Reflections on World War II
by Pauline Hager
With all this talk of war in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, my mind drifts back to the time I was ten-years-old. It was Sunday, December 7, 1941. I recall my family and me gathering around the radio to hear the news that Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese warplanes. I was too young to understand the ramifications of war, but I learned quickly. Our first duty was to show our patriotism and help the war effort in every way we could. The first order of business was signing up for food and gas stamps. Many foods were rationed so our service men could have plenty to eat, including butter, milk, eggs, cheese, among many others. If we used up our monthly allotment, we had to either go without or wait until the following month when new stamps were issued. We saved the grease from our cooking and poured it into cans, and turned it in to some government agency. Since butter was no longer available, oleomargarine was introduced. I remember my father churning the sticky white stuff with a packet of yellow stuff to make it look like butter. Ugh! In those days, everyone smoked. A pack of cigarettes was hard to come by since they were sent to our fighting men. Civilians had to buy cigarette paper and loose tobacco and clumsily rolled their own cigarettes. They were not exactly cylindrical in shape but they served the purpose. Imagine the black market that exited for cigarettes. Since so much of our food was sent to our service men, and no longer plentiful, we Americans, including my father and me, grew victory gardens and planted from seed, vegetables, and other crops. As the war progressed, most of the young men from my small town were either drafted or enlisted. Three of my four brothers enlisted in the Navy. The fourth brother was classified 4-F, meaning he was physically unable to serve. We hung a yellow banner in our front, living room window with three stars emblazed in white, denoting our family had three siblings serving our country. My father was very proud. My mother would have also been proud, had she not died years ago.
Patriotic Americans bought United States war bonds to help the government finance the war. Movie stars from Hollywood traveled to large cities and small towns across the nation urging us to help the war effort by buying bonds. The diminutive Johnny in his red suite and black round cap from the Phillip Morris Cigarette Company came to our local drug store urging us to buy. For some of you, Johnny in his red bellhop uniform walking through a hotel lobby yelling, “Last call for Philip Morrissss?"
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Moreover, if we weren’t reminded that our country was at war, our government made sure of it. Storekeepers placed large cardboard posters in their storefront windows with pictures of Uncle Sam holding his index finger over his closed lips, with the slogan “Loose lips sink U.S. ships.” Later in the war, when our ‘good’ friend Stalin joined us, there were pictures of Stalin, Churchill, and Truman standing shoulder-to-shoulder. I don’t remember the slogan for this poster. The movie industry was another medium for propaganda. John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Van Johnson, Dana Andrews, Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, and many other Hollywood personalities did their share. They starred in spectacular propaganda films, fighting on land, sea, and air to win this war. There was one featured almost every week or so, and I saw them all. We cried when one of ours died and cheered when the enemy was killed.
I look back and think how involved we civilians were in that war. Today, we turn on our television, listen to the news, and sadly shake our heads when we hear that a suicide bomber killed an American. Then we go on with our daily lives, complaining about the high price of gasoline as we drive off on our gas-guzzling SUVs. It just isn’t the same anymore. By the way, we did our share and bought a Prius back in ’06.
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Pauline was born in 1931 in Clinton, Massachusetts to Greek immigrant parents. She attended San Diego State University and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Education. She and husband Randy, lived in Japan for over two years from which she wrote her book "Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan." Pauline, with her husband, have lived in La Jolla, California for over 26 years. |
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Thanks Pauline for the essay... John Wolf
