Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

violence broke out in Los Angeles, in the predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood of Chavez Ravine (near the present-day site of Dodger Stadium). The riots were touched off by simmering tensions between sailors posted to a nearby naval reserve training center and local Latino youths who wore “zoot suits” and broad-brimmed hats. The zoot suiters, as they were called, resented the influx of thousands of servicemen to their “barrio.” Angry confrontations on the streets were common. Los Angeles newspapers, especially the two local Hearst dailies, began campaigning against the zoot suiters in 1942, accusing them in sensationalistic terms of violence, theft, rape, indolence, draft-dodging, and smoking marijuana. On June 4, 1943—the first anniversary of the Battle of Midway—a rumor swept through the naval and military bases of the region. It was said that a gang of zoot suiters had attacked a sailor and then retreated into a local movie theater. Carloads of sailors wielding baseball bats converged on Chavez Ravine. They stormed into the cinemas, forced the projectionists to turn on the lights, strode up and down the aisles, and dragged anyone wearing a zoot suit out into the street. The victims were beaten and the suits ripped from their bodies. The Los Angeles Police Department and navy shore patrol stood by, for the most part, and did not intervene.