As is the case with any significant news, my mother Anne Filmer Gasparich Wright, who was five years old at the time, remembers exactly where she was when she heard about the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. She was sitting in the kitchen of her family home on 28th Avenue in the Sunset eating breakfast before school when the news was broadcast over the radio. My grandmother, Florence Matlock Filmer, gasped, and my great grandmother, Annie Keenan Matlock[1], who had survived so much tragedy in San Francisco up to that point, looked like she was going to faint.
While World War II officially began in the fall of 1939, the United States did not get involved until the bombing at Pearl Harbor. While the country had been reluctant to join, it had nonetheless started taking defensive measures. On April 1, 1941, the Navy took over Treasure Island. In September of that year, the War Department authorized construction of a submarine net to be placed, if necessary, just inside the Golden Gate. In October, war games were held in the Presidio[2]. On December 5th, harbor defenses were put on full alert and planes practiced air defense exercises over San Francisco. Less than an hour after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, three mine fields with over 600 mines were laid in the ocean outside the Golden Gate. All members of the Armed Forces were recalled to duty. All maritime operations along the California coast were brought to a halt. Military guards took up posts on the Golden Gate Bridge[3].
The San Francisco Bay Area was the hub of the West Coast’s shipyards and naval bases and was therefore a valuable military asset and therefore a prime target. Because of this, operational headquarters for the Western Defense Command were set up in the Presidio. Seventeen gun batteries protected the entrance to San Francisco, each manned with 125 soldiers. The antisubmarine net was installed.
The San Francisco Navy Shipyard at Hunters Point[4] was one of three naval shipyards in the San Francisco Bay. It was responsible for ship building and ship maintenance and repair, but also housed the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, the military’s largest facility for applied nuclear research. Key components used in the construction of the atomic bomb would come from the Hunters Point site.
Almost immediately, the FBI swooped into the City and rounded up all Japanese, German and Italian residents who were not American citizens. In the first couple of weeks, 92 Japanese, 59 Germans and 18 Italians were detained. Those who were allowed to remain in their homes were not allowed to travel outside their neighborhoods. On April 29, 1942, any San Francisco resident with Japanese ancestry, regardless of citizenship, was interned out of state[5].
Fort Mason[6] became the principal Pacific Port of Embarkation for troops sent out into the Pacific Theater. Over a million soldiers would be shipped out from Fort Mason and San Francisco immediately adapted to the influx of servicemen with a resurgence of bars and nightclubs. Sailors were everywhere. Florence would tell the story of the day when two very inebriated servicemen showed up at her house. When she answered the door she was told that they wanted a home cooked meal. Trying to forcibly enter the house, 5’2” Florence shoved one of the men backwards. He fell down the front steps and into a potted bonsai tree, breaking an enormous pot. Florence quickly closed and locked the door.
It was a somber time to be living in the City. In the month following the attack on Pearl Harbor, air raid sirens and subsequent blackouts were frequent. There was always the fear of an imminent attack[8]. The war’s death toll was reported in the newspapers every day. Private boats were not allowed on the Bay. There were rations on meat, dairy, eggs, shoes, sugar and gasoline. Coupons came in the form of plastic buttons and were issued by the government once a month. Anne remembers that dinners consisted of Spam, chipped beef or fish sticks. She did not mind the lack of fresh meat and fish, but she missed butter. Margarine consisted of a white glob that came in a big plastic bag with an orange pill attached. It was Anne’s job to knead the pill into the margarine to make it yellow. My grandfather, William “Brand” Filmer, tried his hand at growing a Victory Garden, as was common throughout the City, but the snails ate everything.
America’s involvement in the war lasted 3 1/2 years. 2,300 American soldiers lost their lives. Just as Anne remembers where she was when she heard the news about Pearl Harbor, so too would she remember where she was in August 1945 when news of the victory over Japan broke: she was in her parents’ bedroom when suddenly there was an eruption of cheers and people began pouring out into the street. Brand came home from work early that day and the first thing he did was take the car to the gas station to fill his tank. Anne missed butter: Brand missed driving.
In the late 1950s the American Battle Monuments Commission hired two San Francisco architects to design the World War II Memorial for the Missing. Located in the Presidio just off of Washington, it is a beautifully curved wall listing the names of the 412 men and women who were lost or buried at sea in the Pacific. There is also a plaque in St. Mary’s Square in ChinaTown listing the names of Chinese Americans who lost their lives in both World Wars.
[1] Annie Keenan Matlock: story coming October 22nd
[2] The Presidio: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5121
[3] Golden Gate Bridge: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4916
[4] Hunters Point Navy Shipyard: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4237
[5] Japanese Internment during WWII: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3419
[6] Fort Mason: story coming June 14th
[8] Air raid sirens and blackouts: see story coming December 9th
