three blimp bases on the Pacific Coast, the southernmost near Santa Ana in rural Orange County. With their slow speed and ability to hover, blimps were ideal for tracking underwater craft. At first six, then twelve blimps flew out of the Santa Ana station, which commenced operations in November 1942. The two hangars, built in 1942 and 1943 to protect the blimps from powerful local winds, are the largest clear span wooden structures in the world. The Santa Ana Naval Air Station was decommissioned in June 1949, then re-commissioned during the Korean War in April 1951 shortly before it was transferred to the Marine Corps for use as a helicopter base. In 1970 the installation became Marine Corps Air Station Tustin. The base closed in 1991. SEE FIGURE 38
Figure 37. The U.S. government forcibly removed and incarcerated all Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
FEBRUARY/MARCH 1942 Japanese Americans Forcibly Removed and Incarcerated During a period of extreme paranoia and heightened racism following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. It authorized the eventual forced removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 residents of Japanese ancestry—nearly two-thirds U.S. citizens—from all of California, the western halves of Washington and Oregon, and the southern half of Arizona to inland concentration camps. People were forced to leave behind their businesses, property, farmland, and more; many lost everything during this period. The Supreme Court’s decision in the case Ex parte Endo (1944) enabled Japanese Americans to return to the West Coast in 1945. Many were met with rude reception or outright hostility. Slowly, Japanese Americans reestablished their communities. Decades later, activists fought for reparations, leading to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, with a formal presidential apology and $20,000 payments to surviving incarcerees. SEE FIGURE 37
JUNE 13, 1942 Office of War Information to Guide Hollywood
By the second decade of the twentieth century Hollywood, the center of the American film industry, had become the most important vehicle for disseminating images of the California dream. During World War II Hollywood was called upon to play a new role, mobilizing the nation with patriotic feature films and propaganda as well as morale building tours by movie stars like Betty Grable, John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Ronald Reagan. Among Hollywood’s best-known patriotic films were Wake Island (1942), Flying Tigers (1942), Casablanca (1942), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Bataan (1943), Air Force (1943), Watch on the Rhine (1943), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), and God is My Co-Pilot (1945). JULY 1942 Land Purchased for Marine Corps Air Station El Toro In July 1942 the federal government purchased approximately 2,300 acres from the Irvine Company for construction of the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro. Further acreage was acquired in 1950 and 1975. The base was originally built to facilitate squadron formation and combat training prior to overseas deployment. In March 1943 MCAS El Toro was formally commissioned as a temporary wartime installation. In December 1944 it was designated as a permanent installation. At that point the base was home to 1,248 officers and 6,831 enlisted personnel, making it the largest Marine Corps Air Station on the west coast. SEE FIGURE 39
Figure 38. Two giant blimp hangars at Santa Ana Naval Air Station, Tustin, California. Image courtesy of Library of Congress. Figure 39. Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, California is the home of the Orange County Great Park and its Walkable Historical Timeline. Image courtesy of Naval Aviation News.
APRIL 1942 Santa Ana Naval Air Station (Blimp Hangars) Established
Fear of Japanese submarines operating near America’s ports prompted the Navy to establish
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