Studs Terkel #6

The two stories we read today were both about the hardships civilians had to go through, and their experiences during the war. The first interview was with Peter Ota, a Nisei which was sent to a camp during World War 2. Shortly before him, his father and sister were sent away, Peters father was arrested and jailed for an unknown reason. His arrest brought shame to the family and caused his wife to become very ill. Since Peter's mother was too sick to move, she was not sent away to the camps. His father was released from jail and evacuated to Missouia, Montana where he was isolated from the rest of his family. During his time then, he sent Peter letters but they were censored and not very informational. I couldn't imagine that experience, being separated from your family and not being able to communicate with them either. The whole experience seems horrific and stressful. Peter was able to stay with his sister and they were transferred to Santa Aita, there they lived in previous horse stables. Living in that type of environment is disgusting, not only is it gross but its horrible to treat people like animals. In September of 1942, Peter and his sister were reunited with their father. Peter was lucky enough to leave these camps and work in Colorado and other places. Since he was working, he would be excused from the camps. Shortly after getting the job, the mom had died and Peter wanted to be cleared and get her body to burry in one of the camps where the family was. While his leave from his job/camp, Peter had to be escorted everywhere. There were FBI agents and other people following him around as if he were some kind of criminal. The way that he was treated through out this whole process was very inhumanely and disgusting. He later stated that once he was released from the camp and started a family of his own, he knew that he needed to "blend into the community and become part of white America". That statement was an important one because the only reason he was sent to the camps was because he didn't look like an average "white american". The next story was about Betty Hutchinson, a nurse during the war. She went into detail about her experience as a nurse, and the operations she made. The most interesting detail that I noticed was how fast everything happened. Right after she heard about Pearl Harbor, Betty was registered as a nurse and took action to help people. She became a plastic surgeon in 6 weeks and operated shortly after. The experience seemed very quick and rushed which doesn't seem too safe. Betty also spoke about her adaptation to her work, at first she became very sick when she saw something gory. After a while she adapted to what was going on and enjoyed her job much more than what she expected. I think that both stories were important because we never see the personal experiences that people go through during wartime.

Terkel #5

              After watching Band of Brothers, 101st Airborne, and reading Peggy Terry's interview, I realized that war life was worse than it seems. Of course war seems bad, but nobody ever gets to go through what the soldiers do, unless they are psychically there. The movie gave a very realistic presentation of what those who were in the Airborne did, and what happened during battle. The interview with Peggy and E.B Sledge also gave good insight on the during and after war effects on soldiers. Once the movie and interviews were over, I realized that the soldiers don't realize how "real" war is until they are there in the moment. I definitely didn't think war was as brutal as the movie showed, but apparently it was worse. Peggy Terry grew up in Paducah, Kentucky but was interviewed in Chicago where she had lived the last 20 years of her life. She told us about her life after the depression, but what really struck me was when she talked about her husband. Peggy told Terkel that her husband was in the Airborne 101st division and how when he came back from war, he was a drunk and would have nightmares. She said that those were the things that she saw in him, that he showed on the outside..but I'm sure there was a lot that was happening to him on the inside that no one knew about. She said that "wars brutalize people"which is completely true. His experience had hurt him mentally, and even though he was alive and home, Peggy said that it was hard seeing him act the way he was. Right after she was done talking about her husband, she brought up Hiroshima and how it was dropped on innocent people who had nothing to say about war. They were all innocent civilians, and that connected back to the soldiers in war. Those who were traumatized by the war were innocent people who lived normal lives just a year before, and same with those killed or wounded in Hiroshima. E.B Sledge, a ex marine told us in his interview that everyone had a different view on war during the battles. He said that we had a different strategy than the Japanese did, and that all connected back to how civilians see things differently than soldiers.

Entry #4

             In the Introduction, various people were interviewed about different events which occurred in America's history. The main focus was on World War 2, but the Great Depression and New Deal were discussed as well. It was very interesting to hear the numerous reactions and memories of these events from the people.  Each person that was interviewed, had a different vision on the War and its results. Most of the people had flashbacks and spoke about the bad that happened before, during and after the war. One man who was interviewed was a Red Cross member during the war and remembers being happy during the war. He was happy and having fun during war because his job allowed him to support the public and provide aid for those in need. It sounded kind of sad hearing that he was having fun during a war, but if it wasn't for the war..his job would not have been in such high demand. It was interesting to hear one person enjoying the war, and it benefiting his career, and then hearing others complain about it. One farmer spoke about how the Depression completely destroyed his career, home and family. Because of the war, this farmer's home had gone into fore closure, he lost business because crop and cattle prices were so high and that affected his family as well. The Depression might have hurt many people, but the New Deal brought the United States a lot of new opportunities for those who didn't have them before. The New Deal brought job opportunities to women, and African Americans. Even though the New Deal had brought new jobs to women and blacks, 11 million people were still living in bad conditions. All of the interviews in the Introduction to this section were interesting, even though they were all short, it was nice to get several outlooks on the events. I think that the main reason that these interviews were in Stud Turkel's book was because it shows us, the new generation, how memorable these events were and how much they affected, and still affect our country. The second part was Bob Rasmus' interview, who spoke about the differences in his life before the war, and after the war. The way he spoke about his experience in combat was very detailed. I was shocked that he was able to speak about his experience in such detail from just his memory, the interview sounded like he was reading everything out of a textbook. He made several points about the War that opened my eyes to how tragic and real the war was. At the end of the interview, he spoke about how much the war affected his life in the long run and one of the last things he said, was "In a short period of time, I had the most tremendous experiences of all of life". By saying this, Bob Rasmus showed a different, more positive side of the war.  Both parts of "The Good War" were interpretations of the war and the experience that went along with it, which informed the audience of the reality and effectiveness of the war.