Transcript of an interview with William W. Pearsall concerning his experiences on the homefront as a teenager in Elgin, Illinois, during World War II. Pearsall discusses his education and childhood in Elgin; local reaction to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; air raid drills and blackouts; attempts to make people war conscious; spy hysteria; censorship of mail; harassment of German Americans; gasoline rationing; scrap drives; war bond drives; Victory Gardens; rationing of tires; scarcity of automobile parts; black market activities; clothing shortages; Boy Scout activities; effects of having a brother and sister in the military; wartime entertainment for teenagers; high school war bond dances; V-E Day celebrations; V-J Day celebrations; attitudes toward Japanese; and the adjustment of his brother and sister to civilian life. Includes appendix with photographs [3 pages].

Interview with Mei Nakano, a college professor, concerning her experiences as a Japanese-American internee at the Amache, Colorado, internment camp during World War II. Nakano discusses her childhood experiences with bigotry in rural Colorado, the evacuation from Los Angeles to Amache in September of 1942, camp life, her marriage in the camp, resettlement in Chicago, and the lasting impressions of the internment experience.