THE PALISADES GOES TO WAR

It may be hard to imagine military blackout regulations, food rationing and armed citizens patrolling the Santa Monica Mountains, but this was part of everyday life for many Palisadians during the early stages of World War II.   ’Very few people today remember late 1941 and early 1942,’ said historian Roger McGrath during a lecture entitled ‘Palisades Goes to War, 1941-1945.’ ‘There was a great deal of anticipation of not only Japanese attacks but also a possible invasion.’   ’Today, we are a nation with global and geopolitical power, but we seem to forget that in 1941 we were anything but a superpower,’ McGrath said. At the time, there were only about 3,000 troops in uniform, 50 fighter planes and 85 bombers tasked with defending 1,300 miles of coastline from Canada to the Mexican border. This inadequacy was especially acute coupled with the surprise attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, which damaged or destroyed 19 American ships.   ’The Japanese could have simply walked ashore during that time,’ McGrath told the Palisades Historical Society. ‘We had no coastal installations and very few camps’let alone forts.’   Unfortunately, the threat of a Japanese attack has been treated comically by Hollywood, said McGrath, citing the Steven Spielberg film ‘1941’ as an example. The movie, which is filled with manic action and childlike routines, leaves the impression that Japan, except for one nutty submarine captain and his crew of comical sailors, ‘never waged war on America’s West Coast and that fear of these attacks was nothing more than wartime hysteria,’ McGrath said. ‘This notion is nothing but nonsense, and this certainly wasn’t the case in the first few months of World War II in the Palisades.’   Spielberg’s film is centered on a real-life event, the so-called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ or ‘Great Los Angeles Air Raid,’ which many historians now believe was sparked by a weather balloon being mistaken for an enemy plane. During the professed ‘air raid’ on February 25, 1942, the entire city went dark from about 2 to 7 a.m. as searchlights scanned the skies and thousands of rounds of shells were fired into the night.   The real ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ was preceded by several Japanese submarine attacks on American shipping vessels that occurred off the West Coast, McGrath said. ‘The attacks were so close that people could see the ships under attack from the shore.’   The first attack in California’s coastal waters occurred an hour before dawn on December 18 when the Japanese submarine I-17 struck the American freighter Samoa. During the next seven days, eight additional submarine attacks on American merchant ships were recorded off the coast, leaving six seamen dead, damaged vessels and some sunk, according to the Weider History Group. ‘    The Japanese ‘offensive’ included two other attacks on American soil: the shelling of the Elwood Oil Refinery west of Santa Barbara on February 23, 1942 and a submarine float plane attack on September 14, 1942, which set a remote section of Oregon forest on fire.   Incredibly, the nine submarines responsible for the damage had been launched ‘a year or two before the war began,’ according to Weider. The Navy would not comment or confirm many of the attacks, and ‘this went on during the whole war and it became very hard to assess the actual number of attacks that occurred off California’s coast,’ McGrath said. Pacific Palisades historian Randy Young noted that while the Imperial Japanese Navy’s attacks off the U.S. coast did little to damage the country’s infrastructure, they did bring the reality of the war to America’s front doorstep, especially to the West Coast. It didn’t take long for residents in the Palisades to organize and get involved.   In fact, Palisadians were some of the first people in Los Angeles to organize activities such as establishing aircraft watching stations, according to Randy and his mother Betty Lou Young’s book, ‘Pacific Palisades: Where the Mountains Meet the Sea.’ Young said that for many in the Palisades, there was this ‘excitement that they could be involved with something greater than they were. Everyone I talked to [most of whom were children at the time] remember it being a scary time but also remember feeling so grown up.’   Palisadians also played a role on the frontlines, Young said. ‘Many young people here went to war.’   Not long after the watching station was formed, the Pacific Palisades Civilian Defense Council was also organized, comprising 400 local volunteers including women, men and children. Jack Sauer, who owned a local gas station, became chair of the Civil Defense Council.   Palisadians from all walks of life became involved in the effort to protect their town. The American Legion Auxiliary opened a recreation center for servicemen in Harmony Hall in Temescal Canyon that included a mobile kitchen, and teams of volunteers would pick up coffee and sandwiches from the Riviera Country Club to deliver to troops at guarding stations up and down L.A.’s coast.   Dr. Clarence F. Ott, a wealthy doctor living on Chautauqua, established an emergency casualty station at 15314 Antioch St.   Everyone took his and her role in the war effort very seriously, Young said. The threat of an invasion, which was highlighted by barbed wire on the bluffs, blackout restrictions and signs alerting residents of a possible invasion, was indeed very real for many.   The local fire department was involved in the effort, too, and ‘would have drills on how to put out fires caused by bombs,’ Young said. Also, the American Women’s Volunteer Service, was a ‘very big social thing’ and included ambulance and uniformed personnel. Even children ‘were given a job’to find as much salvage for the war effort, such as tires and scrap metal,’ Young said.   Celebrities living in the Palisades also played a part in the war effort. Actor and director Tom Moore, who lived at the Uplifters Club in Rustic Canyon at the time, would dress in military fatigues and patrol the Santa Monica Mountains as part of the local mounted home guard. ‘There were 30 to 40 horse riders who would patrol the hills looking for dangerous things like phosphorus bombs,’ Young said.   The Uplifters Club would stage practice drills to test their readiness, such as fighting fires, which could be caused by Japanese bombs.   Palisadians also planted Victory Gardens and held special USO events for servicemen at private homes. The Bernheimer Gardens on Sunset offered residents plants and seeds, and established a demonstration Victory Garden under a federal program, according to ‘Where the Mountains Meet the Sea.’   Fear of a possible invasion by Japan also prompted the army to mount two 155mm coastal guns in the Palisades in 1942. According to the Coast Defense Study Group, the guns were eventually destroyed in 1944. As to their location, there are conflicting reports, although Young said that one of them might have been located in the Castellammare area near the Spectrum Club on Sunset near Pacific Coast Highway. Every time they test fired it, the hillside would start to slide.’ The other gun may have been located on Park Avenue near in Tahitian Terrace, down at PCH. However, as scary as the war was, ‘The community became bonded with this danger. In a way, they got to know their neighbors better,’ Young said.   A few weeks after the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Palisadians gathered for Memorial Day ceremonies at the Community Church (now known as the Community United Methodist Church), to honor the 10 Palisadians who died in service to their country, according to the Youngs’ book.   The official announcement of V-J Day was made on August 14, 1945, and by the end of that year life in the Palisades returned to normal, but with a stronger sense of community and neighborly spirit.