Christmas Gala Massacre

Elaine J. Lapham

Marsha A. Harris

Joshua J. Mayberry

Raymond H. Alvardo

Gloria M. Livingston

The **Christmas Gala Massacre** was a shooting perpetrated by the Empire of Japan's Fists of the Emperor paramilitary organization on the evening of December 7, 1941, as part of the December 7, 1941 Terrorist Attacks.

## Background

America was holding its annual Christmas Gala at a local church in Kansas City, Kansas. Hosted by a private religious organization known as Reasons for Hope International, the party/gala had about 900 people in attendance.

## The massacre

### Initial rampage

The party began at 6:00 PM that night, and a squad of eight attackers, led by Krishima Shinzaburo, entered the church where the paty was being held, about an hour and thirty two minutes later, at 7:32 PM, when the party was in full swing. At 8:33 PM, an hour and ten minutes after the "ball dance" part of the gala began, the shooting commenced. Krishima Shinzaburo and his men pulled out submachine guns and began shouting, "Long live the Emperor" and "Death to the Coalition!" while gunning people down.

As chaos erupted inside the church yard, people rushed around the church area in order to look for places to hide. Many guards attempted to engage the terrorists, only to be mowed down owing to their inferior firepower. Though dozens of civilians were massacred, some of them were able to take shelter in areas around the building while some used the telephone in their hiding spots to call police.

The church sanctuary was the place where most of the carnage happened. Victor R. Morales, a college student, had been shot and killed trying to protect his girlfriend Gloria M. Livingston, who was able to reach her parents before being shot as well. She survived, however, but was left paralyzed from the waist down. Elsewhere, Jared N. Harms, the local pastor, was gunned down while attempting to hide inside the men's restroom outside the sanctuary. Anita T. Straight, another church member, was stabbed after a failed attempt to play dead and fool the shooters. She died from blood loss later. Missionaries on leave George B. Tillmon and his wife Miranda were both killed attempting to evade the shooters as they broke into the sanctuary.

A total of 25 deaths were confirmed in the shooting.

### Civilian counterattack and police intervention

At 9:00, thirty three minutes after the shooting initiailly began, gala participant, father and World War I veteran Burt Kendrick, his children Allen and Samantha Kendrick, and various other participants grew desperate and some even thought about fighting the shooters themselves in order to escape the carnage.

Police were en-route by 9:10 PM, but were slowed down due to traffic on the roadways. At about 9:30 PM, following a vote amongst the surviving party participants on whether to act, Alan S. Brooks, Elaine J. Lapham, Joshua J. Mayberry, Raymond H. Alvardo, and all their friends began plotting to counterattack against the shooters.

At 9:35 PM, the attackers broke into a Sunday School classroom where a couple survivors were hiding. According to eyewtinesses interviewed by police after the event took place, the civilians used improvised weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

According to eyewitness interviews, college student Marsha A. Harris, had called her parents (who were not present at the church during the time of the massacre) from a telephone near her hiding spot to tell them that Alexandra and her friends were fighting the shooters themselves. She then heard a friend screaming in pain and told her parents that she needed help before hanging up on them. She called back hours later, after the melee ended, at a hospital. She reported that she had been shot by the terrorists during the intiial brawl between the surviving civilians and the Japanese gunmen. When her family visited Marsha at the hospital after the attack was over, they learned from someone else that their daughter had been shot trying to protect other gala participants. Marsha was lauded a hero.

Police were able to break into the church at 10:02 PM, where they found a full-blown melee between the Imperial Japanese attackers and the American civilians. The remaining Japanese terrorists fled, while a handful were arrested on the spot.

## Aftermath

In the aftermath, the body count on the American side totaled up to 25. The Japanese shooters only lost three. The remaining two shooters were arrested by the police on the spot. The ringleader, Krishima Shinzaburo, was able to escape and report back to his superiors that the shooting, though initially successful, was ultimately foiled.

## International response

In the aftermath of the attack, governments the world over condemned Japan's actions, calling the shooting a "blatant" act of terrorism. Following the massacre, the United States declared war against Japan, entering into World War II. Other countries followed suit, and the United States government soon began talks to arm church parishoners in the event another terrorist attack happened again on American soil. Additionally, the United States government began to restrict people from using certain firearms, like fully automatic submachine guns.

## Legacy

The shooting held the record as the worst shooting in American history-until Columbine happened in 1999, years later. It also paved the way for sweeping changes in American legislature involving guns. Specifically, the United States government passed laws banning civilians from using fully automatic submachine guns. In response to the shootings, the government authorized the use of "nightwatchers" to patrol churches when religious events were occurring.
It was later revealed that the massacre was a major embarrassment to the Japanese government, having been foiled by mere "peasants with knives and forks." Japan had severely underestimated the power of the American people and Emperor Hirohito suffered a public loss of face as a result of his miscalulation of American willpower.
Marsha A. Harris, one of the participants in the civilian counterattack against the Japanese terrorists, was lauded as a hero after it was revealed that she valiantly acted to protect her friend and classmate Alexandra Kendrick during the shooting, in addition to other people. Marsha and her friends received high honors for their various acts of heroism during the terrorist attack.

## Trivia

* Elements of the event are similar to the controversial Call of Duty: MW2 mission No Russian.
* This marked the first time that civilians actively took up arms against a foreign terrorist organization (unlike the modern timeline, where United Airlines Flight 93 was the first time civilians took up arms against a terrorist group).