Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2
Tsunami-1 continued...
Thus is was that on May 1, 1946, German observers aboard a German battleship saw a mushroom cloud rise up from the 18 kiloton detonation of Britain's (and Tsunami-1's) first atomic bomb.
To be continued...
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To understand the context of what happened next, we need to step back a few years and look at what was happening in North America after the Great Wave.
As noted above, the greatest tsunami in history (actually a series of several waves) wrought tremendous damage all around the Pacific Rim. Though the United States was far less heavily 'invested' on the west coast in 1940 than it would be later on Homeline history, the damage was still considerable and the death-toll numbing. It was easily the most lethal natural disaster in America history, by a very large margin.
Sacramento
[ERROR: This should read San Diego.] and Los Angeles were devastated. San Francisco was more lightly struck, the waves penetrated San Francisco Bay and wrought havoc. Even the Golden Gate Bridge was sufficiently damaged that it had to be torn down and replaced. To the north, Seattle was partly sheltered by the local land, but still enormously damaged.
All told, over 235,000 people were either confirmed dead, or missing, when the damage was assessed. The USA had lost more people in that one natural disaster than it had in most of the wars it had ever fought. Subsequent American historians would generally consider the Great Wave second only to the Civil War of 1861-65 in terms of its catastrophic harm, and the latter was spread over four years, while the Great Wave took only a day.
The monetary damage was difficult to calculate. Some insurance companies that had high exposure to the west coast region went bankrupt, a few reinsurance companies went down as well. Still, economists would later puzzle over some of the impacts, because they were as much psychological as physical.
In the short term, the fading Great Depression returned, as stocks plunged and panic gripped the country. Historians would later conclude that this effect was as much psychological as pragmatic, the economy collapsed not so much because of the damage to the west coast as because the public overreacted in panic and dread. The effect was real enough, though.
As the remaining months of 1940 passed, an initially desultory and confused cleanup and rescue effort began to come together. FDR declared martial law throughout the west coast States, and gradually an effective relief effort came together.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was expanded enormously, as one response to the disaster, and taking in recruits of men previously considered too old. Congress actually voted in a 'draft' for the CCC, enabling compulsory service for unemployed young men as laborers. Other organizations somewhat along the same lines were also put together, such as a 'Service Corps' made up of older men with experience in medicine or rescue work.
Over the course 1941, the reconstruction effort began to show results. Los Angeles Harbor was repaired, as was San Francisco. New facilities rose in Seattle and San Diego, and new military facilities began to be built as well, establishing the nucleus for a substantial naval presence in the Pacific.
Many people, both in the USA and outside, took note that life in the expanded CCC had military overtones, though it was technically a civilian organization. A generation of young men were getting a 'primer' in military life without actually being in the service, and this was did not go unnoticed.
The economic impact of the reconstruction began to undo the downturn as 1941 drew to a close. Enormous quantities of raw materials were purchased, finish products needed. The men of the CCC were paid, not lavishly but paid, and they spent money.
Indeed, the pay structure of the 'new' CCC was interesting. The government provided room and board, so the modest pay went farther than one would expect. Furthermore, a second salary was also paid in an escrow account in the name of the man. After two years employment, he received this money, but he forfeited it if he quit during the years or broke various rules.
Enormous progress was made in 1942, reconstruction proceeding faster than most people had dared hope. FDR's talent for reading the public and tapping just the right tone to motivate served him and the public well, he was able to motivate the reconstruction almost with a war-effort intensity. In the process, in many ways the restored west coast infrastructure was a modernized, improved version of what had been destroyed.
In 1943, FDR convinced Congress to authorize CCC work to 'rebuild and update' much of the east coastal infrastructure as well, including, interestingly, naval facilities.
Franklin Roosevelt's health was failing him, however, and just as on Homeline, there was considerable discontent within the Democratic Party over his vice-president, Henry Wallace, for many of the same underlying reasons. (The details varied because the world situation was different.) Just as on Homeline, Wallace was defeated at the Democratic Convention by a party rebellion in 1944.
Events were sufficiently different, however, that instead of putting Truman onto the ticket, a little known congressman from Kansas named Brant Shelby became FDR's new vice president. Shelby was on his first term in the House of Representatives when he was chosen as the compromise between Democratic Party factions.
Just as on Homeline, FDR easily won the 1944 November elections, and just as on Homeline, less than a year later FDR was dead. Brant Shelby was now President of the United States.
To be continued...