WWII Interview by: Dylan Reiter

GORDON & EDITH BENNETT

SUMMARY:

            For my interview project I interviewed my Great Grandfather, Gordon Bennett, and my Great Grandmother, Edith Bennett. My grandfather had a very strong point of view on the war. He was all ready to go into the military to fight the Japanese and the Germans, but the war had ended before he was old enough to join. My Grandmother had a different experience during the war considering that her parents had emigrated from Germany just before she had been born. Her family had moved from Germany to be part of the free America even though the year she was born was the year that the Stock Market had crashed.

            Through the interviews I had realized that nothing much had changed during the war besides the rationing of food and the physiological factor that the Japanese had put on the Americans by attacking Pearl Harbor. The Americans were scared out of there minds that they were going to attack other big cities on the west coast, since Japan is closest to the west coast.

            Overall I noticed that the Americans seemed to be very patriotic about being in the war, they came together to help out the armed forces and got through the war even though many lives had been lost.

INTERVIEWS:

Interview with Gordon Bennett:



Hi Dylan,

Yes I would be happy to answer your questions.  I will have Nana do the same thing for you.

1.  At the start of WWII I was 13 years old and in the 8th grade in Lynwood, California.  Lynwood is located in Southern California on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

2.  I was going to grade school in California for the first year and went to High School until it ended in 1945.

3.  I was scared to death when we heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor because California was the next US position for an attack.  I was very mad at  Japan and we treated all Japanese people with bitter hatred who were in California.

4.  As it came out, aside from the blackouts and Civil Defense duties, the war had little effect on my life.  We, of course, had to ration many items and put up with some hardships.  Later in High School I was anxious to join the military and help fight.  As it turned out the enemy surrendered prior to the time I was old enough to enlist.  Some of my friends who were older enlisted and we wrote to them.

5.  It was not a real hardship to make the changes in our lifestyle due to the war since I was too young to understand a lot of the problems.  Some of the food, gasoline and clothing was in short supply, but I just accepted that as a part of our country being at war.

6.  I strongly feel that the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then later Nagasaki was absolutely  necessary.  It save countless American lives even though it cost may Japanese lives.  Japan was not ready to surrender before the bomb and even did not want to surrender after all of the destruction caused by those two bombs.  Yes, it saved many lives by stopping hostilities then and there instead of continuing on with the war in the Pacific.

7.  My most impression of that time was the first attack on Pearly Harbor and how could a country do such a thing to a peace loving country like the US.  The second most impression was the anticipation of being to enlist in the service and fight that awful enemy, and then my Mothers joy that it was over before I had to go.

These are my thoughts on the subject and hopefully they will help you with your school work.  I will get right on Nana for her thoughts which will differ from mine in some areas since her parents were from Germany

love,

Papa

Interview with Edith Bennett:

Hi there:

Papa gave you the info how his life was during WWII and now I will give you mine.  I too was 13 when we entered the war.  I had a little different  situation than Papa.  America was fighting the Japanese but also was at war with Germany.  The Americans hated the Japanese for what they did at Pearl Harbor, but they also had no love for the Germans.  In fact, when I was in the 8th grade, one of my schoolmate's mother told the teacher that if she did not get rid of that "Nazi", (which was me because I was German), she would take her son out of that class which she did.  There was a great deal of hate during those war years.

I guess that I did nothing different during those years.  I went to school and we learned how to manage during rationing.  In fact, in my Home Ec class, we learned how to make 'peanut butter soup' because meat was rationed and peanut butter was a good protein source.  We learned to do without things but we managed.  It was all for the "war effort".

When the Japanese bombed Pear Harbor, I was scared to death.  I knew that they were were going to attack Seattle, where we lived.  In fact, my Dad bundled us up and took took us to the farm where we stayed until just before Christmas.  Everyone was very frightened.

The war did not affect my social life because I was too young to have much  of a social life. And school just went on.  We did have "bombing drills" where we crawled under our desks in case bombs were dropped while we were in school.

It was not difficult to make the necessary changes like rationing, fuel shortages, etc.  We just felt very patriotic to do this.

The use of the Atomic bomb, even though it took a great many lives, ended a war that would have taken many more lives.  Although I hope that nothing like that ever has to be used again, it had its purpose at that time. 

My memories of the war years were: My mom knitting socks and blankets for the soldiers. My Dad and uncles working in the defense plant which my uncles owned.  I even worked there after school in my  uncles' plant, packing practice bombs.  I remember how patriotic everyone was, not like the wars (Korea, Viet Nam) where there was very little patriotism.  It was a war which was supposed to end all wars, but it didn't do it.

Well, there is 'my side' of the story.  Hope this helps you.

Love ya,

Nana