Read The Air-Raid Warden Was a Spy: And Other Tales From Home-Front America in World War II Online

Authors: William B. Breuer

Tags: #History, #Military, #World War II, #aVe4EvA

The Air-Raid Warden Was a Spy: And Other Tales From Home-Front America in World War II (41 page)

A GI Refugee Returns
209

Celebrators in New York City’s Wall Street were among the million people who gathered after V-J Day was announced. (Author’s collection)

In Chicago, Frances Evans Dyke broke out in tears of relief. “God bless President Truman,” she told a reporter. Now all eleven of her sons in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps—five of whom were training for an invasion of Japan— would be coming home.
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A GI Refugee Returns

N
ONE OF THOSE REJOICING
over the end of the war was more euphoric than Radioman 1st class George Ray Tweed of the Navy. Nearly four years earlier, three days after the Pearl Harbor debacle, Tweed had been stationed on Guam when the Pacific island was captured by Japanese forces.

Hundreds of Americans were marched into captivity, but Tweed had managed to escape and took to the brush. Relying on skills learned as a boy on hunting trips in Oregon, he survived the long global conflict armed with only a machete and a pocketknife, a latter-day Robinson Crusoe.

On returning home, Tweed learned of more good news. He had amassed $6,000 in back pay, a small fortune in that era.
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“Experts” Visualize Crime Wave

A
FTER REPRESENTATIVES OF EMPEROR HIROHITO
signed a formal surrender document aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, millions of American servicemen and hundreds of women in uniform overseas began going home to be discharged and play catch-up in civilian pursuits.

Newspapers and magazines unleashed a collection of “experts” who wrote articles on the perceived pitfalls of young men scarred by the horrors of war on their return to civilian life. In Good Housekeeping magazine, a psychologist stated: “After two or three weeks the returning [GI] should be finished talking about his war experiences, with oppressive remembering. If he still goes over the same stories, reveals the same emotions, you had better consult a psychiatrist.”

Other psychologists warned that the returning veterans were “trained killers,” and that they would ignite a crime wave on home-front America.

What these “experts” failed to realize was that “oppressive remembering” for most fighting men would haunt them for a lifetime, but they would function as productive members of society, many in leadership roles. The prognosticators were unaware that all the “trained killers” yearned for was a huge and ongoing dose of peace and quiet.
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Notes and Sources

Part One—Shock Waves Hit America

1. “On the Ground, by God!”

John Toland, But Not in Shame (New York: Random House, 1961), p. 39. Milwaukee Journal, December 9, 1941. New Orleans Times Picayune, December 9, 1941. San Francisco Examiner, December 8, 1941. Lee Kennett, For the Duration (New York: Scribner’s, 1985), pp. 14, 69. “Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack,

Congress of the United States,” Part 19, pp. 3504–3506. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

2. Dispute in the President’s Office

Thomas T. Connally, My Name Is Tom Connally (New York: Crowell, 1954), p. 249. Jack Goodman, ed., While You Were Gone (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946), p.

500. New York Herald Tribune, December 12, 1941.

3. Calls for Retreat to Rockies

Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1941.

4. Submarines Off West Coast

Author’s archives.

5. Roosevelt Rallies the Nation

Washington Post, December 9, 1941. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1941.

6. Eavesdropper in the German Embassy

Documents on German Foreign Policy series, 1940–1945. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

7. A Television Pioneer

Author’s archives.

8. Instant Psychologists

Sioux City Journal, December 9, 1941. New York PM, December 9, 1941. Tulsa Daily World, December 8, 1941. Journal of Broadcasting, Fall, 1961. New York Times, December 19, 1941.

9. Strange Doings across the Land

Rolla Daily News, December 14, 1941. Patrick S. Washburn, A Question of Sedition (New York: Dutton, 1986), p. 39. Richard Polenberg, War and Society (New York: Harper, 1972), p. 45.

211

Los Angeles Times, December 15, 1941. New York Sun, December 10, 1941.

10. A Stop-and-Go Railroad Trip

Author’s archives.

11. “San Francisco Is Being Bombed!”
New York Times, December 9, 1941. Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1941.

12. Watching for Enemy Paratroopers
Atlanta Constitution, February 1, 1942. Author’s archives.

13. A Covert Raid into Mexico
San Francisco Examiner, December 11, 1941. Henry L. Stimson Diaries, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Library. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.

14. Fear for Roosevelt’s Life

Author’s archives.

15. FBI Joins in Sinking Submarine

FBI files in possession of author.

16. Rounding Up Subversive Suspects

FBI files, June 23, 1941, Washington, D.C.

17. A Feud over Wiretapping
Don Whitehead, The FBI Story (New York: Random House, 1956), p. 187. Author’s archives.

18. Mission: Halt Ambassador’s Hara-Kiri
Fred Israel, The War Diary of Breckenridge Long (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), pp. 232, 237. Author’s archives.

19. A Field Marshal Is Shocked

Viscount Alanbrooke, Diaries (London: Collins, 1957–1958), pp. 292-293.

20. Nazi U-Boat in New York Harbor
Jean Noll, The Admiral’s Wolfpack (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), p. 138. Ladislas Farago, The Tenth Fleet (New York: Obolensky, 1962), p. 46.

21. A Journalist Prowls the Normandie
Time, February 23, 1942. New York PM, February 26, 1942.

22. The Salesman’s Luck Runs Out

Ladislas Farago, The Game of the Foxes (New York: McKay, 1971), pp. 502–503.

Part Two—America under Siege

1. Joe Louis Contributes Huge Purse

New York Herald Tribune, January 22, 1942. Author’s archives.

2. A Grieving Father Joins Navy

Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1942.

Notes and Sources
213

3. Self-Appointed Do-Gooders

Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp.

138–140. Portland Press Herald, April 6, 9, 10, 1943. Author’s archives.

4. A Hollywood Victory Committee

Jean Garceau, Gable (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1961), pp. 3, 38. Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1941.

5. Actress Dies for Her Country

Indianapolis News, January 16, 1942. Washington Post, January 16, 1942. New York Times, January 18, 1942.

6. Dismantling a Nazi Spy Network

Transcript of testimony taken by court reporters, February 1942. Harper’s, June 1942, pp. 10–11. New York Times, February 14, 18, 25, 1942. Author’s archives.

7. A Debacle in Manhattan

Time, February 23, 1942. John Maxtone-Graham, The Only Way to Cross (New York: Collier, 1972), p. 378. New York Herald Tribune, February 21, 1942. Author’s archives.

8. The Battle of Los Angeles

Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1942. San Francisco Examiner, February 27, 1942. Author’s archives.

9. “We Poison Rats and Japs”

Chicago Tribune, February 14, 1942. Author interview with former FBI Assistant Director W. Raymond Wannall. Los Angeles Times, February 15, 1942. San Francisco Examiner, February 14, 1942. Author’s archives.

10. Goal: Coalition of Africa and Japan