Camp Savage, WW II Asset for Victory in the Pacific

by Charles Pederson

Every day, thousands of cars pass through the Minnesota city of Savage on state Highway 13. Drivers and passengers are intent on the traffic or on making good time. Not one in a thousand glances at the south frontage road at Xenwood Avenue. Why would they? They’d see only some scrubland, neat commercial buildings, a modest park, a historical marker. They might never suspect that those few humdrum acres had been a vital cog in the Pacific Theater war effort during World War II.

Wanted: Speakers of Japanese

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Japan had steadily expanded its empire in southeast Asia. It needed raw materials for its industry. As punishment, the United States began to refuse to export especially oil to Japan. As pressure mounted, Japan decided it had to attack the United States before it declared war.

Negotiations were attempted, but by 1941, they broke off. The U.S. military began a search for qualified speakers of Japanese who could clarify enemy intentions. Surprisingly, a survey of 3,700 second-generation Japanese Americans (known as Nisei) found that only 3% were fluent, 4% proficient, and 3% could be made proficient with enough training. A further barrier was military leadership’s deep distrust about where the loyalty of ethnic Japanese lay.

Despite these handicaps, far-sighted officers in early November 1941 established an intensive Japanese language school on the Presidio military base in San Francisco. It came to be known as the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). To fill the ranks, MISLS recruited Nisei, Issei (immigrants from Japan), and Kibei (American-born Japanese who had been educated in Japan).

A scant $2,000 budget for the school was used to gather 60 students (58 Nisei Americans and two European Americans), along with 18 instructors in an unused hangar. English was the first language for many, but they volunteered anyway. Clearly, these patriots loved their country.

Panic Leads to Internment

A month later, on December 7, 1941, airplanes of the empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The anticipated war had begun.

Panic swept the nation as worries mounted about the loyalty of ethnic Japanese in America. In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. It initiated the evacuation of all Japanese Americans and resident aliens of Japanese descent from the West Coast. About 120,000 U.S. citizens or resident aliens were abruptly imprisoned in 10 concentration camps in seven Western states.

Clearly, the government had overreacted. A 1982 U.S. government report noted: “Not a single documented act of [Japanese] espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity was committed” on the West Coast. Despite their treatment, many MISLS volunteers came from the camps and Hawaii.

Because of the ethnic makeup of students and instructors at the MISLS camp, Roosevelt’s evacuation order applied to them. The school had to move from the so-called exclusion zone. A new school was needed.

Minnesota or Bust

Several Midwest states refused to host the new camp, because of anti-Japanese feelings. Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, however, offered a plot of land in Savage to house the school. The school commandant, Colonel Kai Rasmussen, believed that Minnesota would be more accepting of this ethnic group than some of its neighbors. He agreed to the move. In June 1942, Camp Savage was established.

Built in the 1930s, several buildings stood on 132 acres just west of downtown Savage. It had originally been constructed during the Great Depression to house workers in Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Later, the campus had been converted to use for men who were poor and elderly.

Now, the buildings were repurposed to train the men whom President Harry Truman later called “our human secret weapons.”

Camp and Coursework

The first class at Camp Savage had 200 students and 18 instructors. Students occupied about 15 to 20 barracks, each with cots and three coal-fired potbelly stoves for winter heating. Administration and other buildings also stood on the site. From the beginning, the wooden camp buildings seemed destined to be temporary. Larger buildings for social events were particularly scarce. In fact, an early camp dance took place in a dairy barn after the cows had been milked and sent out to pasture. Continually increasing numbers of students and instructors ratcheted the pressure on facilities.

Coursework was rigorous, with classes from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and again from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. Students learned not only conversational Japanese but also Japanese military codes and terminology, army slang, and battle tactics and techniques. They learned to listen in on communications, interrogate prisoners, and understand several literary and handwriting styles. It was intensive work with only a few months to master it all.

Most students had to study hard not to wash out of the program. As diligent learners who wanted to serve the United States, they took sometimes extraordinary measures to pass the language course. Student Saburo Watanabe said that, after lights out, “you hardly saw anybody in their cots because they were all out in the toilet [where there was light]. They were seated in the toilet seats,” studying for Saturday exams. Those in their cots often studied by flashlight. This was such a common occurrence that officers had to keep an eye on students and make sure lights out meant lights out.

Still, there were simple pleasures. One student, Takejiro Higa, learning his brother’s military experiences in Mississippi, appreciated the fresh food, including milk and eggs. His brother got powdered eggs. In Minnesota, “summer months were nice and green,” added Higa. “You can roll around in the grass. Whereas Mississippi, hell, it’s sandy, it’s a dusty place.” On weekends, students might visit Fort Snelling, in Saint Paul, or downtown Minneapolis. One student remembered enjoying food at a Chinese restaurant near the Minneapolis bus station.

End of Camp Savage

Each new class of students was larger than the previous. For the final class, 100 instructors graduated 1,100 students. Finally, Camp Savage exceeded capacity. In August 1944, MISLS was moved to quarters on the military base at Fort Snelling. Two years after that, the school returned to California, with additional languages taught. A total of more than 6,000 students had graduated from MISLS.

MISLS linguists helped translate more than 20 million pages of documents and assisted at postwar war crimes trials. U.S. military officers stated that the students’ efforts shortened the Asian war by at least two years. The military’s tune had certainly changed from the mistrust and suspicion of the early years and Executive Order 9066.

The remains of Camp Savage are sparse—a small park with a historical marker commemorating the little-known history of WWII’s human secret weapons. A single camp building used by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT). A city dog park, where visitors may have no idea of the history beneath their feet. But this unassuming landscape bore abundant fruit throughout WW II and beyond.

Early Childhood in Credit River in the 1940s

Part One: World War 2
Written by Angeline Mares Stone for the Credit River Reunion, January 17th, 1999

I was not quite ten years old when our family moved from Credit River to Lakeville, but those first years were filled with rich experiences. those ten years included a world war in which two brothers, Miles and Ewald became soldiers, and another brother, Clem, helped my parents Frank and Emma Mares run the 196 acre farm.

I was the sixth child in a family of seven children. From my vantage point, I watched the constantly busy lives of people older than I. The events in the wider world were contrasted by the pastoral setting of the white frame farmhouse set on a hill, surrounded on one side by a grove of Chinese elms, and on the other side by farm buildings. The daily lives of grown ups were immersed in caring for livestock, growing crops, and maintaining the farm and household. Amidst the tasks of daily living, they had to absorb the realities of a war far away on two fronts, Europe and Japan.

1943 US Army jacket from WW2. From the SCHS Collections.

And yet so close, for there were letters from Ewald and Myles which arrived with regularity, describing parts of that far away world. The letters supplemented the radio broadcasts, and I do remember the muffled voice of the overseas correspondents, especially the name David Shoenbrun. The necessity of rationing to conserve materials for the war effort also brought the war into the daily lives; it required real ingenuity and resourcefulness to maintain a farm and household under those conditions, Through determination, a certain daily rhythm was established.

The hailstorm of July, 1944 abruptly disturbed that rhythm. I was four and I remember that the windows in our kitchen were shattered, broken glass lying all over the floor. My mother picked me up as she went to light a fire in the stove. I can remember her hands trembling as she did so , and I remember piles of hail outside our back door. In the aftermath, I realized that my little black pet hen had become a victim of the storm.  A machine shed was destroyed, crops were destroyed and once again the grownups were required to reestablish their lives.

Somehow they did. In Europe, the Normandy Invasion had take place the month before, and now letters from Ewald were written from France.After her long days of work, my mother would take time to sit at the kitchen table and write letters to her sons. I remember her letting me draw an outline of my hand and color it to send off with her letter. I was four and could not write then but I wanted to say something I guess.

The announcement that the war was over in Europe was good news in our home. But my mother worried aloud when the mailbox at the end of our long driveway failed to yield a letter from Ewald. Her worst fears were realized on May 16, 1945. I hardly remember anything about that day except for its very ending. My brother, Clem, tells me that it was a sunny spring day, that he had just finished planting corn and had put the work horses into the barn for the night. It should have been a good day. 

I Remember a man coming to our front porch door one never used by friends and relatives. I stood off to the right of the porch and watched as my mother began to tremble and my father fell to the ground and rolled in agony. Ewald had been killed in Germany on May 3rd, five days before Germany surrendered, My Aunt Ann walked me and my younger sister Nancy away from the house and I remember her trying to explain to that not-quite-three-year-old what death meant.

This intense memory was the opening of my awakened childhood. I knew that a brother was killed in the war, a brother of whom I had only one memory- that of him standing in the doorway, seeming to fill it with his large frame. I witnessed the sadness of my mother and the anger of my father and felt both myself.

Yet there was also joy at times. The war was over in August of that year. My older brother Myles came home and I remember a party given to celebrate his return. A large container of ice cream, housed in canvas to keep it cold, was placed near a door in the large kitchen. The party spilled over into the dining room as more people arrived and the atmosphere of celebration signaled permission to be happy once again.

Half the World at Rest

May 9th was the 74th anniversary of V-E Day, the end of hostilities on the European front of World War II. V-E Day recognizes the surrender of Nazi Forces to the Allied Forces, and despite the name, fighting stopped in several places around the world. World War II is unique in that it has two different victory days. While we often think of World War II in the context of Europe and the Pacific, it was also fought across Africa in many European colonies. So while we call it V-E Day, we should recognize that nearly half of the world saw the end of the war. Here at home in Scott County, like many places around the world, the Nazi surrender was the main headline. Men from Scott County were still stationed abroad, but this day signified a closing of a major chapter in the county. Its sons would be coming home, at least from Europe.

The front page of the New Prague Times echoes an important thought that was in the minds of many “How long before Japan surrenders?” When the Nazi’s surrendered, their allies in Japan continued to fight on and there was no sign that the fighting in the Pacific would end soon. V-J Day didn’t come until August, but the newspapers of the county show the relief that people felt to see at least half of the world at rest.

Jordan’s newspaper followed suit, acknowledging the victory in Europe and turning its gaze to Japan. It is a strange thing to consider that the war is over and yet still in full swing. America didn’t join the war until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it one could argue that Japanese victory was more important in many people’s eyes. While the victory overseas can in May, many in America were saving their cheers for V-J Day. As the Jordan paper said, “But War is Less Than Half Over.” a good indication that people in Scott County, the war was mostly with Japan.

From New Deal to Navy: The National Youth Administration Camp in Shakopee

During the Great Depression Scott County, like numerous counties across the nation, was faced with the problem of homelessness. One road to relief was the construction of five “transient camps”, profiled in last week’s Scott County History blog post. These camps were an effective, but short lived solution. The administrative center of these camps was located just outside of Shakopee. Originally constructed in 1934, the Shakopee camp was emptied by 1938.  It was determined that the facility would have new life as a NYA, or National Youth Administration camp.

National Youth Administration Recuitment poster, 1941. Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).

The National Youth Administration was a New Deal program launched in 1935. Similar to work-study programs for college students today, the NYA paid a grant stipend for part-time work to young people between the ages of 18 and 25. Some of this work was in the educational sector, helping out with administrative and maintenance tasks at academic institutions. Other projects provided on-the-job training in fields such as forestry, agriculture and construction. The goal was to provide meaningful paid work to young people that would teach on-the-job skills, giving beneficiaries an eventual leg up in the job market. An added aim was keeping young people from flooding the already strained traditional labor market.

The National Youth Administration Camp outside of Shakopee was a unique affair. It combined the work-study goals of traditional NYA jobs with the housing  of the former transient center. The Shakopee Argus-Tribune announced the development of the camp on March 31st, 1938. It described the goals of the program thusly: “…a practical education center for deserving young men between the ages of 18 and 25… it is not like the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] in that it is non-military. Boys enter on a six-month tenure. They will work a half day and study a half day and draw a small wage. The program is not one primarily of employment but one in which willing youths may be aided educationally”. An official bulletin printed in the April 7th Argus-Tribune formally stated “The primary purpose of this project is not to directly prepare young men for employment but to make possible exploratory experiences in various fields which may lead to self-maintenance and which will better qualify young men for worthwhile home and community life”. The educational opportunities listed were agriculture, auto mechanics, carpentry, welding, forestry, and shoe repair.  Basically, the camp provided a vocational liberal-arts education.

Headline announcing the construction of Shakopee’s NYA Camp. From the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, April 7, 1938. SCHS Collections

The camp was limited in who it served. Only males could enroll in the program, and they must “be certified as in need by an approved public relief agency”. Each enrollee drew $30.00 per month, $20 of which provided for room and board, and $10 for the boys and their families. The youths were housed in rough-cut cabins and provided with food in a mess hall, recreational facilities and medical care.

As time passed, opportunities at the camp expanded.  On March 20, 1939 the Shakopee Argus-Tribune reported that the camp was producing a radio program entitled “Tangled Lives”. Each week the program presented a dramatized enactment of a problem performed by NYA enrollees. Problems ranged from “Should I apply to College” to “Physical Disability”. After the performance, a team of experts would assemble to share possible solutions with listeners.

On September 1st, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and, at least in Europe, World War 2 begun. While the US did not officially join the conflict until 1941, rumblings of war could be felt In Shakopee’s NYA camp. On September 14th, 1939 the Shakopee Argus-Tribune announced a $200,000 allocation to train camp youth in airplane mechanics through a program under the supervision of Col. Victor Page. In August of 1940, the camp youth began construction of two seaplane bases that would, upon completion, be shipped where they were needed. The work at the camp was focusing more and more on national defense.

Administrative building of the Shakopee NYA camp. The building was originally Murphy’s Inn, and was located on the site of what is now The Landing. SCHS Collections, 1938

On July 1st, 1941, nearly 5 months before US entry into WW2, the enrollment at the Shakopee NYA camp was suddenly bumped to the staggering number of 544. The order to increase enrollees came from the Office of Production Management in Washington, and specified that the new recruits be trained in defense production. Along with quarters for the new boys, a machine shop and facilities for training in radio operation and communication were added.

By 1942 the United States was firmly entrenched in war. On February 12th, 1942 the Shakopee Argus-Tribune announced that authority over the NYA camp would be formally transferred to the US Navy, who planned to use the facility to train recruits as Navy machinists.

After the end of World War 2 ownership of the camp lands was transferred to the Shakopee Public Schools. The rustic cabins that housed NYA and Navy recruits became rental properties, housing Scott County families until the early 1960s. Interested in visiting the old NYA camp? The ruins of Murphy’s Inn- first the Administration building of the transient camp, then the center of the NYA camp- are currently part of The Landing, a historic site in the Three Rivers Park District.

Written by Rose James, SCHS Program Manager

75 Years Ago in Review

The end of the year is often a time for reflection and looking hopefully forward to a new year.  75 years ago, as the end of the year approached, people were reflecting on the great conflict that their country was embroiled in.  In the midst of World War II people were focused on the victories, the losses, the gains, and the sacrifices made.  The December 31st edition of the Shakopee Argus-Tribune provides us with a list of significant events of 1942 to help us reflect on our past.  As we reflect on the passing of 2017 let us also take a look at what weighed most significantly on the minds of Americans in 1942.Information was added to help clarify some of the details listed in the paper.  It should also be noted that the information presented by the paper does not always match more recent reporting of these events.

Events of World War II
January
1st– Hitler takes command of retreating Nazi army on Moscow front.
2nd– Japanese forces take control of naval bases in the Philippine cities of Manila and Cavite.
11th– Japan invades the Netherlands East Indies.
12th– Japan invades the Dutch East Indies
19th– Japan takes the port at Burma, present day Myanmar.
23rd– Australia calls on the U. S. to help fend off Japanese forces.
25th– Dutch and American forces take 33 Japanese ships in the Makassar strait.
26th– American Expeditionary Forces land in North Ireland.
31st– Malaya falls and Japan drives forward into Singapore

February
3rd– Nazis rush air and tank reinforcements to the battlefront in southern Russia.
4th– American Expeditionary Force gives aid to the Far East Allies in the Asiatic-Pacific theatre.
6th– A key oil town in Borneo, an island in Asia, is captured by Japan.
13th– Hitler’s fleet escapes from Brest, Belarus and retreats to Kiel, Germany.
15th– Singapore falls to Japan.
16th– Dutch forces destroy 100 million dollar oil fields on the island of Sumatra.
19th– Japan drops first bombs on Darwin, Australia. The Battle of Darwin was Japan’s largest attack since Pearl Harbor and was the largest single attack made on Australia by a foreign power.
20th– Japanese forces land on Timor Island.
21st– A Dutch and American air fleet launches an attack on Japanese ships either causing damage to or sinking 19.
28th– British parachutists and Commandos invade a radar array in northern France.

March
1st– The Japanese 2nd Division unloads 50 transports at Merak, Java where they are invading.
3rd– Archibald Wavell is dropped as the chieftain of the Allied forces.
7th– Japan invades New Guinea at two sectors, the regions of Lae and Salamau.
14th– American forces land in Australia.
17th– MacArthur and aides escape from Philipines, where they were surrounded by Japanese forces, and land in Australia.
19th– A Japanese invasion fleet headed to Australia is defeated by American forces.
25th– U. S. Navy raids Makin island, a Japanese seaplane base and Japan’s easternmost line of defense.
27th– Chinese destroy a trap in Burma relieving British forces.
29th– British Commandos wreck a Nazi-held St. Nazaire port.

April
1st– Hand-to-hand combat with Japanese forces occurs in Bataan.
4th– U. S. Navy admits that three warships were sunk by Japanese planes.
8th– Axis desert forces move against British forces in Libya.
9th– Bataan falls. 36,000 U. S. soldiers are taken prisoner.
10th– British-Indian self-rule parley collapses.
13th– Pierre Laval named vice premier of France.
16th– Royal Air Force blitz on German industrial centers goes into its fifth day.
18th– Tokyo bombed by U. S. Air Force, referred to as the Doolittle Raid.
22nd– Commandos raid France at Boulogne and rout the Nazis.
30th– Royal Air Force bombs Paris industries.

May
1st– Hitler and Mussolini meet at Salzburg with the focus of discussion being Germany’s campaign against Russia. Japan is not included in the meeting.
5th– British forces backed by U. S. forces occupy Madagascar in order to prevent Japan capturing Madagascar’s ports and to protect Allied shipping lines.
6th– The island of Corregidor, in the Philippines, falls to Japanese forces. 7,000 U. S. troops surrender.
8th– U. S. forces sink 13 Japanese warships in the southwest Pacific.
25th– Allied planes sink an Axis submarine off the coast of Brazil.
27th– Nazis launch an attack on Gazala, Libya in an effort to capture Tobruk.

June
1st– Nazis are trapped in a Libyan desert. Japanese submarines are sunk in Sydney harbor.
2nd– Nazi industrial city of Essen “smashed” by 1,000 Royal Air Force planes.  According to the World War II Database website, the damage dealt by this attack was not significant.
4th– The naval operating base and U. S. Army base at Dutch Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska is bombed twice by Japan.
5th– Japanese forces attack Midway island.
6th– The U. S. Navy smashes the Japanese fleet at Midway Island.
10th– British announce 183,550 casualties during first two years of war ending September 2, 1941 including 48,973 killed and 46,363 wounded.
12th– Japanese forces land in the Aleutian Islands at Kiska Harbor.
21st– Tobruk, a British stronghold held since January 22, 1941 surrenders to Nazi desert fighters.
25th– Nazi General Erwin Rommel drives 60 miles into Egypt; British abandon the Egyptian cities of Solum and Sidi Omar.

July
1st– Germans capture Sevastopol after eight-month, 25-day siege.
6th– U. S. made General Grant tanks battle Nazis in African war.
8th– Nazi 35,000-ton ship Tirpitz, torpedoed twice by Soviet submarines.
16th– Soviets place German losses for period, May 15-July 15, at 900,000 men. Germany admits their own losses as 399,000 killed in action.
19th– German drive eastward to Stalingrad and southeastward to Rostov slowed by Soviets. Royal Air Force and Russia both bomb the Vulkan submarine yard in Berlin. Most bombs miss their targets.
23rd– One of the largest U. S. convoys to cross the Atlantic reaches North Ireland.
26th– U. S. pilots in action over France, flying British Spitfires. One American-piloted Spitfire shot down by Nazis.
27th-Russian admit Rostov, Gateway to Caucasus, falls after evacuation of troops.
31st– According to U. S. Naval official, 10,000 Japanese soldiers stationed in the Aleutian Islands.

August
10th– Marines land in the Solomon Islands where Japan was building naval and air bases. U. S. Navy raids Japanese positions at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.
14th– German military begins march on Stalingrad.
19th– Ten thousand Allied troops, mostly Canadians, supported by British Commandos and a few score U. S. Rangers raid Dieppe, France, for nine hours. Casualties heavy on both sides. Overhead 1,000 British planes engage the enemy.
21st– Japanese forces attempt to retake Solomon Island positions but are repelled by U. S. marines.
22nd– Fifteen Jugoslavian guerrilla planes bomb Axis garrison and Nazi troop columns west of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

September
3rd– U. S. pilots down German Focke-Wulf bomber near Iceland, report U. S. military authorities.
4th– Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell’s headquarters in Chungking announces that bomb loaded U. S. fighters hit Japanese forces in five different Chinese zones.
6th– Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Axis forces begin retreating. Allies bomb Axis African sectors.
9th– All 1,600 passengers and crew members saved when 24,289-ton U. S. navy transport Wakefield (formerly luxury liner Manhattan) swept by fire at sea. Wakefield saved and brought to Atlantic port by tugs.
13th– House to house, see-saw battle between Nazis and Russians in progress at Stalingrad.
14th– New type Nazi stratosphere bomber reported flying over England on reconnaissance flights at 40,000 feet.
16th– U. S. 19,900-ton carrier Yorktown reported sunk on June 7 during the Battle of Midway. Vichy French officers reject armistice terms offered by British occupying Madagascar.
23rd– Tobruk attacked from sea while British mobile units raid Axis African positions 500 miles behind lines.

October
3rd– U. S. Army troops, supported by the Navy, occupy Andreanof group of the Aleutian Islands, between Japan held Kiska and Alaskan Dutch Harbor.
17th– A large force of U. S. troops arrive in the Republic of Liberia.
20th– Total of 530 Axis submarines announced destroyed by British and U. S. Navies since the war began.
23rd– Japanese mining installations in North China bombed by U. S. planes in successful attack.
24th– British start African campaign to drive Axis out of continent.
25th– First U. S. air raid on Hong Kong destroys docks and railroad yards in the region of Kowloon.
26th– Naval officials announce that aircraft carrier, Wasp, sunk off Solomon Islands on September 15. Serious fighting continues on Guadalcanal with heavy Japanese losses. Guadalcanal is an area Japanese forces attempted to claim in order to limit Allied forces supplies and communication.

November
1st– U. S. Army troops reinforce marines on Guadalcanal. Australian and American forces push Japan back on New Guinea. U. S. air force bombs Japanese forces daily on Aleutian Kiska.
7th– U. S. troops land in French Africa (French Morocco, Algeria) under commander-in-chief Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower to forestall successful Axis invasion which would endanger America.
8th– Vichy French government breaks relations with U. S. for first time since 1778. Nazis retreat to Libyan border.
11th– Axis forces invade unoccupied France; Italians also land on Corsica. Under orders from Admiral Jean Francois Darlan French, North Africa surrenders to U. S. troops. Tunisia continues fighting.
12th– Second naval battle of Solomon Islands begins.
13th– French garrisons in Tunisia reported battling Axis forces landing by sea and air. Admiral Jean Darlan assumes responsibility for French interests in Africa.
16th– U. S. naval authorities announce crushing defeat of Japanese navy in second naval battle of Solomons: 23 ships sunk, 7 damaged, with enemy casualties near the 40,000 mark.
18th– Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain, former prime minister of France, appoints Pierre Laval dictator of Nazi-occupied France.
24th– Russian offensive smashes across Don River, Germans lose 50,000 men in pincer dive.
27th– French scuttle fleet at Toulon, 62 ships sent to bottom of harbor to avoid seizure by Hitler.
29th– Prime Minister Churchill appeals, via radio, to Italian people to overthrow their dictator, sue for peace.

December
1st– Russia continues to advance in two large-scale offensives. Allied parachutists seize airfield near Tunis.
2nd– U. S. push German forces to the sea in Tunisia. Admiral Jean Darlan assumes African rule in Henri-Philippe Petain’s name.
5th– Pearl Harbor disaster reviewed: 10 ships, floating drydock sunk or damaged; 247 planes destroyed or disabled; 4,575 casualties.
7th– Office of War Information reveals 53,307 casualties in first year of war.
14th– Nazis retreat from stronghold at El Agheila in Libya after a battle with forces from the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
15th– U. S. troops capture Buna from the Japanese, following the fall of Gona, in New Guinea.
17th– Units of Erwin Rommel’s Nazi forces retreating from El Agheila cut off by British in Libya.

DOMESTIC
January
1st– Sales of new cars banned pending rationing.
5th– Congress reconvenes to discuss the war. In this session Congress discussed methods of raising money for the war effort, lowering the draft age, providing support to dependents of soldiers, and expanding the power of the President for emergency situations.
6th– War draft of 1942 announced.
10th– Industrialists protest automobile labor-management plan, rejected.
11th– Office of Personnel Management orders halt in private home building.
14th– Donald Nelson, now chief of all war production. He helped to convert commercial production factories into war time factories and identify ways for the military to save money on its materials.
16th– Sumner Welles asks for a Pan-American anti-Axis front at Rio.
19th– Roosevelt asks congress for another 28 ½ billion dollars.
21st– Office of Personnel Management abolished by Donald Nelson.
22nd– South American anti-Axis compact completed.
28th– Nation told 80 Nazi U-boats off East coast.
30th– Price control bill passes. President Franklin Roosevelt’s 60th birthday.

February
4th– Congress working on loans to China.
5th– Giant Japanese spy ring disclosed on West coast.
10th– House kills so-called “frivolity” in Office of Civilian Defense. The Office of Civilian Defense was intended to help protect civilians, maintain morale, and promote civilian involvement in defense.
16th– U. S. registers nine million more for draft.
25th– Two waves of planes seen over Los Angeles causing an immediate blackout. Anti-air weaponry opened fire over the period of a few hours. This event was later determined to be a false alarm after finding no evidence of an attempted enemy air raid.
28th– Bill to end 40-hour week defeated.

March
2nd– Automobile rationing begins. Automobile production was often halted and sales were limited to priority cases.
3rd– Army air force now an equal branch of army. The Army Air Force was put under its own control instead of being under the control of the Army Field Forces.6th– All new and used typewriter sales are halted.
8th– Supreme command of all U. S. naval operations given to Admiral Ernest King.
11th– U. S. fixes used tire price.
12th– House farm bloc kills sub-parity bill.
13th– First wartime lottery since 1918.
24th– U. S. takes over strike-bound Toledo, Peoria and Western railroad. After refusing to let The United States District Court arbitrate on a strike, Franklin Roosevelt seized the railroad from Peoria and Western through executive order.
25th– Charles Lindbergh offered position in Henry Ford’s bomber plant.
27th– U. S. unifies command to end U-boat menace.

April
1st– Senate defeats ban on 40 hour week.
2nd– All bicycle sales halted.
7th– Plan to halt production of most durable goods.
23rd– Sugar for restaurants and other food services cut by 50 percent.
24th– U. S. opens sedition quiz of suspects. Suspects were brought in and interrogated to determine if they were guilty of sedition.
27th– Thirteen million sign labor questionnaire.
30th– Report three Nazi bids for peace since first of year.

May
1st– Plans to draft women for war service temporarily abandoned.
2nd– Director of Defense Transportation, Joseph B. Eastman, announces
restriction of competing train and bus service.
4th– National sugar registration for ration books begins, first of four days.
12th– House passes (102-40) increase in pay to $50 for army and marine privates, navy and coast guard apprentice seamen.
16th– Earl Browder, former secretary of the American Communist party, has four-year federal sentence commuted to 14 months already served.
19th– East coast gas rationing to be put on national scale, Roosevelt hints.
26th– Commercial air service for 25 cities, 21 routes, curtailed by Civil Aeronautics board.
27th– Total of 13,600 women apply as candidates for officer’s training school of the Women’s Army Auxiliary corps: WAACs.
28th– On the grounds he is a Communist party member, Harry Bridges, Australian born West coast Congress of Industrial Organizations leader, order deported by Attorney General Francis Biddle.

June
1st– First eastern statewide surprise blackout held in New Jersey. Blackout drills were done in order to prepare civilians for air raids.
7th– Virtually entire Japanese population of West coast (99,770) moved inland.
9th– William Dudley Pelley, a member of the para-military American fascist organization called the “Silver Shirts”, indicted on charges of sedition by Indianapolis, Indiana grand jury.
18th– Prime Minister Churchill makes third visit with the President of the United States, at Capitol.
23rd– Genealogy magazine editor reveals President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are eighth cousins, once removed- both descended from Mayflower passenger John Cooke.
26th– Naval expansion bill of over 8 ½ billion dollars passed by senate for 1,900,000 tons of ships.
27th– Eight highly trained Nazi saboteurs caught by FBI. Four landed on beach in Florida, other four landed on Long Island. Nazi sub used in operations. Long Island landing effected on June 13, Florida landing on June 17.

July
1st– Navy’s giant 70-ton patrol bomber, Mars, makes official tests over Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.
8th– Seven-man military commission, appointed by President, begins secret trial of eight Nazi saboteurs in Washington.
10th– Elmer Dais, director of the new Office of War Information, names new assistants, says OWI shall try to give American people an accurate picture of nation’s war activities.
17th– Super-powered troop carrier command announced by Lieutenant General Henry H. Arnold, chief of army air forces.
29th– Henry Ford urges world federation after present war to prevent another “more terrible conflict.”

August
1st– Local police and FBI agents round more than 80 Japanese, Nazis and Italians in New York city and Philadelphia.
2nd– Charles Lindbergh testifies at sedition trial of William Dudley Pelley, Indianapolis.
8th– Six of eight Nazi saboteurs executed in the electric chair at Washington, D. C. Two others (who turned over state’s evidence) sentenced to prison.
14th– Commemorating first anniversary of Atlantic Charter President sends message to Churchill reaffirming principles for a happier world.
19th– James Bennett Jr., attorney general of New York defeats White House favorite Senator James M. Mead for Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
25th– Pending stabilization of farm prices and wages at present level hinted by the President during press conference.

September
2nd– John McCloy, assistant secretary of war, says 500,000 American fighting men and technicians are now abroad.
10th– Creation of Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying command, headed by Nancy Harkness Love, announced by war department.
13th– Selective Service Director Major General Hershey says married men with children face draft in 1943.
21st– War Production Board Chairman Donald Nelson forecasts great civilian economy to win war. Japanese sponsored disobedience program in Chicago broken up by FBI.

October
1st– President Roosevelt ends two-week, secret circle trip of nation.
3rd– Office of Economic Stabilization created by the President to stabilize farm prices, rents, wages and salaries.
7th– United Mine Workers Cincinnati convention votes to withdraw its 500,000 members from Congress of Industrial Organizations.
9th– U. S., Britain announce willingness to give up extra-territorial rights in China. Ethiopia joins United Nations. War Production Board orders all except small gold mines to cease operations. There is a raise in food price.
12th– Department of Justice’s petition for injunction against James C. Petrillo’s ban on commercial recording dismissed by Chicago U. S. District court.
14th– Wendell Wilkie arrives in Washington to report to President Roosevelt on his 31,000-mile trip. American Federation of Labor president William Green re-elected at close of Federation’s convention in Toronto, Canada.
21st– 4,000 experienced miners undergo a furlough because of shortages in copper, lead, molybdenum, and tungsten.
22nd– Draft bill rider by Senator Josh Lee (Democratic) Oklahoma, banning sale of alcoholic beverages in or near military reservations defeated by Senate: 49-25.
26th– In a New York broadcast Wendell Willkie, reporting on his globe-circling trip, renews his demand for a second front in Europe.
27th– War Manpower Commission Director McNutt announces plan to freeze all necessary skilled dairy, livestock, and poultry workers.
29th– War Secretary Stimson announces army trucks now using all of the 1,671 mile Alcan highway.  The Alcan highway was built to connect Alaska to the United States through Canada.

November
1st– U. S. takes over all short-wave broadcastings for use by the Overseas Division of the Office of War Information.
2nd– To relieve growing coal shortage in West, United Mine Workers executive committee authorizes seven-day work week.
4th– Republicans make new gains: 19 in Senate, 42 in the House of Represenatives.
9th– President scores France’s chief of government, Pierre Laval, and expresses regret that Laval forced diplomatic break of U. S. and France.
14th– Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, a renowned airplane pilot, and crew members rescued. His crew was sent to the Pacific to inspect military equipment and personnel but they ended up getting lost.
18th– President orders registration of 600,000 youths who reached 18th birthday after July 1st.
20th– Women’s Auxiliary Reserve in the Coast Guard termed “SPARs.” SPARs is a contraction of the group’s motto “Sempur Paratus, Always Ready.”
24th– Saboteurs sentenced in Chicago: Men get death, women get 25 years in jail.
26th– All war industries continue working while nation celebrates Thanksgiving.
27th– Virginia conference of the Methodist Church South demands through their official organ that song “Praise the Lord” be eliminated from radio broadcasts.
28th– New ration book (Number 2) to be issued toward end of year, or first part of 1943.

December
1st– Gas rationing begins on nation-wide basis.
2nd– Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York becomes director of foreign relief and rehabilitation.
4th– President orders Works Progress administration abolished.
7th– Harrison E. Spangler, Iowa, named chairman of Republican party.
11th– Approximately 660,000 war workers frozen to jobs in Detroit.
15th– Office of Population Affairs orders change in heating oil rationing for North zone.
17th– Leon Henderson, director of Office of Price Administration, announces resignation. 

Written by Tony Connors, Curatorial Assistant.

Other Sources:

Wells, Kathryn and Jack Mulholland.  “The Japanese bombing of Darwin Broome and northern Australia.”  Australian Government, 9 June 2015.  http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/japanese-bombing-of-darwin.

Commonwealth of Australia, The Japanese bombing of Darwin Broome and northern Australia, viewed 21 December 2017.“Chronology of 1942 San Francisco War Events.

” The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/42.html. Accessed 20 December 2017.

Miller, Robert L. Hitler at War: Meetings and Conferences, 1939-1945. Enigma Books, 2015.Chen, C. Peter.

“Battle of Gazala.” World War II Database, https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=262. Accessed 20 December 2017.

“Record of the 77th Congress (Second Session).” CQ Press,  http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1942121500. Accessed 20 December 2017.

McCarthy, Stephanie E. Haunted Peoria. Arcadia Publishing, 2009.“Air Force History.” Military.com, https://www.military.com/air-force-birthday/air-force-history.html. Accessed 20 December 2017.

Glines, C. V. “Captain Eddie Rickenbacker: America’s World War I Ace of Aces.” HistroyNet, 12 June 2006, http://www.historynet.com/captain-eddie-rickenbacker-americas-world-war-i-ace-of-aces.htm.

“What does SPARS stand for?” The University of Iowa Libraries. http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/wwii/id/2037. Accessed 20 December 201