The Invasion of America, 1942, Part II

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 877

This is a continuation of an earlier post on mapping the invasion of America in 1942. 

[It starts: LIFE Magazine issued a wake-up call of sorts to its readership in their 2 March 1942 issue.  I say “of sorts” because even though this hard article (entitled “Now the U.S. Must Fight for Its Life”) must have sorely sobered some of its readers, it started on page 15, following big ads for Listerine, Matrix (women’s shoes, Bell Telephone, Modess, Clapp’s Baby Food, Dot Snap Fasteners, Goodrich Tires, White Horse Scotch, Pompeian Massage (for shaving), Jack Benny/Carole Lombard’s “To Be or Not To Be”, Colgate, Yardley powder and  Mimeograph, and a few interspersed puff pieces—and a Ginger Rogers cover photo.  But once LIFE paid its bills, the article got right to business, responding to a February article by sci-fi/novelist Philip Wylie on the possibilities of the U.S. losing the war…]

The article displayed six maps showing possible invasion routes from the east and west.  It was also illustrated with four unusual graphic images depicting various parts of the U.S. attacked and pulverized by Japanese and German forces.  [Images like these—outside the science fiction world--were very uncommon.]

The first image shows the assault and capture of the town of Dutch Harbor, “the pivot of Alaskan defense” by Japanese forces.  I guess we’re to assume that the American military base on opposite the town has been overtaken already, with the assault on the town being a mop-up operation. Odd thing here is that Dutch Harbor and Fort Mears were actually attacked n 3 June 1942 by a Japanese aircraft carrier (and entourage) which inflicted moderate damage on the harbor and fort, and killed 78 Americans.  This was a diversionary movement, meant to draw away American attention from Midway.  It didn’t work.

 

This image shows Japanese mountain troops rounding up the locals after their successful attack on Mt. Rainier.  I’m not so sure why the force was here and not in Seattle, as (a) there is no port here, and (b) there wasn’t anything going on so far as war production goers, which was definitely happening north of here.  That’s a very long column of Japanese soldiers headed towards Rainier; I’m not sure where they were going.  Also there are two large cannons (88s or thereabouts) taking aim at the mountain.  Again, I think here that the mountain would win in the long run.

The petroleum culture is under attack here in southern California.  The Japanese tank commander is shooting a gas station attendant who has just sprayed the tank with gas and set it on fire.  I’m not sure why the oil facilities are on fire, unless we did it. 

These Heinkel-177’s are bombing an unnamed East Coast war production plant, crossing the ocean straight from Germany ?).  They are presented here essentially as a manned bomb—the crew was supposed to drop their load, destroy their secret equipment, then parachute and surrender after auguring in their aircraft.   This push-pull engine configuration on this LIFE magazine version of a bad aircraft—and the only heavy bomber the Luftwaffe ever produced in numbers—never was able to drag this aircraft across the Atlantic.  Its maximum bombing range was about 925 miles, which means even if the crew expected not to return it would still only get about two-thirds of the way across the ocean. 

 

I’d say that this article might well have established a new fear-line in the minds of many of LIFE’s millions of readers, introducing them to the possibility of mainline attack just  a few short months following Pearl Harbor.

Comments

[Rick]

Not having ever been a student of the media and its tactics in that day, I can only guess their plan was not unlike the plan today, and every day I have noted over decades of observation. Magazine consumers locate their BUY button right next to their BE AFRAID button. The shoddy wiring in use in these systems make it very likely that pushing that fear button will trigger the BUY button at the same time.

[Jeff]

Yeah, but not Steve Martin. Remember the scene in Roxanne in which he buys a paper from the machine, reads the headline and screams, and puts another coin in the machine so he can throw the paper back in.

[John Ptak]

RICK: I think the newspaper guys picked up the FEAR/buy thing from the Church People. It is one of the longest-lived ideas goin'. I think.

JEFF: never saw that movie. What about all those people that you see all over the place stooped/kneeling reading the top half of the newspaper in the dispenser machine and don't buy it? Maybe they're not scared enough.

[Jeff]

John, those people who read the top half of the paper in the dispenser are afraid but cheap.

[Calenti]

It's easy to relax in the recliner of history and wonder what all the fuss was about. The USA had just had its collective military a$$ handed to it at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines and there didn't seem to be anything that could really stop either Axis power. The outcome of the struggle between fascism and democracy was not clear at this point. WW II was not a gimme, even after we got involved. This result - maybe not this specific scenario, but this outcome - could easily have come to pass. That's why you should buy a poppy from those old guys and tell them thanks at the end of May every year.

[John PTak]

Calenti: I'm not sure what exactly is bothering you about this post. The point made was that the populist LIFE was trying to slap some sense into the mainline American noggin, which was evidently necessary as the war had already been on for most of the world for the past 26 months. And no doubt about it, 1942 was a very hard year, as was 1943. I've been of the opinion though that once the Manhattan Project was started there was no doubt about the end of the war. And no, I think it is not at all possible that there could've been an a-bomb arms race during the war as the physical limitations and the enormous amounts of energy and manpower necessary to produce the components of an atomic weapon were available *only* to the U.S. This is one of the major reasons why I think it was not possible for the U.S. to have been overcome, let alone "easily" coming to pass. [I am in no way saying that the US won the war on its own, obviously; this is just a quick, minor statement not meant to encompass a major argument.] Lastly I've never not said "thanks" to the old guys--my father's mother's six brothers all fought as did three other uncles, plus my wife's father and 5-bronze-starred step-father. They were those old guys, and what they did was never lost on me for one instant.