Patricia Manning

 

 

Interviewed by Cliff Jager

 

 

 

 

Name: Patricia Manning

Relationship: Grandma

Age at start of war: 8   

Current age: 75

 

How old were you at the start of the war?

 

Well…..On December 7th, 1941 I was 8 years old. I was old enough to remember it very well.

 

What was you reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

 

I was Sunday morning; my mother was in the kitchen fixing breakfast. My dad, Walter, was listening to the radio; there was no TV yet, when the program was interrupted with a news bulletin that the Japanese has just bombed our naval base and the city of Honolulu and military targets in Hawaii. I was very frightened because my parents were alarmed.

 

So how did that morning differ in your community than other mornings? Was it the same? Or was everyone really scared?

 

People were scared, but mostly angry. That event changed our lives and the way we lived. The young men flocked to the military recruiting centers to volunteer for the armed services. Every family had one or more members fighting and dying overseas. We all mad sacrifices, the able bodied men went to war; the women stepped in and went to working the defense industries building tanks, guns, ships, planes the armament of the war. We all made personal sacrifices. We understood things like “blackouts”, air raid drills, food shortages and rationing, gas rationing, no new cars, price freezing etc. True patriotism ran high.

 

Was anyone in our family in the military during this time?

 

Yes, I had 3 cousins who were in the military. One was a US Marine, one was in the army, and one was in the Army Air Force. He fought in the Pacific and was killed. I also had an uncle who was in the Army and he too was in the Pacific.

 

So what is your opinion on the dropping of the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

I believed that dropping the Atom Bomb shortened the war. I don’t think that anyone understood the power of that bomb. There was throughout that war. I don’t think Berlin was any less damaged or loss of life than Japan. War is not grand and glorious thing it is death and destruction. Pearl Harbor was something I will always remember and the visual images (seen on newsreels in movie theaters) are something I will never forget. There were 2800 American service men Killed in that “sneak” attack, plus many civilians and over the next 5 years many, many more, It was not unlike the attack on 9/11 but the difference was the affect on the total country. People were truly changed. But unlike Pearl Harbor there was not the rush to enlist in the service, there was not the sacrifices from the American people as a whole like there was in 1941-1945. Our country emerged from that war as the greatest nation on earth. But today I see the government continuing to usurp our freedoms and the media tell us what to think. GOD HELP US ALL!

What did you do during the war?

 

I was in school. We collected tin cans, string, and foil in big balls for the war effort. There were no nylon stockings and I can remember my mother standing in line to buy one pair.

 

So is that the only way that the war changed school? And how did it change your social life?

 

School didn’t change much. We had air raid drills and a bomb shelter in the basement. At one time there were Japanese submarines sighted in Puget sound so that scared the heck out of everyone. My social life at 12 years old (when the war ended) consisted mostly of things like girl scouts and dancing school. I didn’t have a bike because you couldn’t buy one anywhere. Metal went into the war effort. I didn’t “date” at 12 so I was just a kid. We played in the street and of course we played war with wooden guns and I always had to be the “dirty Jap” because I was a girl and the rest of the neighborhood kids were boys.

 

What was your most lasting memory of the war years? Like something that when you think of WWII pops into your head.

 

Probably the pride in our country and the patriotism that everyone felt, this nation was truly united and I am proud to be an American.