Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, a pilot during World War II. He describes growing up on a farm in Georgia, going to college at Berry, and working for Sears, Roebuck, and the Royal Typewriter Company before joining the U. S. Navy. He tells an anecdote about joining the navy so he could go to New York to see the World's Fair, since he had heard the Atlanta Reserve would be making a trip to the Fair. He began flight training in Florida in December 1940, finished the next September, then drove cross-country to San Francisco after the Pearl Harbor attack. He eventually joined the USS Enterprise in April 1942 and saw the B-25 bombers in the Doolittle Raid take off. He was part of Bombing Squadron Six and trained under Commander Best to learn how to do scouting flights, navigation, and dive bombing. He then describes his participation in the Battle of Midway, the hours before take-off, his first view of the Japanese fleet, and his bombing mission. He was later assigned to the USS Hornet and had to fly off to a little island so that planes from the USS Wasp could land on the Hornet after their ship …

Interview with Garvin Kowalke, a pilot during World War II. He discusses joining the Army Air Corps, going to Air Cadet training to become a pilot, and training on various aircraft (AT-17, UC-78, P-36, P-33, T-6, BT-13, B-17, B-29) before becoming a B-29 pilot; he shipped out to Guam and flew standard and fire bombing runs over Japan. He discusses having to ditch the plane on the way back to Guam once when the engines failed, seeing another B-29 crew have to bail out over Toyko Bay and get picked up by a U.S. submarine that was in the Bay, getting pulled down to the fires when they were trying to hide in the smoke to avoid Japanese fighter planes, and getting caught in a storm by Mount Fujiyama, as well as collecting data such wind direction, speed, and temperature over Hiroshima for future bombing runs, which turned out to be for the bombers who dropped the atomic bomb. He also talks about flying over Hiroshima two days after the bombing and gauging how high the radiation levels were at different altitudes. He also talks about being in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, becoming a B-57 pilot, and adopting a …

Interview with James William "Bill" Harrison, a serviceman in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He explains how he joined the navy in San Diego without going to boot camp. He worked on an oil tanker that shipped out to Pearl Harbor a month after the attack there and transported fuel out of San Diego to various ships at sea. He was then transfered to Admiral Nimitz's public relations department. There he and two others wrote stories about the action in the Pacific theater, particularly about the Battle of Midway. They also contributed to a radio show and worked with the national press corps. He then worked at the Naval Air Station in Seattle before traveling to Hilo, Hawaii to meet with soldiers who had returned from Tarawa. In Texas, he attended officer training school and college at Southwestern University. After the war ended, he studied at the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma for law school. He recalls an incident in which his office released a story about a cat that had kittens on board a cruiser; they reported this good news from the Pacific prior to the Battle of Midway. He also met Admirals Nimitz …

Interview with John Wilson, an officer in the U. S. Army during World War II. Wilson was born in Illinois but attended high school in the Philippines after his father accepted an engineering position there. He graduated from high school in 1939 and then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin, where he participated in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He graduated and took his commission in the Army in 1943. After Officer Candidate School (OCS), he was assigned to an engineering unit slated to participate in the invasion of the Philippines. He eventually landed on Luzon. On Luzon he was assigned temporary duty with a small Philippine Civil Affairs unit that was made up of officers and men who had relatives interned by the Japanese in the Philippines. His small unit made their way to Santo Tomas where he liberated many friends and old school mates. A few weeks later, Wilson liberated his father, a civilian internee at Los Banos. Wilson remained with his unit constructing hospitals in the Philippines in anticipation of the casualties expected from the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

Interview with Boyd K. Miller, a draftsman and pilot during World War II. He discusses being drafted out of college and working as an artist and draftsman. Since he studied art in college, he worked on diagrams and charts. He then transferred to the Air Corps to become a pilot and trained in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Florida and Texas.

Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, an Armed Guard in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He discusses lying about his age in order to join the navy at 15 and his experience in boot camp. He served as an Armed Guard on merchant ships that transported supplies across the Atlantic and remembers being in London while German bombers flew overhead. He transported German prisoners out of Marseilles and Naples shortly after the liberation of those cities. He remembers going to Times Square upon hearing that the Japanese had surrendered. He claims to have been the sailor in the iconic photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day. He describes how he proved he was the sailor in the photo, what he did after the war, and how he learned that his brother survived the Bataan Death March.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Trenton Fowler. Fowler grew up in Corpus Christi and enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1943. Once he finished training, he was assigned to the 4th Marine Raider Battalion and shipped out on the French transport ship Rochambeau to New Caledonia. From there he went to Guadalcanal for training and then to the Emirau, Guam, and Okinawa campaigns, with stops at Guadalcanal in between each campaign. Fowler discusses the pros and cons of the Browning Automatic Rifle versus the M-1 Garand. He tells of the change of his unit's name from the 4th Battalion Raiders to the 6th Marine Division, before he went to Okinawa. He relates the experience of finding out his brother, a fellow Marine, had died at Iwo Jima.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ruth Bennett. Bennett grew up in Texas. She worked in Big Spring as a personnel secretary and married an officer in the Air Force.

Transcript of an oral interview with Don Peterson. Mr Peterson was drafted into the Army but didn't want to do that so he joined the Navy because he wanted to fly. After Basic Training in Kansas City he got his wings in Corpus Christi. After flight training, he was sent to Astoria, Oregon and assigned to the USS Matanikua (CVE). He was assigned to the ship as a ship's officer, a line officer. He was also on the commissioning crew of another CVE (Commencement Bay), as part of the ship's company. He never had the opportunity to fly off a carrier or land on a carrier. He served as a test pilot in Bremerton, Washington while waiting for the Commencement Bay. The planes had come in for repair and maintenance. He went with the Commencement Bay to the South Pacific; he was the Flight Deck Officer and was qualified as the Officer of the Deck. Peterson tells the story of having to relieve the Captain as they were coming into port when he was the Officer of the Deck; afterwards, he was confined to his quarters. He was severely injured while serving as a Flight Deck Officer onboard the Commencement …

Transcript of an oral interview with Garvin Kowalke. He discusses joining the Army Air Corps, going to Air Cadet training to become a pilot, training on various aircraft (AT-17, UC-78, P-36, P-33, T-6, BT-13, B-17, B-29) before becoming a B-29 pilot. He shipped out to Guam and flew standard and fire bombing runs over Japan. He discusses having to ditch the plane on the way back to Guam once when the engines failed, seeing another B-29 crew have to bail out over Toyko Bay and get picked up by a US submarine that was in the Bay, getting pulled down to the fires when they were trying to hide in the smoke to avoid Japanese fighter planes, getting caught in a storm by Mount Fujiyama, collecting data such wind direction, speed and temperature over Hiroshima for future bombing runs, which turned out to be for the bombers who dropped the atomic bomb, then flying over the city two days after the bombing and gauging how high the radiation levels were at different altitudes. He also talks about being in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, becoming a B-57 pilot, and adopting a baby boy from Germany after the war, then a …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Jacobson. Jacobson was born in 1916. In 1940 he was accepted in the aviation cadet program and graduated in December 1941. He was sent to Fiji where he received additional flight training and was then sent to Guadalcanal. He describes being bombarded for over four hours one night by Japanese ships off the coast. He tells of the experiences of dropping bombs, strafing and escorting bombers during his more than 100 missions and three tours on Guadalcanal. He was selected to be Captain John Mitchell’s wingman during Operation Vengeance. He describes the precise flight plotted by Mitchell for intercept of Admiral Yamamoto’s plane over Bougainville. A vivid description is given of the actions taken by the planes involved in the attack.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Major General David M. Jones. Jones participated in the Doolittle Raid. He describes the take-off procedures from the USS Hornet (CV-8). He piloted plane number five and recalls clearly seeing a Japanese G4M (Betty) bomber pass by his aircraft an hour after being launched. Jones dropped incendiary bombs over Tokyo and encountering anti-aircraft fire. He explains how the crew bailed out over China and mentions the joyous receptions given to crew members by the people of China.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Brush. Brush was assigned to serve as the Chief Engineer of the Philippine Manufacturing Company in Manila, before World War II. He and his wife traveled to Manila in May of 1941 and operated the factory until the end of December. He and his wife were taken prisoner into Santo Tomas Internment Camp in January of 1942. Brush shares details of the accommodations, building structure, atmosphere, food rations, starvation, illnesses, separated living conditions of men, women and children as well as their required daily work. They were later moved to Los Baños Internment Camp. In December of 1943 his wife, along with other women from Santo Tomas, were brought to Los Baños and allowed to live together as a family. Brush provides vivid details of their rescue in February of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George Zapalac. Zapalac was born in Pasadena, California 27 April 1923. He joined the US Army in 1940 and received his basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas. Upon volunteering for parachute training he was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia where he qualified as a paratrooper. He then went to Fort Bragg, Kentucky and was assigned to the 506th Parachute infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. In 1943 the unit went to England and continued training. On 6 June 1944 his division participated in Operation Neptune. He describes the procedure of boarding the plane with full combat gear and weapons. He also tells of preparing for bailout. After jumping from 700 hundred feet and landing, he recalls using a cricket device to indentify one’s self with other members of the unit. On 11 June while advancing on bridges at Carentan, France, Zapalac was severely wounded. He was treated by a medic and returned to a hospital in England. After three months in the hospital he was sent to a replacement depot. He was unable to return to combat due to the lack of mobility of his right arm. Requiring frequent …

Transcript of an oral interview with Edwin Seace. Seace enlisted in the Navy in June of 1942 and was assigned to the USS Independence (CVL-22). He was one of the plank owners (i.e. part of the first crew on a new ship) and mentions going through the Panama Canal as the first ship of that size to go through, scraping the sides of the flight deck overhang on the canal walls. From there, the ship docked in San Diego before heading out to Pearl Harbor then across the Pacific Ocean, making raids at Rabaul in September 1943, supporting the landings at Tarawa in November where it was torpedoed on November 20th. He talks about getting hit in the head by debris when one of the torpedos hit, watching burials at sea, going to Funafuti, then Pearl Harbor, then San Francisco for repairs, running aground on a sandbar leaving San Francisco due to the ship being overloaded, being in Halsey's fleet for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, supporting the landings on Luzon, the sinking of the Princeton, the sister ship of the Independence, and night combat runs made by the Independence's planes. He also mentions remembering the smell of Iwo Jima …

Transcript of an oral interview with Ruth Fowler. Fowler was teaching in Big Spring, Texas, when she went out for the Civilian Pilot Training Program in 1939. She was accepted and was trained to fly. She evetually became an instructor. She also discusses rationing.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Kenneth Olsen, J S Gray and Paul Spain. These men were prisoners of war on the Philippines and share anecdotes of their captivity. Olsen also tells stories from his time in captivity in Japan. Paul Spain shares a story about rescuing an American flag and keeping portions of it throughout his captivity. They also discuss their weight upon being liberated.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Hazel Moore. Moore was born 13 January 1910, and she speaks of her family history. She and her husband, Emmett Assenheimer, moved to Panama City, Florida in 1940, where Emmett was the Chief Expediter of J.A. Jones Construction Company. He oversaw materials needed for construction. They were building the Wainwright Shipyard in Panama City. They both had the opportunity to christen the liberty ship, SS Ransom A. Moore. Moore speaks about who Ransom A. Moore was in history. The Wainwright Ship Yard was building LSTs for the war. She served with the Gray Ladies of the American Red Cross.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Helen Beattie. Beattie was born in the Philippines, where her parents were missionaries. She provides details of her family history. She and her family lived in Lugazpi, Philippines. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, they landed five miles from her home. Beattie provides vivid details of her family and friends attempts to run and hide from the Japanese. They were captured in January and allowed to live in a compound of houses, not an internment camp. Sometime in 1942 they were taken to Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. Beattie shares her experiences there as a fifteen-year-old girl, separated from her family. They were later transferred to Los Baños Internment Camp and rescued in February of 1945. They returned to the US in May of that same year.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Henry Bucher. Bucher was born on Hainan Island, in the South China Sea, in March 1936. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Bucher was 5 years old living with his family in Manila, Philippines. He describes the events that followed in Manila. Bucher and his family were allowed to stay in their home, though not leave their compound, until the summer of 1944. They were all then transferred to Los Baños Internment Camp. His father was under forced labor in the camp, while his mother would teach school to Bucher, his siblings and other children. He describes their living conditions, food accommodations, what he was allowed and not allowed to do as a child in the camp, his interactions with the Japanese guards and their rescue in February of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edith Chamberlin. Chamberlin’s mother was from Poland, her father was from England, and she was born in Shanghai, China. Her father was a cinematographer and was offered a job in the movie industry in the Philippines. She speaks of their life in the Philippines prior to the war. After the Japanese invaded the Philippines, she and her family were taken to Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. They remained there from January of 1942 through their liberation in February of 1945. After the war, their family re-established their life in the Philippines.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dwight Clark. Clark was born into a family of ten children in New Carlisle, Indiana. Upon being drafted into the Army in February 1943 he underwent basic training, which was followed by attending weapons school at Camp Hood, Texas. In school he learned to be a gunsmith and artillery mechanic. After eighteen months of training, his unit, the 672nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion, was sent to Fort Ord, California where they had amphibious training in Monterey Bay. They were sent to Bougainville from which they participated in the invasion of Luzon. On 23 February 1945, the unit was attached to the 11th Airborne, participating in the raid on the Los Banos Internment Camp. Clark tells of the raid and the aftermath. He expresses his admiration for General MacArthur. Clark returned to the United States in December 1945, and received his discharge a month later. Clark concludes with details about his life as a minister and teacher until his retirement.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ann Drake. Drake was born in the Philippines on 31 August 1937. Her mother was from North Borneo and her father was an American. In 1941 the family lived to Manila and she recalls 8 December 1941 when the Japanese began bombing the city. She fondly remembers her father saying goodbye to the family for it was the last time they ever spoke to him. She recalls the Japanese taking her mother and siblings to Santo Tomas internment camp. Drake and her two sisters were placed in the Holy Ghost Convent for children while her brothers remained at Santo Tomas. In January 1944 the girls and their mother were again sent to Santo Tomas where they were united with the boys. Drake describes the living conditions and the scarcity of food. Internees were supposed to receive Red Cross packages monthly, but received only three packages during their confinement. Drake comments on the day they were freed and how she presently feels about the Japanese. After the surrender of Japan, Drake learned her father had been interned at Cabanatuan concentration camp for several years before being put on a …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Don Ennis. Ennis was born in 1931 in Manila, Philippines. Ennis and his family were living in Manila in December 1941. He recalls daily air raids until the occupation of Manila by the Japanese at the end of December. In January of 1942 his father was interned in Santo Tomas Internment Camp. The remainder of their family was placed under house arrest and by May of 1943 they were all issued orders to report for internment at Santo Tomas. Ennis vividly describes the camp, their living conditions, their work assignments, their communication with the Japanese guards and their transfer to Los Baños Internment Camp in April of 1944. They were liberated in February 1945 by nine C-47 aircraft, dropping B Company of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment.