Lodi During World War II: Part One

The Calm Before the Storm
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Lodi in the early 1940s was a bustling railroad town. Its population had grown to more than 11,000 residents, most of German, Italian, or Japanese descent. Farmwork meant that Lodians of all backgrounds pulled together to plant, harvest, and pack the crops, forming new co-operatives to stabilize sales prices. Lodi’s famous Super Mold tire-retread equipment factory on North Sacramento Street had just expanded, with 4,500 tire shops worldwide using Lodi equipment. At Hale Park families relaxed at the Lodi Municipal Baths and danced at summer band concerts. At Lodi Union High School, graduating seniors played sports together and skipped school en masse on “Ditch Day.”

But the shadow of world war hung over Lodi. Along Main Street tension simmered between residents of Chinese and Japanese descent due to the Japanese invasion of Chinese Manchuria. The Lodi News-Sentinel printed daily updates on the war between Germany, Italy, and Japan and America’s longtime allies Great Britain and France. Across America, suspicions were growing as neighbors questioned each other’s loyalty to the U.S.

On December 5, 1941, FBI Special Agent T.S. Ferguson spoke at the Lodi Woman’s Club, warning the members against refugees who, having gained admittance to the United States, were serving their foreign masters through espionage activities. He asserted that people “who say ‘It can’t happen here’ are uninformed, misinformed, or living in a fool’s paradise.”

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor and Other U.S. and British Territories

On December 7, 1941, Japanese air and naval forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Guam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya   (part of present-day Malaysia). Since Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines were U.S. territories at the time, and Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya were British territories, Japan’s actions were seen as a direct attack on the United States and Great Britain. The world quickly realized that the United States could no longer remain neutral in the great conflict.

That day, Lodi’s Mary Jane Muller happened to be at Pearl Harbor for her wedding to Lt. Raymond E. Holsey. She witnessed the attack. The new Mrs. Holsey reported that the raid “was such a complete surprise that anti-aircraft gunners of both Army and Navy stood at their posts without firing a shot, unable to believe they were enemy planes.”

Not all Americans sailors were paralyzed. Lodi soon learned that our own Samuel Gantner, an experienced fighter already with four years in the Navy, had been killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. According to eyewitnesses, Boatswain’s Mate Gantner had been firing his 5-inch anti-aircraft gun on the deck of the U.S.S. Arizona when among the bomb hits and exploding ammunition he was killed in action. Gantner was a graduate of Lodi High School and a young husband and father. In 1943 a destroyer-class escort was named in his honor. Gantner’s widow, Janie Gantner, traveled to Boston to attend the christening and launch of the new U.S.S. Gantner.

The day after the attacks, President Franklin Roosevelt solemnly intoned from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” At his request, the U.S. Congress declared war on Japan.

On December 14th, California Governor Culbert Olson proclaimed a state of emergency and described California’s geographical position, industrial and agricultural might, and abundant natural resources as a target for invasion. In Lodi, able-bodied men were encouraged either to go to the army and navy recruitment centers in Stockton or to enlist in the California State Guard.

On December 18th the California State Guard Company B, 10th Infantry Regiment of Lodi was called up for service, leaving the next day for “unknown destinations.” Six members of the Japanese-American Citizen League enjoyed a send-off party that night. In what he thought was his final column, Lodi News-Sentinel journalist Sy Marq advised the remaining Lodians that local firms would be hit hard by the withdrawal of Guard personnel and suggested that “you be patient if you find them short-handed.” At the last moment, the call-up was cancelled until New Year’s Eve, when the men were sent to a “snowy” site in California.

Lodi Police Chief C.S. Jackson received a telegram from Earl Warren, Chairman of the California Defense Council Committee of Civil Protection, urging him to be vigilant against possible sabotage. The telegram read, “Sabotage is as much a part of Axis warfare as are military and naval operations.” In particular, Lodians worried about the Pardee Dam being destroyed, knowing that the crashing water would flood Lodi a half-hour later.

Japanese Bombers and Submarines Head for California

When 60 enemy planes were heard droning off the coast on December 8th, San Franciscans performed their first complete blackout. Lodians quickly followed suit. A loud new air horn was installed at the Fire House on North Main Street and Lodians memorized the code: one long and two short blasts meant “alarm!” and one short and two long blasts meant “all clear.” Four hundred Lodi men registered with the police to be neighborhood wardens as Lodians performed nighttime drills. Soon residents were advised to tie up their watch dogs for the wardens’ safety during inspections and Lodi’s blackout area expanded to include the headlights of cars driving toward Lodi. The Lodi Retail Merchants Bureau asked City Council to enact an ordinance closing all stores at 6:00pm so that workers and shoppers could be home before nightfall. Police Chief Jackson assured residents that Lodi’s blackouts would not be for fear that we’d be bombed directly, but to prevent Lodi’s lights from showing the way to Sacramento and Stockton during their blackouts.

Along with rehearsing blackout drills, Lodians began training to identify enemy aircraft on sabotage missions. Multiple aircraft observation posts—some just a small shack or wagon—were staffed by Lodi men and women 24 hours a day throughout the war’s duration. Observers memorized diagrams of aircraft and struggled to stay awake during the long night shifts. Luckily, no enemy aircraft was sighted over Lodi.

On February 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine rose from the Pacific Ocean and began shelling the Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara. Damage was minor, but Major Bernard “Barney” Hagen, formerly a coach at Lodi High School and resident of 127 South Orange Street, earned the Purple Heart award for a thigh wound incurred during the attack. He was the only U.S. serviceman to receive the decoration for wounds received from enemy action within the U.S. in World War II. After being hospitalized for six weeks, Major Hagen returned to active duty with the 40th Division artillery. 

Lodi Agriculture: Supplies and Labor

Within days of the U.S. declaration of war against Japan, officials were warning Americans of coming shortages. Food prices immediately jumped. The coconut oil and palm oil normally imported from the Philippines would have to be replaced by domestically produced soybean, cotton, and flaxseed oils. With 25% of U.S. sugar coming from the Philippines, sugar would need to be sought from Cuba and Central America. After feverish trading in agricultural futures in Chicago, the prices of wheat, soybeans, butter, eggs, and flaxseed were artificially fixed to go no higher than their 12/22/41 prices.

According to the 1940 census, at the outbreak of World War II California was producing 99.9% of U.S. almonds, 82% of the walnuts, and 91% of the grapes. Lodi’s local agricultural report counted 39,071 acres of vineyards and 3,350 farms in the Lodi area.

Of particular concern to Lodi was the war’s potential interruption of our robust agricultural production.
The San Joaquin County U.S.D.A. urged farmers to repair their machinery while materials were still available, saying that new farm machinery would be less available in 1942. With rubber production diverted toward the war effort, the U.S. Office of Price Administration announced that only a limited number of “essential citizens” would be allowed to purchase new tires and tubes in 1942. The rest of the country would have to drive less, retread their tires, or buy used tires. (Lodi’s Super Mold retread business was expected to boom.) In January 1942 the State Defense Council warned California farmers of an impending shortage of burlap bags, saying that fewer than half of the bags needed to store and ship crops would be available at harvest time.

Even worse than agricultural supply shortages was the sudden absence of experienced farm labor as able-bodied men rushed to enlist or otherwise support the war effort. “The draft and defense industries have drained farm labor supply so that an acute shortage threatens during the coming harvest,” said Lodi resident Harold Angler, past secretary of the Associated Famers of California. Central Valley farmers described the labor shortage this way: Good workers preferred to take higher-paying defense jobs, leaving the farmers to make do with workers “who can’t make the grade somewhere else.”

To fill the fields, the federal government began welcoming Filipino workers escaping the Japanese attack on Manila and reversed its efforts to repatriate Mexican families. In 1942 the U.S. Bracero Program began issuing temporary work visas to Mexican men willing to work in U.S. agriculture.

By February 1942 suspicion of Japanese and Japanese-American farmers had reached new heights. The San Joaquin County Farm Federation declared that Japanese farm owners and workers were not necessary and that it was “obvious” that the money they used to purchase land had come from alien sources.

Filipino workers began flatly refusing to work for Japanese farmers, with Mexican workers soon following suit.

“Lodi During World War II” will be continued in a future issue of The New Lodi Historian.