The Daily Populous Monday January 20th, 2025 night edition
Authored by npr.org and submitted by blonderengel

The Navy exonerates 256 Black sailors unjustly punished over 1944 WWII port explosion

The U.S. Navy has exonerated 256 Black sailors who refused to go back to work after an explosion that killed hundreds of people in 1944, the military service announced Wednesday.

The blast that happened at the Port Chicago naval weapons station in California killed 320 people and injured 400 more. Mostly Black personnel and white officers were assigned to the base at the time, as Black enlistees were barred from almost all sea-bound jobs.

White officers were given time off following the incident, while Black sailors were not. So, 258 Black sailors refused to go back to their work of ammunition handling “in the absence of clarity on the explosions or further safety training,” the Navy said.

After threats of disciplinary action, 208 sailors returned to work, but were initially sentenced to a bad conduct discharge and did not get paid for three months. Eventually, the charges were dropped and the time without pay was reduced.

The other 50, now known as the “Port Chicago 50,” did not go back to work. They were convicted of mutiny, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor while incarcerated, dishonorably discharged and had their pay revoked completely.

Ultimately, their discharges were thrown out, their time behind bars was reduced to 17 to 29 months and many sailors were offered to fulfill the rest of their contracts upon being released, the Navy said.

Two of the sailors’ convictions were dropped, one for insufficient evidence and another for “mental incompetency,” the Navy said.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro exonerated the men after the General Counsel of the Navy found there were several failures made in the case, such as all the sailors being tried together and not being given “a meaningful right to counsel,” the Navy said.

The men were also tried before the investigation into the explosion was complete. The report later listed 19 recommendations to improve ammunition handling at the port.

“The Port Chicago 50, and the hundreds who stood with them, may not be with us today, but their story lives on, a testament to the enduring power of courage and the unwavering pursuit of justice,” Del Toro said. “They stand as a beacon of hope, forever reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, the fight for what's right can and will prevail.”

zoobrix on January 19th, 2025 at 18:18 UTC »

To give a window into just how pervasive racism in the military was at the time a US Navy manual mentioned how the Japanese wouldn't be good at night time naval engagements because they couldn't see as well at night...

Not only is that ridiculous of course but the Japanese had actually drilled more extensively in night fighting because they knew American ships had better radar and wanted to try and mitigate the advadanage that would give the US at night. This underestimation of the Japanese factored into the US losing several naval battles at night time around Guadalcanal. The US got lucky that after the engagements the Japanese were too concerned over their own losses to press their advantage and push to their objective to directly bombard Henderson Field which the US used to interdict Japanese reinforcements to the island, provide air cover to their own troops and cover their own ships running supplies to the island. The airfield was right on the beach, direct fire from Japanese battleships would have surely destroyed all the aircraft and rendered it unusable for who knows how long.

If the Japanese had destroyed Henderson Field the Americans might not have been able to maintain their presence on Guadalcanal and the Japanese would have been able to better reinforce and supply their own troops. Losing the battle for the first ever major Japanese holding in the Pacific that the Americans tried to take would have been a major setback and no doubt caused serious reflection if the US island hoping strategy was feasible. The battle went on for 6 months, it was not assured to end in American victory like some of the later battles once Japanese forces had been severely degraded.

TL;DR: I know the blatant racism of the time in the segregation era is sadly unsurprising but it still blows my mind that people could be so stupid and racist as to think Asian people don't see as well at night and actually put in an official manual. It factoring into what could have been a major American military defeat highlights the insane sense of false superiority. That they would give 15 year sentences to African Americans protesting obviously dangerous working conditions is sadly just as unsurprising, that they were reduced to 2 or 3 years was better but you know white soldiers would never have been as harshly punished.

KittenAlfredo on January 19th, 2025 at 16:44 UTC »

Awarding previously revoked pay adjusted for inflation to next of kin, right? Right?

blackhornet03 on January 19th, 2025 at 15:17 UTC »

It took them 80 years...