World war two – what I remember
This is being written on June 5, 1994. Tomorrow is the fiftieth anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, France by the allied forces. This invasion was sometimes called, “The beginning of the end of WW-2”. For the past several weeks, there have been a number of TV programs about this great event. I find them very interesting and for the most part gratifying. They bring back memories, not only of the war years, but other personal experiences, many of which I prefer not to recall. However, since I clearly recall the war years, and find them interesting, I will try to pass on personal history as I remember it, to anyone who is interested.
When the US actually entered into the war in December, 1941, I was seven years old. I don’t know everything I’m writing about from memory, since a seven year old kid generally didn’t know about world affairs, but I do know from reading history, the following. The war in Europe had been going on for some time under Hitler. Germany had invaded and captured several weak European countries. We, the US, were not officially involved other than perhaps, to supply England to some degree with food and war materials. Officially, the US was neutral, and there was strong general opinion that we should stay out of this war. World War One had ended about a quarter century before and was still in the minds of many middle age and older people. Japan, in the meantime was at war with several Far East countries in order to expand its territory. They were fighting China, Burma, and Korea.
As the war in Europe progressed, Germany was capturing and occupying one European country after another. It appeared more and more likely that the US was going to become involved.
Japan had a long range plan to occupy the many islands in the South and middle Pacific. The Philippine Islands were US possessions and were important to Japan, at least as a start toward their goal. The US was deep in a long depression; had a minimal military, and a negative opinionated population toward another war. In other words, the US was in a weak position. Japan thought it was a good time to begin winning the South Pacific Islands, and decided to invade the US. They did so on December 7, 1941, by attacking Pearl Harbor, a US military facility in Hawaii.
It was a Sunday morning. Japan brought planes via aircraft carrier to within flying distance of Hawaii, where many if not most of our naval ships were in port at Pearl Harbor. It was a complete surprise, catching our navy sleeping. From a Japanese point of view, the attack was extremely successful. They suffered minimal loss of aircraft, but much of our naval power was sunk, destroyed, or put out of commission. In addition, they destroyed most of our aircraft sitting on the ground at a nearby Army Air Station. That is when FDR (President Franklin Roosevelt) declared war on Japan. Soon after, we also entered the European War by declaring war on Germany.
Therefore, WW-2 was more than just one war as far as the US was concerned. Our main enemies were Japan in the Pacific and Germany in Europe. Our country was not prepared at all. Although the military draft had been instated a year earlier, we had very few troops for fighting a single war, let alone two at once. Our navy was pretty much ruined, and neither the Army nor the Navy had much equipment. In addition, we were several years into a devastating depression.
As mentioned, the above details are not from my memory, but from the history that I have read. Names like Germany, Italy, Poland, and France, I recognized as countries, but I didn’t know where they were nor did I understand the significance of what was going on. Names like Japan, Iwo Jima, Singapore, Wake Island, Korea, Burma, and the Philippines were completely new and unfamiliar to me. I had never heard of Hawaii or of course, Pearl Harbor until after the Japanese attack. I knew that adults had a great deal of interest in the European fighting before we entered into it. The world situation was a common topic of conversation among adults, but I didn’t understand much of anything that was going on.
I do recall when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor though and FDR’s speech declaring war against Germany. From that day on, everyone talked about the war, adults and kids alike, and it had a great effect on every person in the country, including kids. Still not understanding much of what was going on, we learned to hate the Germans, called “Krauts”, and the Japanese, called “Japs”. We knew they were our enemies, and they wanted to capture and kill us.
Young men were drafted or they enlisted in the various branches of the armed forces. I knew several from our area who went, and had a few older cousins that went into the service, but they were not close friends or playmates because of the age difference. My Dad and my uncles on his side of the family were not drafted, I suppose because they had families and were farmers, but I’m not sure if that was the reason. With that background, here are some of the ways that I remember the war affected people, and even a small boy.
The war and patriotism were heavily advertised on the radio, newspapers, magazines, and movies. Also, in every town and city, there were patriotic signs in store windows and stand alone street signs. The signs contained slogans such as, “Keep Em Flying”, “Remember Pearl Harbor”, “Uncle Sam Needs You”, etc. Banners were put up on the walls of stores; drug stores, grocery stores, and every other kind of store. Signs were painted on buildings; they were everywhere.
We were bombarded with patriotism. Movies had slogans displayed on their marquees, and each movie had a short news film before and often after each feature. Also, movie themes about the war were common; not necessarily fighting the war, but often romantic and sad themes with guys and their girl friends being split apart with him going off to war.
There were also many songs about the war; some were patriotic while others were not, but they were still about the war. Off the top of my head, I can recall a few titles; “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”, “Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer”, and “Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor”. Other songs were about friends and lovers parting. Some titles were; “Now is the hour” (that we must say goodbye), and “Sentimental Journey Home”. These were sad tear-jerker type songs. There is one sad song from the war that I’m sure almost everyone has heard and perhaps don’t even know its meaning. That song is “White Christmas”. The next time you hear it, listen closely to the words and tempo and imagine it is being sung by a lonely young serviceman overseas. There were a few happy and cute songs as well, but not so many as the other types. One I can recall was, “Bell Bottom Trousers and a Coat of Navy Blue”. It was about a cute little boy dressed in a sailor suit and his little girl friend. Then he grows up and wears a real sailor suit but she thinks he is still just as cute.
There were even songs about the war effort at home. Many men were in the service, but still, manufacturing of war materials such as tanks, jeeps, guns, ammo, planes, and ships was necessary. Women went to work in factories doing the work that was always considered to be for men. One such song about these women was, “Rosie the Riveter”.
Many comic books were based on war themes. Superman and other heroes were often fighting Germans or Japs. Many comics depicted fighter pilots in dog fights with the American pilot always winning, and the enemy plane in a tailspin, crashing to the ground in a ball of smoke and fire.
There were general conservation programs for many items, but mostly there was forced conservation through a rationing program. Most rationing was handled by a stamp system. For example, we had rationing stamps in order to buy sugar. I don’t know how much was allocated per person per month, but I do know that we couldn’t eat sugar on our oatmeal anymore, and most people quit using sugar in their coffee. Meat was rationed, but for some reason, penny sized tokens were used for this. Being on a farm, we were fortunate that we could raise out own meat, but even so, we seldom had much. But I know it had a big impact on city people. Of course, gasoline was rationed, and that was handled with stamps. Tires were also rationed. A sticker was placed on the dash board of every car that said, “To save tires, drive under 35 miles per hour”. I heard of cases where people got tickets for exceeding 35 MPH, even though there was no posted speed limit.
Besides rationing, there were many shortages of common items. Candy and gum were almost not available, and if a store happened to get any, it was reserved for special customers. Women wore silk stockings, nylon had not been invented. Silk was in short supply because silk had to be imported and was needed for parachutes. Women always wanted silk stockings and would stand in line for hours for a chance to buy a pair. Some women painted a dark stripe down the back of their legs to simulate the appearance of the seam in silk stockings. Soap was also scarce although not rationed. We made our own soap out of tallow, lye, and ashes. It was terrible.
Automobiles were not manufactured during the war years of 1942 through 1945. Actually, 1941 was the last year cars were built, but a very few 1942 models were made in 1941. They were rare. There were two reasons for no automobile manufacturing. One was that the raw materials were needed for the war effort, and two, the manufacturing facilities were manufacturing war vehicles.
In the way of general conservation, housewives saved all their old cooking grease, usually lard. It was saved in tin cans and turned in at any grocery store. They didn’t get paid for it; it was just the patriotic thing to do. I think the grease was used in the making of explosives. Most people put in gardens. Of course, farm people generally had gardens anyway, but now, almost every house in the towns and cities had gardens in back yards, often in the front yard as well. These were called, “Victory Gardens”. Many people have heard this term, but few know where it came from. These gardens allowed more food to be channeled to the armed services.
Many farmers raised hemp for the war effort. Actually, hemp is marijuana, but no one that I know of smoked it. Of course I was young so there may have been older people that did. The reason hemp was needed for the war effort was for the manufacture of rope. Previous to the war, rope was imported, mostly from the Philippines. Early in the war with Japan, the Philippine Islands were conquered by Japan. So, rope was needed for the war effort, and was just another thing that had to be made at home.
In the towns and cities, boy scouts would go around the neighborhood pulling small wagons, asking for old newspaper donations. I’m not sure what they were used for, but it was part of general conservation. As a country boy, I went to a country school. Occasionally, we would be given the afternoon off to go out and walk the ditches and collect milk weed pods in large bags. Milk weed is a weed that grows in ditches and much against the farmer’s efforts, sometimes in his fields. There seeds are pods, roughly about three inches long and about as big around as a shovel handle. They are filled with a white silk-like puffy material that carries the seeds in the wind. We would collect bags and bags of milk weed pods for the war effort. They were used in the manufacture of life preservers for the navy.
There was a national need for money to finance the war effort. There was very little money in circulation, but people were encouraged to buy “War Bonds”, now called, “Savings Bonds”. In addition to war bonds, there were saving stamps, sold in two values, ten and twenty-five cents. These stamps were pasted into a stamp book similar to trading stamps that stores used to give; Green Stamps, etc. When the stamp book was full, it had a value of $18.50, or 185 ten cent stamps. This full book could be taken to a bank and exchanged for a war bond. Each week we had a “Stamp Day” at school where each kid would bring what money they could and buy a stamp or two.
I never had much money for stamps, but now and then I would be given a dime for stamp day. By the end of the war, I had close to half a book of stamps. It was not patriotic to cash these stamps in, so even though the eight or nine dollars of stamps represented a fortune to me, they were never cashed in as far as I know. I don’t know what happened to them.
In school, there were a number of large and excellent maps that hung on the wall, rolled up like window shades. Two or three times a week, our teacher would unroll a map and point out what was going on in the war in both the Pacific and Europe. In addition to being patriotic, it was a wonderful lesson in geography. Also, twice a week, each student had to bring in a current event article from a paper or magazine and explain to the school what it was about. This got me very interested in reading papers, which I still do to this day.
There is a very recognizable piece of the war history that also involves money. In 1943, at the height of the war, pennies (one cent coins) were not made of copper. Apparently copper was needed for wire and electronics. To conserve copper, pennies were made of steel and coated with zinc. So new 1943 pennies were bright and shiny silver colored instead of copper. Other than the color, they were identical to copper pennies.
Once in awhile, one may still run across a 1943 steel penny, but there are not many left. After the zinc wore off, the penny became dark and looked like steel, and most of them have rusted. There were many in circulation until the middle 1950s. Over all those years since the steel penny came out, the story has persisted that there were a very few 1943 cents made from copper. If a person found one of these, it was supposedly worth a fabulous amount, depending on who was telling the story. Some said that Ford would give a new car for a copper 1943 penny. Others said it was worth from thousands to millions of dollars. As kids, we looked through copper pennies hoping to find a 1943. Of course we never did, and I am still not sure that any were actually made.
During that period, most small towns had a popcorn machine on a corner on Saturday nights when the town was most active. A bag of popcorn cost a nickel. Since the lighting was not usually very good on these corners, we would try to pass a shiny 1943 penny off as a dime. They were approximately the same size and color. It did work a few times, but it didn’t take long for the young girls running the popcorn machines to examine the coins carefully.
There was a fear that the US would be invaded by either Japan on the west coast or Germany on the east coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Germany seemed to cause the most concern, and apparently for good reason. German subs were spotted off the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. I have heard that some were sunk, but I am not sure of that, it may have been just one of those stories that go around. I do know from reading history that German military or spies were caught on the east coast. Japan was the threat on the west coast and there were large guns mounted at various places along the coast for protection. I don’t think anything was spotted in that area though.
We also had air raid warnings. These were probably all drills, but as kids, we never knew for sure. These always occurred at night and we found out about them by way of special announcements on the radio. When we heard an air raid announced, all the lights in the entire house were turned off. Sometimes we put blankets over windows in a small room and then turned on a dim light. We even put a towel over the radio so the small dial light would not shine. Whether there was an air raid or not, people did not drive at night much. If there was an air raid, people could not drive at all. I don’t know how a driver who was out at night would know about an air raid since few cars had radios at that time. Everyone I knew took them seriously, but I never heard any airplanes. I wondered why planes would fly over a city and bomb a remote farm, but I never asked.
As the war progressed in Europe, apparently there were not enough facilities to keep all the prisoners of war, so POW camps were set up in the US. There was one about 15 miles from us. We didn’t often get that far away from home, but when we happened to and when we passed the POW camp, it was always a curiosity. At times, the POWs were used to work in the fields around the camp. When we would see them out working, the kids would point and jeer. They were too far away for them to notice or hear us, but I suppose it made us kids feel better. We never did get a close look at any of them, but in our minds, they were much different from us. We would have been surprised to find they looked just like other people. I know that after the war, a few POWs stayed in the area, getting jobs or going into business.
Franklin Roosevelt was president during these times. In fact, he was elected to his fourth term in 1944. He was well liked by some people and bitterly despised by others. At any rate, I don’t think the country wanted to change presidents at such a critical time. I recall when he died and Harry Truman became president. People wondered what would happen to us now. I also recall in 1948 when Truman ran against Thomas Dewey for president. Truman was not that well liked, and it was pretty much assumed that he would lose. It was a big surprise when he won.
I also recall hearing the news about Hitler committing suicide, and when the war in Europe was over. For days, if not weeks, people smiled, cheered, danced, and hugged. I am sure that I will never witness such a general feeling of pure happiness that everybody seemed to share. There were nightly band concerts in all the small towns, along with speeches and cheering. These were always well attended. Then when soldiers began coming home, there was even more celebration and jubilation since nearly every family had some member in the service.
Meantime, the war with Japan was still going on and it was dirtier and crueler than the European War. There were numerous stories about the Japanese torture of American POWs, and as it turned out, they were pretty much true. I had one cousin who was on the Bataan Death March. In 1942, Japan invaded and captured the Philippine Islands. Thousands of American and Pilipino soldiers were trapped on the Baatan peninsula on the south end of the main island. They were marched from there to Manila, the capitol city, a distance of about 75 miles. They were then transferred to Japan POW camps. The soldiers were marched day and night in the Jungle heat with no food and little water. Thousands died on this ‘Death March’.
I also recall when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. After the first one, most people considered that the war was over, but Japan did not surrender, so a second one was dropped, which of course did end the war. Again, there were similar celebrations for that.
This piece started out talking about the Normandy invasion, but I have not said anything about that. The reason is that I do not really specifically recall anything about it. There was so much war news, and there had been for such a long time, that although I am sure I heard about it, it did not have and particular significance for me at the time. Of course, I have read about and even talked to one man who was involved. It was a spectacular event. I am sure that those who are interested have read about it as well, so I won’t go into it. The anniversary just got me to thinking about those years so I decided to write about them.
Sometimes as kids we would speculate on what would happen if we lost the war. When we asked adults about this, we were told that no one knows, but that was not even something to think about, much less talk about. There was no option in anyone’s mind that we might lose. WE HAD TO WIN! That was all there was to it. The real question was how many years and how many lives lost before we won.
There is little doubt in the minds of historians that if the US had not entered the war when we did, Germany and Japan would have won. Then, as allies, they would have invaded and conquered the US and made some division of the world between them. However, it didn’t work out that way. Even though we were a weak country; had few people in our armed services; and were broke after more than ten years in a severe depression; and had much of our navy destroyed, we had the will to win. All in all, it was a great effort on the part of all the people in this country, both the fighting men and women and those at home who supported them completely. I hope we never have to go through something like that again.
