This photograph of Chinese Americans picketing at the Port of Astoria appeared in the Oregon Journal on March 3, 1939.
As a P-I business columnist, I had written a number of pieces critical of trade sanctions. I argued that sanctions rarely force the hands of a foreign government, but that they often hurt the people there and always interfere with the freedom of Americans. Sanctions are hostile actions — acts of war, really. I was against them in regard to South Africa, Vietnam and Cuba. When historian Lorraine McConaghy urged me to look up the fight over scrap steel exports to Japan in the 1930s, I discovered an exception. If a country is threatening to attack you, which Japan eventually did, the scrap steel you sell it could come back as bullets.
My column on scrap steel to Japan ran in the business section of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 29, 1998.
Trade sanctions are not only an issue of the 1990s. Lorraine McConaghy, historian of Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry, led me to a tale from a far different time: the sale of scrap steel to Japan in the 1930s.
The trade was reported in the Post-Intelligencer in December 1934. Japan makes the symbolic move of buying shells from the old arsenal at Fort Stevens on the Columbia River. The exporter assures Americans that the shells are “not being converted into war materiel.”
In December 1934, war is already on people’s minds. That month, Japan renounces a treaty restricting the size of its navy. But Japan is also a longtime trading partner, and shipments of steel continue.
In July 1937, Japan invades China. The same month, a Japanese group offers to landscape Seattle’s Foster Island with five acres of cherry trees. The offer is not accepted; the public’s sympathy is with China. But U.S. exports are five times higher to Japan than to China.
In August 1937, Seattle’s young congressman, Warren Magnuson, says, “We should permit Americans to trade with either belligerent at their own risk.” It is a common view.
Left-wing groups like the Washington Commonwealth Federation push for an embargo on fascist Japan. Few listen. Many an American out of work gets pocket money by scrounging old metal.
The year 1938 begins with the Rape of Nanjing. Hitler seizes Austria. Steel shipments to Japan continue.
On Feb. 24, 1939, 20 Chinese children, whose parents are mainly cannery workers, begin picketing a Japanese ship at Astoria. Japan’s consul in Portland demands that the children be in school. When the school board so orders, the children are replaced by their mothers. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union honors the pickets and refuses to load 21 railcars of scrap onto the ship.
The ship owners turn to a federal arbitrator, who rules that the workers are in violation of their contract. The workers ignore him. On March 3, 1939, Port of Astoria commissioners voe to ban shipments of scrap to Japan.
On March 5, a picket is thrown around a Greek ship at Portland. Again, the longshoremen ignore a federal arbitrator. The employers’ association threatens to close the port. On March 15, Oregon’s governor says the matter will be handled by the State Department and asks the pickets to stop.
They do, and the ship is loaded. That day, German troops march into Prague.
On March 22, about 75 picketers stake out a Japanese ship in Seattle. Work stops. The employers’ association calls this “a pure breach of contract.” On March 28, after an appeal by Seattle Mayor Arthur Langlie to load the ship, and an imminent ruling by a federal arbitrator, the longshoremen load the ship.
In Astoria, employers sue the port, saying it has no authority to stop foreign trade. The Port of Seattle’s attorney agrees with them.
On June 28, 1939, deputy U.S. marshals serve more than 50 restraining orders on picketers at Pier 91. The orders are on the petition of Bogle, Bogle & Gates, attorneys for the United British Steamship Co. On July 2, longshoremen begin loading a British and a Danish freighter.
Europe is now on the edge of war. Rep. Magnuson has long since changed his mind about the sale of steel scrap. He supports an embargo bill. Japan threatens to stop buying U.S. cotton if the bill passes. President Roosevelt opposes the bill, and on July 20, 1939, it dies in the Senate.
On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland, and World War II begins in Europe. In April 1940, Germany invades Norway and Denmark; in May it invades Holland, Belgium and France. Between January and August, 1940, Washington ports ship 70,898 tons of scrap steel to Japan.
On Sept. 26, 1940, in response to Japanese actions in Indochina, Roosevelt declares an embargo on sales of scrap steel to Japan, effective Oct. 15.
On Oct. 11, the Post-Intelligencer reports that rails from Seattle’s streetcar lines are being loaded on the Hie Maru. Mayor Langlie, who is running for governor as a Republican, asks Customs to stop the ship. Magnuson, a Democrat, jeers and Langlie’s negligence. The Seattle City Council asks for federal intervention. The ship sails.
Roosevelt’s embargo does not include melted scrap. Three days before Christmas 1939, a Japanese ship loads at least 10 cars of steel ingots at Pier 91. It is a sale from Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp. to Mitsui & Co.
It is the end. A year later, America is attacked at Pearl Harbor. Schoolchildren are soon encouraged to collect scrap metal for the American war effort.
Now there’s a case for sanctions. Not many make the cut, but that one does.
© 1998, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
For a long time, the above column was posted on the web page of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.