Wartime at Yale
Yale, like the rest of the nation, mobilized for war swiftly. Yale’s campus transformed into a hub for U.S. Army and Navy operations and language training programs. Calhoun and Berkeley became Army residences, while the Navy and marines occupied Branford, Saybrook, Davenport, and Pierson. The remaining 700 civilian undergraduates were housed in Jonathan Edwards, Timothy Dwight, and Trumbull. By 1943, there were roughly 7,000 students (2,000 more students than prewar enrollment). Even as the campus underwent mass wartime mobilization, some individuals at Yale challenged wartime policies, chiefly internment and federal restrictions that barred Japanese Americans from enrolling at the university.
Within the American public at large, there were also a number of vocal critics. Quakers and pacifists like Elizabeth Page Harris, Maynard Force Thayer, and Patrick Lloyd protested through a range of actions, including writing to government officials, signing petitions, defying draft orders, and serving meals to Japanese Americans as they departed for camp.