Residents of the Yakima Valley, like many other Americans, harbored some isolationism in 1939 as Germany invaded its neighbors and war spread across Europe. The Axis powers were on the march but the United States had not yet joined the Allied Forces in what would become World War II.
"We don't need gas masks but we do need nose shields to keep our noses out of the European messes," Yakima lawyer A.C. Cherry told the Yakima Daily Republic in 1939.
But on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Henry C. Beerman of Tieton died on the USS Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Folks in Yakima and throughout the Pacific Northwest felt the war was at our front porch.
"Today, Yakima is ready to bear its share of the burden of war, however eager this community was yesterday to maintain the path of peace," Republic columnist S.I. "Sis" Anthon wrote.
Almost overnight, the Yakima Valley rushed to the colors. Within days of the attack, more than 500 local men had enlisted in the armed services. One young lad named Herman Miller reportedly tried to increase his height with stretching exercises so he could meet the Army's standards.
The stampede to aid the war effort included farmers, fruit packing houses, manufacturers, small businesses, Red Cross volunteers, school kids, teachers and churches. Just about darned near everybody wanted to do their part.
By fall 1942, every school in town had a growing mound of scrap metal and rubber. And tobacco-chewing judges and lawyers agreed to have their brass and metal spittoons -- and the rubber mats they sat on -- hauled away from the federal building to meet the critical need for raw materials for wartime production of tires, ships, tanks and airplanes.
West Coast fears another attack
Civil defense was the first order of business after Pearl Harbor.
Boy Scouts and volunteers manned all bridges, power and water facilities and canals to watch for possible sabotage. Air-raid wardens were appointed for each voting precinct, and every block had a volunteer whose job was to watch for small incendiary bombs. Air-raid shelters were set up at Marquette High School and in the Larson Building, among other locations.
Even the tunnels of the Roza Canal could be an emergency shelter if necessary, local civil defense officials determined.
On the Friday after the attack, Yakima Mayor E.B. Riley announced that the Valley's most important defense issue was the water supply. He said officials were studying whether the Valley's network of irrigation systems could be used for fire protection or domestic water in the event of an attack.
Riley also raised one of the ugliest specters of the Japanese attack. He sent firefighters and police to "all establishments operated by Japanese-Americans to warn them they will be held responsible for fires or other disturbances."
Meanwhile in Wapato, considered the center of the Valley's Japanese-American population, the mayor denied reports that Asian residents had been beaten or molested. S. Ito, a Wapato restaurant owner and rancher, declared his loyalty to the U.S. flag.
"I have four children, all born here. America is my home and country. I am willing to have my 20-year-old son fight for American rights. I will do anything I can for American national defense," Ito told the Yakima Daily Republic.
Ito and more than 1,500 Japanese-Americans -- many of whom pioneered the potato industry in the Wapato area -- were put on a train to Portland, where they were interned at the Pacific Livestock Exposition Center.
By June 6, 1942, only one or two people of Japanese descent remained in the Yakima Valley, according to a local history of the period published by the Japanese community in 1974.
All not somber and serious
Soldiers in training around the Valley -- the Yakima Firing Center was established in 1942 -- wanted to relax when they came to town on a day or night off. Local labor unions responded to the need for social activity by joining with building-supply companies to remodel a building at North First and A streets into a Soldier Reception Center. It housed a lounge, letter-writing room and space for mild recreation such as table tennis. Civilians were allowed to invite soldiers to be their guests at the reception center.
But the Army had some strict marching orders for the civilians. "Don't hang on the boys' necks. Let them get away from talking shop," an officer advised in a newspaper account of the reception center.
Growing food helps war effort
Like other agricultural regions around the country, the Yakima Valley's production of fruit and vegetables was critical to the war crop.
Gov. Arthur Langlie urged every able-bodied man, woman and child to work the fields. "There must be no spoilage or wastage of our fruits and vegetables," Langlie said in a speech directed at the state's agricultural regions.
Schools were let out in October so students could help harvest the apple crop. The Central Washington Fair canceled its annual event, saying the fun, frivolity and exhibit after exhibit of produce "would hamper the war effort."
But it wasn't enough, and in fall 1942, 8,000 field workers were brought to the Yakima Valley by train from the Midwest to save the apple harvest. A migrant camp was set up for the visiting farm workers in Wiley City.
The manpower shortage affected the canneries, too. In 1944, local canneries could handle only 43 percent of the fresh fruit crop.
Japanese bear brunt of racism
Sadly, racism was just below the surface in many corners of the Northwest. In 1944, the masters of Granges in five western states, including Washington, called for people of Japanese ancestry to be deported at the close of war. They proposed a constitutional amendment to deprive Japanese-Americans of the rights to citizenship, residency and property ownership.
William Wright, a soldier from Yakima serving with the Army in Hawaii, read a newspaper account of the Grange proposal. He protested in a letter to the Ashue Grange of the Lower Valley.
"Since I am a soldier in this dirty war," Wright wrote, "I feel that I should say something on this anniversary of Lincoln's birthday. ... Under the Constitution of the United States, all men are created free and equal. Thousands of Japanese-Americans are in uniform today and their valiance and devotion to duty as American soldiers goes without challenge by anyone who knows them."
* Herald-Republic librarian Donean Brown contributed significant research for this story.
* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.
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