Pearl Harbor split the academic year of 1941-42 into two distinct sections. Before December 7, the war, and everything to do with it seemed unreal and far away, but after the first bombs fell on Hawaii, Harvard, its students and Faculty, devoted themselves completely to the struggle, and anything else became superficial.

7,118 men, comprising the largest Freshman class in history, signed their way into Harvard on September 20, and then assembled in the Union to hear District Attorney Robert F. Bradford '23, Willard L. Sperry, dean of the Divinity School, and Richard M. Gummere '01, chairman of the Board of Admissions, carefully avoid any mention of the war, and deal instead with the opportunities offered by Harvard.

But though the war was forgotten at that first meeting, when the new Yardlings entered the musty old classrooms for the first time, they found the ranks of the Faculty decimated. Many of the University's best-known and most competent teachers had left to serve the country in Washington.

Information Bureau Formed

Early in the year, the Defense Information Bureau, later changed to the War Service Information Bureau, was established in University Hall and Law Professor A. James Casner placed at its head.

Civilian defense hit home at Harvard on October 7, when President Conant announced the formation of a Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Donald Scott '00 to organize an A. R. P. system. By the end of the year, the University had a fairly smooth-working system under Chief Warden Aldrich Durant '02, 600 trained wardens, an auxiliary fire and auxiliary police service, fire watchers in the House towers, airplane spotters, and first aid experts. Blackout paint and curtains were installed, and liberal quantities of sand, stirrup pumps, and other equipment supplied.

Although the opportunity had been offered undergraduates to complete their work for a degree in three years, by mid-October only 86 men had applied for permission to do so.

Mid-Year Degrees

On October 17 the Alumni Bulletin announced that but 22 per cent of the undergraduates wanted war immediately, nearly half felt that the Neutrality Act should be repealed, and more than 50 per cent thought that they should not be drafted.

The University announced on October 23 that any Seniors who were drafted by mid-years could get degrees under special conditions.

Just six days before Pearl Harbor, Director of Admissions Gummere revealed that the entrance requirements had been cased, allowing admission with fewer examinations, while Professor Michael A. Karpovlch, now czar of History I, and expert on Russia, asserted that the Soviets can "hold out indefinitely."

Undergraduates and Faculty alike did not question the outcome of the struggle begun that Sunday morning, nor the righteousness of the nation's stand. Said the CRIMSON on December 8, "We believe that in the present war they are synonymous. In that belief we fight and in that belief we will triumph."

Mobilization Rapid

With the declaration of war, the second chapter of the year began. So rapidly did the University mobilize itself for the demands of a nation engaged in a total war, and so remarkably did the attitude and atmosphere of the University community become determined and serious that Time later dubbed the period "The Hundred Days."

The Business School, which had already set up a Quartermaster unit, a Naval Supply Corps, and an Industrial Administration course, established a special program for the Army Air Force late in the spring, and doubled its other enrollments. The A. R. P. program shifted into high gear, the graduate schools speeded up admission, mid-year graduation prerequisites were relaxed, A. R. P. questionnaires were distributed, and War Certificates were made available to students leaving without a degree, as Harvard drastically transformed itself into a war machine.