The history of New Mexico during World War II is characterized by dramatic and lasting changes to its economy, society, and politics. The state played a central role in the American war effort, contributing a disproportionately high number of servicemen and natural resources; most famously, it hosted the sites where the world's first nuclear weapon was designed, developed, and tested.
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, New Mexico had been a state for only three decades and was largely marginal in national affairs. Its sparse population, remoteness, and geography proved ideally suited for top secret military bases and scientific laboratories—most notably at Los Alamos, which undertook the advanced nuclear research that led to the atomic bomb. New Mexico also hosted a variety of military installations, from training facilities to army hospitals, as well as several camps for prisoners of war and Japanese American internees.
New Mexicans were among the first Americans to see combat in the war, with over 1,800 fighting Japan's invasion of the Philippines just hours after its attack on Pearl Harbor. Patriotism ran high throughout the state's diverse and disparate populace, including among its long-marginalized Hispanic and indigenous communities; among them were several of the famed Navajo code talkers, who were critical to protecting U.S. wartime communications. New Mexico would provide more military volunteers, and suffer more casualties, than any other state.
World War II had an immediate and enduring transformative effect on New Mexico. Government investment precipitated an unprecedented economic and demographic boom, with the state's pre-war population of 530,000 nearly doubling to 950,000 by 1960. New Mexico's largely agrarian prewar economy became more industrialized, and its mostly rural population became increasingly urban. Many of the military and scientific installations built during the war remain active and strategically valuable to this day; the wartime development of modern military technology fostered a unique and continuing relationship between New Mexico, the federal government, and the scientific community.
Military personnel
The United States participated in the Second World War from December 1941 to August 1945. During that time, 49,579 New Mexicans volunteered or were drafted into military service, accounting for roughly 9 percent of the total population—the highest rate of service among all forty-eight states at the time. New Mexico also endured the highest proportion of fatalities among U.S. states, losing over 2,200 citizens by the war's end.
Bataan Death March
Soldiers from New Mexico were among the first Americans to fight in the war. On January 3, 1941, the 200th Coast Artillery of the New Mexico National Guard had been mobilized for one year's service with the United States Army, arriving in the Philippines in September, where they manned anti-aircraft guns at Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg. The regiment had a storied history, tracing its origins to the famous New Mexican Cavalry that was deployed to Cuba to fight with Teddy Roosevelt’s "Rough Riders" in the Spanish-American War. When New Mexico became a state less than fourteen years later, in 1912, the cavalry force was federalized and the 200th became one of the most ethnically diverse National Guard battalions in the United States.
The regiment saw action just ten hours after the December 8th attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when Japanese aircraft led the coming invasion of the Philippines. Although their shells could not hit high-flying Japanese bombers, the New Mexicans managed to strike lower altitude fighters, downing eighty-six aircraft, including six in a single day. After the Japanese launched their main offensive to conquer the Philippines on January 7, 1942, the 200th Coast Artillery, along with the newly formed 515th Coast Artillery of New Mexico, covered the withdrawal of Filipino and American forces during the Battle of Bataan.
