The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Wilhelm. Wilhelm joined the Navy in April of 1944. He served as a Gunner’s Mate aboard USS El Dorado (AGC-11) from August of 1944 through August 1945. They served as a communications ship through the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Wilhelm was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond Mnichowicz. Mnichowicz was born in Chicago, Illinois on 10 November 1927. He joined the US Navy in 1944 and attended boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Following boot camp he was assigned to the engine room of the USS Pochard (AM-375). He tells of the ship being involved in the laying of smokescreens and minesweeping operations prior to the invasion of Okinawa and of the shooting down of Japanese aircraft during the operation. He also tells of the ship sweeping mines in both Sagami Bay and Tokyo Bay prior to the surrender of Japan and of being one of the first Americans to set foot on Japan following the surrender. Mnichowicz was discharged in 1946, but reenlisted shortly thereafter and retired from the Navy in 1967.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Salvatore Rascati. Rascati was born in New Haven, Connecticut on 12 May 1925. Entering the Navy in 1943 he attended boot camp at Sampson, New York. He then attended electrical school for four months followed by several months of training at the motion picture technical school in Brooklyn, New York. He was then assigned to the USS El Dorado (AGC-11). In 1944 the ship went to Guam at which time Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner came on board with his staff. Rascati tells of the ship participating in the invasion of Iwo Jima and taking many of the Marine casualties on board. He also tells of the ship participating in the invasion of Okinawa and General Simon Bucker and Ernie Pyle being on board. Following the Okinawa operation the ship went to Manila. While there they heard about the atomic bomb attack. The ship returned to the United States soon after the Japanese surrender.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dorinda Nicholson. Nicholson was a first-grader living on Pearl City Peninsula at the time of the attack. Japanese planes grazed the trees in her backyard as they began their bombardment, and Nicholson’s father rushed her family to the sugarcane fields perched above the harbor. From that day onward, the island was under martial law and strict rationing. Nicholson saw many locals leave and thousands of soldiers arrive. When the war finally ended, it seemed the soldiers left nothing behind but camouflage netting and cans of SPAM. This surplus source of protein after such a prolonged period of scarcity quickly became a favorite among the islanders. Nicholson has written four books about children’s experiences during World War II and is published by National Geographic.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Arnhold Schwichtenberg. Schwichtenberg joined the Navy in September 1940 and was assigned to the USS Trever (DMS-16). During the attack on Pearl Harbor, he went out on a whale boat and rounded up officers and a substitute captain to help the Trever get underway. He watched torpedoes hit the USS Utah (BB-31) and the USS California (BB-44). He saw a bomb hit the USS Curtiss (AV-4) and saw a bomb intended for the Trever splash into the water beside him. A week later, the Trever left to escort a Norwegian freighter. When they arrived to meet the freighter, it had been torpedoed, and so the Trever picked up the survivors. Schwichtenberg was transferred back to the States to attend diesel school. He was promoted to chief machinist’s mate and prepared the USS Brennan (DE-13) and USS Steele (DE-8) for commissioning. He went to sea with the Steele and was aboard the USS Rockingham (APA-229) during atomic bomb tests. Schwichtenberg returned home and was discharged in August 1946. He worked for the Navy as a civilian employee, leading a crew that commissioned 20 destroyers.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Autry. Autry left the Merchant Marine and joined the Navy just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Given his experience, he qualified for steam engineering and was sent to the University of Houston for training in diesel engineering. He briefly entertained the idea of being a Navy diver and received training at Pier 88 in New York City. Ultimately he was assigned to the crew of an LCI that laid smoke screens and made almost 100 landings in the Philippines. As part of his duty, Autry fought fires on ships and rescued the wounded. He bartered with natives on Mindanao and returned home with an intricately carved knife made of volcanic ash. He also met the natives of Luzon and describes their poisonous arrows. He recalls a treacherous typhoon at Okinawa. From there he went to China and recounts the tremendous poverty. He saw atrocious conditions for Filipino women and children at Santo Tomas. When Autry finally returned home, his daughter, who was born while Autry was at sea, was already 18 months old. He joined the Naval Reserve and was sent to the Philippines as a …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jean Adams. Adams was born in Washington, DC. Her father served in the military as well as her two brothers. She attended an all-girls school in Washington and graduated from a women’s college in Philadelphia. In 1940 she joined her brother in the Philippines but was evacuated in 1941. She joined the second class of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WACs) in 1942. She was assigned to the Office of Inspector General and tells of several investigations in which she was involved. She resigned from WACs soon after getting married in 1943.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a joint interview with Liz Irvine and Yvonne Charles. Both were teenagers when they were interned as civilians in Santo Tomas University by the Japanese in 1942. They discuss the various activities they participated in. They tell of some of the acts of kindness as well as brutality that occurred by their captors. They also tell of the violent demise of the Japanese camp commandant Abiko, following the surrender of the camp on 3 February 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Don Pickard. Pickard was in high school when the war started and recalls a few anecdotes from childhood before joining the Navy in mid-1944. Once in the Navy, Pickard was assigned to the Amphibious Force. He served as a signalman aboard USS Bergen (APA-150). On his first voyage, they delivered ammunition to Ulithi. Pickard also went to Okinawa and describes typhoons. After the war ended, his ship carried parts of the First Marine Division to China. Upon returning to the US, Pickard received his discharge in mid-1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Edwards. Edwards joined the Navy in August 1942 and received basic training in Illinois. He received amphibious training in Virginia. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 8th Amphibious Force and sent to Italy, where he was coxswain of landing craft at the invasions of Sicily and Salerno. While the landing was unopposed at Sicily, Edwards’s experience at Salerno was much more frightening than what he remembers of Normandy and Okinawa. Edwards was under heavy fire while bringing troops ashore in the first wave of the invasion. He remained there for two weeks, shuttling troops and equipment back and forth. He recalls seeing the bodies of ambushed American soldiers lain across the beach as far as the eye could see. Edwards returned home and was discharged in 1945 as a boatswain’s mate, second class.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Smith. Smith joined the Navy in October 1940 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was sent to Pearl Harbor, where he worked as a baker. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was aboard the USS California (BB-44), hoisting ammunition from the third deck to the antiaircraft guns topside. The California was torpedoed, damaging fuel lines and covering Smith in oil. Stunned by the explosion, he was urged to jump ship by Marines, whom he credits with saving his life. He swam to safety and was later transferred to Kaneohe. Six months later he was reassigned to the submarine base at Pearl Harbor, and six months later to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. As a baker, he had a fair amount of free time, and so he enrolled at the high school in Honolulu. There he met his first wife, whom he married in 1943. Smith was on his way to the States with orders to attend chief petty officer school when the war ended.

Transcript of an oral interview with Karl E. Momsen. Momsen joined the Marine Corps and trained at Parris Island, South Carolina before reporting to Camp Pendleton. He sailed to Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Arenac (APA-128), then Guam in preparation for the invasion of Okinawa. Momsen carried the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in his squad. He landed on Okinawa in the second wave on 1 April 1945. Momsen briefly describes being wounded in action.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Donald Austin. Austin joined the Navy and was commissioned as an ensign before being assigned to the USS Pope (DD-225 in the Philippines. He was there when the war started. Austin was aboard the Pope when she was attacked and sunk. He was rescued by a Japanese destroyer and made a prisoner of war. He was held on Java and then Makassar. He was around when Richard Antrim intervened during a beating of a POW (Antrim was awarded the Medal of Honor). He shares several other POW anecdotes about their treatment, their daily lives, etc. in the camps. He also shares the experience of being liberated.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Richard Goss. Goss joined the Marine Corps in April of 1943. He joined the Marine Raiders, training in boat landings and as a mortar man. He traveled to New Caledonia and Guam, and participated in the invasion of Saipan in June of 1944. He shares a number of anecdotal stories about general life in the service. He was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ray Harrison. Born in 1922, he joined the Marine Corps in December 1941. He describes his battle experiences on Guadalcanal as well as the supply shortages and Japanese naval shelling. He contracted malaria there. He also talks about the Japanese night attacks on Guadalcanal and Tulagi. He describes landing on Tarawa. Assigned to man a machine gun on top of an amphibious tractor in the first wave of the invasion, he was injured and stranded in his disabled tractor. After making his way to a Higgins boat, he and others were picked up by a destroyer and returned to their original ship. He describes his experiences in battle on Saipan as well as witnessing the suicides of civilians. He also mentions the invasion of Tinian. After thirty months in the Pacific Theater, he was transferred to the recreation department at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. He shares anecdotes about enlisting in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; eating coconuts on Tulagi; his summary court martial after a furlough in New Zealand; and teaching himself to be a sailing instructor at Camp Lejeune. He was discharged in December …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Horace Johnson. Johnson joined the Navy in February 1942 and received basic training in Norfolk. Upon completion, he was assigned to the Seabees and sent to Port Hueneme. From there he set sail for the Pacific, where he constructed airstrips and aviation refueling stations in Suva, Funafuti, and Samoa. He returned to the States on 8 June 1944, and his battalion was decommissioned. Johnson did a second tour, stationed at an advanced base construction depot on Manus. He volunteered for the invasion of Luzon aboard the USS Zeilin (APA-3). On 12 January, a suicide plane killed several men aboard ship, and they were buried at sea. Johnson returned home and was discharged in November 1945. He stayed in the construction industry and traveled all over the world building roads.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph Lajzer. Lajzer volunteered for service in the Army. Lajzer was assigned to a tank unit and trained at Fort Knox and in Louisiana before shipping out to the Philippines in late 1941. He was present at Clark Field when the Japanese attacked. He describes his retreat to Bataan and his activities there until he was surrendered. He also speaks of the six days he marched on the Bataan Death March out of Bataan. Once he was in a prisoner of war camp, he was assigned to a logging detail. He also contracted malaria and relates stories about smuggling items past the Japanese guards and into prison camps. Lajzer describes being aboard a hellship and being trransported to Formosa (Taiwan), where he spent the remainder of the war until he was liberated. Upon returning to the US, he was sent ot a hospital for a while before re-enlisting. He retired in 1966.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Dr. Janus Poppe. Poppe was born in the Netherlands in 1916. As a teenager, he worked as a mechanic for a ship building company. After high school, he attended a Dutch Marine academy for two years. In the mid-1930s, he served as a Deck Officer aboard a ship that traveled around the world twice. He later worked for a shipping company in the Dutch East Indies. In May of 1940, he was traveling in the middle of the Pacific when word arrived from his parents in Holland that the Germans had invaded. Poppe was then trained as a navigator and bombardier. He was serving as a navigator and bombardier aboard PBYs when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Poppe shares several recollections of his encounters with the Japanese during the war, and patrolling around Indonesia. He additionally oversaw 200 Dutch Marines, assigned to patrol and defend Parafield, South Australia. Around 1943, he completed military flight school at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Transcript of an oral interview with Dr. Edward Drea. Drea joined the Air Force in 1965 after college and trained as an intelligence officer. He was eventually assigned to the Fifth Air Force in Fuchu, Japan in 1968 where he monitored communications between communist countries. After a tour with the Air Force in Vietnam, Drea returned to Japan in 1971 to attend university on the G.I. Bill and study for a masters degree in international relations. He returned to work on a Ph. D. at the University of Kansas and was able to return to Japan for some doctoral work where an interest in the Imperial Japanese Army grew and matured. Upon completion of the degree, he took a position at the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas as a civilian historian. The conversation drifts into breaking the Japanese code during World War II and using it to Allied advantage. From there, the conversation goes into Japan's decision to go to war against the United States. From there, it moves to the occupation of Japan after the war ended and the Imperial Japanese Army.

Transcript of an oral interview with William Buckner. Buckner is the son of General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. He discusses his father's military career, from graduating at West Point to serving as the Army commander in charge of setting up bases in Alaska, then serving in the Pacific under Admiral Nimitz and heading up the 10th Army for the Okinawa invasion. His father was killed by a small caliber bullet that richocheted off a rock which then hit the General in the chest while inspecting the progress of the 8th Marine regiment. Buckner mentions various false stories he's heard about his father's death as well as his father's relationships with other commanders in Alaska and the Pacific, particularly Admirals Theobald, Kincaid, Spruance and Nimitz and Generals Richardson and Stilwell. He also mentions his grandfather, who was a Confederate General in the Civil War, and other ancestors who served in the military dating back to the Revolutionary war.

Transcript of an oral interview with Les Caffey. He was born near Ballinger, Texas, grew up on a farm near Brady, Texas and when he finished high school in 1944, he joined the Navy because his brothers and friends had all joined the service. He had two months training in San Diego, then went aboard a troopship to Pearl Harbor. From there, Caffey was assigned and went aboard the USS Wichita (CA-45). He speaks of towing the USS Canberra (CA-70) after it suffered a torpedo hit off the coast of Formosa. Caffey also speaks of watching from the deck of the Wichita planes from VF-2 come in and land on the illuminated deck of the USS Lexington (CV-16) after operations in the Philippine Sea. As the cruiser was headed into Buckner Bay to soften up Okinawa prior to the invasion, Caffey describes near misses by a torpedo and a kamikaze. After the war ended, the Wichita sailed to Nagasaki where Caffey describes scenes of destruction. After that, the Wichita was sent to Philadelphia for decommissioning and Caffey got his discharge shortly thereafter. He made his way back to Brady and reunited with his folks.

Transcript of an oral interview with George Keith. Keith enlisted in the Navy Seabees in May 1942 and went to boot camp at Camp Allen in Norfolk, Virginia. From there, they were sent by train to Port Hueneme, California. They spent two months training there before they boarded a ship in San Francisco which sailed to Pearl Harbor. He stayed there with the 10th Battalion and worked two years in the Navy Yard switching equipment. Cook was there when they righted the USS Oklahoma. He came back to the States in 1945, first to Camp Parks, California and then they were shipped to Davisville, Rhode Island (Seabee base). After he was discharged, he went back to work at New England Bell which later became AT&T.

Transcript of an oral interview with Charles Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick joined the Marine Corps in 1942. He had basic training at Parris Island, then was selected to go to Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia. He was eventually assigned to the Sixth marine Division as an artillery forward observer and joined the division on Guadalcanal before going to Okinawa. Kilpatrick discusses the fighting on Okinawa in the vicinity of Sugar Loaf Hill and the Horseshoe. After Okinawa was captured, Kilpatrick went to Guam, then to Japan for occupation duty. He also spent time in China during the occupation there, as well. Kilpatrick stayed in the reserves until he retired in 1962.

Transcript of an oral interview with Bill McClellan. He joined the Marine Corps in 1944 where he had training at Parris Island, Camp Lejeune and Camp pendleton before shipping out and joining his unit on Guadalcanal. On their way to Okinawa, the unit stopped off at Mog Mog for a beer bust. McClellan was among the first marines to land on Okinawa. After securing the northern portion of the island, his unit moved south. He was detached and spent 10 days assisting the Graves Registration commander in digging graves. A leiutenant from his company rescued him from this duty and sent him back to the rest of his company on the line. From Okinawa, McClellan went to Guam with his unit, then Yokosuka after the surrender. He spent over a year in Japan before being discharged in Corpus Christi, Texas in February, 1947. In 1950, he was called up for duty in Korea.