World War II Reshaped the Bay Area and Its People-- Part 1

From the May 28, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle by Carl Nolte.

World War II had a huge impact on the Bay's racial makeup, economy and even physical appearance.

The conversion of the orchard-rich Santa Clara County into Silicon Valley can be traced to the war.

Oakland and Richmond turned into boom towns.  After Pearl Harbor, the Bay Area became a centerpiece of FDR's Arsenal of Democracy.

Shipyards went up.  In San Francisco, Bechtel Corporation got a telegram from the government on March 2, 1942 asking if it wanted to build ships on San Francisco Bay.  Within ten days, the corporation began clearing marshlands in Sausalito for a shipyard named Marinship.  Just three months after the call, the keel of a freighter had been laid and in September, the William Richardson, named for Sausalito's founder, was launched.

--GreGen