Pearl Harbor remembrance: A look at how World War II impacted California

A look at the effects of World War II on California and its lasting impact.

Every American was impacted by the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The entrance of the U.S. in World War II had major implications for California in many ways.

California was mobilizing for war before the attack. The U.S. Army began building bases and expanding installations in the state in 1939. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the California coastline was fortified with hundreds of cannons and anti-aircraft batteries. The harbors in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego were protected with minefields, and military bases in the Golden State became key training areas for the wars in Europe and the Pacific.

Soldiers weren’t the only newcomers to California; thousands of workers flocked here. California accounted for 17% of the nation’s wartime production and received 10 cents of every dollar spent by the Defense Department.

One of the biggest booms for the state’s economy came in agriculture. From 1940 to 1944, the state’s annual crop revenues increased 159% to $1.7 billion.

California’s growth

California’s population surged during and immediately after World War II. In 1941 the state had 7.23 million residents.

WWII: California’s population grew by about 2.5 million, or 30%, in four years during the war.

1962: California became the most populated state in the U.S.

City population in 1940, 1960 and now

1940 San Diego: 203,321

1960: 844,000

2024: 1.38 million

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1940 San Jose: 68,457

1960: 204,196

2024: 956,433

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1940 Los Angeles: 1.5 million

1960: 6.5 million

2024: 12.5 million

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1940 Anaheim: 11,031

1960: 104,184

2024: 338,463

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1940 Riverside: 34,696

1960: 84,332

2024: 320,121

Attacks on California

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Californians lived in fear of a Japanese invasion. The Japanese attacked several ships along the coast, and a long-range submarine bombed an oil field near Santa Barbara on Feb. 23, 1942. The next day, rumors of an invasion triggered air-raid sirens and anti-aircraft fire in Los Angeles that became known as The Battle of Los Angeles. U.S. anti-aircraft guns fired about 1,400 rounds over the city. No planes or bombs were discovered and the incident was later determined to be a false alarm.

Some wartime incidents

Unmanned balloons bombs found in Alturas and Hayfork, cities located in Northern California

Ships attacked: SS Agwiworld, SS Emidio, SS Samoa, SS Larry Doheny, SS Dorothy Phillips, SS H.M. Storey, SS Montebello and the SS Idaho, SS Barbara Olson and SS Absoroka

The Shelling of Ellwood: The first attack by a Japanese submarine on mainland America occurred when a Japanese submarine shelled an oil field near Santa Barbara.

Major installations in 1945

During World War II, the state had more than 140 military bases and was also a leading manufacturing center. Less than 20% of the bases in California during WWII remain in use today.

Major disaster

On July 17, 1944 at Port Chicago (30 miles north of San Francisco) an explosion at a munitions facility killed about 320 people. The blast was felt as far away as Nevada. The site is now a national memorial.

You can learn more about the Port Chicago disaster and how it impacted Civil Rights here.

Japanese, Italian and German internment

Japanese internment camps in the mainland held more than 112,000.

The exclusion zone gave the U.S. military broad powers to ban any Japanese citizen from anywhere inside the zone.

In the 1940s Japanese American farmers grew nearly 40% of all vegetables in California, including 100% of peppers, celery, and tomatoes. During the internment high schoolers and Mexicans did most of the labor in the fields.

Made in California

According to a University of Santa Clara exhibit, historians call World War II the most significant event ever to occur in Los Angeles… even though it didn’t occur in Los Angeles. Aircraft and ship manufacturers provided jobs, higher wages, and more open hiring, including women workers.

Sea, air and land

San Francisco and Los Angeles’ most crucial contribution to WWII was shipbuilding. Prior to 1940, Only 23 ships were launched from American shipyards. Five years later 4,600 ships had been launched from American shipyards. Nearly 45% of all the warships and 20% of all the cargo ships built in the nation during World War II were constructed by shipyards in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. The yards supplied more than 40,000 jobs and built around 467 ships, which is about a ship a day.

Between 1941 and 1944, the U.S., California in particular, quadrupled its productivity for aircraft manufacturing. In less than 5 years, 300,000 planes were manufactured. The goal set by President Franklin Roosevelt was 50,000.

There were more than 25 different types of aircraft built in the state including the B-17 Flying Fortress, Lockheed P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang.

Many vehicles for the land battle were constructed in the state. The GM South Gate Assembly plant built light tanks and the Ford Assembly plant in Richmond built 49,399 jeeps.

Sources: Coast Defense Study Group, National Park Service, California State Military Museum, California State Capitol Museum, Santa Clara University