In choosing a date for December’s “Front Page News” column, I thought it would be interesting to find out how Arlington County reacted immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I looked at two local papers, The Sun and The Chronicle, as published on the date of December 12, 1941, and found a number of interesting stories, plus one incredibly shocking editorial. 

Let me frame the context for December 12, 1941. Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941. Within 24 hours, President Roosevelt delivered his “Day of Infamy” speech to Congress, which approved a declaration of war on Japan on December 8. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. 

In the edition of The Sun, its front-page editorial column expressed the sentiments likely held by many people in Arlington: “It’s been a tough week to get any work done. We’ve worn a path from our desk to the radio in the back shop, and it’s been an impossibility to keep one’s mind on anything for five consecutive minutes without a thought of the war interrupting. There seemed nothing strange about pulling the switch on our neon sign Monday night when we heard that it should be done.” 

There were three separate articles on air-raid precautions and the creation of civilian defense groups. The County Board held an emergency meeting that Monday night, appropriating $1,000 for uniforms for a Virginia Protective Force. In less than a week Federal agencies created plans for Federal housing projects in Arlington for 4,200 family units.  The war undoubtedly would bring more people to our region. 

A semblance of normal life did go on. The Civitan Club and the Kiwanis Club both announced food, clothing, and toy drives that would be distributed to the needy for Christmas.  Eight Washington-Lee high school students were named to its honor society. The most eye-catching headline noted that there were 152 fires reported in November: “11 house fires, 10 automobiles, 126 grass fires, three sheds and two dumps.” 

The Chronicle reported on a Bill of Rights celebration (on its 150th anniversary). The paper had numerous articles on the responses to the war, including references to patrols and guards: “Regulars from Fort Myer have been posted as guards on both ends of all Potomac River bridges. Uniformed soldiers, with loaded rifles and machine guns, are on the alert for any acts of sabotage.” On Thursday, December 11, one thousand volunteer air raid wardens were sworn in at Washington-Lee High School. 

The Chronicle was owned by Crandall Mackey, who was well-known for his “shotgun justice” in cleaning up gambling dens during three terms as Commonwealth Attorney, from 1904-1916. He later became a powerful presence in the County, as a lawyer, banker, and newspaper publisher. With that civic reputation in mind, I was shocked by Mackey’s editorial, which exposed a virulent strain of racial superiority. His editorial is filled with statements that make me wonder how widespread his prejudices may have been accepted in Arlington. Here is a small sampling from his editorial: 

“Everywhere the Jap is looked upon as an inferior and degraded race…he is excluded from this country by our immigration and naturalization laws because he is of an inferior and undesirable race. It is an imitative race, a mark of inferiority, and has never built a towered city, the highest evidence of civilization.” 

The editorial has a long string of similar sentiments. Mackey even goes on to describe a remarkable culinary theory: “People who live on rice, and fruits, and vegetable diets, are always inferior to the meat eating races…the greatness of Great Britain is due to the fact that it is a meat eating nation.” Mackey goes on to write that “…an inferior people need never be feared by a superior people.” Maybe I am a bit naive to be shocked at this overt racism by an Arlington civic leader in 1941. But one thing I do know is that it is important to have a historical record that one can access. I am grateful for newspaper.com for giving me the opportunity to take a look back at our community history!