1941: Angelenos on alert after Pearl Harbor
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
a2anniversary7dec07,1,4199149.story?ctrack=1&cset=true


Dec. 7, 1941: With news of the attack on Pearl Harbor, "men girded
for action with .45s slung from their hips and folks wielding various
sorts of rifles and pistols descended upon the sheriff's office," The
Times reported.

They came to the Hall of Justice in response to "an erroneous radio
request for 250,000 volunteers for the Civilian Defense Council," the
newspaper said.

"Los Angeles was a city alert as every man and woman, electrified by
the news that Japan had struck at this country 2,400 miles westward
in the Pacific, took his or her stand solidly for total defense,"
read one report.

Filipinos in the city gathered in a mass meeting to pledge their
loyalty, police were put on 12-hour shifts and the FBI "began taking
into custody Japanese aliens" on Terminal Island, The Times said.

In Little Tokyo, the people "were not excited. But they seemed sad,"
the newspaper said. The area was "surrounded by a cordon of police."