Blogfinger

Crew-members: Doolittle raid on Japanese islands, April 18, 1942. 16 B-25B bombers took off from the deck of the USS Hornet.

By Kennedy Buckley (late)  of Ocean Grove, New Jersey   (Re-posted from 2012; on Blogfinger.) Ken was a former writer for Blogfinger. net.

“I was 9, visiting Ireland, when the war started in 1939. To get home we embarked from Scotland, and Mom bought me some toy soldiers and a tank for the sea voyage home.

“The bombing of Pearl Harbor was what changed life in the US; now we were in the war instead of watching. Lots of small banners with a blue star in the center started appearing in front windows, meaning a family member was in the service. My two older cousins from Philly went in, and  one would become an officer in the paratroopers (more about him later). Dad’s younger brother with no children was drafted — my dad not. Soon there were multiple flags in many windows.

“Nobody was allowed to go up on the roof of my uncle’s tall apartment building in Brooklyn because a spy could see all the ships in New York harbor awaiting convoy. All  windows had to have heavy  drapes to prevent light shining out. If light could be seen, an Air Raid Warden blew a whistle until you fixed it. Rationing books were needed to buy food and things. Tin cans and tin foil were saved and collected for the “war effort.”

“There was little car driving (gas and tires were rationed) so Esso (now Exxon) printed war maps instead of road maps on which you could follow the battle front as the Allies went through Europe and the Pacific. War news was really bad, defeat after defeat; however, our spirits were raised with very welcome GOOD news about a daring air raid on Tokyo by B-25 bombers flying off aircraft carriers. (The 70th anniversary of that raid just passed–in 2012.)

This family had 3 members serving. The service flag hung in many windows.

“As the war went on, many of the BLUE stars in the windows started changing to GOLD, signifying the death of that serviceman.

“Many of our neighbors in the tenements were Italian. Each family had a small storage room in the cellars. Italian families made wine there and stored it in big bottles. When V-E Day came, the celebrating started in the afternoon by bringing the wine to the street for huge block parties that went on into the wee hours. EVERYBODY drank. I was 14 and my buddies and I got falling drunk for the first time, rolling around in the street — nobody cared.

*Newsreels of color war footage of the island by island battles in the Pacific were shown in the movie theaters. The Japanese troops  were so gruesome that when the atomic bombs were dropped, nobody complained — soon after came V-J Day.  It was the end ….of that war.”

4  brothers from the Demby family of Bayonne, NJ  (Paul Goldfinger’s  family) returned home after serving in WWII. Three were in the Pacific, and one (Marty Litinger) was in the convoys that plowed through the North Atlantic with supplies for Russia and England.     PG family photo. 1945.  Front l to r.  Ben Demby (Bronze star valor), “Duke” Demby (subs), rear: Al Demby  on left (Sea Bees) and Marty Litinger  (Coast Guard). Eileen’s Dad Bernard  Harkavy served in Europe.

Postscript by Ken:

“The soldiers came back home in droves to try to begin a normal life. My cousin Jimmy, the paratrooper, was already back recuperating  in an Army Hospital. He had jumped twice in Europe, D-Day in France and later in Belgium. He lost most of his men in the 2nd jump and was badly wounded. He never really resumed a normal life. He married (I was in the wedding party) a wonderful, beautiful woman,  an ex-Rockette. He was in and out of Veterans hospitals until he died in his early 30’s.

“I fear for the returning veterans from our recent and current wars. Will they get enough care?  I really worry.”

(Note:  Ken Buckley died 2019 in Ocean Grove.)

Maxwell Air University: Regarding how to finish off Japan:     “A policy of imposed starvation—of food, as well as materiel—would have weakened Japanese capabilities without reducing their resolve. Lewis estimates that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the extent that it induced Japanese surrender, saved the lives of roughly 30 million people.”

Civilian losses were not criticized.

Blogfinger:     Perhaps 1 million American soldiers could have died if we had invaded Japan.

“Collateral damage” could not be avoided as we took Japan and Germany.  And there were few complaints at  the home front and around the Allied world.    Paul Goldfinger Editor BF.

MUSIC from that era:  A lot of the music was sentimental and often catered to the imaginations of homesick GI’s who literally spent years away from home and loved ones.

Here is Peggy Lee with the Benny Goodman orchestra with a song that undoubtedly reminded many GI’s of their girls back home.  —PG