Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941

Scope and Contents

The Anson E. Voorhees collection contains one folder with a 14-page typed transcript of an oral history interview.

Content Description

This collection relates to Maydene Asbury who worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory separating Uranium-235 from Uranium-238 during World War II, which was part of the process for building the atomic bomb. This collection contains an oral history interview transcript.

Scope and Contents This collection relates to retired U.S. Navy Captain Fred S. Bertsch Jr. who served as the Engineer Officer during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations on the destroyer U.S.S. Case and the Korean War as a naval aviator.  The collection includes a daily handwritten log journal of activities aboard the U.S.S Case which begins with his eyewitness account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, including the attack of the U.S.S. Arizona Battleship, through the end of 1943.  The collection also contains 133 original color slides, and digitized prints of the...

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview transcript relates to the life experiences of Catherine Black, an American woman who grew up in the Great Depression and came of age during World War II. Black recounts growing up during the Great Depression, graduating college, her life on the home front, and her life after the war. She discusses raising a child when her husband was at war, living in Arkansas near a Japanese internment camp, becoming a early widow after the war, her remarrige, and her second husband's experiences as a B17 Bomber Pilot during the War.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains two oral histories; one with Dr. Philip Gilman, Jr. and one with James Izumizaki. It also includes the reprint of a letter by Pvt. Lavern Borg, Jr. written on April 2, 1945. The letter tells about his experiences with the 5th Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corp in the battle of Iwo Jima. The next document includes a service record and medallist dated June 1967, January 1969, and August 1973. A pamphlet collected by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, California entitled Nihen Bunka Japanese Culture: One hundred years in Pajaro Valley is also in the collection.

Scope and Contents

This collection includes an oral history interview transcript of a homefront worker during WWII. She served in a camouflage factory. She describes her experiences surviving the Great Depression, learning of Pearl Harbor, and hearing stories about relatives' military service. This collection also contains a personal photograph.

Content Description

This collection relates to Lawrence Burzynski, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939 and was discharged in 1946 with the rank of Chief Electricians Mate. This collection contains a compilation of entries from Burzynski's diary during his seven years in the Navy. The diary provides an account of nearly every facet of U.S. Navy life during WWII and provides testimony on key moments of the war, including the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Content Description

This collection relates to George R. Cain and his service as a communications officer in the 23rd Fighter Group, also known as the Flying Tigers, in China during World War II. The collection includes a variety of memorabilia, which spans from the beginning of George H. Cain's service in 1940 until his death in 2000. A few sources in the collection provide an overview of military service on the island of Hawaii. Others document his post-service work with his local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.

Content Description

This collection relates to Kenneth H. Cardwell, who served in the Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1945. The collection contains a bound memoir of Cardwell's service which details his experiences in Australia and New Guinea. Included as well in the memoir are photographs from his service, diagrams, cartoons, and Cardwell's certificate of training and service.

Content Description

This collection relates to George Robert Carr who served in Europe during World War II. This collection includes two manuscripts. The first manuscript details Robert C. Mowrer's experiences serving with the 106th infantry Regiment, 27th Division, in the Pacific Theater. The second manuscript details German soldier Gunther Schmidt's account of the Battle of Huertgen Forest from the time he was sent there to when his battalion is defeated. Second manuscript includes maps.

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Commander Leonard D. Ellingwood who had served as an Acting Pay Clerk with the U.S. Navy during World War II. Ellingwood was stationed on the USS Shaw during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Shortly after surviving the attack, Ellingwood was transferred to the Naval Supply Corps, where he had remained until his honorable discharge in 1966. This collection includes Ellingwood’s official Naval personnel documents from 1936 to 1966, newspapers in which Ellingwood recounts his experiences during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and various photographs of Ellingwood in Naval uniforms. In addition, the collection...

Content Description

This collection contains an oral transcript of interviews with sisters-in-law Jennie Green and Eunice Proffitt. Green shares her experience during World War II when she served as a mess sergeant in the Women's Army Corps. Proffitt remained on the home front throughout the war and recounts working at her family's farm and as a nurse.

Content Description

This collection relates to George W. Griffith who served with the 201st Infantry Regiment during the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. This collection contains diaries, photographs, and souvenirs from Griffith's time in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Diaries include entries related to the Pearl Harbor attack and the Japanese occupation of the Attu and Kiska Islands.

Scope and Contents

This oral interview was taken of Eleanor Harpring who served in the United Service Organization (USO) during the time of World War II. She traveled to various military bases in the U.S. and Europe to perform. She saw the destruction after the war, and how Kassel, Germany was demolished and families were destroyed due to the bombing. She also explains how living conditions for women and children during the war, and how she would help. She also describes all about her travels during and after World War II.

Content Description

This collection relates to Vivian Hess who as a youth lived at Camp Gordon Johnston, Carabelle, FL during World War II. Her father served as the postmaster for the base, and she recollects many important details about growing up on a military base. This collection includes an oral history interview transcript and audio taped interview of Vivian Hess.

Scope and Contents

Hilbert Levitz's oral history discusses his childhood and teenage years growing up during the war and his career as a professor at multiple universities. His wartime memories consist of learning about Pearl Harbor, Adolf Hitler, his family's involvement in the war, war bonds, the Holocaust, the 1939 World's Fair, and the advancement of technology. Levitz also goes into depth about his short time in the army during the Korean War, his higher education, and computer science.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Gene Ives who lived with her stepfather at Fort Knox, Kentucky during World War II and later at Fort Stotzenburg in the Philippines. This collection contains an oral history interview transcript and photocopies of two scrapbooks.

Scope and Contents

The Jackie Voelkl manuscript contains one folder with a 44-page typed transcript of an oral history interview.  Jackie Voelkl served as a First Sergeant in the Women's Army Corps from 1942 to 1946. She worked as personal secretary to General Robert A. McClure, head of the Army Psychological Warfare Division at General Eisenhower's headquarters in Paris.

Scope and Contents This unpublished memoir relates to Private John E. Lane who served in the United States Marine Corps, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, as a rifleman, runner, and radioman during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The collection contains a memoir “Private Lane,” describing Lane's experiences during World War II from 1941 to 1945. The collection also includes 3 portraits of Lane during 1944-1945. In the memoir, he recounts many important aspects, such as the motivation and patriotism at the very moment of Pearl Harbor, training experience, his family bonds, the battlefield, food supplies, Iwo Jima, Japanese soldiers and their humanities, friendships in the camp,...

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview transcript relates to Jean Krauklin who served in the USO United Service Organization and the Office of Price Administration (OPA) during World War II.

Scope and Contents The collection of Seaman First Class Giles Odell Lofton, III contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Lofton served in the Navy aboard the USS Wisconsin in the Third Fleet, under Admiral Halsey in the Pacific Theater (PTO) during World War II. The collection also contains documents, U.S.S. Wisconsin papers, photographs of the USS Wisconsin and the Third Fleet during the invasion of Iwo Jima and the surrender of Japan. The photographs show the ships in combat, bombing the shoreline defenses of Iwo Jima, as well as Kamikaze attacks against the fleet. Also, there are photographs of the amphibious landings at Iwo Jima on invasion...

Scope and Contents

Lt. Louis Goldbrum (U.S. Army, 1941-1947) was assigned to the 1st Aircraft Warning Company as the company photographer. This collection contains an oral history transcript where he discusses the evacuation of Bague, Philippines, where he was stationed, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He was captured by the Japanese and remained a POW until January 1945.

Scope and Contents

The collection of Wayne Mixson contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Mixson, who would later serve as the 39th Governor of Florida, served in the United States Navy from 1942-1946 and participated in the Lighter-Than-Air Project; he worked with a crew in EP Squadron 14, a blimp squadron.

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview transcript relates to Thomas H. Moorer who attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD from 1928 to 1933. In 1935, Moorer completed flight school and was stationed in Hawaii. He was present on December 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Moorer continued to serve in the Pacific Theater during World War II and remained in the U.S. Navy after the war.  In 1964, he had become an Admiral and by 1970, the Chairman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving until 1974.

In the interview, Moorer recalls his first impressions of General MacArthur, who had asked him to send a plane to pick up any wounded servicemen in the Dutch East Indies.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Diana Naylor Morgan who served as a junior USO hostess in New Jersey during World War II. The collection includes an oral interview with Morgan, news articles, photographs, and letters sent to her from American and British soldiers deployed overseas during World War II.

In the letters, servicemen describe their day to day activities while deployed overseas, their locations, views on the Japanese, and opinions about the Atomic Bomb. A letter dated June 2, 1944, written by an American sailor Ernest Feasy was not censored; Feasy describes how he is waiting for D-Day to arrive.

Scope and Contents The bulk of this collection consists of letters written by John Rawls during his time in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II in Brazil. He achieved the rank of Major. These letters, primarily to his mother, give details on his time in training and daily life while stationed in Brazil. He tells stories of friends, the tedium of his work, and mentions the various girls he sees throughout the war. Also included is a photograph album consisting of photographs taken by Rawls while in the service. John Rawls' brother David Rawls also served with the U.S. Army Air Corps as a B-17 pilot, stationed in the Pacific Theater. David Rawls was present during the attack on Pearl...

Content Description

This collection relates to the Reserve Officers Association and the experience of its members during World War Two.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of an oral history and the three brief memoirs of Rolf Slen who served as a navigator with the 494th Bomb Squadron, 7th Air Force, in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Content Description

This collection contains a manusript written by Robert E. Smith where he recounts his memories of World War II as a child in the United States.

Content Description

This collection relates to Peter T. Suzuki, a Japanese American scholar who spent two years in internment camps during World War II. This collection contains a series of publications, newspapers, and articles relating to Suzuki and information on the effects of Japanese relocation and prejudice during World War II. The collection also includes information on Japanese Americans' post-war experience.