"Operation Wake-Up": The Mock-Bombing of L.A. (December 6th, 1951)
"Extra" Edition of The Mirror
At 10:41 a.m. on December 6, 1951, the “eve of the Pearl Harbor anniversary,” thirty-eight planes of the Civil Air Patrol “bombed” Los Angeles in a publicity stunt called "Operation Wake-Up." Coordinated with The Los Angeles Mirror, an afternoon tabloid launched by the L.A. Times back in 1948, the CAP planes flew over the city in a V-formation typically associated with bombers, and began dropping 2,000,000 leaflets over lower Broadway, Downtown L.A., Civic Center, Boyle Heights, the Crenshaw district, Hollywood, the Miracle Mile, and centers from Highland Park to San Pedro. Next to an image of a bomb, the leaflets exclaimed “THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN A BOMB!” In a small box in the corner, the text describes the spectacle in terms of performing a “public service.” It announces the CAP’s need for pilots, and urges the reader to seek further details in that day’s publication of The Mirror.
In an “Extra” edition of the Mirror, which was widely available throughout the city that morning, the cover announced the bombing with the image of a mushroom cloud in the background. While obviously a ploy to sell more of the papers, the Mirror and the CPA disguised the event behind the early Cold War rhetoric of Civil Defense Preparedness. One side of the leaflet reads, “If the Civil Air Patrol, flying this warning mission in co-operation with The Mirror, had been the enemy, would YOU have been prepared?” Recalling the devastation of Pearl Harbor, the “mock bombing” was meant to evoke memories associated with the fear and uncertainty of a “surprise enemy attack.” In order to make this point clear, and to ensure only one response from the reader, the leaflet refers to a story in the paper titled “L.A.’s Civil Defense Crisis!” and states, “Whatever you Think About Los Angeles’ Preparedness, You’re Due for a Shock.”
In an “Extra” edition of the Mirror, which was widely available throughout the city that morning, the cover announced the bombing with the image of a mushroom cloud in the background. While obviously a ploy to sell more of the papers, the Mirror and the CPA disguised the event behind the early Cold War rhetoric of Civil Defense Preparedness. One side of the leaflet reads, “If the Civil Air Patrol, flying this warning mission in co-operation with The Mirror, had been the enemy, would YOU have been prepared?” Recalling the devastation of Pearl Harbor, the “mock bombing” was meant to evoke memories associated with the fear and uncertainty of a “surprise enemy attack.” In order to make this point clear, and to ensure only one response from the reader, the leaflet refers to a story in the paper titled “L.A.’s Civil Defense Crisis!” and states, “Whatever you Think About Los Angeles’ Preparedness, You’re Due for a Shock.”
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Despite being more about “shock and awe” than public service, the paper received many accolades from readers. It seemed that many believed, as the leaflet and paper described, that people were dangerously unaware of the threat of nuclear annihilation, and needed a “wake up call.” However, during an age of insistence that citizens “Keep Calm and Carry On”, like the now popular slogans from overseas, the reality was that even those who worried were instructed to focus on other things. However, whether asleep or awake, the truth was that Civil Defense Preparedness could do very little, or nothing at all, for victims of an atomic bombing.
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For more on The Mirror’s exploits, read Bill Geerhart’s “ATOMIC TABLOID: MOCK-TOMIC BOMBS!”