CHILDHOOD REFLECTIONS OF WORLD WAR II

Looking back on my childhood, some of the happiest days of my life were those years in which our country was totally absorbed, physically, mentally, and spiritually in World War II. I would like to share with you some of my recollections of what it was like for a child of five years old to approximately twelve years old.

THE PRE-WAR YEARS
My earliest memory is the period, just before America became involved 1939. My step father would be "glued" to the radio at 10 o'clock at night listening to a special correspondent broadcasting "directly from the war zone" via the transatlantic cable. We had no communication with Europe in those days other than mail, the cable, and short wave radio. I have two pieces of notebook paper from that period. One shows my first attempts to copy my mother's printing of my name. The other is a rather primitive drawing I made of airplanes dropping bombs. I was already being affected.

MOBILIZATION GEARING UP FOR WAR
Our country was not prepared for war. We loved peace, not war. I remember seeing a "Life Magazine" article at that time showing our recruits practicing with wooden training rifles and wearing World War I uniforms and helmets. We had to prepare for war as quickly as possible. That included a total turnover of our industrial might from cars, washing machines, and refrigerators to airplanes, tanks, and guns. With most of our men in uniform, many of the industrial jobs were taken over by women. This was really the beginning of women's liberation. And it was an absolute necessity.

PROPAGANDA
The Second "all out" effort had to be to prepare the minds of a peaceful people to be ready to kill the enemy. As a result, propaganda became almost "job one". As the soldier in "South Pacific"- the musical, said, "we had to be taught to hate." I say that without judgment for I do not know of any other way it could have been done. We had taught our sons to be kind to animals and now we had to prepare them, over night, to shoot other human beings.

We went to the movies a lot and the newsreel was as important as the movie. I saw bombs being dropped on Hitler's "victims" along with the first edition of "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs". We devised dart games with pictures of Hitler, Togo, and Mussolini. (The leaders of the three Axis nations). We heard songs like, "You're a Sap, Mr. Jap" and "Heil, phewt, Heil, phewt, right in Der Fuhrer's Face". Atrocities committed by the Germans

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