Hollister
– Today millions of Americans will stop and briefly remember a
tragedy that took place early in the morning on a bright and sunny
day in Honolulu.
Hollister – Today millions of Americans will stop and briefly remember a tragedy that took place early in the morning on a bright and sunny day in Honolulu.
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 – a date that would “live in infamy” – undoubtedly changed the country forever. And while no battles were fought in Hollister or San Juan Bautista, even these sleepy farming communities would feel the effects of America’s new war and play their own part in the national struggle.
“It was Sunday morning,” said Frank Corda, who had already enlisted in the service and was stationed in Missouri at the time. Corda, 90, was born and raised in Hollister, and returned after the war. “It was like we heard a flash, and everything changed.”
For most Americans, first word of the attack came via radio.
“That was all we had, of course,” said Richard Edvenson, who had turned 16 the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Edvenson was later drafted and served as a paratrooper in the Army. “Everybody was in shock. We all went to the bowling alley to be together and listen to the radio.”
War news took up the entire front page of the Evening Free Lance’s Dec. 8 edition, with giant headlines blaring “‘WE’RE IN IT’; U.S. MOVES FAST! MANY SAN BENITOITES IN WAR ZONE.”
The Free Lance reported that more than 30 U.S. servicemen from San Benito County were stationed in the Pacific or Europe, among them familiar family names such as Briggs, O’Donnell and Frusetta. Several civilians hailing from the area were also reported to be located in war zones, including the Rev. Stephen Smith and his family on a mission in Manila, and Neomi Klauer, a Hollister resident who had taken a job teaching music in Honolulu.
A letter from Klauer describing what she knew of the attack and its aftermath was published in the Free Lance on Dec. 22. She wrote of grocers being forced to ration food because shoppers were panicking and hoarding sugar and flour, how the nightly “blackout” period made it difficult for her to write Christmas cards and other ways her life was suddenly changed.
“Yesterday morning as I passed a park which an old Hawaiian was raking, I noticed him looking very angrily at an old Japanese man walking down the street,” she wrote. “Just as the Japanese man passed him, he took the smooth side of his bamboo rake and gave him a push from the rear with it. Neither of them said a word; the Japanese man did not even look around and the Hawaiian returned to his raking with a satisfied look on his face.”
Almost every day for the rest of the month, the front page of the paper was spotted with happy announcements that servicemen hailing from the area had written home and were safe, and occasionally with more somber notices.
Frank and Theodore Hicks, brothers who were raised in Hollister, were aboard the USS Virginia when it sank during the Pearl Harbor attack, the Free Lance reported, and just before Christmas Joe Borovich, a 22-year-old sailor from Hollister, was reported as “missing” and was never recovered.
“Nobody knew what was going to happen,” said Ken Hershey, 79, who was a freshman in high school at the time of the attack. “Everybody was scared to death. Nothing like this had happened before.”
Local residents and community leaders were eager to do their part in the war effort and sprang into action days after America entered the war. The local Red Cross chapter began a drive to raise $5,000 – equivalent to about $66,000 today, when adjusted for inflation – through donations from local residents. One of the biggest contributors to this drive, with a $250 donation, was the Japanese American Citizens League of San Benito County.
“The United States is our country,” said League President Henry Omoto in the story “County Japanese Reaffirm Their Allegiance to U.S. Government,” published on Dec. 8. “We have many of our race in Uncle Sam’s Army from San Benito County, several of whom enlisted. We are proud of our citizenship, and we are willing to fight for the democracy under which we live, side by side with other Americans of other nationalities.”
Attitudes toward local Japanese Americans – the Free Lance reported more than 500 Japanese Americans lived in the county on Dec. 30 of that year, the vast majority of them born here – seems to have been mixed. On Dec. 8, University of California Professor Eric Bellquist gave a “well-received” speech to the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce, imploring those present not to give in to wartime hysteria and to be kind to their Japanese-American neighbors.
On Dec. 9, however, Edwin Matsura, the 29-year-old owner of the Hollister Seed Company, was taken into custody by the FBI. He was released four days later, but no reason was ever given as to why he had been taken in. On Dec. 30, then San Benito County Sheriff A.G. Fruits confiscated 104 radios and 66 cameras from local Japanese residents and three Italians, for fear they could be used to communicate with the enemy.
Residents were encouraged to continue with their normal Christmas celebrations in the face of routine blackouts and local shops closing early to save resources. Ads began appearing selling custom stationary as the “perfect gift” for soldiers abroad and the Free Lance used a quarter-page ad to promise local children that “You Can’t Blackout Santa Claus.”
“This is war. But this is Christmas time. And it will take more than war to destroy the spirit of Christmas,” the ad reads. “So let’s not get excited … (They’re still shopping in England, you know.)”
Though far from the action overseas, local residents dealt with the shock of entering war and helped to support their country as best as they could, for which the editor of the Free Lance congratulated them in the Dec. 10 editorial.
“Not only the big cities, but the small towns must be ready to meet any eventuality. San Benito County, we are happy to report, is awake to its responsibility,” reads the column. “Public officials and private residents are combining their efforts in this emergency. … They DEMAND our wholehearted cooperation. THEY WILL GET IT.”
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
