War Games in Shelton, 1941

In the summer of 1941 (about four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), the U.S. Army was anticipating a possible Japanese invasion of the West Coast, including southwest Washington. At Fort Lewis, officers of the Army's 41st Division drew up plans for "war games" that would enact, as realistically as possible, a Japanese invasion and the U. S. military response. It would be the job of soldiers from Fort Lewis to hold off invaders attacking at several points along the Washington Coast until supporting troops could be moved north from California. Residents up and down the coast we...