This recording is a part of the radio series “Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend,” which was a tribute to conductor Arturo Toscanini. The broadcasts consist of music performed by the NBC Orchestra as well as interviews with composers, conductors, orchestra members, and other people associated with Toscanini. This segment includes performances of Rossini's Overture to La Gazza Ladra, Schumann's Rhenish Symphony, and an interview with Oreste Di Sevo.

Sound recording of Martha Ross interviewing Peter Olch about the history of the Oral History Association at the united services medical school in Bethesda, Maryland.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ken Barden. Barden joined the Navy in 1942, and was called to active duty in July of 1943. He was assigned to the Navy V-12 program, graduating around March of 1944. He then completed Midshipman’s School in June, and was commissioned in the Naval Reserve. After finishing amphibious boat training in December, he was assigned to the USS Charles Carroll (APA-28). They participated in the Battle of Okinawa. He recalls Ernie Pyle riding in his landing craft to the beach at Okinawa. After the war ended, they became part of the Magic Carpet Fleet, making voyages from the west coast to the Philippines and the Far East, carrying occupation troops west-bound, and returning servicemen east-bound. Barden was discharged in August of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Doreen G. Underwood. Underwood was born in England in September of 1920. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in August of 1940, completing clerical duties. She was stationed in England, France and Germany. Underwood was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tomakazu Kasai. Kasai entered flight training in April, 1942, learning to fly at a field on Hokkaido. When Kasai finished training in November 1943, he was qualified to fly Japanese Zero fighter plane and was asigned to Navy Air Group 263, stationed at Motsuyama City. When Kasai was assigned to the front, he went to Guam. SHortly before the American invasion, he was transferred to Pelelui. At Pelelui, Kasai's task was to intercept American aircraft in the area. Before the Americans invaded the Palaus, Kasai was transferred to Davao, in the Philippines. Kasai was transferred to Air Grpoup 201 and was assigned to bring aircraft back to the Philippines from Japan. During the American invasion of the Philippines, Kasai served as a fighter escort for kamikazes. Kasia indicates the various levels of training the kamikaze pilots received prior to their missions. Kasai was present in Nagasaki Prefecture when the second atomic bomb was dropped. He was stationed at Omura and recalls seeing the mushroom cloud at a distance. After the surrender, Kasai was told simply to go home, which he eventually did. Kasai also recalls ten victories over …

Transcript of an oral interview with Doug Aitken. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Aitken was nineteen and in college in California. He remained in college, earned his degree and was commissioned an ensign upon finishing school in 1944. He then went to radar school and trained for a position in the combat information center (CIC) of a destroyer. He soon reported aboard the USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774) in San Diego and headed for the Pacific. Soon, the Hadley was escorting other ships to Okinawa fo rthe invasion. Once there, the Hadley went on picket duty north of Okinawa on the lookout for kamikazes. Aitken describes a day in which the Hadley and other destroyers on picket station #15 off Okinawa were attacked by approximately 150 kamikazes in less than two hours. His battle station was inside the CIC. He also describes the Hadley being struck by three kamikazes and the crew abandoning ship. The Hadley was taken under tow to Kerama Retto for repairs, where she tied up alongside the USS Aaron Ward (DM-34), which had also been struck by numerous kamikazes. After repairs, the Hadley was towed to San Francisco. The war ended while she was …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Henry J Williams. Williams joined the Naval ROTC at the University of Texas in 1941 and was called to active duty in February 1943. He received amphibious training in Maryland and was sent to England in April 1944 as an assistant officer on LCT-474. He landed on Utah Beach under fire and pulled out after unloading tank destroyers and self-propelled artillery. The next day, he carried troops and cargo to the beach. By the third day he was evacuating the wounded and transporting German POWs. As the fighting subsided along the shore, he combed the beach, salvaging machine gun parts and providing them to the Army as needed. He then ferried supplies from England to France until V-E Day. Williams returned to the States and became an executive officer aboard an LCI(G) in preparation for the invasion of Japan. When the war ended, he attended minesweeping school and participated in minesweeping efforts in the Philippines and the South Pacific. He retired from the Navy in 1965.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Brooks. Brooks joined the Navy in September 1939. He was assigned to the USS Houston (CA-30) and became an electrician’s mate. Brooks describes several Japanese air attacks including one that killed most of his damage-control party. He describes the battles of the Java Sea and Sunda Strait. Brooks discusses abandoning ship and seeing her sink. He describes his capture, seeing the Lost Battalion arrive at the prison camp, and the conditions on board a hell ship. Brooks details the conditions he endured while building a railroad including the poor diet, diseases, and cruel treatment. He also describes the techniques and equipment used to build the railroad. Brooks details his liberation and return to the US. He remained in the Navy until August 1948.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jay Summers. Summers joined the Texas National Guard in 1937. His unit was mobilized and he became a supply sergeant. Summers was sent Java at the beginning of the war and became a prisoner of war soon after. He describes the locations that they were sent and the work performed. Summers was a part of the POW workforce that was sent to Burma to build a railroad which included a bridge over the River Kwai. He describes the hardships the prisoners endured due to malnourishment, harsh treatment, and disease. Summers mentions some friends he made with Dutch and Australian prisoners, including one who helped save his life. He describes an incident where a Japanese guard was injured during repair work on the railroad. Summers discusses how they learned the war had ended and his journey back to the US. He was discharged in June of 1946 after he had recovered in a hospital.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Johnson. Johnson was born on 23 December 1921 in Mitchell, Missouri. Rather than risk getting drafted, he enlisted in the Marine Corps on 16 December 1939. His first duty was with the 15th Marine Artillery Regiment in San Diego. The 15th Marines was disbanded and the personnel sent to Pearl Harbor. Johnson was assigned to the 1st Marine Division Defense Battalion, eventually sent to fortify Wake Island, arriving there in August 1941. After the Japanese attacked, Johnson surrendered with the rest of the garrison and the civilians on 23 December 1941. Johnson and the other American personnel were taken prisoner. They were initially sent to Shanghai, China to do manual labor. In May 1945 they were moved to Manchuria, then to Pusan, Korea, and finally to Hokkaido in Japan, working in coal mines. Following the Japanese surrender, Johnson and others were moved to Yokohama, sent to Guam by ship, and flown to Hawaii on NATS aircraft. In Hawaii they were given time to recuperate from their ordeal, issued uniforms and given back pay. Johnson was then sent to Olathe, Kansas. After four years in Japanese prison camps, …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with W.F. Needham. Needham entered the Navy through the V-5 training program in March 1944. The program was shutdown in March 1945 and he was sent to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Needham was trained as a corpsman and stationed at a Navy hospital in Seattle for the remainder of the war. He describes some of the work that he performed and the types of patients he treated. Needham describes escorting a wounded serviceman in a full-body cast from Seattle to Corpus Christi. He also mentions an incident where a fellow corpsman overdosed on pills and was sent to Fort Worth for treatment. Needham was discharged a few weeks after V-J day.

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an interview with William Williams. Williams joined the Navy in December 1941. After electrician’s training, he operated a film projector for recruits at San Diego before being assigned to the USS Cheleb (AKA-138). While aboard the Cheleb, Williams participated in a few invasions: Tarawa, the Marshall Islands. He was transferred to the USS Benevolence (AH-13). After the war, Williams stayed in the reserve and was recalled to active duty for the Korean War.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Walker. After completing his second year of college, Walker was mobilized as a member of the North Dakota Army National Guard in February 1941 and became second lieutenant of a machinegun platoon with the 164th Infantry Regiment. He felt that his training left much to be desired, due to alcoholism among his superiors. The night before they deployed to Guadalcanal, the majority of the officers in his battalion reported to hospitals. Cowardice, entitlement, and substance abuse ran rampant in the upper ranks around Walker. Whenever he tried to speak out against it, he was discredited for having humble roots in the National Guard. At Koli Point, he was given the dangerous task of closing the gap, which he accomplished. He endured countless brushes with death and developed a macabre sense of humor to cope with stress. He was promoted to company commander and deployed to Leyte, where in Valencia he lost 17 men. The responsibility of having to send condolence letters home to their families rested heavily on Walker, though he also saved the life of one wounded man. Walker was then promoted to executive officer of …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Chester Spaw. Spaw began working for the post office in Austin after graduating high school. He visited Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson at his downtown office to discuss an inclination to enlist. Johnson replied that he had similar plans, so Spaw joined the Navy in 1942. He received basic training in Virginia and was then stationed at Camp Parks as a postal clerk. He shipped out with the 14th Seabees and made a brief stopover in Saipan, where he saw Japanese soldiers being buried in a common grave. He arrived on Okinawa in 1945 as the battle was winding down. A kamikaze attack during one of his daily trips to retrieve mail led Spaw to seek cover in the nearest foxhole. He was turned away, as there was no room for him. As he ran to other foxholes, he was turned away again and again. By the time the plane hit its target ship, Spaw was still without cover. But he was prepared later, when a typhoon hit, having securely tied down his tent. Spaw was discharged in November 1945 and resumed his career as a letter carrier in …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Emil Matula. Matula left the Dust Bowl in 1937 with nothing more than a seventh-grade education and enlisted in the Army. By 1940, he was a machine gunner with the 35th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks. On 7 December 1941 he was awakened by the shaking of his bunk and a sounding alarm. With his sergeants missing and unable to unlock the weapons locker, Matula took an axe to the door. By March 1942, Matula was the youngest buck sergeant in his company. After amphibious training, he landed at Guadalcanal, reinforcing the 43rd Infantry Division at Henderson Field. In the Battle of Mount Austen, he marched deep behind enemy lines, cut off from supplies for 10 days. Afterward, at Bougainville, he survived hourly air raids; his tent was bombed just after he vacated it. He earned a Bronze Star at Vella Lavella and went on to train replacements in New Caledonia. He then went to Luzon, spending 145 days in the mountainous jungles around Lingayen Gulf. In a barrio, despite easily overcoming a banzai charge, he was faced with a force of 32 tanks. After the barrio was …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hank Hise. Hise attended the University of Texas and began flight school in 1941. He joined the Marine Corps when the war began, flying SMJs at El Toro. He was assigned to VMSB-232 in Hawaii, where he piloted TBMs and TBFs. When he first arrived at Guadalcanal, landings were hazardous on the short and narrow gravel strip flanked by palm trees. His squadron was bombed daily, and he was the only surviving pilot, though he suffered a broken pelvis. Treatment aboard the USS Solace (AH-5) was agonizing; he spent a month suspended from his bunk by a sling, unable to move his legs. When he recovered, he was promoted to captain, making strikes over Rabaul. Hise returned to the States as a squadron commander after a bout of malaria. He was sent back to the Pacific and flew missions against Japan off the USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109). After the war ended he saw a Japanese airfield covered with brand new planes, their propellers removed as required by the surrender. He flew over Nagasaki, where everything was flattened, save for a stadium that had been turned on its side. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Harold Brushwein. Brushwein graduated from North Dakota State University ion 1939 and accepted his commission in the Army through the ROTC. When he was with the Third Infantry Division, he was a battalion adjutant working for Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower. In 1940, he went to Hawaii and joined the 25th Infantry Division. He describes his experiences during the attack on Pearl Harbor. After more training in Hawaii, he embarked for Guadalcanal in January 1943. Brushwein provides many details of the activities of the 25th ID on Guadalcanal. Brushwein even drank beer at the officer’s club on Tulagi with John F. Kennedy.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Neal Gillingham. Gillingham joined the Navy after high school. He attended boot camp and medical corps school in Farragut, and was sent to Hawaii for jungle training before deploying to Saipan as a medic for a naval construction battalion. Although the island had been taken, he still had to worry about snipers and Japanese attacks at night. During Okinawa, he was assigned to a ship in the harbor which was struck by a kamikaze just after he and his Seabee unit went ashore. On the island, Gillingham set up a field hospital in a tent and was stationed there until the war ended. He received a promotion and was recognized as the top medic in his unit. On V-J Day, parties and pranks were enjoyed by all. Gillingham returned home and was discharged. Over time, he was able to let go of feelings of resentment toward the Japanese that he had developed during the war; he came to realize that they, too, were following orders. Gillingham joined the Army Reserves in 1949 and was called into active duty for the Korean War. Fortunately, he was stationed in Europe …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Norma Cook. Cook was born in England in 1932. During the war, she and her family lived in a village outside of Liverpool. Because they were located near an antiaircraft battery, they endured a period of constant bombardment. During air raids they hid in their living room under a steel frame provided to civilians for protection. On the mornings following bombardments, the streets were lined with children whose homes had been destroyed. Her family took in as many as they could, but rationing made difficult every aspect of their lives. They wanted for food, clothing, and coal. The Cook family was still living under rations at the time they left England, in 1952, and immigrated to Canada.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Otis M Scott. Scott joined the Army in October of 1944. He served as a Browning Automatic Rifle gunner with the 23rd Infantry Division. In early 1945, Scott deployed to the Pacific, participating in the Cebu offensive against the Japanese during the Philippines Campaign. After the war ended, he served in the occupation of Japan. Scott returned to the US and was discharged in September of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Graff. After graduating from Harvard with an Economics degree in June 1941, Graff entered the Navy's V-7 Program. The Program was on board the Prairie State, a converted Spanish-American warship whose supersturcture had been removed and replaced with a barn; moored to the shore of the Hudson River at about 135th Street. After finishing the 90-day crash course, Graff opted for destroyers and was assigned to Communications School in Connecticut. After graduating from there, he was sent to the USS Atlanta, a light cruiser being built in Kearny, New Jersey. Capt Jenkins (CO of the Atlanta) made Graff the ship's Signal Officer. Atlanta was the first of a new class of ships; an anti-aircraft ship and the first ship designed to shoot down planes (eight turrets of twin five-inch 38 caliber guns). After launching, the Atlanta was towed to the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York in early December, eighty percent finished. After commissioning, outfitting, test runs, sea trials, etc the Atlanta got underway with orders to go to Pearl Harbor. The Atlanta was assigned to the Third Fleet and was involved in the battle of Midway. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with S M Sullivan. Sullivan joined the Navy Seabees in May of 1942. In the fall, he deployed to New Caledonia to help build a hospital, and later served on Guadalcanal building airfields. He contracted malaria while on Guadalcanal. In early 1945, he transferred to Saipan. He returned to the US and was discharged around late 1945.

Lecture given Sunday, September 16, 2007, 7:00 PM at Abilene Christian University

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Walker. Walker was working as a mail carrier when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He enlisted in the Navy, and despite attending aviation mechanic school he was selected to be an aerial gunner. Walker was assigned to an SBD crew aboard USS Essex (CV-9), flying his first mission over Wake Island and his last over Truk. After 10 months in combat, he transferred to Florida for further training. Walker later put in to become a pilot himself and was taking courses at William Jewell College in anticipation of flight school when the war ended. Walker was discharged thereafter.