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army and navy commanders of Hawaii—General Walter Short and Admiral Husband Kimmel—were being charged with dereliction of duty for not having contingency plans in case of attack from Japan. Ironically, as part of his staff duties in the 1920s, DeWitt was responsible for a contingency plan for the aftermath of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The plan was forgotten or ignored, but its essential elements were total military control of the islands and internment of Japanese workers throughout Hawaii.
    DeWitt’s headquarters was reporting enemy sightings day after day, stating that Japanese air force planes and submarines were engaged in constant reconnoitering all along the Pacific Coast—and wilder tales of bombardment from the sea, arson around Seattle, and illegal radio transmissions up and down the coastline. Almost all of that was untrue.
    The second-ranked soldier in the West was Major General Joseph Stilwell, commander of Fort Ord in California, later to become famous as “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell in China and India. He kept a pocket diary during those early days. Some of his notations beginning on December 8 included:
Dec. 8—Saw DeWitt Sunday night “air raid” at San Francisco.… Fourth Army kind of jittery. Much depressed.
Dec. 9—… Fleet of thirty-four [Japanese] ships between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Later—not authentic. (Sinking feeling is growing.) More threats of raids and landings …
Dec. 11—[Phone call from Fourth Army] “The main Japanese fleet is 164 miles off San Francisco.” I believed it, like a damn fool.… Of course, the attack never materialized. The [Fourth Army] passed the buck on this report. They had it from a “usually reliable source,” but they should never have put it out without check.
Dec. 13—Not content with the above blah, [Fourth] Army pulled another at ten-thirty today. “Reliable information that attack on Los Angeles is imminent. A general alarm being considered.…” What jackass would send a general alarm [which would have called for the evacuation of Los Angeles] under the circumstances. The [Fourth] Army G-2 [Intelligence] is just another amateur, just like all the rest of the staff. Rule: the higher the headquarters, the more important is calm .
    Stilwell knew, of course, who the “jackass” was: his immediate superior, General DeWitt.
    On December 21, Stilwell was ordered out of California. He was called to Washington to work on planning for an Allied invasion of North Africa toward the end of the coming year. He was more than glad to leave. His diary was filled with what he called:
The wild, farcical and fantastic stuff that G-2 Fourth Army pushes out! The latest is a two-pound bundle of crap. An investigation of a PhD, at California Tech, a distinguished research man in weather, who runs a service for orange growers. He voluntarily discontinued his broadcast when the war broke out, but [Fourth Army] had him investigated by FBI.… Report from Army that secret airfield had been reported about 20 miles north of Palomar (in San Diego County), the planes being concealed under alfalfa.… Where is our Navy? Five Mexican destroyers coming up from Panama to patrol Baja California. (The day has come we lean on Mexican Navy!)
    Then something did happen. On December 23, a Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank a Union Oil tanker, the company’s largest, the USS Montebello , in sight of the beaches of the town of Cambria, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. No one was killed or wounded and four lifeboats brought the thirty-six-man crew safely to shore. This time, because of rising fear and hysteria across the state, the navy and Coast Guard denied there was an attack. The news that two other smaller freighters were torpedoed off the California coast that same week, the Abbaroka and the Emidio , was also censored by the Coast Guard. Before and after the three real incidents, there were dozens if not hundreds of rumored stories, including one