Millions of frightened and angry Americans had known nothing of the Aleutians or a possible threat to America’s interests there—until an actual threat materialized, seemingly out of nowhere. The land route to Alaska vaulted onto front pages and into newsreels, and the spotlight of public attention suddenly came to focus on the Alcan Highway Project—except for the segregated regiments the Army had hidden in the woods.
The attack, followed by occupation, galvanized public opinion in the United States. On June 5th The Salt Lake Tribune headlined, “Coast Cities Redouble Vigilance Against Jap ‘Sneak’ Attack”. The story reported dramatic responses up and down the west coast of the United States and Canada. The Canadian government had silenced radio stations and placed defense forces on high alert in British Columbia and Yukon Territory. American authorities had ordered radio silence along the entire Pacific coast from Canada to Mexico; placed all Pacific coast civilian defense agencies on high alert. Civilians should use blackout curtains or, at least, window shades after dark along the western coast.
The Army and Navy, the Tribune proposed, should expand martial rule in California’s vital coastal military zones.
In a Washington press conference, Secretary of War Henry Stimson declared, “I warn you this is not the only and last raid we many expect.” A reporter asked him whether his warning applied to the Continental United States as well as to outlying possession. He declined to place geographical boundaries on it.
On June 4, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported from Philadelphia,
An unidentified man, his face red with rage, stomped
six blocks down dignified Chestnut Street last night,
buying newspapers headlining the Japanese attack on
Dutch Harbor and tearing them into shreds. Police said he
was within his rights.
On June 20th, a Japanese submarine torpedoed a Canadian lumber ship off Cape Flattery and shelled a telegraph station on Vancouver Island. On the 21st it bombarded the naval base at Astoria, Oregon and three days after that it shelled Ft. Stevens. If the fear and anger generated by Pearl Harbor six months earlier had abated, events in June brought it roaring back.