Tues-
day innovated by freezing futures in soybeans, wheat,
butter, eggs and flaxseed at the Monday level.

Invoking the trading with the enemy act, Morgen-
thau closed the borders to Japanese or their agents,
and declared it illegal to transact business with Japa-
nese,

Plans were immediately announced for putting the
130

Monday, December 8] WASHIHGTOM

defense industry of the nation on as nearly a ccmtimi-
ous operating basis as may be possible.

The time had arrived for formalizing control in
certain areas such as in fuels, transportation and capi-
tal issues which, until Monday, had been supervised
by loose cooperative arrangaBents between Govern-
ment agencies. While something along the lines of
the capital issues committee of Worid War I was fore-
cast, Morgenthau said he preferred the informal co-
operative method if it continued feasible. Capital
issues will be controlled.

Price control automatically got a new set of teeth
with the declaration of war. Lawyers disputed the ex-
pense of Price Tsar Henderson's legal powers in the
absence of a precise legislative definition, but no one
doubted that from December 8 Henderson would my
longer have to rely upon "jawbone control/* Tlbe ne-
cessity for the Administration's mudb-chastised price-
control bill became academic. In any event, Hender-
son wiH need, and probably will employ, gneater
power than that bill contains.

Morgenthau, as yet unrelenting in his demand for
a limitation of corporate profits &> 6$, said that higher
taxes proportionate to the greater war expenditures
now needed would be required; that the public would
be more willing to pay in a state of declared war.

The President and Vice President of the New York
Federal Reserve Bank stayed at their posts a! night

131

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

Sunday with beds Iiandy in case they got time for
a nap.

Morgenthau said the Government did not enter the
bond market to support prices when war was declared
on Monday. He found the price drop in Government
bonds on that day most gratifying.

Fighting a war of great distances, Washington im-
mediately turned its attention to tightening up domes-
tic cxmsumption of fuel needed by the Navy and Air
Corps.

WASHINGTON: wire pom Robert Sherrod

A Congressional leader who has access to
reports from the Pacific told a reporter: "This is the
blackest day in American military history since 1812."
This might tie in with Congressman DingelFs demand
for court-martial erf five army and navy leaders, in-
cluding Admiral Kimmel and General Hap Arnold.

WASHINGTON: telephoned by Robert Sherrod
Russia

Reliable sources say they know definitely the
U. S. had not reached an agreement with Russia by
December 1 on what Russia would do if the U. S, and

132

Monday^ December 8] WASHINGTON

Japan wait to war. One source says there is much
gnashing of teeth around the State Department be-
cause a qmd pro quo was not reached at the time we
agreed to send Lend-Lease material to Russia. He
doubts that an agreement has been reached in the past
week.

WASHINGTON: w&e from W&mott Ragsdale
Statement by ex-Ambassador Davies

Tlie olkrwing statement <m the Russian posi-
tion in the Far East lK)stiIities was prepared by Joseph
Davies, former Ambassador to the Soviet Union, at
the request of TIME. It may be quoted directly.

*The question of an attack from Vladivostok or
from American air bases in Siberia upon Japan's
wooden cities is one for the military High Commands
and the Governments of Britain, the Soviet Unicm and
the U. S. Japan's infamous attack provided unity not
only in the U. S. but assured a united front on tibe
world battle lines. Japan has a nonaggression pact with
the Soviet Union and Japan is in deadly fear of bomb-
ing from the air because of her wooden cities, Japan
would imdoubtedly desire to try to keep tibe Soviet
Union out of the Eght Hider s interest might be to
have tibe Soviet Union attacked oo two fronts, If the
mobilization of Japan's troops in Mandhukuo means

LOHIK>N [The First SO Hows

an attack upon the Red Banner Army on the East, it
is certain that she will be gravely menaced by bomb
attacks from Vladivostok.

*The next few days ought to throw some light upon
what the plan is, If Japan, as now seems indicated,
wishes to take advantage of the nonaggression pact
with the Soviet Union, the Allied Commands will have
to determine their policy with long-range considera-
tion as to which would be best; whether to run the risk
of a pincer German movement against the Soviet
Union or to bomb Japan from the air. There is always
the question involved of winning a battle and pos-
sibly delaying victory. As long as the Government of
the Soviet Union maintains its entity and the Red
Army remains intact, Hitler will never feel secure on
the land. Britain and the U. S. control the seas and
have enormous supplies of manpower and industrial
production. The Soviet Union has proven its great
effectiveness. It may be a long haul but ultimate vic-
tory is certain/*

LONDON: cable from Mary Welsh

Excepting newsmen, only the fewest Britons
hearftiieiaews until BECTs 9:00 p.m. news (the week's
widest aiidienced program), when cool, pedagogue-
voiced Alvar Liddell led off the news with "President

134

Monday , December S\ JUONDON

Roosevelt has announced that the Japanese have
bombed the Hawaiian base of the United States ieet
at Pearl Harbor.** In the West End restaurants, bans,
hotel lobbies, the news spread like fire in heather, but
in the average, especially lower-class, English home
the news, which was so undramatized by BBC, car-
ried little significance. No news was flashed CHI movie
screens as in the U. S. and there wene no further BBC
bulletins until midnight. The average Britisher went
to bed before that, mildly remembering Hawaii was
somewhere in the Pacific and wondering what the
bombing meant little more.

But among politicians, diplomats, U. S. and British
journalists, there was wild excitement with offices
frantically trying to reach country weekenders, and
Embassy phones and Western Union head office
snowed under. There were no crowds at Whitehall or
the American Embassy, where Marine Guard strength
was doubled. The Embassy was a beehive bedlam aH
night, with everybody rushing to duty, sending out
for food and drink, including champagne, for, like
most Americans in London, the Embassy wanted to
drink privately and unofficially, not to death and de-
struction but in relief and to the clarification of the
morass of academic issue dodging.

Winant, who had been weekending in tibe country
with Churchill, conferred with Churchill until 2:00
^ then had a long confermce with Biddle, and

LONDON [The First 30 Hours

was working again by 8:00 a.m. Today the Embassy
is still a minor bedlam, but the average Britisher is
still calm though sympathetic. This morning seven
British friends telephoned me offering sincere and still
surprised condolences, such as "Terrible to think it's
spread even to you." And "So sorry about your fleet
losses.** But "Too bad for you, but I'm feeling a slight
sadistic pleasure that the war has caught up with our
people who rushed over to your country." (There's
always been resentment of Britishers who escaped the
war to America.)

When questioned on their apathy, bookkeeper, bar-
man, secretaries, elevator men explain: "It's a long
way away." And "Won't it stop Lend-Lease things
coming here?** And (cockney) "Thar s a certain amant
of excitement abaht it I suppose."

Certainly the primary reactions of the British mind,
as evidenced by public, Commons and the press, am
firstly the war's effect on Lend-Lease, secondly worry
over Pearl Harbor fleet losses, thirdly that the U. S.
won't declare war CHI Germany. Few, even among
politicians, seem to grasp the enormous reorientation
of war strategy now necessary. They are still thinking
of Britain's front line, not perceiving that Britain and
the U. S. are chiefly factories delivering goods to ac-
tion via whichever route is most sensible. Housewives
even mention they are afraid Britain will get no more
Load-Lease food. Certainly the average Briton doesn't

136

Monday, December 8] LONDOH

see the declarations production impetus and there-
fore is unable to weigh it against naval losses and
Land-Lease holdups.

There's evidence that sentimentally, ffiogicaly
Britons in their secret hearts are slightly sorry they 330
longer stand alone. An old soldier remembers how he
earned a shilling daily IB the last war and could buy
fried eggs and frendb fried for ninepence at Passchea-
daele, and how at the Yankee's arrival the same fii<J*
shot up to two shillings sixpence. He's worried the
Yanks will say they won this war, too.

Herewith Cknnmons: Since Ctommoos cusfxmarfly
doesn't meet on Mondays, many MJP/is started out at
the crack of dawn to reach Comments cm time, found
no trains, thumbed lifts, arrived breathless. Gcim&cms*
catering manager Robert Bradley, whose staff is ordi-
narily off duty, rushed out to market, started fires him-
self, thai found the staff turning up voluntarily, and
lunch buns, sausages, cakes were ready cm time. By
2:45 pan. crowds were standing at the members* gate
giving their usual little cheers for their favorite min-
isters, and the central lobby was jammed with M JP/s
and friends, especially Americans hoping to gain last
minute entrance to the House. Lady Aster fceBing a
friend, *1 simply can't believe it" was interrupted by
a Russian haltingly asking her to ind some M JP. friend
of his, and Astor replied, ^Certainly will, I don't like
your politics, but you're great fighters,**

137

LONIX>N [The First SO Hours

Mobs pushing into the Chamber were suddenly
shoved aside, making room for Churchill and his wife,
Churchill looking tired eyed but amused at the crush,
and Clemmie smiling, wearing her most informal hair
scarf, sports fur coat, flat heels. (Flash: WeVe just
heard a rebroadcast of Roosevelt's declaration and
now comprehend Churchill's amazing gravity and
general Commons solemnity, which obviously grows
out of the fact that the U. S. didn't declare war on
Germany, which all but the pessimists here were hop-
ing and expecting.* )

ComoKHis was nothing like the broadcast of the
pint Congress session in the U. S. There was only a
mild ripple of cheering a couple of times, once at
Churchill's The Japanese began a landing in north-
ern Malaya , . . and they were immediately engaged
by our forces, which were ready." And "The root of
the evil and its branch must be extirpated together."
Churchill with typed quarto-page notes on a new
(since the bombing) black leather dispatch box, read
his speech, using black horn-rimmed glasses. He didn't
produjce any usual dramatics, telling inflections or
brilliant pauses, didn't indulge in any of his usual
oratorical mastery.

Although the MJP/s and the gallery didn't know his
now obvious reason for restraint, they followed his

* As aH the world now knows, the U. S. declared war OQ Ger-
many aad Italy three days later. ED.

138

Monday, December 8] LOJTOON

lead, responded in minor note, causing the Herald
Tribunes Joe Evans when exiting to say; "Don't
know why I came , . wasn't hardly worth it."

Undoubtedly Roosevelt's declaration will be a bitter
disappointment here. The narrow Commons balconies
held an array of Ambassadors, including Polish, Bra-
zilian, Turkish, Chinese, also Canadian High Com-
missioner Massey, U. S. Naval Attach^ Vice Admiral
Robert L Ghormley and temporary Air Attach^ (in
Lee's absence) Colonel Arthur McChrystal, both for
the first time in uniform. The only empty seats on the
Commons floor were Conservative back benches
where sit various MJP/s now with the forces abroad,
etc.

Clemmie sat among the diplomats and RAF in the
right balcony, Lords and other diplomats in the left
balcony (both have only one row of seats), Pamela
Churchill was among the press who were noisy, run-
ning to the telephone.

Lobby conversations afterward were amazingly
noncommittal, everybody wanting more news and
wondering about Germany. Press reaction was gen-
eral and interpretative rather than exciting, with the
Mirrors Cassandra saying: "It would not have been
commensurate with Nipponese dignity to have kept
silence at a batch of awkward questions put to them
by paleskinned foreigners . . Mr. Kurusu has
blandly denied , . . the effect erf this soothing syrup

[The Fmt 30 Hours

has been rather similar to a fireball being tossed into
a gunpowder factory, The morality of the New Order,
both eastern and western brands, is such that the
sound of a dove cooing is a signal to take cover. The
olive branch has become a lethal weapon."

Following from Osborne: Winant, looking no more
cavern-eyed than usual, had an off the record press
conference with U. S. reporters this afternoon. U. S.
Marines with sidearms were stationed today at the
previously unguarded Embassy, questioning all com-
ers, including Winant himself. Officiate here generally
are in a position of "You know more than I do if you
read the papers," and awaiting specific information
from Washington. There was greatest interest this
afternoon in the President's speech, which was re-
broadcast here at 6:30 p.m. London time. The weather
almost forced BBC to cancel the rebroadcast.

You can assume Americans in the Dorchester, Sa-
voy, Cumberland lounges tensely listening.

Hundreds of the 25,000 Americans in the British
and Canadian forces, especially air, are already be-
sieging the Embassy and military super-wigs for
transfer to U. S. forces. No specific information on
Washington's policy and no arrangements for such
transfers yet Also none for U. S. civilians here who
want to enlist These arrangements will be made but,
of course, depend somewhat on the President's speech.
Chicago Tribunes pale, pudgy veteran Lany Rue is

140

Monday, December 8]

taking a merciless kidding for the Trib's recent ex-
ploit Nearly all Americans IVe talked to today and
tonight had a sudden overwhelming feeling that they
belonged at home. Sketchy available news reports
'leave everybody tense, uncertain, hungry for more
American news. Newswise there s also a keen interest
but no specific information yet cm what, if any, infor-
mation and censorship facilities the U % S. will estab-
lish here and how they will be keyed with the British.

LONDON: cable from John Osborne

In the Savoy, Dorchester, pink-walled Sums,
and other spots where Americans enjoy expense ac-
counts, they are playing and singing Over There to-
night Also Tipperary, There's a Long, Long Trail, etc.
Britishers were vastly pleased at first, but today, espe-
cially after the Roosevelt speech not mentioning Ger-
many, Churchill's with a mmjmmn mention of the
IL S., and his and London press reminders that
the U. S. now must supply itself, there's a dark tinder-
current of apprehension for the effects on Britain,
Russia and the Battle of the Atlantic, Churchill notice-
ably was not smooth, not happy when he referred to
the "gap" looming in U. S. aid to Britain. Indications
already are that this has been a subfect of high quarters
discussion.

141

[The First 30

Graebner feek tliat with all regard to America's
pressing present need we should point out that only
balanced perspective and careful joint weighing erf
each comparative need can prevent the Jap war from
immeasurably aiding Hitler. No official decision is
known yet on readjusting Lend-Lease flow, but it is
assumed that aircraft and vital ordnance items will
almost, or entirely, cease to arrive here for a while.

LONDON: cable from John Osborne

U. S. Naval officers here under Vice Admiral
Ghormley shifted from mufti to uniforms today. The
Army officially hasn't shifted yet, but some individual
officers are in uniforms. Baggy-eyed Ghormley, who is
former chief of Navy's warplans division, didn't sleep
all night, worked through today with a weary staff.

The Embassy and other U. S. military offices were
buzzing all night behind blacked-out windows. Most
of the activity was just officers who wanted to know
what's what. So far there's been no rush of orders to
home.

The only direct effect, aside from navy imiforms, OB
U. S. militarists here so far is the receipt of certain
orders to carry out pre-planned administrative proced-
ures regarding information, communications, etc.

142

Monday, December 8}

LONDON: cable from Walter Graebner

From Vaidya:

It is too early yet to give a birdVeye view of colonial
reception but significant developments are already oc-
curring in India, which now obtains a key position in
the war setup.

Gandhi has requested recently released Coogress-
President Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad to convene
meetings with the Working Committee and all-India
Congress Committee "at an early date," and has made
a further friendly gesture by suspending civil disobedi-
ence pending the meeting s decision, thereby presum-
ably giving Britain the opportunity to revise her atti-
tude to India,

Indians in Britain who share the Congress viewpoint
opine thusly: It's no good for Britain to continue to
portray India as a "difficult" problem, as if it were some
jigsaw puzzle for British statesmen to solve as a peace-
time hobby. India's tremendous manpower and abun-
dant natural resources must be made use erf now by
accepting India as a free, friendly partner in the allied
setup and thus making the Allied Front overwhelming
against the Fascist front The Indian Nationalists* non-
violence principle can go overboard overnight, as most
Congressmen accepted it as a matter of necessity. Ac-
tually, India can start with certain advantages, such as
that through 28 years of political agitation she is mor-

[The First SO Hour*

ally mobilized, while for military purposes there is
a good, drilled force numbering several hundred
thousand composed of Congress Militia and Moslem
League Volunteer Corps. Incidentally, these are the
only two Indian political parties which count, and
though on internal matters they may differ, they are
united in the demand for India's independence. The
time has long passed for Britain and the Indians to
quibble over formulas for a constitution, the Indians
will be satisfied if given control of all portfolios includ-
ing defense, finance, foreign relations, etc., though
they are willing to take Anglo-American aid for the
interim period. In return for such a liberal gesture on
the part of the Allies, particularly Britain, India is
capable of putting at least 10 million soldiers (this
figure is based on Indians* minimum manpower re-
sources ) in the field within two years while India can
be turned into an Allied arsenal for defense between
the Pacific and the Mediterranean by gearing up her
industrial potential with Allied technical aid.

Some British publicists daim India's war efforts are
progressing but that isn't so; in more than two years
Britain's been able to raise only an army of 750,000,
viz,, the size of the Rumanian Army; while regarding
war production, India in spite of her resources is un-
able to produce tanks, planes, motors or battleships.

In fighting Japan, Anglo-Americans must reckon to
face a force of anything up to 10 million. The American

144

Monday, December 8] LONDON

contribution can be chiefly naval, and even if America
has enough troops for Malaya, they will have to be
carried across a wide ocean which is inf ested with hos-
tile craft. Britain can muster 5 million soldiers, of
which a large proportion will have to remain in Britain
against the threat of invasion and for possible counter-
invasion in Europe.

She has in addition a garrison in Africa and the Mid-
dle East, and only the remainder can go to Malaya. As
regards Australia, her army will always remain in the
vicinity of half a million because of her limited popu-
lation, and in addition nearly half the Anzacs are al-
ready engaged in the Middle East

From where, then, can the Allies secure numerical
strength and armaments for defense of the south Pa-
cific or Middle East, whfdh, according to reports last
week, the Nazis soon intend invading by air, except
from India? India was never pro-Fascist and is willing
to throw in her lot with anti-Fascist f onees provided she
is accepted as a free and equal partner in die Allied
fold. There is no need to question tfee fighting qualities
of IfKJians; they have proved it in Libya, Abyssinia and
Iraq.

45

LONDON [The First 30 Hows

LONDON; cable from Jeffrey Mark

Regarding the Jap war, I feel sure London
reaction is much less intense than you'd imagine.
Frankly, the man in the street has as yet no conception
of the real implications. He has talked about it at lunch
today but reverted to other subjects. Similarly, there's
no overwhelming preoccupation in this morning's
newspapers. For instance, last night in a pub just after
the nine o'clock news, I heard a party saying the Japs
had bombed Hawaii. The most serious observation I
heard was, "Hitler has been trying to make a Pacific
diversion for a long time."

It is important to realize that to Britishers, Hawaii
is not a naval base but a South Sea island with a Holly-
wood ukulele and hula-hula trimmings. The feeling
now is that Uncle Sam has been caught with his pants
down. The first thought is that it's a good thing as it
will get America seriously going, but this is qualified
by the thought that America will now attend to her
own defense needs frantically and tend to neglect Brit-
ish and Russian Lend-Lease. Secondly, it is thought
that shell remove much of her Atlantic patrol to the
Pacific and that this, with increased British naval con-
centrations at Singapore, will fhfn out the vital Atlan-
tic lifeline precariously.

Regarding the Dominions, it's too early yet for any
reasoned summary but here's what's available:

146

Monday, December 8]

Prime Minister John Curtin announced today that
''Australian troops are at their little stations," while
Army Minister Forde announced that aH f orces* Cfarist-
mas leave was canceled. The Commonwealth War
Cabinet is expected to make a war declaration against
Japan later today with Curtin saying, *This is tha
gravest hour in our history." The only other significant
likely internal development is a crackdown on Aussie
Middle East troop shipments, with renewed agitation
for the return of a large proportion of those already
there on the "Australia First" slogan. There's no official
pronouncement of any sort from New Zealand yet, but
London New Zealanders* reaction is almost exactly the
same as the British outlined above.

Ottawa cables say the Dominion forces were in-
structed to engage the Jap enemy wherever found, and
submission to His Majesty the King for formal war
declaration is due later today. Canada also announced
that Pacific coast defenses are out on full war footing
and a new chain of air bases on the American Alaska
border are equipped with radio-guide equipiBent and
now in operation. Canadians* reaction here is that the
Jap menace is not considered so f onnidabfe as it was a
year ago. They are also glad it wiH quell American
isolationism, which latterly has been partk^alaity irri-
tating to them.

The South African genera! reaction is the same as
London's, and I expect theyH move directly behind

147

LONIXW [The Fire 30 Hour*

the Commonwealth. Also that it will minimize internal
disputes and throw dissentients more directly behind
Smuts. Most significant reaction is that with the Medi-
terranean closed to shipping, the Gape route has be-
come of paramount importance. Hitherto this was not
seriously menaced, but Jap entry may do so and so
bring South Africa nearer the war center.

Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
are now rounding up Canada's 23,000 Japs, who are
mostly concentrated in British Columbia. It is further
estimated that there are 8,000 Japs in British Borneo,
Straits Settlement, and Malaya, about 3,500 around
and in Sydney and 2,600 in British India and Ceylon.
There are no Japs to speak of in South Africa, as the
immigration law forbids the entry of Japs and Chinese.
It is estimated that there are about 500 Japs in Britain.
Apparently the war declaration completely surprised
the Jap Embassy here, from Charge d'Aff aires Kami-
mura down. Says Press Secretary Matsui, "We have
heard nothing at all from Tokyo. We will have to go
back, but how? Everywhere is a battlefield and it's
going to be very difficult to get back,"

The Netherlands East Indies, after the war declara-
tion, announced "a state of danger from air attack 7 * and
invited the RAF to station aircraft at points supporting
the N JSX air force at Ambon and Kupang on Timor
Island to assist the NJE.L aircraft and observe air ap-
proaches which also concern Australia.

148

Monday, December 8]

LONDON: cable from Stephen Lc^rd

Immediatdy after the dear reoqpticM of
Roosevelt's speech, the BBC announcer said, **I think
you would BOW like to hear Ballad for
Then they played a Paul Robeson recording,

LONDON, ENGLAND: caHe from Stephen Laird

Herewith review of k>ca! lead editorials to-
day:

Best was young Michael Foot's in the E##fiifig
Standard: TThe whole worfd is in flames. A battle rages
across die sevm seas, and evieiy jpreat nation fa at war
for its Me. No comer of this pkiiet remains immune.
Perfidy stripped of tihe thinnest disguise has decreed
ihat no single home and no single human being shall
escape the SGwdiiags of this ocmfifct * . . The earfy
coefce^: wiH not be easy for our ADies. Hie geaeroos
matarial aid which they have given us wifl be required
partly now to save An^iica*s existence. A huge fresh
strain will be imposed cm our sailors and oar ships. The
next six months will be hard. We shal need aH the
Dunkirk spirit and more . . . The biggest battle is
still the battle in Russia for the simple reason that Ber-
lio is still the first lair of this beast which is unloosed
amoogmeB . , . The worfdisoiieaBdthewarisoiie,

149

LOHIK>N [The First 90 How

AS. the hopes, and now all the energies of the vast ma-
jority of the human race, are securely attached to our
cause. Believe that the ambitions of young America,
that the sacrifice of Soviet Russia, that the long agony
of China, that the courage of conquered Europe, that
the will of Britain which for one whole year held the
pass of freedom, believe that all these great facts can
be set at nought by this latest shallow piece of trickery,
and you may believe too that the pillared firmament is
rottenness and earth's base is built on stubble."

Says tie News Chronicle: *Tf it were not that Japan
were the pioneer among aggressors we would say that
the Emperor had learnt his part from the Fiihrer to
perfection, No one can welcome the extension of indis-
criminate slaughter to another wide area of this suffer-
ing globe. But if it had to happen it could have hap-
pened in several ways less favorable to allied interests.
If Japan had struck at Siberia she might have put just
that extra strain on the Russian war machine that
would have broken it. If she had struck at Britain the
free nations would have waited in suspense to learn
America's verdict But Japan has struck at America
direct America is in the war . . . All the doubts and
questionings that have assailed the government and
people o the United States these past protracted
months are swept away. The question is resolved for
than. They are in the war and the war is indivisible
. . . From today onward such a combination of indus-

150

M&nday, December 8] LONDON

trial output and moral determination is forged as makes
certain the complete destruction of the aggressors."

The Daily Mirror says: "Hitler's pressure, Hitler's
difficulties have convinced them [the Japanese] that it
is now or never in the division of loot and the search for
living space. Were the Axis to be destroyed the Japa-
nese vision of imperialistic expansion must vanish for-
ever. The Axis is suffering severely, Japan is called up
in hope of righting the balance. No doubt this last of
the hungry jackals is only too willing to support the
other robbers. Yet her plunge is a signal of despair as
well as a symptom of madness. , ."

Da$y MaH: *. . . Hitler's methods of unprovoked
aggression have been not merely copied., even to the
timing of a weekend spring. They have been improved
upon with a devilish malignity. * . Isolationism dies
in the waters of Honolulu. The war which its expo-
nents sought to avoid leaps at America's frontiers. . ,
Tte Axis powers now dare the might, the resolve, the
resources, and the valour of the most powerful nations
in the world. In such an array of forces there can be
but one decision, long and bitter though the pathway
to it may be. . . All doubts resolved, all pettiness
swept aside, they [Americans] will now find, as we
did ourselves in such a crisis, the essential greatness of
soul of a people determined to be free."

The Times editorial was a dull, plodding resume of
portents pointing toward the Pacific war, finally rous-

LONDON [The First 30 Haw*

ing itself to say: "Japan has decided upon war, and she
now finds herself faced with forces which, in the long
run, she will be powerless to resist. . ?

Daily Herald foresees: ". . , The Japanese attack
will have the effect of pushing American production
to the peak much more rapidly than would otherwise
have been the case. But it will also require yet a fur-
ther diversion of supplies which were destined for
Britain. . , Greater than ever, therefore, is Britain's
need to organize her own production without delay to
the limit of efficiency. . .**

Daily Express on the whole was most pessimis-
tic, concludes with *. . . America is fighting for her
own life. Arms workers of Britain and Russia must be
ready to provide from their own f actories some of the
weapons they had expected from America. , /*

The Telegraph's dull editorial, on the lines of the
Times, includes this interesting phraseology: "Now
the die is cast and the United States is compelled to
take action as a belligerent."

The Da&y Sketch outlined the fonnidableness of
the opponent, including: **. . . Japan is no mean an-
tagonist. Her people can easily be whipped up into a
fanatical hatred of the white man and to a frenzy
which will make them exceedingly difficult to de-
feat . . r

152

Monday, December 8]

LONDON; cable from Lael Laird and
Dennis Scanlan

Re Allied governments and U. S.-Japanese
war:

Short, goat-bearded Polish InfoimatKm Minister,
Professor Stanislav Stnooski, stated early to a TIME
reporter, "Today when the war which Gennany
started against Poland in September, 1939, has be-
come a world war in the fullest sense of the woitJ,
there is no one among the Poles who does not realize
the importance of that fact, which has now assumed
such proportions that die problem of the independ-
ence and freedom of Poland is not an isolated ques-
tion bet it is the same problem erf the freedom <rf
mankind against the fauces erf aggression, plunder
and slaveiy. * . Poland took up today a position to-
gether with afl lr allies against Japan as she bef ore
took up the position agamst all the allies of Ger-
many . , . f recapitulation of Gennan defeats in Russia
and Libya]- It was Gomany who has put to Japan
the demand 'IKTW or never/

"Although we are viery far away from the theatre
of war in the Pacific, we realize that the war in the
Pacific is the result erf Germany's failures and I think
that the cause for which we fight which is common
to us and to the Americans has gained a mighty ally
who will decide the war in victory f or us."

153

[The First 30 Hours

Here is the TIME and LIFE exclusive message from
De Gaulle:

"To the people of the United States: France, the
real France, will fight alongside the great American
republic, the British Empire, and their allies, against
their new enemy who, with the help of treason, has
already taken Indo-China. The French Pacific pos-
sessions, New Caledonia, Tahiti, New Hebrides, who
have already joined Free France, place all they possess
at the common disposal in this war for liberty."

The following is not for publication before Wednes-
day:

The Free French will declare war on Japan tomor-
row following a National Council conference this
afternoon,

For New Caledonia: Inhabitants have formed their
own home guard called "La Milice Civique de la
France Libre" and Australia has helped to fortify the
new harbor defense works including giving heavy
coastal defense battery whose New Caledonian gun-
ners were trained in Australia.

Norway held no special Cabinet meeting. Foreign
Minister Trygve Lie gave TIME the following ex-
clusive statement: "The Norwegian government and
the Norwegian people fully share the indignation of
the American people aroused by the Japanese aggres-
sion* We are convinced that the great American

Monday, December 8]

democracy will come out <rf the war victorious and
that Japan together with the other militant aggression
states will suffer a final and decisive defeat. The fight

T~

the U. S. has now entered upon constitutes one erf the
most important links in the common fight of the de-
mocracies against fascism and barbarism and the vic-
tory of the U. S. will also mean victory for all other free
peoples. We Norwegians fed a deep sense of grati-
tude for the sympathy which the American President
and the American people have shown for our fight
for freedom. We are convinced that the common fight
and the common sacrifices will strengthen the friend-
ship between all free peoples and form a basis for
international cooperation after the war. 9 *

Yugoslavia's young King Peter heard the news of
the war over the radio in his room at Glare College,
Cambridge, hot-footed to London this morning to
keep in touch.

Yugoslavia's short, grayish Foreign Minister Dr.
Moiiicilo Nincic stated for the press, The War with
Japan represents one logical step in this conflict be-
tween the two worlds which are waging an eternal
struggle: the world of force and barbarism created by
evil forces and the world which believes in good and
is working for the progress of humanity and for the
equality of men and all the peoples.

*The way in which Japan has committed brutal
155

LONDON [The First SO Hours

aggression shows her up as a worthy ally of Germany
and Italy and does not surprise anyone. It represents
yet another proof of how important and urgent it is
to destroy those regimes whose aims and methods
are barbarous.

"But the latest aggression of Japan will only result
in arousing the American people, I am convinced, and
uniting them so that their inexhaustible resources
will be mobilized to the fullest extent and will make
possible the victory of civilization over barbarism."
This message and more will be broadcast by a Yugo-
slavian representative over BBC to Yugoslavia at
9: 15 p. m.

The Belgians held no Cabinet meeting, as the pro-
cedure for this contingency was entirely outlined in
advance. The Belgian Government has told its Tokyo
Ambassador to leave Tokyo with the British and Amer-
icans.

The Netherlands* Queen Wilhelmina's declaration
of war will be broadcast over the Radio Orange to the
Dutch people by Prime Minister Gerbrandy at 7:45
p.m. Hie announcement of the state of war, follow-
ing the Cabinet meeting at 1:30 a.m., was "not
formal,'' as the formal declaration is awaiting the
Queen's proclamation.

156

, December S\ NOKFOUC

BOSTON, MASS. ; wire from John Ih&mt

Telephone calls in New England were up 25S
after the announcement of the Jap invasion Sunday,
and recruiting stations here report a big rush today.
Before the Navy and Marine recruiting station in the
Federal Building opened at 8:00 ajoou there were 41
men, ages 17 to 43, waiting outside the door to join up,
and the offices have been swamped ever since. The
Army reports that the number of recruits is **10 times
normal." A grandfather, father and a son, aB of the
same family, came to the Navy recruiting station here,
and there is an excellent chance that all three will
eventually be accepted for Coast Guard and Navy
service,

VA.: wire from Charbon L. Wh&ehead

Today Army and Navy recruiting offices here
wane swamped with applicants, more than 60 men
applymg in Army and nearly 100 applying in Navy
during the morning. Feeling is at fever pitch among
civilians, but the Navy is cagey because it is shocked
by the ease with which Japan invaded our strongholds.
Remarks such as, "I want to beat the yellow Japs with
my own bare hands" are heard everywhere. All the
people are united in the hope that the Japs will be
wiped from the map.

157

WASHINGTON [The First 30 How

As an important naval center, Norfolk's airraid pre-
cautions are most thorough. Navy families here ar$
wildly worried about friends in Honolulu. The naval
base, newspapers, radios are swamped with calls about
casualties, Tie first edition of the afternoon paper to-
day sold out in an hour, with men and women rushing
out of offices to hold up carriers on the street. Extra
guards were placed Sunday night around all Navy and
Army posts and utilities in the city. Twenty-one Jap
in this area, all known here, are in Jail held by Federal
authorities.

BUFFALO, N. Y.: wire from Jack Meddoff

Nearby Fort Niagara troops today quietly
took over the job of guarding the great defense indus-
tries of Buffalo and the Niagara frontier, supplement-
ing police, deputy sheriffs and private guards* Work-
ers on day shifts reaching plants of Buffalo Arms Corp.,
Bell and Cuitiss-Wright Airplane plants and other de-
fense factories found uniformed soldiers grimly cm
guard fully armed.

WASHINGTON: telephoned by Robert Sherrod
Censorship

Specific paragraph of 1917 Espionage Act is
No. 32, But War Department is invoking much broader

Monday, December 8} WASHINGTON

powers in announcement expected momentarily,
covering legal restriction of all inforaiatiOTi concern-
ing routes, schedules ami troop movement, and of
transports within or without the U. S. Under act of
1808 as amended in 1918. Casualties will be aBTOfmoed
but name of unit will not be. Navy also invoking
Espionage Act forbidding publication of news con-
sidered "of value to the enemy ?

WASHINGTON; uo&e from W&mott EagsdaLe

There is increasing evidence that nobody in
Washington was prepared for the attack Sunday.

When a reporter went to the Navy Department at
4:00 pjn* Admiral Blandy, Chief erf Ordnance, was in
line to get in and had difficulty because he had no pass.
He got in <m a driver's license. He had been to the Red-
skin footbafl game. The Navy was letting odd assort-
ments of people in who did not have passes. In the
pressroom the reporter f otmd half a dozen people with
no passes at alL

Meanwhile the War Department was so strict that
nobody without a special Sunday pass was allowed
entrance. When the guards were stationed around the
Department later, they were asked whether their rifles
were the new Garands or Spring0ekL "Neither," they
replied, "they Ve shotguns.**

159

ATLANTA [The First 30

ATLANTA, GA.: wire from William S. Howland

Most spectacular single incident of Atlanta
war reaction was the closing last night of the famed
Wisteria Garden Restaurant on Peachtree Street in the
center of the downtown shopping area. Following or-
ders issued by Lindley Camp, head of State Defense
Corps, and of Mayor Roy LeCraw that all Japanese
nationals must go to residences and remain there, the
restaurant closed. Its proprietor is Sada Yoshinuma, a
Japanese who has contributed to China relief funds.
He was perplexed. Said he: "I was advised to close and
that's all there is to it I want to cooperate." Many
Atlantans, coming downtown for justly famed steak
dinners at Wisteria Garden, were perplexed by sign
"Closed Today" which hung on the door. The few who
were in the restaurant early quickly ate and left Clos-
ing of this restaurant caused more comment than any
other local action.

As in Nashville, soldiers on leave in Atlanta ap-
peared to welcome the news that there was something
to prepare for. This was very noticeable at the movies.
For example, at the Rialto one soldier shouted, "Gh
boy, this is it," when the announcement of war came;
and a sailor said, "That's what we Ve been waiting for."

One Atiantan, Sydney H. Banes, whose son-in-law
is a Navy officer at Wake Island, wired Knox, "Allow
me to suggest that special Ambassador Kurusu be held

i 60

Monday, December 8] ATLANTA

in custody until aU officers and men of our Navy now
at Wake are released.**

Following are brief quotes from newspaper edi-
torials:

The Chattanooga Times headed its editorial *WE
ARE ATTACKED .*

From the Times editorial: "The Japanese could have
had peace. It is doubtful if any American desires war
with Japan. We shall have unity now. The America
First Committee will speedily undergo an amazing
metamorphosis. It is a terrible thing to be at war again.
Now that it has come, we can be glad that we have the
chance the men and women in 1917 and 1918 gave us
the chance to preserve for otimlves and far othere
what they helped preserve for us, a free people and a
free country, God grant that this time we can win both
the war and the peace that comes after it"

Kalph McGil ie his *Qae Word More* column in the
Atlanta Constitution: *It is important to keep in mind
that war is for the purpose of hurting the other nation.
If we dcm't take off the gloves, if we don't begin to fafl
as many Japanese as we ran, the war will be fumbled
and drawn out It is inconceivable that we should have
been caught so asleep. The scrap iron, the oil, the
gasoline and the materials we sold Japan in an effort
to appease her out of the European war are coming
home and killing American citizens, soldieis and
sailors/*

ATLANTA [The First 30 Hours

The American Journal editorial says: "War having
come to America, we have no other course and no
other will but to meet it unflinchingly and to wage it to
such a conclusion that the aggressor never again can
menace the kind of world we stand for and on which
our security depends. We are now one people with one
faith, one hope and one baptism of danger and devo-
tion to our dear country's cause."

Those are main points of reaction and newspaper
editorializing. As an indication of the desire of soldiers
to get back to posts, the Dixie Limited, the train on
which I returned from Nashville, was one hour late on
account of putting on extra cars to handle soldiers from
Nashville to Camp Forrest.

ATLANTA, GA. : wire from William S. Rowland

Add to war reactions :

Here is a quote from Sergeant Alvin Cullom York
at his Tennessee mountain home, as reported by the
Chattanooga Times: "We got to put up a united front
and give those folks a lickin* right away. We should
take care of the Japs first and then take on the Ger-
mans."

First to declare war on Japan in the south was Local
Union No. 1442, United Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners at Chattanooga, which Sunday night is-

i 62

Monday, December 8] SAN ANTONIO

sued an official declaration of war "on the Japanese
Government and any other Government that may be
allied with her against the United States."

SAN ANTONIO, TEX. : tcdre from Holland McCombs

The spotter we have in the headquarters of
the Third Army (lodged in a downtown office build-
ing) fust called and reports that guards have been
placed on all floors, even in elevators. A tunnel between
that office building and a downtown hotel has been
closed.

In Orange, Tex., K. Suski, representative of Jap
steamship lines for 16 years, offered to surrender to
police. So did Jap K. Kishi, 35-year resident of Orange.

Officers of Third Army headquarters are hurrying
from office to office with grim expressions and working
under tense pressure. Firemen's and police leaves were
canceled Sunday. This morning the San Antonio
arsenal (containing tanks, guns, ammunition) cor-
related its radio with that of San Antonio police and
doubled guards. This morning's San Antonio Express
carried an editorial headed: "Stand by tihe Nation."
First sentence: "Treachery has been characterized as
the most infamous and detestable of aU the vices to
which human nature is subject." Further: "From out
of a smokegascreen of Japanese treacherylaid in this

SAN ANTONIO [The Firs* 30

nation's capital during the two weeks past emerges
war upon the U. S. . . . The U. S. is at war with the
Axis partner of Hitler and Mussolini as Nazi Ger-
many had schemed and desired. Stand by the Nation,"
A deserter, a Jap soldier in the 45th Division, is being
held in Camp Barkeley stockade and refuses to tell the
court-martial where he has been for the past two
months of A.W,O.L.

SAN ANTONIO, TEX.: wire from Holland McCombs

Dallas police picked up six Japs, say they are
now holding them for immigration. El Paso has sworn
in a hundred deputies to augment the police force.
Border Patrol reports adding men, increasing vigilance
along the border. Home Defense Guard at El Paso is
furnish ing patrols for bridges and other vital points
along the border and guarding 100 miles of Southern
Pacific Railroad.

Recruiting offices opened in San Antonio at eight
this morning, were swamped with young men wanting
to enlist The attitude of soldiers this morning is
roughly expressed by the observation of one Texas
private : "Well, let's have a war.** A soldier draftee from
New York says he was out playing football with the
men of his company when he first got the news. The
game didn't even stop. He said: "The Texas boys

164

Monday, December 8] SAN ANTONIO

seamed to be happy about it The eastern boys were
more concerned.**

Two officers and two privates, when asked: **WeD,
what are we going to do now?** gave exactly the sasie
answer: "Well whip *em/* Out at Fort Sam Houston
enlisted men in all conditions of dress and undress
gathered in the day rooms to hear the President's mes-
sage, seemed to realize what it might mean to them.
They were cool and collected, and so far there's been
very little conversation between them about the war
or its portent. This afternoon's San Antonio Evening
News editorialized :

"An act of basest treachery unworthy of a nation
calling itself civilized and has all the earmarks erf hav-
ing been Made in Berlin . . . The amazing and al-
most incredible fact was that the American defenders
were taken by surprise and allowed the raiders to get
within bombing distance. . . .

*TThis nation is shocked, certainly; but in coming out
of the impacts of the first shock, it is rising up in wrath
to strike back . . . Looking ahead even for a day,
what could the Japanese have expected to gain from
that initial advantage? They must have gone mad.
This is an act of desperation a way to commit national
suicide [this is also the opinion erf lots of people weVe
seen and talked to today] . . J*

Orders have gone out to army personnel that tibey
are not to make any comments whatsoever and every^

165

SAN FKANCISCO [The First 30 Howrs

thing in this area is to be released directly from the of-
fice of the Commander of the Third Army.

Most significant evidence of war here is the general
tightening up on the whole army front from headquar-
ters of the Third Army on down. Officers must wear
uniform on all occasions. A young Lieutenant just in
the office is griping about having bought a new civilian
suit, now wants to sell it. He says, "It'll be a hell of a
long time before IT1 wear that suit."

PORTLAND, ORE. : wire from William P. Gray

Blackouts ordered for tonight at Columbia
River's mouth and Gray's Harbor (Aberdeen, Ho-
quiam ) . They may cover the entire north Pacific Coast
area, including Seattle and Portland.

SAN FRANCISCO: wire from Suzanne Hammond

Nathaniel J. L. Pieper, San Francisco FBI
chief, said: "As far as Japanese nationals are concerned,
we received instructions from the Attorney General to
take certain Japanese aliens into custody for the im-
migration department."

Twenty-eight were arrested up to 1:00 a.m. and an
^attendant in the immigration station said, "One or two

166

Monday, December 8] SAH

more are expected." Pieper wouldbft say hciw many
were arrested, how many are to be arrested. In Santa
Clara County, where Permanente Cement Plant and
Henry J. Kaiser's famous magnesium plant are located*
Sheriff William Emig said, "One Jap arrested, three in
question." Pieper said the legal status of the Japs is ix*
doubt, waiting instructions from the Attorney General,
The U. S. attorney was unavailable for comment

Generally speaking, Pieper said: **We are fully
mobilized and ready for anything, cooperating with
army and navy intelligence, and working on preven-
tion of sabotage, So far no cases of sabotage are re-
ported."

Police Chief Charles "Charley" Dulfea, bluff, gruff
and self-assured, says there has been no trouble at all
in Jap town, no outbreaks, no violence. In addition to
four regular-beat patrolmen from the Northern Station >
Dullea dispatched a special detail of 35 uniformed
men, 15 plain-clothes men to Jap town this afternoon
about 3. Cops are principally keeping traffic rolling,
diverting it from Post-California streets, Steiner^
Laguna streets (four blocks each way), area where
most of San Francisco's 5,000 to 7,500 Japanese live. A
few civilian curiosity seekers, poking around early in
the evening to see what's doing, wane told to keep mov-
ing. Japanese stores were open, life going on as usual.

The police department has an aatire personnel of
1400 subject to immediate caH No days off. Everyone

167

LOS ANGELES [The First SO

is working 12 hours on, 12 off. This is the tail end of the
vacation season so no one is on leave.

Dullea says there are no restrictions on civilian
movements.

100 San Francisco cops have been detailed to the
FBI.

Dullea acts as though the situation were well in
hand, says belligerently; "We're working with federal
agencies on this to prevent any trouble, any outbreaks
by an irresponsible people."

Los ANGELES, CAUDF.: wire from Sidney James

The hottest spot in this area is Los Angeles
harbor and, specifically, Terminal Island. Earliest radio
broadcasts told of the rounding up of all this area's
some 3,000 Japanese. Despite repeated instructions to
all civilians to keep away, many carloads of curiosity
seekers headed down Sepulveda Boulevard for the
harbor. On their way, they saw the huge B-19 at Mines
Field, probably wished it was in Hawaii with a load erf
bombs. As they passed through Hermosa Beach, they
saw visible evidence of preparedness: camouflaged
anti-aircraft guns manned by alert gunners. When
they approached the harbor, they were politely but
firmly turned back by a swarming force of policemen
and soldiers. No one was allowed near the Point Fermin
area where the army's concealed coast artillery is

168

Monday, December 8} LOS ANGELES

placed. Even residents erf thai area were escorted
home and practically put to bed by soldiers.

Unable to get near the harbor, many inquisitive
drivers went up the steep hill west of San Pedro, got a
good look at the harbor. The whole area was quiet and
motionless. Below them the red-tile-roofed barradb of
Fort MacArthur reflected the setting sun. The ooly
sound came from the loudspeaker of the football game
at the fort. The only moving objects in the harbor were
a few odd sailboats and the returning Catalina Island
boat loaded with weekenders.

Earlier in the day, all the vessels had been ordered
away from the pier, and by this time aH the big ships
and commercial boats were at anchorage. Across tie
inlet from San Pedro, Terminal Island's huge jreinery
tanks stood out against the low, brown shacks of the
Japanese fisherman. Behind Terminal Island was a
huge backdrop of Long Beach buildings and behincl
this the dome-shaped Signal Hill oil field, wliose
crowded derricks made it look like a huge pincushion.
Down at the Terminal Island ferry landing, two busy
Army Intelligence men, supported by policemen and
armed soldiers, were busy searching every car for
alien Japs. Already that day they had interned over
300. Each boatload brought a few more. The be-
wildered Japs were placed in a makeshift dhicken-
wire detention camp near the entrance to the ferry.
Self-coaoscious rookies occasionally followed the gig-

1 69

LOS ANGELES [The First 30 Hows

gling Japanese across the railroad tracks to the lava-
tory. A young Jap boy was making a steady journey
between the pay phone and his parents inside the de-
tention station. An elderly Jap complained bitterly
when the officers took his new Buick and placed him
in the camp.

But there was no violence. On Terminal Island
everything was almost too quirt. Soldiers patrolled the
streets in pairs. The main street of Fish Harbor, usually
very gay on Sunday night, was almost dark. One Jap
restaurant was open, In there, an old bald Jap was
screaming to anyone who would listen that he had
been in the U, S. since 1906. His three children were
working quietly. Occasionally they would interpret
his jumbled remarks.

A one-armed sailor was making sweeping statements
about the harbor's defense. An American commercial
fisherman was complain ing because the Navy had
kept him from going out of the harbor that morning.
"How do they expect us to make a living? I'd sneak
iny boat out but they've got enough dynamite in that
harbor to blow the whole Jap navy to bits. Hell, I
wouldn't try to get a canoe through that net." It all
seemed calm and quiet but these 3,000 Japanese are
sitting right in the middle of our biggest West Coast
harbor. There Japs could drop a match and set a mil-
lion dollars* worth of gasoline on fire. And another
match would take care of three or four shipbuilding

i 70

Monday, December 8] LOS ANGELES

plants. Tlie Japanese district of Los Angeles, largest
colony of Japanese outside Asia, loosely called "Little
Tokyo," looks almost as vulnerable to fire bombs. It
lies just a few blocks from the Civic Center, bordemed
on the other sides by skid rows and factory districts.
There live about 3,800 of Southern California's ap-
proximately 60,000 Japanese. Of these, about two-
thirds (more rather than less) are Nisei bom in
America.

If you had happened to wander down into Little
Tokyo today, you would ( if you came from the better
part of town) have passed the Civic Center, there seeia
police officers, sheriffs officers, recrulting-sf&tion mm
from Army, Navy and Marine Corps (they were afl
ordered to their posts for the duration over the radio
in apparent expectation of sudden large enlistments ),
just plain citizens in as busy a mob (on Sunday) as the
center sees on the busiest weekday.

You wander down into the Japanese section and
note that workmen axe busy on tall ladders, growing
out of a truck, raising Christmas garlands (with a gay
Santa Glaus) across First Street, near Los Angeles
Street You might notice that the Christmas decorations
extend from near the entrance to the Yokohama Specie
Bank to the Tojito Trading Co. (with its window filled
with Christmas gifts ). You might also notice that both
Los Angeles Street and First Street were filled with
double lines of traffic each way, that on each corner

171

LOS ANGELES [The First SO Hours

were two policemen. If you were aware of things as
they used to be you would know that policemen work
in pairs only when there is imminent danger, that traf-
fic is thick on weekends and weekdays in that part of
town.

You might talk to one of a pair of cops. He says:
"The God damn fools. I've worked in this district for
years. I like these nice clean people. They're a damn
sight cleaner than those lousy wops* and spiks' cafes a
few blocks from here. But these damn fool Sunday
drivers have to come down here to have a look at it
Maybe they expect a bomb or some Jap to cut his guts
out in the middle of First Street. They are the same
guys who would drop their water if a single bomb
dropped, but would come out later to look at the hole
without sense enough to worry about when the next
bomb was going to drop. And the same guys would
help lynch a poor bastard Japanese who might be try-
ing to earn a living down here selling his countrymen's
junk. We gotta protect the Japs against the Americans,
not the other way around."

But the FBI and Naval Intelligence (who for years
have had dossiers on every Japanese in the district)
are picking up some 14 of them, herding some 300
more into a corral at Terminal Island. If you chance
to take a cab the driver might tell you, *1 live next door
to a Japanese family nice people too. HeU they're
said to give more tips than any white man.**

17*

Monday, December 8] LOS ANGELES

Off to some sort of war this week went seme 2,500
(local estimate of number of Japanese in &e U. S.
Army). This figure should be cheeked, but according
to local sources represents highest proportionate rep-
resentation (by two and a half times) of any racial
group in the U, S. And according to local knowledge,
not one has ever been guilty of major infraction of
army rules. The navy will not take Japanese. Only this
morning ten huge army trucks went to the center and
posed for pictures while Japanese members of the
Japanese Shrubbery Association loaded them with
shrubs they were donating to Camp Roberts.

Hollywood note: By the time a bright three-quarter
moon was high in one of Los Angeles* better Chamber
of Commerce heavens, they had accepted the fact.
"New news" was driven home by things like an early
evening report on movie box offices throughout the
country. The report said revenue had dropped from
15 to 5035 with the hinterlands and neighborhood
houses reporting biggest slumps. Apparently the
working masses, accustomed to Sunday night escape
at the movies before "blue Monday,** chose to stay at
home with their ears glued to the radio.

Things like Producer Joe Pasternack's Japanese
gardener walking into the Pasteraack living room at
6:00 p.m. announcing flatly: *1 no work anymore."
FBI agents stating a preliminary investigation of Hol-
lywood shenanigans, as an aftermath of the Bioff trial,

173

LOS ANGELES [The First 30 Hours

got orders to forget about glamorland for the moment,
were all over the country over 40 trunk lines reserved
exclusively for their use. At Giro's, Hollywood's top
night spot, usually pack-Jammed on a Sunday night
because of a weekly charity show, attendance was half
of normal. For the first time, the evening opened with
a rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner. On a half
dozen tables in the gaudy, green and red draped cafe,
portable radios had at least one ear of the diners. Giro's
charity supporters sat on their hands when Noel Cro-
rath, a dark, sloe-eyed entertainer, sang a song entitled,
I'm an International Spy, didn't crack a smile when he
said, "Here's one written in B. H. ( before Hitler ) ."

One note at least warmed their hearts. Comedian
Bert Wheeler announced that he wished to sing a song
written this afternoon by Musician Lew Pollack and
Lyricist Ned Washington. He explained he had been
driving up Sepulveda Boulevard just after two o'clock
when Washington overtook him in his car, hailed him
to the curb, said he had an inspiration, was about to
jell it at Pollack's house. The inspiration, which
Wheeler sang for the Giro audience: "It's here at last
the die is cast America."

CHORUS

The flag flies highso do or die America.
Let's stand together today in that old American way.
Get in this fight with all your mi^bt and make those
cowards pay.

174

, December 8} MANILA

Oh, we didn't want to do it, but they re asking for it BOW.
So well knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.
When they hop on Honolulu that's a thing we won't allow.
So well knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.
Every man will do all he can to knock every soldier of

Japan into kingdom come, thingsTl hum.
They 11 hear the beat of a million feet of people who'd

rather fight than eat
And here we come, here we come.

I'd hate to be in Yokohama when our bombers make a bow.
For well knock the Japs right into the laps of the Naas.**

Earlier in the evening, Army M JP/s scoured the
town, let it be known flatly to all restaurateurs that no
drinks were to be served to men in unif onn. And to cap
off Giro's charity evening, a blond, blushing lieutenant
of the 364th Infantry mounted the podium and boy-
ishly asked all military men to report to duty at once,
assured the patrons, "We have the situation wefl in
hand. It is up to you people to protect tihte civilian
front," He promptly sat down amid hearty applause
and ordered a drink.

MANILA, P. L: cable from MelmHe Jacoby

The Philippines overoigjht assumed a war
basis with censorships, round-ups of aliens, rationing,
continual blackouts, evacuation of populated areas,

MANILA [The First SO

There is a feeling among the populace that there is a
long siege in view. The appearance of ack-acks on the
parkways, wardens, Red Crossers, brought real live
war to Manila. The Filipino and American general
popukce are just getting the experience of war, far be-
hind even the Chinese children in Chungking, who
can distinguish bomber and pursuit sounds, and weD
know the difference between the flash of ack-acks and
searchlights. However, in a few days more at this rate,
the locals will soon become seasoned veterans of bomb-
ings and automatically go for cover instead of watch-
ing the "show/*

Bleary-eyed Americans are still jovial. It is an oddity
to see horse-drawn calashes with Americans rolling in
front of the swank Manila Hotel, while all taxis are
requisitioned for military usage and gas stations are
closed temporarily following yesterday's rush. Life is
going on surprisingly normally in the daytime con-
sidering the frequent wailing of loud sirens, which are
still not familiar to the populace. There is a terrific run
on groceries and other supplies, especially good con-
centrates, bandages, iodine, flashlights, kotex. Many
stores with bare shelves are closed. All Japanese shops
are closed while the Chinese are labeling their shop
with signboards reading "Chinese."

The military have already effected a carefully afore-
plotted scheme of requisitioning all essentials, even
film.

176

Monday, December 8] MANILA

Optimistic signs of the formerly lax Civilian
Emergency Administrations are the air wardens help-
ing to direct traffic and avoid panic, cooperating tinder
"advice" from MacArthur's headquarters. Though
people are still numbed by the actual attack by the
Japs on American soil, they are slowly coming out
with grim determination. The smoothness erf the Japa-
nese blitz tactics in the air still amazes even informed
people. Though it is militarily unwise to give out de-
tailed information, the Japanese, despite attacks rang-
ing from Thailand to Honolulu, are managing to con-
centrate their superior aerial f orces against the Philip-
pine strategic points. It is obviously a Japanese plan to
cripple our striking power, eventually landing accord-
ing to blitz plans as accomplished in the Far East very
recently.

Though the constant unconfinnable rumors persist
that the Japanese are landing hither and yoo, th^e is
still no real indication of where they will strike hardest.

It is U. S. policy, despite reported temporary losses
of the islands linking the Philippines with Hawaii,
to hold out in the Far East to the kst man, meanwhile
striking harder and harder against Japanese bases with
material at hand. It is already critically obvious that
the entire ABCD strategy leading to the Philippines*
defense must depend on new and stronger Pacific
supply lines. It is foolish to draw over-early conclu-
sions. However, continual daily and nightly exchange

177

MANILA [The First 30

visits between Hart, Sayre, and MacArthur point oat
the seriousness of our position. Incidentally, Hart and
MacArthur are in closest cooperation. When Hart left
MacArthur's office this morning, MacArthur escorted
him arm in arm to his car. Hart commented on the
large passageway under the old wall in MacArtfaur s
office, joked that it is better than anything he has to go
in during raids.

Owing to lack of adequate communication with
other Far East points being blitzed, the U. S. Far East
Command is treating the Philippines as a separate de-
fense problem momentarily while U. S. Naval forces
alone, but undoubtedly also with the British, are strik-
ing powerful blows in the vicinity of the Gulf of Siam.

Naval and military activity is a very close military
secret now, even aerial losses from yesterday's and to-
day's battles, one of which was seen over Manila, were
not revealed. It is reliably known that Japanese planes
shot down over the Philippines have been from aircraft
carriers, also from Formosan bases. Some observers,
impressed with the Japs' exceEent tactics, accuracy,
etc., suspect not only Nazi planning, but possibly Nazi
planes of the Heinkel type and pilots. The foregoing,
however, is absolutely unconfirmed.

The Japs have mixed high altitude bombing, dive
bombing and strafing round in all major attacks.

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON: wire from Wilmatt Ragsdde

Kurt Sell, DNB correspondent and well-
known figure around Washington for more than ten
years, arrived at the Wliite House to turn in liis build-
ing pass. "Do you want my card?" *Tes" was the
emphatic reply of the first guard, who grabbed it

Meanwhile FBI men went to Sell's office awl col-
lected all U. S. Government identification cards which
would permit him into federal buildings.

There are no longer any Italian correspondents in
the U. S. Sell was the last German correspondent is
Washington.

WASHINGTON: wire from Felix Belair
The White House press

All over the White House establishment there
was eloquent proof of the nation's peril Reporters,
radio commentators with their sound men, photogra-
phers and newsreel cameramen were falling over
themselves. Appreciated only by the handful of re-
porters regularly assigned to cover the place in war
and peace was the fact that a goodly number of the
young men in the lobby and pressroom had no con-
nection with the press or any other medium of public
opinion. They were members of the White House

WASHINGTON [The Ftrsfr 30 Horns

Secret Service detail. An NBC technician, discovered
mumbling something over a microphone in his office
downtown, almost had the same device shoved down
his throat because of Steve Earl/s notice earlier that
there would be no more broadcasting from the press-
room. Telephone linemen worked feverishly through-
out the day installing phones for special newspaper
bureaus to whom the idea had never occurred before*

But through all the bustle it was apparent that after
hectic yesterday, the White House establishment was
beginning to settle down. To the White House estab-
lishment nothing could be worse than yesterday. Steve
Early talked less excitedly to reporters at his morning
press conference, weighed the few questions that fol-
lowed his opening statement before answering.

Extra couches and overstuffed chairs were strewn
about the lobby. Secretaries, stenographers and mes-
sengers moved a little more swiftly from office to of-
fice. Gone were the jitters of yesterday. Now war had
become a reality, there was nothing to do but see it
through. And this appreciation of the finality of the
thing reached down to the last typist All day long
newsmen popped in and out of the Executive Office
between visits to other departments and press confer-
ences. At any moment a big stoiy might break and it
would be wise to be there for a first-hand version if
possible.

The White House had become the funnel through
180

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

which all news of Far Eastern operation must Sow. At
the Navy and War Departments old drinking com-
panions of newsmen were saying: Tm stifl your friend
bat youTI have to get it from the White Boose OT not
at afl. At the White House genial Bill Hassett said it
would take a few days for us to shake down and then
there would be some thought of policy about com-
muniques. He did not say who would issue them, but if
Steve Early has his way he will not be the mouthpiece
for the War Ministry.

All Washington was in the middle of a shakedown
cruise and the White House was the focal point Today
the White House showed signs of settling down. Not
far behind would come the rest of the capital Once war
came Washington started looking facts in the face. In
a week or so Washin gton would begin to make seiase.

Franklin Roosevelt has passed from reformer to
emergency President to war President From BOW on
he would see none but those officials engaged m tibe
conduct of the war abroad and home.

WASHINGTON: wire from Felix Befaw
Roosevelt goes to Congress

Grim determination was written on every line
of his face as Franklin Roosevelt was wheeled out of tibe
smith door of the Executive Mansion and helped into

181

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hows

his waiting limousine to begin what was to be his last
journey to the Capitol until his State of the Union
Address in January. His appearance had been awaited
by a swarm of tense Secret Service men in plain clothes,
who stood about in little groups on the south lawn.
Ten highly polished black limousines bearing the seal
of the President had been rolled into place. Up ahead
and reaching nearly to the west gate the motorcycles
of escorting police idled, awaiting the signal from big
Ed Starling to get rolling. More Secret Service men
than had been assembled to protect the President even
on the occasion of has three Inaugurals put their auto-
matic riot guns into place, cocked and primed for any
emergency. They wore no topcoats, these protectors
of the President. Topcoats slow down the draw from
the hip of the .38 service revolvers all carried.

Some said the President looked as mad as a wet hen.
More probably he had been, but that was last night
Now he had a job to do. He was unsmiling as he sat
back in the well-padded rear seat, adjusting his big
dark Naval cape. His son, Captain Jimmy of the
Marines, sat beside him, trying to express the serious-
ness that the occasion required. Slowly the presiden-
tial motorcade circled the south lawn, spattering gravel
from the driveway about the neatly trimmed grass.
Past the east gate a fair-sized crowd cheered from
either side of the street south of the Treasury Building,
But here was no campaign parade and there were no

18*

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

campaign cheers. The President, however, was not too
impressed with the solemnity of the occasion to fail to
respond to the crowd. The smile and the wave of the
hand was there, although the hand waving was a little
less vigorous and the smile was not from ear to ear. The
President's response each time was entirely in keeping
with his silk hat and formal attire. It was a solemn obli-
gation he was about to ask Congress to shoulder and it
had best be done soberly. The President's mood was
sobriety from start to finish. Probably never before
during his life had the President been so completely
protected. Although he rode in a dosed car, a Secret
Service man perched precariously on dither running
board. On either side his car was flanked by an opee
Secret Service car with three men on each running
board and four more inside cuddling up with their
sawed-off riot guns. Another Secret Service car fol-
lowed that of the President and ahead of him went
"Big Bertha** or "the Queen Mary,** a rolling arsenal
if ever there was one. If ever a President rode in a
mechanized division it was Roosevelt today.

The Capitol grounds were alive with cops, Marmes
and plain-clothes men brought in from Baltimore,
Richmond and Philadelphia. It would have been worth
any man's life to try to break the lines. Reporters going
to work as usual entered the House and Senate wing
of the Capitol, found themselves confronted by
marines with fixed bayonets, A reporter tried to get

183

WASHINGTON [The First SO Horns

into the House press gallery without showing his white
card and was knocked back ten feet by the skinniest
Secret Service man he ever saw. Another was absent-
mindedly entering the gallery with a rolled-up news-
paper. It was snatched out of his hand so fast he
scarcely noticed it. Washington cops and plain-clothes
men discovered places around the Capitol grounds to-
day they never knew existed. They were posted on both
sides and behind the Capitol Building, through the
galleries and on the floor of the House. It was the same
at the White House. They were on the roof of the
Executive Office and patrolled the roof of both wings
of the mansion itself.

WASHINGTON: wire from Jerry Greene
Monday color

Tight knots of people pressed smothering
around half a dozen portable radio sets scattered
through the crowd lining the sidewalks of the Capitol
plaza. Minutes before, the presidential caravan had
swished up the drive, depositing Roosevelt and
Cabinet officers at the south entrance to the Capitol
itself. Metallic voices from the radio speakers describ-
ing the scene inside the House Chamber were the only
sounds to rise above the heads of the tense, still spec-
tators.

184

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

There was nothing to be seen except the hard, gray
walls of the Capitol, bright and solid in the dear, pale
noonday sun, except the dozens o policemen stalking
about at every corner, in the street, along the sidewalk.
Yet the face of every individual, the faces of all those
huddled over the radios, were turned directly toward
the towering pillars of the Capitol. There was a dburdb-
like hush, a sullen, angry silence. It would be ten min-
utes before President Roosevelt mounted the dais to
ask recognition of the war by Congress. But those in
the crowd outside who did speak, spoke in whispers.

What was the silence of shock last night, today was
the cold, determined hatred of an outraged people.
There was something of the tension of a !}nodhJngmob,
a mob where there are no masks, where each individual
is happy to be identified with the purpose of tibe as-
sembly. A youngster barely above high school age, her
bare legs tinged with purple from chill above theanHet
socks, dung taudy to the arm of her escort, a slight
young lad in uniform of a Navy enlisted man, a youth
wkose jaw musdes rippled as he stared ahead stiffly
through bom-rimmed glasses. "Gee/* the girl wlds-
pered audibly, "ain't there a way a woman can get mto
this thing?"

Fifty people were dose enough to hear the remark
but not a head turned in curiosity, not a smile cracked.
The sailor did not answer. The giri chewed her lower

%

185

WASHINGTON [The First 90

There had been cheers when the President passed
by; there were cheers when he left There were more
cheers after the message than before. But before the
hurried glimpse of Roosevelt and afterward, there was
quiet., quiet as if those who were watching realized that
there was scant time for vocal demonstration.

All over downtown Washington those same knots of
people ganged around parked automobiles which had
radios, listening in the same unsmiling, intent serious-
ness. There were no wisecracks, there were few ex-
changes of remarks of any kind.

Washington was at work when the President went
up to Capitol Hill, and, beyond a mob around the
Treasury Department Building, there were compara-
tively few lining Constitution Avenue to watch the
procession.

Down along the west end of Constitution Avenue
more of the machine gun army guards, more of the
stiff, tin-hatted troops with fixed bayonets stood at
every door of the munitions building. Not yet were
there more than the usual blue-uniformed cops at the
Navy Building.

But over under the shadow of the Lincoln Me-
morial, a tough, efficient squad lounged at easy alert-
ness back of a drab, snub-nosed machine gun, set up to
command the approach to the Memorial Bridge.
Troops with fixed bayonets paced their beats at the
bridge entrance. There was a duplication of this scene

186

Monday, December 8} WASHINGTON

at the Fourteenth Street bridgehead, except hem those
men not attending the gun wanned their hands bef (He
a smafl fire back at one side.

Without hysteria, without fuss, but with a solid,
harsh determination, Washington went to war.

WASHINGTON: telephoned by Crosby Maynard
The Navy goes to work

Twenty-five officers, top men in the Navy's
Bureau of Aeronautics, gathered a few moments be-
fore 12:30 p.m. today in the large comer office erf their
chief , Rear Admiral Jack Towers. Toweans was not pres-
ent, was said to be with the Secretary at the CapltoL

Gray and white-haired four-stripers were very much
in evidence; there were a few commanders, a very few
of lesser rank. All were in uniform, all were serious,
most were very calm, silent The greetings exchanged
were f ormaL Salutes, ranks were strictly observed.

They listened to the President in absolute sileoce.
Cigarettes burned out. New (Hies were not lighted.

As the President finished, there followed the first
bars of The Star-Spangled Banner.

An unidentified officer said erne word;

^Gentlemen/*

Twenty-five officers canae to their feet at rigid atten-
tion.

As the last words died away thene was a very short
pause.

187

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hoim

"Gentlemen, we have work to do.**
Hie officers filed out

WASHINGTON: telephoned by Wtimott Ragsdde
Roosevelt at home

F.D.R. is standing up well under the pressure.
He had only five hours* sleep last night, looked fresh
but grim today.

During the afternoon he demonstrated once again
his ability to snatch relaxation from heavy hours. After
talking with Litvinov, he relaxed on his office sofa and
slept soundly for an hour.

WASHINGTON: wire from Frank McNaughton
In the Chamber

The air was snappy, crisp. The atmosphere
one of high-voltage tension ready to spark and bridge
the gap to war at the slightest touch of the switch when
Congress knowing war, thinking war,, talking war,
ready for war started streaming into the Capitol to-
day.

There was not a man who did not know that before
nightfall the awful strength of America would be
thrown into a struggle six thousand miles away that
coifed and plunged its sting into even thick-hided iso-

188

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

lationists, forced them to get their heads up and see
what the world was about-

"Hell, if s the only thing to do. Shoot die God
damned living Hell out of them/* exploded isolatoaist
Dewey Short of Missouri, Republican rabble-rouser
and bitter opponent of the President. Tfaeare was only
one cry war. There was only one question would it
only be Japan, or Germany and Italy with her? No one
knew. Everyone speculated that by laying off Ger-
many and Italy, forcing them to take the initiative as
Japan had taken it, the collective mind of America's
millions could be solidified on anti-Axis war as it has
become united, overnight, on a war with Japan,

Early this morning a heavy guard erf Marines was
posted around the Capitol, moine than 200 Secret Serv-
ice men spread through the Capitol, searched even tibe
Speaker's office. Fully 400 policemen were fined op at
the south side of the Capitol, reviewed, and then sta-
tioned in and around the building.

The Speaker's office was a madhouse. Egg-bald
little Sam Rayburn was seeing Army men, Navy me%
telephoning frantically for late news, puffing legis-
lative wiies, oinferring with Majority Leader Me-
Cormack, Minority Leader Joe Martin, Foraigi Af-
fairs Leader Sol Bloom, greasing the skids for tibe war
jresolution, A similar scene was going on in the Senate
Foreiga Relations Committee room over at the other
eed of the Capitol where Barfdey, Tom Ganna%, Vice

189

WASHINGTON [The First SO Hours

President Henry Agard Wallace were meshing tie
gears f or a quick take-off to war.

Down on the first floor, on the House side of the
Capitol, the staff of aged House Chief Doorkeeper Joe
Sinnott were going crazy. Tickets for the galleries were
being dispensed there one for each Congressman-
Hie Senators' tickets had been sent to Barkley's office.
(More coming)

WASHINGTON: wire from Frank McNaugkton
In the Chamber [second take]

Dozens of Congressmen wanted one, two, or
three tickets. They get one. A messenger from the of-
fice of Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Oper-
ations, waited for an hour in the line outside Sinnotfs
door. It became a jam, a crush, as the hour neared for
the President's address. The House was to meet at
noon, but it was 12:05 p.m. before bald, raspy-voiced
little Speaker Sam Rayburn whanged his heavy gavel
he keeps two handy, a light and a heavycalled the
House to order, then ordered "all unauthorized" per-
sons who had cadged seats at the rear of the Chamber
to clear out. There was a bustling, scraping of chairs,
and dozens of gate crashers moved back behind the
iron and bronze railing in the Chamber. Most mem-
bers of Congress, heeding Rayburn's orders tele-

i 90

Monday, December 8] WASHINCTOM

phoned night-long last night, were in their seats by
noon.

Tall, toothy Majority Leader John W. McCOTmadk,
a Massachusetts Irishman to the core, his iron-gray
Kflir flying wildly, his black suit flecked with cigar
ashes, hot-footed it to the rostrum, whispered in Bay-
burn's ear. Little Sam, in a freshly pressed blue busi-
ness suit, nodded vigorously, his pince-nez glasses
bobbing on his nose.

McCormack scrammed back to the two desks on
the Democratic side, in the middle of the Chamber,
took a seat behind the House microphoiae, pushed
slightly at the broadcasting inikes placed in front erf
him. Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin erf Massa-
chusetts hitherto voting isolationist with the maforiiy
of his party rushed about conf erring with the Repub-
licans, patting them on the shoulders, pulled oat his
written speech, gave it a glance, shoved it back into
his pocket

Doorkeeper Sinnott announced a message from the
Senate. It was the passage of House Ckjnoirrent Reso-
lution 61, agreeing to a joint session. Hiree minutes
after the House met, the Senate was filing into the
Chamber. Vice President Wallace helped along octo-
genarian, fiery old Carter Glass of Virgmia; the Re-
publican and Democratic leaders, McNaxy and Baik-
ley, walked aim in arm; aged, infirm Republican iso-
lationist Hiram Johnson of Caltfornia linked arms wili.

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hows

tall, silver-haired Elmer Thomas, Oklahoma Demo-
crat It was arranged as a demonstration of solidarity,
politics out, a Democrat and a Republican in many
eases marching along together.

(More coming)

WASHINGTON: wire -from Frank McNanghton
In the Chamber [third take]

Up in the Executive Gallery, Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt, in black hat, black suit, wearing a silver fox.
fur, peeked from behind one of the tall, upright girders
installed a year ago to keep the house roof from falling
in. She had one of the poorest seats in the House.

Sinnott announced the Supreme Court, and they
marched in, Chief Justice Harlan F. Stoned bulldog
jaw set in hard lines.

Old isolationist, British-hating Republican Repre-
sentative George Holden Tinkham of Massachusetts
waddled around the wall of the House, his beard
freshly combed, wearing a freshly pressed blue suit in
strange contrast to his usually disheveled garb. He
hauled up a chair dose to the left of the Speaker's
rostrum, bowed, sat down.

Secretary Hull led in the Cabinet, and he looked al-
most like a ghost risen for the occasion. Tall, slightly
stooped, he seemed almost exhausted. His face was

i 92

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

deeply lined, sad. His white hair was neatly brushed,
set off by his blue suit, black tie and white softx>liar
shirt.

In full uniform, Admiral Stark, General George C.
Marshall, Brigadier General Henry H. Arnold talked
earnestly together on the House floor, finally took seats
over at the left of the Chamber in front of the diplo-
matic corps, from which the Axis diplomats, to a man,
were missing. Cadaverous, tall Lord Halifax leaned
over, whispered long and fervently to Admiral Stark,
checking up on the latest inf onnation f or Britain, too,
was fighting at Hong Kong and Singapore*

Joe Martin pointed a stubby forefinger at the chest
erf Isolationist Ham Fish, lectured him, and Fish
nodded vigorous agreement. A dozen dhildree wei^e
on the floor, sitting in their parents* laps. Back at the
rear erf the Republican side of the Chamber, Delegate
Sam King from Hawaii talked with immdheaded, bald
and bitter Harold Knutson, only man now in the
House who voted against war in 1917 talked witib
first one member, then another.

The President got a one-and-a-half -mmufce ovation
when he walked slowly up the ramp to the Speaker's
dais on the arm erf Son James, who was in his marine
uniform.

For the first time in eight or nine years Republicans
generally applauded Franklin D, Roosevelt Only a
few sat on their hands Hiram Johnson of California,

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Homy

William Lambertson of Kansas, Ulysses S. Guyer of
Kansas.

(More coining)

WASHINGTON: wire from Frank McNaughton
In the Chamber [fourth take]

The President, in formal morning attire, took
a firm grip on the reading clerk's stand, flipped open
his black, looseleaf notebook like every school child's,
adjusted his glasses, took a long, steady look at Con-*
gress and began to read.

The hum and overtones which had rumbled through
the galleries and across the floor for an hour died out
instantly. The Chamber was brilliantly lighted, and as
the President read, he gazed almost directly into a bat-
tery of floodlights which had been arranged for the
photographers. A thousand people were behind the
rails, another two thousand in the galleries. The Press
Gallery was jammed to brimming; a hundred reporters
tried to peer through the doors.

Speaker Rayburn, introducing the President, made
it snappy: "Senators and Representatives, I have the
distinguished honor of presenting the President of the
United States."

It was Roosevelt at his best; an hour later, the House
at its best

A year ago, Franklin Roosevelt trembled as he ad-
194

Mondm/, December 8] WASHIHGTOH

justed his nose pincers to read his animal message to
Congress, a message condemning the Axis. He ahoost
dropped his glasses that day. Today, that tremor was
gone. His hand was firm, its muscles bulging as he
gripped the desk, as he thumbed the five pages of big
print. His face was grim; a wisp of iron-gray hair hung
slantwise along his forehead. But the m^m thingthe
hand was firm, the voice steely, brittle with dete-
mination.

When he said America would remember "this Qfi-
slaught," Republicans and Democrats brake into ap-
plause. In a front row seat, Chief Justice Stone, whose
legal precepts have struck hard for freedom, nodded
his approval. Again, when Mr. Roosevelt said ''right-
eous might" will win through, the Congress, the Su-
preme Court, the diplomatic corps leaped to their feet,
gave a full minute of wild applause , . .**WewiBgain
the inevitable triumph so help us God.** Again Con-
gress applauded. The Roosevelt jaw was thrust out,
there was no show of weakness, no lack of conideaace.
It was an almost brutal display of the will to win. Hien
up with his right hand, a determined smile, a wave to
Congress and to the galleries. Again wildness,

It had taken exactly 10 minutes undoubtedly, ac-
cording to Congressmen, the shortest war message
ever delivered to an American Congress,
, Speaker Rayburn congratulated the President, ac-
cepted a copy of the address; Wallace congratulated

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Homy

him. Rayburn proclaimed the joint session ended.

The phrase is McConnack's "The President at his
best; the House at its best. 7 *

( More coining)

WASHINGTON: wire from Frank McNaugkton
In the Chamber [fifth take]

Immediately, McCormacfc moved to send the
President^ message to the Foreign Affairs Committee,
have it printed; Rayburn declared the motion adopted,
then McCormacfc waved a sheet of white paper, said
he had sent the resolution to the Clerk's desk, moved to
suspend the House rules and pass it immediately.

Aged, gray-haired, ill House Reading Clerk AIney E.
Chaffee read the resolution, House Joint Resolution
254, declaring war on Japan. Rayburn asked if a second
were demanded. Joe Martin said a second was re-
quested. Vainly, Jeanette Rankin, at the rear of the
Chamber, leaped up on her pipestem legs, protested
shrilly, sought to lodge an objection. Rayburn almost
brutally ruled that an objection could not be enter-
tained, that no unanimous consent request had been
propounded. McCormack used just 20 seconds to de-
fend his motion, said Japan had attacked, moved its
adoption. Joe Martin followed, reading his prepared
speech that he had written out painstakingly in his
hotel room at nearly 3 o'clock this morning. It was a

i 96

Monday, December 8] WASHIHCTOH

plea for all-out unity, no more strikes* fdB prosecution
of the war. The members leaped up, cheered little Joe,
rushed over to congratulate him.

There were yells of *Vote, vote, vote," from tibe
Democratic side. Rayburn, pounding like a pile driver,
shouted, "It won't be long," and pleaded, TLet us mam-
tain order at this time particularly.**

Little Sam's voice was almost reverent Then Ham
Fish said his piece, rather read it from a crumpled
sheet of onionskin paper, in a high singsong voice and
with apparent nervousness. He would, at the proper
time, he said, seek an assignment with a combat unit
**pref erably colored," as he did in the Worfd War.

Again Jeanette Rankin flounced to har feet **Sit
down, sister," yelled short, fhm John M. Dfcagefl of
Michigan.

Rayburn recognized Chairman Sol Bloom. Bloom
hunched over the microphone, like a brown teddy bear
in his brown suit, and said one short mouthful:
"Speedy action, not words, should be the oider of the
day.** Then little bantani-like Luther Johnson erf Texas
demanded war, immediately. McGoraaack slipped over
to the Republican side, whispered in Joe Marto's ear,
patted Joe affectionately cm the aim. Boteties was ad-
journed,

Gray-haired, ex-war Nmse Edith Norase Rogers irf
Massachusetts said Japan had "stabbed w m the
back/* The President used the same fcera against Hus-

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hocus

solini in his Charlottesville speech in the summer of
1940. Black-fcaixed, pretty Mrs. Katharine Byron of
Maryland, mother of five sons, widow of a Congress-
man, said her husband served in the World War, said
she was "willing to give my sons if necessary," said she
favored war, So did black-haired, formerly opposition-
ist Joseph E. Casey ,, Massachusetts Irishman.
(More coming)

WASHENTGTONT: tcirejrom Frank McNaughton
In the Chamber [sixth take]

The House *was getting restless* Speaker
Rayburn called on Republican, white-haired, swarthy-
faced, bulky Charles A, Eaton of New Jersey, one of
the few Republicans \vho, years ago, was declaring
that aggression w"as a plot of world conquest, and who,
when Japanese were stripping English women in
Tientsin, pleaded for a strong American course; toM
Congress "there are some things a man had better die
against than submit to once."

An orator erf tie old school, Eaton shunned the
microphone, boomed in a loud roar that America had
met "the call to unity , . . the call to courage . . .
the call to victory." It woudd be necessary to "kill this
accursed monster erf tyranny and slavery," ... ft

198

Monday, December 8]

would *T>e a long battle," but America would not stop
short of victory.

At 1:04 p.m. Rayburn ordered the rofl cafl. Again
Jeanette Rankin tried to interrupt proceedings and
stop the roll call She was again brutally thrust off by
Rayburn* She sat down in a back row seat, drammed
her fingers on the arms of the seat, smiled in a bemused
manner.

Down the line, without a break, the Isolationists
voted for war. Even Tinkham, pointing his beaid at a
rakish angle, bellowed his "aye" vote. Fish erf New
York, Knutson of Minnesota, Ludkw of

Mundt of South Dakota, Peterson of Georgia, Rabaut
of Michigan, holding his little daughter in his lap,
Rankin of Mississippi, Vorys of Indiana and dfozms erf
others who have been the House core of ostracism,
Irving Swanson, the clerk reading the n>fl call, called,
"Rankin of Montana."

"No," Jeanette Rankin smiled. "SSSSSSSS/* Hie
hisses echoed through the House Chamber, and Say-
burn violently pounded the gavel, until the razzing
subsided. Swanson proceeded with his roll call

Jeanette Rankin still smiled. A dozen Republican
Congressmen rushed back to the rear of the Chandler,
ganged up and sought to change her vote Everett M.
Dirksen of Illinois, Francis D. Cufldn of New York,
Forrest A. Harness of Indiana, Harold KnutsonofMin-

199

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hotm

nesota, white-Laired Democrat Isolationist, James F*
O'Connor of Montana, bulky George EL Bender erf
Ohio, Karl Stefan of Nebraska, curly-haired James Van
Zandt of Pennsylvania, baldish blocky Karl Mundt of
South Dakota, tall George Dondero of Michigan, big
rawboned Paul W. Shaf er of Michigan, and James W.
Mott of Oregon.

She smiled, argued, refused. What did she tell them?
That it might all be a mistake, it might be propaganda.
How did Congress know for sure that Hawaii had been
attacked? It might be another presidential ruse. There
was so much propaganda nowadays. Look at the Kear-
ny and some of those other incidents. It might turn
out to be nothing more than propaganda. No, she
wouldn't change her vote.

(More coming)

WASHINGTON: wire from Frank McNaughton
In the Chamber [seventh take]

There was no weeping in the galleries or on
the floor when the House voted. It was a grim resolve
to go to war. There was another burst of cheering
when, at 1 :26 p.m., Sam Rayburn whammed the gavel,
announced the vote as 388 Aye, 1 No. Immediately
thereafter the House indulged in another spree of
cheering. The Senate sent in its Senate Joint Resolution

200

Monday, December 8] WASHINGTON

116 identical to the comma with McCormack's resolu-
tion. Quick as a flash, McConnack was on his feet and
asked unanimous consent to "take from the Speaker's
table" the Senate resolution and pass it.

"Without objection, the joint resolution is read a
third time and passed/ 7 Rayburn yelled. Then the pro-
ceedings by which the House had passed its own reso-
lution were "vacated/'

At 1:32 p.m., eight minutes short of an hour after
the President finished, Congress had voted war against
Japan. There were no tears. The tension was not so
dramatic as when the House passed the amendments
to the Neutrality Act. Why? Because this time America
had been attacked, and Congress's will was not to be
doubted. Its will was to declare war, fight like hell, and
as the resolution stated, "All of the resources of the
country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the
IL S. all in for an all-out war, nothing less."

The Senate scene was somewhat the same. Tom
Connally plunged in with his resolution. Short discus-
sion by Connally, by Arthur H. Vandenberg. No dis-
agreement. Then the roll call. Two names stood out
above the rest in that roll call. Little*squint-eyed Ger-
ald P. Nye, who has been the darling of the Ameri-
can Quislings, intimate of Charles A. Lindbergh. He
couldn't muster the guts for a No. He voted Aye, Rob-
ert M. La Follette Jr, voted Aye. Venerable old George
W. Norris of Nebraska also voted Aye. There was not

201

WASHINGTON [The First 30 Hours

a dissent, 82 to nothing, a complete shutout of America
First, a route of isolationism beyond even the expecta-
tions of the President's advisers. Japan accomplished
what the emergency, what the eloquence of the Presi-
dent couldn't budge.

The Senate passed its resolution at the chime of 1 :00
p.m.

Again there were no tears.

It was almost an anticlimax in the House and in the
Senate. There was no prayerful silence such as when
the roll was called on amending the Neutrality Act, no
days of debate, no squabbling, no backbiting. It was
just the American Congress, its neck bowed, its back
arched, and itself buckled down to the job of giving
Tblood, sweat and tears" in any volume necessary to
defeat the most audacious attack of the aggressors.

202

THE CORRESPONDENTS

On the following pages are pictures and brief biogra-
phies of the fifty TIME, LIFE and FORTUNE corre-
spondents who contributed to December 7: The First
30 Hours. Because they did not contribute by wire or
cable, the faces and names of James L. McConaughy
Jr. and William W. Johnson do not appear. But to
them, as important members of the News Bureau in
New York, goes great credit for their handling of the
queries and dispatches which made this book pos-
sible. As always, McConaughy and Johnson acted
with speed, efficiency and thoroughness.

D.H.

The Correspondents}

205

LIFE: Thomas

FELIX BELAIR Jr., 34, was born
In Washington, D. C., attended
Georgetown University, worked
on the Washington Daily News
as office boy, night telephone
operator and occasional theatre
reviewer, ditched the job for one
on a freighter sailing between
the U. S. and European ports. In
1929 was employed as office boy
at the New York Times Washing-
ton Bureau, made a member of
its Washington editorial staff the next year covering the
economic and financial run. Covered the Republican and
Democratic National Conventions in 1936 and 1940., be-
came President of the White House Correspondents As-
sociation in 1940. Followed Franklin Roosevelt on aJl of
his trips for six years. Joined the staff of TIME Inc. in 1940
as head of its Washington Bureau. Married; one son > one
daughter. Hobbies: Golf, fishing, Chinese checkers,

JOHN CRIDER, 36, was born in
Mount Vernon, N. Y., educated
at Fishburne Military School,
Waynesboro, Va. ? Virginia Mili-
tary Institute and graduated
from Columbia School of Jour-
nalism, worked for the New York
Times as Westchester County
correspondent, later as a mem-
ber of its Washington staff. Was
a Nieman Fellow at Harvard
(1940-1941), sat through the ex-
tensive hearings of the TNEC, was U. S. correspondent of
the Finnish Foreign Trade Association, has written for
numerous U. S. periodicals. Married; two sons. Hobbies:
golf and squash.

LIFE: Thomas JD MdcAvoy

soG

[The Correspondents

JERRY GREENE, 31, was bom
in Conway, Arkansas, graduated
from Hendrix College (Conway ?
Arkansas), worked as a copy
writer in an advertising agency,
as a reporter on the Arkansas
Gazette (Little Rock), with the
Associated Press in Washington,
as a reporter and rewrite man on
the Chicago Daily News. Was
once associate editor for three de-
tective magazines in New York. Joined TIME Inc/s Wash-
ington staff in the summer of 1941. Married; no children.

EDWARD LOCKETT, 37, was
born in Lynchburg, Va., educated
at Virginia Episcopal School,
Dartmouth College, and Univer-
sity of Richmond, worked on the
Lynchburg (Va.) News and for
the International News Service,
winding up as Chief of the Senate
Staff. Early in 1941 he joined the

staff of FORTUNE, later transferring to TIME Inc/s Wash-

ington Bureau. Married; no children.

LIFE.- Thomas

The Correspondents]

207

FRANK McNAUGHTON, 36,
was born at Westboro, Mo. y with
an identical twin ( now a farmer ) ,
educated at Tarkio (Missouri)
College and University of Mis-
souri, worked for the Muskogee,
Okla., Daily - Phoenix, the Ne-
braska City, Nebr., Daily News-
Press, the Monroe, La., Morning
World, the Casper, Wyo., Times,
United Press in New Orleans
( during the rise of the Huey Long
machine), Oklahoma City (during the Urschel kidnap
trial and the reign of "Alfalfa BilF Murray), and Wash-
ington, D. C. Joined the Washington staff of TIME Inc. in
June 1941. Married; two sons.

LIFE: Myron H. Datis

r

CROSBY MAYNARD, 34, was
born in Coudersport, Pa., went
to Trinity College at Hartford,
Conn., worked on a rock drill and
on Diesel engines during the de-
pression, became press agent for
an explorer, finally director of the
New York State Historical Asso-
ciation. Joined TIME Inc.'s Wash- * M y ron H -
ington staff in 1940. At present is associate editor of the
Whaley-Eaton Service (Washington). Married; no chil-
dren.

208

[The Correspondents

WILMOTT RAGSDALE, 30,
was born in Aberdeen, Washing-
ton, studied at the College of
Puget Sound, the University of
Washington, the Sorbonne and
various Paris Art schools, went to
sea when he was 17 on an Alaskan
steamer, worked for a Tacoma
lumber company, picked up odd
dollars in small time prize fights,
did a turn with the Ballet Russe

i: Th*n~ D. McAva?

managed a string quartet, beat twice across the country
on freight cars, sailed to the Orient, South America, the
Caribbean and Europe, skipped ships and when possible,
lived in attics in France and England. Began his news-
paper career at Tucson, Ariz, in 1938 with Hearst and
Transradio Press, then in Chicago, Hartford and Washing-
ton where he became correspondent for the Wall Street
Journal. Joined TIME Inc.'s Washington staff in late 1941.
Married; no children.

ROBERT SHERROD, 33, was
born in Thomas County, Ga.,
graduated from the University of
Georgia, worked on the Atlanta
Constitution. Joined FORTUNE'S
staff in 1935, later worked as a
roving Midwest political reporter
for TIME, in 1937 became at-
tached to TIME Inc.'s Washington
Bureau as its political reporter,
i ater sw it c hed to military affairs,
went in a convoy with the first AEF to Australia, where
he is now war correspondent for TIME, LIFE and FORTUNE.
Married; two sons.

The Correspondents]

s>og

FILLMORE CALHOUN, 33,

was born in Kent, Washington,

educated at the University of

Washington and Columbia School

of Journalism, worked for the

Seattle Star, Seattle Post-Intelli-
gencer, the Great Bend (Kans.)

Tribune, United Press in San

Francisco. Was on a holiday trip

to Europe with his wife in the
fall of 1939, joined the staff of

TIME Inc. in London when the -.-..,

war broke out. Later he was sent to Italy with LIFE Photog-
rapher Tom McAvoy to open a bureau in Rome, was ex-
pelled from Italy when a LIFE story displeased Mussolini

(it called him the "aging butcher boy of Fascism"), cov-
ered the refugee exodus from Lisbon, returned to New
York. He opened a TIME Inc. office in Ottawa, returned to
work in the New York News Bureau, for a time ran the
Chicago office. At present is writing for TIME'S Foreign
News department.

LIFE : Hans Wild

BERNARD CLAYTON Jr., 25,

was born in Rochester, Indiana,

the son of a country newspaper

editor, worked in the back shop

of the paper during grade school

attended Indiana University and

graduated to a writing job on the

paper. Became police reporter

and photo-reporter on the Indian- tf^

apolis News, joined LIFE'S New LIFE: Myron Davis

York staff in 1939, later transferred to the TIME Inc.

Chicago office. At present is in charge of the San Francisco

bureau. Married; one daughter.

21O

[The Correspondents

ELEANOR WELCH was born in
Oak Park, 111., attended Smith
College and the University of
Chicago, worked in practically
every department of Esquire, did
promotion work for a Chicago
brokerage house and the Ameri-
can Petroleum Institute. Came to
TIME Inc.'s Chicago staff in 1936,
in 1942 was made the first woman
head of a TIME Inc. editorial
bureau. She is married to Lawyer Joseph W. Bailey at
present a Lieutenant (J. G.) in the Naval Reserve.

WALTER A. GRAEBNER, 32,
managing director of TIME & LIFE
Abroad and Chief of the London
Bureau, was born near Columbus,
Ohio, attended the University of
Wisconsin. Was hired by TIME'S
Chicago production office in 1931,
subsequently became assistant in
the Chicago Editorial Bureau,
was appointed head of that
bureau in 1935, was sent to Lon-
don as TIME, LIFE & FORTUNE
correspondent in 1937. Has visited most of the capitals of
Europe, spent five months in Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Ru-
mania, witnessed the Nazi occupation of Austria, covered
World War II from London from its start through Brit-
ain's entire blitz period, and up to the beginning of 1942
when he returned to New York. Married; one daughter,
one son. Author (with Allan A. Michie) of Their Finest
Hour; (with Stephen Laird) of Conversation in London.
Is currently on a special assignment in Russia.

LIFE: William Vandivert

The Correspondents] 2 1 1

TIME: Drubluh

STEPHEN LAIRD, 27, was born Laird Lichtenwalner in
Emaus, Pa., graduated from Swarthmore College in 1936
and, after serving for a while there as assistant football
coach, became a reporter on the Chester, Pa., Times,
changed his name to Laird. Started with TIME as an office
boy, then became FORTUNE writer and researcher, then a
member of the Washington staff. Was sent (with his new
wife Lael) to Berlin in 1939 as TIME Inc. correspondent
(traveling via the Pacific, Japan, Manchuria and Russia,
with a nine-day stopover in a box-car on the Soviet border
quarantined with 40 other passengers ) . Returned to the
U. S. via Switzerland just before Germany marched into
Russia, calling the shot from Switzerland a week in ad-
vance. Went to England in the fall of 1941, now operates
the London office in Graebner's absence.

LAEL LAIRD was born Lael Tucker in Bradford, Pa., edu-
cated at the University of Louisville, was treasurer, then
manager, of the (New York) Theatre Guild, came to
FORTUNE in June 1939, married Stephen Laird in the spring
of 1939. The rest of her career parallels her husband's.
Lael Laird is a full-fledged working journalist, is on the
TIME Inc. payroll in her own name, as a correspondent in
the London office.

212

[The Correspondents

JEFFREY MARK, 44, was bora
in Cumberland, England, studied
at Oxford, left school to go to the
front-line during World War I,
was gassed, returned to Oxford to
continue his studies. Came to the
U. S. to attend the Curtis Insti-
tute of Music in Philadelphia, re-
turned to London, became a com-
poser of music, an author of books
on world finance, an expert on
the history of the English pub.

Started free-lance work (on music and art) for TIME Inc.

in London in 1935, became a full-time staff member in

1939. Married; no children.

' William Vandivert

JOHN OSBORNE, 35, was born
in Corinth, Miss., attended South-
western University in Memphis,
Tenn., and the University of
Colorado, worked with NRA and
TVA, and on the Washington
Herald, joined the editorial staff
of TIME in 1938 as a National Af-

4 fairs writer. He later wrote for

pr '^|U|H^ ~ National Defense, traveling ex-
_ tensively throughout the U. S. to
report on our growing air power.
On a trip to London (by bomber) in the fall of 1941, re-
porting on the Ferry Command, Osborne asked for a cor-
respondent's assignment in the London office, remained
there until after Pearl Harbor when he again returned to
the U. S. At present is writing World Battlefronts. Married;
no children.

Drubluh

The Correspondents]

213

DENNIS SCANLAN, 44, was
born in Huntingdon, England,
graduated from Cambridge,
joined the London staff of MARCH
OF TIME ( cinema ) as a sound ex-
pert in 1936, transferred to the editorial staff in 1940. Is a
lieutenant-colonel in the London Home Guard, an expert
on military affairs.

LIFE: Hans Wild

SURESH VAIDYA, 32, was born
in Bombay, India. At 19 acted as
correspondent for Nagpur's week-
ly Hitawada for a short time, then
traveled through Europe and the
Near East, ended up in London
where in 1937 he started free-
lance corresponding for TIME.
Has also contributed to the Associated Press and United
Press. Became a full-time member of TIME Inc/s London
staff at the beginning of 1942.

214

[The Correspondents

LIFE Wallace Kirkland

MELVILLE JAGOBY was born
in Los Angeles September 11,
1916, graduated magna cum
laude from Stanford University
in 1937, became an exchange
student at Lingnan University,
Canton, China. Remained in
Chungking to work for the Chi-
nese Government's Ministry of
Information, later served as NBC
radio commentator, United Press
correspondent and, in June 1941,
became TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE correspondent at Chung-
king. Was transferred to Manila in October, there married
Annalee Whitmore. Reported the fall of Manila, escaped
to Corregidor and Bataan. From Bataan he continued re-
porting the war until he and his wife, together with Clark
Lee of the Associated Press, escaped by boat first to Cebu,
then to Australia where they arrived safely after 13 days
at sea. On April 29, 1942, on an airfield in Northern Aus-
tralia, Melville Jacoby was instantly killed when a fighter
plane which was taking off got out of control and crashed
into him and others who were waiting to board another
plane. Killed with him was his good friend Brig. General
Harold H. George whose activities as commander of the
Army air force at Bataan Jacoby had covered, and whose
guest Jacoby was on their fatal trip to the northern front.
Wrote General Douglas MacArthur: "Melville Jacoby
covered the Philippine campaign for TIME and LIFE and
was distinguished not only for literary talents but for com-
plete devotion to military standards. He could well have
served as a model for war correspondents at the front"

The Correspondents]

MARY WELSH was born in
Walker, Minn., attended North-
western University, worked f or the
Chicago Daily News writing for
the Women's Page. Left in 1937
to go to London, married Noel
Monks ( Far Eastern Correspond-
ent for the London Daily Mail),
worked on the London Express
for three years before joining the
London staff of TIME Inc. in 1940.
Was commentator (with three
U. S. correspondents) for the American Red Cross film
We Were There, is a member of the Fleet Street's women
journalists rifle corps, and is one of the few women cor-
respondents formally accredited to the U. S. Army.

ASSOCIATED PBESS

WILLIAM S. ROWLAND, 41,
was born in New York City, raised
in Catskill, N. Y., graduated from
Phillips Exeter Academy and
Princeton University, worked for
the Nashville Tennessean, the
Atlanta Journal, the advertising
department of the Georgia Power
Co., returned to newspaper work
as Managing Editor of the Eve-
ning Tennessean in Nashville,
then general news editor of the
Nashville Banner, left the Banner to work on reorganiza-
tion of the Winston-Salem, N. C., newspapers. Started with
TIME Inc. in 1934 as a free-lance reporter, became Atlanta
Bureau Chief in January 1940, covers most of the Old South
very fast. Married; one son, one daughter.

Thurston Hatcher

2lG

[The Correspondents

SIDNEY L. JAMES, 35, was born
in St. Louis, Mo., educated in
public schools there and at Wash-
ington University. His father was
William EL ("Harry") James, one
of the original products of the
great Joseph Pulitzer Sr. and a
star performer on the Post-Dis-
patch for some 40 years. Sidney
James worked on the now-de-
funct St. Louis Times, on the
Post-Dispatch, in 1936 joined the staff of TIME; was made
head of the Chicago office in November 1937, head of the
Los Angeles office in September 1941.

JOHN F. ALLEN, 30, was bom
in London, England, of American
parents, came to America in early
childhood, attended Stanford
University, wrote for the United
Press, worked in Yosemite Val-
ley resorts, joined the staff of
TIME Inc. in San Francisco in
1936. Remained there until the fall of 1941 when he trans-
ferred to the Los Angeles office. Married; one son, one
daughter.

The Correspondents}

EDWARD STANSBURY, 3
was born in New York * City
graduated from CorneU Uni-
versity, worked for United Press
in New York. In May 1940, after
a brief career on the stage he
joined the staff of TIME Inc. in
the Los Angeles office, was

called in the first draft (May

1941 ) but later discharged because of his age. After Pearl
Harbor he was called back to duty in the A^y
is m Officers' Training School at Fort Benning

SUZANNE HAMMOND was
born in Philadelphia, Pa, at-
tended Springside School in
Chestnut Hill (Pa.), Bishops
School at La Jolla ( Calif. ) , gradu-
ated from Stanford University,
where she was managing editor of
The Stanford Daily in her senior
year and wrote the 1938 Stanford
Quad ( yearbook ) . Traveled
through Scandinavia, studied at
the Sorbonne and the University of Munich left Germanv
(via Norway) when the war broke out. On her return to
the U. S. she joined TIME Inc. staff in San Francisco early
in 1942 transferred to LIFE'S New York staff. '

2l8

[The Correspondents

HOLLAND McCOMBS, 41, San
Antonio Staff Correspondent, was
born on a farm near Martin, Ten-
nessee, worked on papers there,
studied journalism at Missouri,
history and economics at Ten-
nessee and sugar chemistry at
L. S. U., took up sugar chemistry
in Mexico, California and Cuba,
then radio work in Chicago, a
I ' newspaper job in Louisiana and
advertising in California. Once
ran a travel bureau in New Orleans, a riding academy in
Texas. Started with TIME in 1985 as a free-lance reporter,
specialized in Texas and Mexican news, became San
Antonio bureau chief in 1940. His next assignment is Bio
de Janeiro. Married, two stepsons.

ROBERT STROTHER, 38, was
born in Winfield, Kan., attended
Southwestern University and the
University of Kansas, worked on
the Winfield Courier, the St.
Petersburg ( Fla. ) Independent
and Maryville, Mo., Daily Forum.
Later wrote for the Associated
Press in Detroit, London and the
Near East, returned to Detroit
to N. W. Ayer and McCann Erikson in 1938, was made
head of the TIME Inc. bureau in October 1941. Married;
no children.

The Correspondents}

219

ARNOLD ASLAKSON, 36, was
born on a South Dakota farm.
Attended high school in Minne-
apolis, worked for six years with
the State Highway Department
before going to college, served as
editor of the Minnesota Daily at [
the University of Minnesota, got
his B.A. degree cum laude in
1932. Has worked for the Minne-
apolis Morning Tribune, Wiscon-
sin News (Milwaukee), Minneapolis Journal, Minneapolis
Times-Tribune and Minneapolis Daily Times, where he
currently serves as an editorial writer. Has specialized in
politics, labor relations and science. Married; no children.

BEN AVERY, 32, was born on an
Arizona cattle ranch, quit high
school at 14 to take up mining *
and cow punching, at 18 became \ **\
a meat cutter in a Globe, Ariz.,
market, a year later became a
newspaperman in the Arizona Record office across the
street. Now covers the capitol beat for the Arizona Re-
public at Phoenix.

220

[The Correspondents

JAMES A. BELL, 25, was born
in Altoona, Kansas, ten days later
left for Mexico where his father
was a mining engineer, was
shortly shipped out of Mexico
during a revolution, went to the
Philippines with his family (his
father became manager of a gold
mine near Baguio), attended
prep school there, returned to the
U. S. and studied at the Univer-
sity of Kansas. The day after
graduation went to work for the Topeka Daily Capital,
joined the Chicago staff of TIME Inc. in January 1942*
Married; no children. His father, mother, sister and brother
were at Baguio on December 7, are presumably Japanese
prisoners.

JOHN DURANT, 36, was bora
in Cambridge, Mass., graduated
from Harvard, started his busi-
ness career in the midst of the
depression lobster fishing and selling glue, later worked
for the Boston Herald, became TIME Inc.'s Boston cor-
respondent in 1937. Married; two sons.

The Correspondents]

221

CLAYTON FRITCHEY, 37, was
bom in Bellefontaine, Ohio, edu-
cated at City College, Baltimore,
Md., traveled abroad, worked in
a bank, hostled locomotives for a
railroad, served as a feature writer
and columnist for the Baltimore
American, was also literary editor
and dramatic critic, went to the
Pittsburgh Press as night editor
and assistant to the managing
editor, became managing editor Geoffrey

of the Baltimore Post at 25, later transferred to the Cleve-
land Press with a roving reporter assignment. He received
a Pulitzer citation (for uncovering a cemetery scandal),
twice won annual newspaper awards for reporting "in the
public interest" Married; one daughter.

WILLIAM P. GRAY, Jr., 32,
was born in Wilbur, Wash.,
graduated in 1932 from the Uni-
versity of Washington school of
journalism, worked on news-
papers in Seattle and Portland
and has corresponded for TIME,
LIFE and FORTUNE since 1934.
As a reporter, he cruised to
Hawaii on a battleship, flew to
both Alaska and Bermuda on the
same Clipper. Once wrote a
newspaper column on skiing. In April 1942, he resigned
his job as assistant Sunday editor of The Oregonian to be-
come a member of TIME Inc.'s Los Angeles staff. Married;
one son and one daughter.

LITE: Mark Kauffman

222

[The Correspondents

MICHAEL GRIFFIN, 39, was
born in Lone Rock, Wis., gradu-
ated from the University of
Wisconsin, worked on Madison
(Wis.), Milwaukee and Chicago
newspapers, was a Government
publicity man for the New Deal, then an advertising copy
writer. Is now with the Louisville Courier-Journal. Mar-
ried; one son, one daughter.

ROBERT RUSSELL HAGY Jr.,

27, was born in Chicago, raised in
a Pittsburgh suburb, educated at
Bowdoin College (where he was
graduated magna cum laude in
1936), got his first newspaper job
on the Portland (Me.) Evening

News, is now a reporter on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Married; one daughter. Likes to write poetry, play poker

and hunt with bow and arrow.

The Correspondents]

223

GROVER C. HALL Jr., 27, born
and*raised in Montgomery, Ala.,
is the son of the late Grover C.
Hall, longtime and famed editor
of the Montgomery Advertiser.
Covered the Legislature and State House for the Adver-
tiser and was Montgomery correspondent for TIME and
LIFE. He entered the U. S. Army on January 21, 1942.

SOUTHEAST ARMY AIR
FORCES TRAINING COMMAND

HENRY WADE HOUGH, 36,
was born in Bridger, Montana,
studied journalism at the Univer-
sity of Montana, was a cub re-
porter on the Denver Express,
pony editor in the Denver bureau
of United Press, Associate Editor
of the Scientific American maga-
zine ( N. Y. ) , director of the Colo-
rado Writers Program for WPA.
Has also been ghost writer, deck hand on an oil tanker,
advertising manager for various firms, written two books
on Rocky Mountain lore. Married; two daughters.

224

[The Correspondents

CLEMENT R. HURD, 35, was
born near St. Louis, Mo., attended
United States Military Academy
( K Company ) , West Point, N. Y.,
and Washington University St.
Louis, worked on the now-extinct
St. Louis Times, the Midwest
Free Press of Muscatine, la., and
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Is now Assistant Public Rela-
tions Officer, Armored Force, Fort Knox, Ky. ? with the
rank of Captain. Married; two children.

SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. AKMY

HAROLD KEEN, 29, was born
in New York City, graduated
from the University of California
at Los Angeles, worked for two
depression years as a social
worker for the State Relief Ad-
ministration, started in 1936 with
the San Diego Sun covering the waterfront, is now ship-
news reporter for the Tribune-Sun, as well as San Diego
correspondent for NANA, Central Press, Los Angeles Times,
Chicago Sun, and TIME Inc. Married; one son and one
daughter.

The Correspondents]

225

JACK MEDDOFF, 40, was bora
in Richmond, Va,, served in
most International News Service
bureaus from Jacksonville to New
York to Chicago and St. Louis,
worked for the Advertiser and the
Herald-Dispatch in Huntington,
W. Va., once edited the National
Turf Gazette, has been with the
Buffalo News since 1927, covering
City Hall, politics and numerous
special assignments. In 1931 his
expose of labor camp rackets on state projects resulted in
passing of corrective legislation and won his paper a men-
tion on the roll of honor. Married; one daughter.

EDWARD MORROW, 38, was
born in Alliance, Nebraska,
graduated from the University of
Nebraska in 1927, that same year
started work on the World-
Herald in Omaha as assignment
man. Is still with the World-
Herald, as assistant city editor. Some of his news stories
have appeared in the last three editions of Dr. Frank
Luther Mott's collections of best news stories. Married,
two children.

226

[The Correspondents

ROBERT MORRIS MUNROE,
45, was born In Baldwinsville,
N. Y., served in the Motor Trans-
port Corps in World War I, has
been at various times a lumber-
jack, tugboat deckhand and fire-
man, stationary engineer, dredge
fireman and craneman, harvest
hand, shipyard worker, electrical
contractor, Coral Gables pub-
licity director, news photog-
rapher and magazine feature
writer. Is currently Miami correspondent for a number of
publications, including TIME, LIFE and FOKTUNE, is fishing
editor and daily columnist on the Miami Daily News, has
written a volume of poetry, One Mans Meat, and has con-
tributed to several anthologies of verse. Married; one son.

CLARKE NEWLON, 36, was
born in Griswold, Iowa, attended
Grinnell College and the Uni-
versity of Nebraska, worked on
the Omaha World-Herald, the
Kansas City Journal-Post, hopped
a freight to Texas and got a job
on the Dallas Dispatch, was man-
aging editor of NEA in Cleveland,
handled public relations for the
Texas Centennial in 1936, wrote
for the pulps, and finally was managing editor of the Dallas
Journal Has been doing public relations work in Dallas
and corresponding for TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE, since
1940. Married; no children.

The Correspondents]

227

HARVEY SCHWANDNER, 33,
was born at Brillion, Wis., at-
tended Lawrence College. Left
college after two years to become
editor of the New Holstein Re-
porter, at New Holstein, Wis., left
that editorship after six months
for the night police reporter beat
on the Milwaukee Journal. Is still
with the Journal as rewriteman
and feature writer, regularly covers German bundsters in
the Milwaukee area. Married; a son and a daughter.

ADIE SUEHSDORF, 25, was
born in Glen Ridge, N. J., gradu-
ated from CoUege High School
(Upper Montclair, N. J.) and
Princeton University in 1938. -
Went with the San Francisco Chronicle as copy boy, be-
came leg man, copy reader and rewrite man the same year.
Since 1941 has done part-time reporting for TIME, LIFE
and FORTUNE. Married; no children.

228

[The Correspondents

MARK STEPHEN SULLIVAN,

35, was born in Seattle, attended
the University of Washington, re-
ported for the Aberdeen Daily
World, has been with the Seattle
Times since 1934, writing politics and labor. Became
Seattle correspondent for TIME, LIFE and FOBTUNE in 1937.
Married; no children. Plays Polish rummy and pingpong.

WILLIAM TOMS, 45, was born
in Hancock County, Indiana, edu-
cated at Central Business Col-
lege, DePauw University, Colum-
bia University and the Benjamin
Harrison Law School. In World
War I served as an aviation
mechanic at Clermont-Ferrand,
France, worked on the staff of the
Air Service publication Flights
and Landings (spent more time
in Chazeron Chateau at Riom
than any of the French War Prisoners). After the war he
taught school, worked on the Indianapolis News, the In-
dianapolis Times, the Indianapolis Star, International
News Service. Has been with the Indianapolis News since
1926, writes a political column called "Wayside Politics,"
a fishing column "Backlashes." Married, no children. Hob-
bies fishing and Hoosier archaeology.

The Correspondents]

WILLIAM E. VAUGHAN, 27,
was born in St. Louis, Mo., gradu-
ated from Washington University
there, worked as a reporter, copy-
reader and sometime columnist and cartoonist on the
Springfield ( Mo. ) Leader and Press. Is now with the Kan-
sas City Star. Married; no children.

SUDVABC STUDIO

CHARLTON LEWIS WHITE-
HEAD was born in Norfolk, Va. ?
daughter of Poet Mary Sinton
Leitch and granddaughter of
Lexicographer Charlton T. Lewis
(Lewis & Short Latin Diction-
ary). Graduated from William L
and Mary College, became | :
woman's page editor of the Nor- |" "*
folk Ledger-Dispatch, after five
years was made national defense reporter. Represents
TIME Inc. in Norfolk and vicinity. Married to Henry
Cowles Whitehead, conductor of the Norfolk Symphony
Orchestra.

A NOTE ON THE TYPE

The teoct of this book is set in Caledonia, a Linotype
face designed by W. A. Dwiggins. Caledonia belongs
to the family of printing types called "modern face"
by printers a term used to mark the change in style
of type-letters that occurred about 1800. Caledonia is
in the general neighborhood of Scotch Modern in de-
sign, but is more freely drawn than that letter.

The book was composed, printed., and bound by
H. Wolff, New York.

i T WAS noontime of a mild pre-Cfaeristmas
Sunday. America was, for the most part,
thinking of its dinner. In "Washington, Sec-
retary Hull was expecting the Japanese
envoys, Nomura and Kurusu, who were to
call on him at 1.45 p.m. They came twenty
minutes late. At 2.20 p.m. they were ush-
ered into the Secretary's office. At that
very moment Steve Early, Presidential Sec-
retary, was telephoning to the Associated
Press, the United Press, and the Interna-
tional News Service the astounding news
that Japanese planes were even then at-
tacking Pearl Harhor. America, after many
months of argument and drifting, was in
the war. And America, learning the news
a few minutes later from its radios, reacted
in a variety of typically American ways.

There has never heen a book like this. It
is made up of the on-the-spot reports sent
to Time, Inc., hy its correspondents, and
gives you a remarkable picture of just what
those reactions were. Here, through the
eyes of some of the world's crack journal-
ists, you will see the mounting excitement
in Washington, as a great nation moved
swiftly to meet the armed challenge. You
will see London relieved, yet concerned
about the future of lend-lease aid. You will
see San Francisco worried about its Japan-
ese colony, Chicago dropping the last rem-
nants of isolationism, Atlanta angry, Min-
neapolis outraged, Boston determined, the
whole country angry and outraged and de-
termined. This is the great news story of
our history, and here it is told in vivid
detail, as" only the full staff of a great news
organization could tell it.