An American Child's View of World War II
I was seven years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and Franklin Roosevelt announced over the radio that America had declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. The Steel Mills weren’t far away from our home and Chicago was a major hub for railroads. We often had to wait for troop trains to pass by and we’d wave goodbye to the soldiers hanging out the windows as if to catch our waves. Sometimes we’d have practice air-raids and paper bombs would be dropped over our homes. My family subscribed to Life magazine, so we followed the war closely - we probably had a more lasting impression from Life than we did from the news reels in movie theaters. We often fought over the magazines the one semester we were out of school with scarlet fever. I remember my Dad moving to my Grandmothers before the police came and nailed a sign to our door saying "QUARANTINED - Scarlet Fever" (that was a better sign than POLIO).
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FDR knew how to get Americans to support the war. As kids we each had food ration books and would often stand in line to buy food (I preferred bacon drippings to margarine). We had a victory garden (also known as war gardens) and my Mom would can what we harvested. We bought war bonds and the schools sold us kids war stamps every Monday. My brother and I collected 400 pounds of old papers and magazines, which meant we were able to wear a Paper Trooper badge! Our Dad's bank raised money for war production and he was also the metals collector for our block. We had an A ration sticker for gas which got us to my Uncle's farm in Indiana in the summer, but the car was stored away in the garage during the winter.
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The scariest memory for me during the war years was seeing the flags families would hang outside their windows on my way to school. These flags represented the safety of their loved ones off in war. Blue flags meant that their soldier was healthy and safe, silver meant either that they were injured or prisoners of war, and gold, oh gold, how I hated to see a flag change to gold. Gold meant that their soldier would never come back home. Most of the service flags that were hung were handmade and there were variations in the color of the star or what was displayed with the star. My grandmother had a small gathering of girls my age and would teach us how to knit wool squares to make afghans to send to military hospitals. I remember the afghans always had pretty crochet borders. Later my Mom told me that Memo, my grandmother, would crochet around our masterpieces to make them into a square that could be sewn into a blanket.
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I remember we all got the day off when FDR died. We all were sorry to loose the man who had won the war in Europe. We didn’t win the war with Japan until a bit later. My Dad waited a couple of years and then traded in our 37' Ford sedan for a 1948 model. What a luxury! Soon after, he surprised my Mom with an electric stove, which she hated compared to our gas stove. He quickly bought a new stove that she loved. I remember women started wearing nylon hose and many were in mourning because they liked working and hated being replaced, but returning soldiers needed the work.
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Many men swarmed the colleges due to the GI bill issued by the government. We changed from a rural economy to an urban economy. My kid brother and I started high school. Our older brother and sister were in college and the world opened up to us until the Korean War and then the Vietnam war. The draft was still in effect and we began to question the role of war in the lives of Americans and the world. Our question has yet to be answered. Why war? I’d propose that every high school graduate should perform a year of service to his country - working in schools, planting trees, cleaning rivers and forests, aiding the elderly, and learning that they are making the world a better place for all.
