A People’s History of World War II: The World’s Most Destructive Conflict, As Told By the People Who Lived Through It

289 Pages·2011·7.61 MB·English

by  Marc Favreau

A New Press PeoPle’s History • HowArd ZiNN, series editor A

The most destructive war in human history, World War II continues to haunt us with its stories of P
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suffering, sacrifice, and unparalleled heroism. The wartime experience has also generated a rich
o A PeoPle’s History of
trove of historical material, writings, and first-person recollections, which are essential to any ap-
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preciation of this most pivotal of historical events.
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A People’s History of World War II brings the full range of human experience during World War II e
World WA r ii
to life through some of the most vivid accounts and images available anywhere. This concise and ’
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accessible volume includes first-person interviews by Studs Terkel; rare archival photographs from

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the Office of War Information collection; propaganda comics from Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss);
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oral histories of the Japanese war experience; letters from German Jewish refugees; stories of life s
during the war from writers such as historian Howard Zinn, Holocaust witness Primo Levi, award- t
winning poet Charles Simic, and celebrated French author Marguerite Duras; and selections from o The World’s Most Destructive Conflict,
the writings of some of the world’s leading historians of the “good war,” including David Wyman r As Told by the People Who Lived Through It
and Eric Hobsbawm. y

For anyone interested in an unsanitized view of the war as it was experienced by victors and o
victims alike—in Europe, Japan, and the United States—here is the perfect antidote to the f
“greatest generation” mythology of our own time. W
“A lotta friends I lost. We had 185 men in our squadron when the war started. Three and a half o
years later, when we were liberated from a prison camp in Japan, we were 39 left. It’s them r
I think about. Men I played ball with, men I worked with, men I associated with. I miss ’em.” l
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—ANtoN Bilek, UNited stAtes

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“What the outbreak of war meant for most young men of my generation was a sudden suspen-
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sion of the future. For a few weeks or months we floated between the plans and prospects of
our prewar lives and an unknown destiny in uniform.” —eric HoBsBAwm, eNglANd r

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“The word ‘Jew’ wasn’t ever mentioned. The first time I heard about concentration camps was i

when I found a book called Yellow Star. I was twenty-one, alone in this room. I’ll never forget.
I’m part of that generation that grew up with silence.” —UrsUlA BeNder, germANy ed
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“[I]t’s inexcusable to harm human beings in this way. I wonder what kind of education there is b
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now in America about atomic bombs. They’re still making them, aren’t they?”
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—yAmAokA micHiko, JAPAN
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mArc FAvreAU is the editorial director of The New Press. Authors he has worked with include
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Ira Berlin, Eric Hobsbawm, Lloyd C. Gardner, Nelson Lichtenstein, Ellen Schrecker, and Patricia a
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Sullivan. A co-editor of Remembering Slavery, he lives in New York City. r
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Front cover image: Army reinforcements disembarking from LSTs
HISTOrY $18.95 U.S.
in Saipan, circa June 1944, courtesy of the National Archives edited by
Marc Favreau
www.thenewpress.com
Cover design by Hot Griddle Design
THE NEW PRESS THE NEW PRESS
A People’s History
of World War II
Also edited by MArc FAvreAu
Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About
Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation
(with Ira Berlin and Steven F. Miller)
A People’s History
of World War II
The World’s Most Destructive Conflict,
as Told by the People Who Lived Through It
Edited by
Marc Favreau
Compilation © 2011 by The New Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,
without written permission from the publisher.
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to:
Permissions Department, The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013.
Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2011
Distributed by Perseus Distribution
CIP data is available
ISBN 978-1-59558-166-2 (pb)
The New Press was established in 1990 as a not-for-profit alternative to the
large, commercial publishing houses currently dominating the book publishing
industry. The New Press operates in the public interest rather than for private
gain, and is committed to publishing, in innovative ways, works of educational,
cultural, and community value that are often deemed insufficiently profitable.
www.thenewpress.com
Composition by dix!
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Contents
Series Preface by Howard Zinn ix
Editor’s Note xi
Part I: Beginnings—Pearl Harbor 1
photo essAy “Pearl Harbor Photographs” 3
“December 7, 1941”: Studs Terkel interviews
American witnesses to the Japanese attacks 5
“December 8, 1941”: Interviews with Japanese
civilians and soldiers 14
“Austin, Texas, December 9, 1941”:
Man-on-the-street interview following
the attack on Pearl Harbor 23
Part II: The War in Europe 31
“War”: Historian Eric Hobsbawm reflects
on the coming of the war 33
“Flight”: Elisabeth Freund, a German
Jewish émigré, recounts her flight
from Nazi Germany 58
“A Turning Point”: Studs Terkel interviews
Mikhail Nikolaevich Alexeyev, Russian
author and editor, about his experiences
as a Soviet soldier on the Eastern Front 77
vi contents
“The Bombers and the Bombed”: Studs Terkel
interviews Eddie Costello and Ursula Bender
about the Allied bombing of Frankfurt,
Germany 83
“Return to Auschwitz”: Author and Holocaust
survivor Primo Levi is interviewed as he returns
to Auschwitz after forty years 91
Part III: The U.S. Home Front 103
“Trouble Coming”: Nelson Peery describes
the profound racial tensions that erupted
in Southern states as African American
soldiers mobilized in large numbers 105
“A Sunday Evening”: Studs Terkel interviews
Peter Ota, an American-born Japanese man
who served in the American military 115
photo essAy “Manzanar”: Ansel Adams
photographs an internment camp for
Japanese Americans 121
“Statement on Entering Prison”: David Dellinger
issues a political statement on his status
as a conscientious objector in 1943 123
“Rosie”: Studs Terkel interviews
a woman who went to work in a factory
during the war 128
photo essAy “Rosie the Riveter”:
From the Office of War Information
archive 135
“Confronting the Holocaust”: Historian
David Wyman interviews Hillel Kook,
who led the effort in the U.S. to push
American leaders to rescue
European Jews 137
contents vii
iMAge essAy “Dr. Seuss Goes to War”:
Propaganda cartoons from Theodore Geisel
on the Nazi menace 161
Part IV: The Pacific War 163
“The Slaughter of an Army”: Osawa Masatsugu
relates his experiences as a Japanese soldier in
New Guinea in 1943 165
“Tales of the Pacific”: Studs Terkel
interviews E.B. (Sledgehammer) Sledge about
the American experience of war in the Pacific 177
“An American Revolutionary”: Nelson Peery
relates his experiences as an African American
soldier in the fight against Japan 186
“One World or None”: An excerpt from public
statements by leading atomic scientists, warning
of the dangers of nuclear weapons 192
“The Atomic Bomb”: Studs Terkel talks
with a nuclear physicist who worked
on the Manhattan Project 205
“A Terrible New Weapon”: Firsthand witnesses
of Ground Zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki 219
Part V: Postwar 235
“The War (Rough Draft)”: An account of
Paris after the German occupation,
by Marguerite Duras 237
“Refugees”: Poet Charles Simic remembers
a life in transit in the aftermath of the
German surrender 260
Sources 273

Series Preface
urning history on its head opens up whole new worlds of pos-
T
sibility. Once, historians looked only at society’s upper crust:
the leaders and others who made the headlines and whose words and
deeds survived as historical truth. In our lifetimes, this has begun to
change. Shifting history’s lens from the upper rungs to the lower, we
are learning more than ever about the masses of people who did the
work that made society tick.
Not surprisingly, as the lens shifts the basic narratives change as
well. The history of men and women of all classes, colors, and cul-
tures reveals an astonishing degree of struggle and independent po-
litical action. Everyday people played complicated historical roles,
and they developed highly sophisticated and often very different
political ideas from the people who ruled them. Sometimes their
accomplishments left tangible traces; other times, the traces are in-
visible but no less real. They left their mark on our institutions, our
folkways and language, on our political habits and vocabulary. We
are only now beginning to excavate this multifaceted history.
The New Press People’s History Series roams far and wide
through human history, revisiting old stories in new ways, and intro-
ducing altogether new accounts of the struggles of common people
to make their own history. Taking the lives and viewpoints of com-
mon people as its point of departure, the series reexamines subjects