Another Naval Base

Another naval base bombed by the Japanese? Hearing the story of Dutch Harbor an unidentified man, his face red with rage, stomped six blocks down dignified Chestnut Street… buying newspapers headlining the Japanese attack…and tearing them into shreds. Police said he was within his rights. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that story from Philadelphia on June 4.

The attack on another naval base got a strong public reaction in the lower 48. But that reaction paled next to the reaction to actual Japanese occupation of American soil.

Link to another story “Admiral Yamamoto’s Plan”

At the end of May 1942 relatively few people in The United States knew the Aleutians Islands existed, let alone that the Japanese posed a threat to North America from there. When on June 21, 1942 the Navy issued a press release, “The enemy has occupied the undefended islands of Attu and Kiska…” Americans scurried for their globes and atlases.

The attack, followed by occupation, galvanized public opinion in the United States.  On June 5^th The Salt Lake Tribune headlined, “Coast Cities Redouble Vigilance Against Jap ‘Sneak’ Attack”.  American authorities 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.

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 possessions.  He declined to place geographical boundaries on his opinion.

The Japanese stoked public fear as much as they could. On June 20th, a Japanese submarine torpedoed a Canadian lumber ship off Cape Flattery and shelled a telegraph station on Vancouver Island.  On the 21^st it bombarded the naval base at Astoria, Oregon and three days after that it shelled Ft. Stevens.

More on Defending the Pacific Coast

And the land route to Alaska vaulted onto front pages and into newsreels. And the spotlight of public attention zeroed in on the Alaska Highway Project.