Blog 7: Tom Kearney (cop) and Dennis Hart (cab driver)

Tom Kearney:

The assumptions I had made about the ideals of a police officer of 23 years, whose father was a fireman for 40 years, were completely incorrect. After reading Tom Kearney’s background, I thought his story would demonstrate this very serious narrow-minded man. His role as a police officer is just what he does not who he is. I was surprised by his viewpoints on the social issues of the 60’s and especially the civil rights movement. I just did not expect a police officer to be so accepting of African Americans and even continually compare his objectives to those of an African American. He declares, “The average colored person is just like you and I. If there was a threat to all people wearing blue shirts, you certainly wouldn’t go down there in a blue shirt.”  Tom Kearney is understanding of the racial predicament that Blacks find themselves in and he even reveals that he would probably do the same thing. I find his blue shirt comparison to be unexpected but genius. This is just one example of his sophisticated thinking that really rejected my assumptions. Tom also talks about the old and new generation discrepancy. He and his son serve as a perfect example, and it is helpful for someone looking back at history to see. We learn about this new wave of generations and Tom is a man that experienced it firsthand.  I really enjoyed his story because it shattered my expectations, while also providing history.

Dennis Hart:

Dennis Hart discusses a variety of life topics from the atomic bomb to overcoming fear to the equality of African Americans. The topic that really resonates with me after reading this story is not the ideas from the Goldwater campaign or the details of the John Birch Society, but Dennis Hart’s response to the question “Do you ever cry?” He admits to crying and really embraces the shedding of tears. Instead of trying to mask himself with a manly bravado, Dennis is open and shares the truth about crying. He states, “I feel better any time I cry” and then later, “Every time I cry, I feel more like a man later on.” Crying refreshes you and is a completely unique outlet for emotion. Everyone needs to cry and feels better afterwards, but some people refuse to cry because of their thoughts of manliness. I immediately have the upmost respect for Dennis Hart and I would really enjoy talking to him after reading his ideas on crying. I do not see Dennis Hart as a cab driver, but as a man with bold and assertive views. A real man is not afraid to cry and an even bigger man will be completely open about it. This personal story does teach a history lesson like so many of the others stories I have blogged about, but it is just as valuable. Crying does not relate to US History aside from the fact that every single person in American history has cried during their life. To me the story of Dennis Hart is incredibly important because he sheds the complex truth on a simple universal emotion.

Entry #6: Peter Ota and Betty Hutchinson

I am fascinated by the combination of the World War II stories of Peter Ota and Betty Basye Hutchison because they had utterly different experiences, yet they regarded the war in the same manner to their kids. Peter Ota and Betty Hutchison both had the war change their lives forever. Peter’s ethnicity forced involvement, while Betty’s social circle encouraged involvement. Their experiences are completely different because Peter’s change was forced by the government while Betty could not wait to get involved.

Peter’s father was an honest, hard-working man living the American dream who was sent to jail after the attack at Pearl Harbor because he was Japanese. His mom then became too ill to move because of the shame she felt in seeing her husband in prison clothes. At age 15 it was just Peter and his 12 year old sister. This was an American family who did not choose to have their lives altered because of the war. In April 1942, Peter and his sister were sent to the internment camp at Santa Anita because they were Nisei. They could only take what they could carry and lost all privacy. Their father was later brought to this camp like cattle and they soon after were sent to a new camp in Colorado that was like a prison. Peter’s father never showed any anger, but he was a different person. Peter was sent out in jobs so he was only in the camp for a year. He joined the war effort to escape the horrors of the camps not because he wanted to get involved. He summarizes his war experience, “Here I am being drafted into the army, and my father and sister are in a concentration camp waiting for the war to end”. His experience was very ironic and showed that he was involved in the war involuntarily.

Betty Basye Hutchinson immediately knew she was going to involve herself and the war and do what she could to help the war effort. She became a nurse because it was the fastest thing she could do to help the boys. Betty really wanted to have something to do with war which meant should was willing to end the life she had known just a few months before. The glamour of the war was appealing to her. Everyone she knew was involved in the war, so she wanted to do something. Betty’s brother served on a tanker, her schoolmates were out there losing their lives, and her fiancé joined the marines. Her social circle or environment encouraged one to do whatever they could for the war effort. She was an American who was glad to join in, while others like Peter were forced to join in.

Betty and Peter both ended up living in suburbia and raised their kids in similar manners. They had oppositional experiences during the war for both being American. I am intrigued that the both ended up living such similar lives. Peter explains his philosophy, “My children were denied a lot of the history of what happened. If you think of all those forty years of silence, I think this stems from another Japanese characteristic: when shame is put on you, you try to hide it.” And Betty explains her similar philosophy, “That’s the way we lived in suburbia, raising our children, not telling them about war…You wouldn’t fill your children full of these horror stories, would you?”. They ended up living similar lives but for completely different reasons. Peter wanted to shield his children from the shame that was thrust upon him, while Betty did not want them to know of the horrors she willingly was a part of.

Entry #5: Peggy Terry and E.B. Sledge

The stories of Peggy Terry and E.B. Sledge work nicely when read together because they give such differentiating perceptions of World War II. Peggy Terry shares a typical story for a woman on the homefront, who is actually seeing some benefits as a result of the war. E.B. Sledge tells a common story for a soldier serving overseas in Japan. The diversity between their experiences is helpful to the understanding of someone looking back at the war.

Peggy Terry’s encounter is a story of oblivion: she did not really understand the war and almost saw it as a positive because it served as a chance to make money. She had no idea what they war meant because she was living day to day, so she did not have time to think about big things like the war. She worked in a factory making shells, but it never crossed her mind that these shells would be used to kill people. Women saw the job openings as opportunity and a step towards equality. To many women, such as Peggy’s mother, it was their first real job, so they did not actually feel the need to consider the purpose of their work. She described a story of a woman on a bus saying she hoped the war did not end until she got her refrigerator paid for, and then an old man hit her on the head with an umbrella. The story almost summarizes the oblivion of women on the homefront. They had gone through all this struggle with the Depression and were now making money, so they are put in a very awkward position.  Peggy declared, “I look back at the war with sadness. I wasn’t smart enough to think too deeply back then. We had a lotta good times and we had money and we had food on the table and the rest was paid”. Peggy knew that war is a terrible thing, but she could not truly embrace the idea until she had to live with it. She was looking forward for the war to end for her husband to come home. He came home a drunkard who had awful nightmares and would slap her and her kids around. She was not aware of the horrors of the war until her husband came home. The war ended up turning her against religion and by its end she just associated it with awful.

E.B. Sledge remembers the war as a time of helpless savagery. The Japanese fought by a code of no surrender, so the American soldiers stopped feeling mercy towards them. He tells a story of trying to help a weak, docile, and abandoned Japanese soldier, but the soldier just ended up trying to kill him. The soldiers would truly form hatred toward the Japanese. E.B. had a brother who served in Germany and said that once you captured a German you realized that they were just like you, but it was not like that with the Japanese. E.B. explained, “You knew all you had was that particular moment you were living”. He watched friends and comrades constantly die inches away from him. He knew that he could easily die any second. E.B. not only had to live with death but also saw the worst in men. They would steal the gold teeth of the dead Japanese and do brutish acts towards their bodies. He explained “We were out there, human beings, the most highly developed form of life on earth, fighting each other like wild animals”. World War II was essentially an experience of evil for E.B. He consistently saw men commit the worst atrocities possible and even saw himself doing so with no reservations.

A woman on the homefront and a man serving overseas receive two completely definitions of war. I value both of their perceptions, yet as an outsider I cannot relate to either.  We studied the role of women as well as the experiences of soldiers, but looking at the two personal stories side by side gives me a uniquely complex view of World War II.

Entry 4: "The Good War": An Oral History of WWII

Robert Rasmus

As I was reading I kept thinking about how you see the typical 19 year old side but then also the soldier. Robert Rasmus summed it up perfectly, “I was pulled in two directions: Gee, I don’t wanna get killed. And, Boy, this is gorgeous country”. To me these two sides are the relatable one and the one I cannot even imagine relating to. Robert was so eager to serve because knowing that he had a chance to gain his manhood was worth more than knowing that he had a better chance of dying than living. It is age appropriate to want to prove that you are a man but I cannot relate to risking your life to do so. Robert was fascinated by Europe like any 19 year old traveling to Europe for the first time would be. He discusses his need for friendship and the sense of not wanting to fail his buddies.  These emotions are ones I would and have felt, but his emotions that come with being a soldier disconnect him from the typical boy around his age today.  His instant transformation is shown perfectly from two stories. He had never seen a dead body besides at a funeral home and then seeing all these dead bodies almost became normality. His initial perception of the German 88s versus grasp of reality show him grow from a boy to a soldier. After passing a German that they killed he declared, “Once the helmet is off, you’re looking at a teenager, another kid. Obviously you have to go on”.  He is a 19 year old realizing that the enemy is just like him, but then the soldier in him takes over. There is a half of Robert that I can relate to, but the other half is something I can never understand.

Entry #4—“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

Introduction

This introduction really helps me affirm that a memory book like this is as valuable if not more valuable to understanding history as a textbook. Rather than just looking at facts and statistics, I am able to hear the stories of the people that created those numbers. This book allows me to see the real feelings of all people involved in the war. The introduction is filled with snippets of actually stories from all sorts of Americans. Big Bill Broonzy posed the question, “How do you expect somebody to feel ‘bout somethin’ he don’t know?”. I agree with him in the sense that one can never truly understand something unless they experience it, but by educating yourself with a variety of stories you can get much closer to understanding. For instance the story of enemies coming together 38 years later helps you understand that they were all the same kind of boys just from different countries.  City boys and country boys realized their sameness, while fighting together, and then this similar sameness when they encountered the enemies. I knew that the war had benefits for the equality of women and Blacks, but until I read the stories I did not soldiers benefited once home. A returning GI said, “The war changed our whole idea of how we wanted to live when we came back. We set our sights pretty high. All of us wanted better levels of living”. A textbook could not have given this insight as effectively as a memory book.  I gained a new understanding of the beginning of War Times ending the Hard Times because of all the stories I was able to read. World War II greatly shaped the course of America and the most beneficial way to try and understand it is through stories.   

Entry #3: Jane Yoder and Peggy Terry

Peggy Terry

After reading the stories of Peggy Terry and of her mother, Mary Owsley, I am in awe of Peggy’s life motto. She believes, “I think we were put here to live and be happy and to enjoy everything that’s here”. A life full of suffering leading to this perspective is mindboggling to me. Both Peggy and Mary did not appear to have happy lives yet Peggy is praising enjoyment. All the bad times her mother certainly told her about and that she had to endure actually led to a positive outlook. Maybe when times are so bad you actually see the best in people. Peggy says that people did not hate each other. Nowadays everyone just sees one another as competition. People were not put at fault for being poor as they are today. There was nothing to be ashamed about if you were poor.  Mary even revealed that the rich genuinely felt bad for the poor. The extreme suffering actually worked to unite people. I believe that today it would just lead to jealousy and hysteria. Peggy shared, “Here were all these people living in old, rusted-out car bodies. I mean that was their home. There were people living in shacks made of orange crates. One family with a whole lot of kids were living in a piano box. This wasn’t just a little section, this was maybe ten-miles wide and ten-miles long”. She saw this and still associates human life with positivity and happiness. Peggy embodies an American ideal of optimism that I feel is being lost. This country was built on hope, and Americans like Peggy and Mary are proof that the hope lives on.

Entry #3: Jane Yoder and Peggy Terry

Jane Yoder

A story like Jane Yoder’s really makes me appreciate my life and realize how fortunate I am. Although, this feeling will only last temporarily because as her son, Tom, said “it’s only human nature that we all want to go on and find something better”. I know that I am very lucky but it is impossible to not want more. All these little things in life that I do not even think about were luxuries to Jane. She would dream about oranges and bananas, while they are just boring fruit that I can have whenever I want. Even wearing boots was a great rarity to her. People stress over what clothes to wear and Jane does not even understand why there should be a choice. If I am cold I have the ability to turn the heat up or put on warmer clothes. Having to continue suffering through the coldness is never a thought that crosses my mind. Jane constantly went cold and was desperate to be warm. She was desperate enough to wear an Indian Blanket Coat that all of the other kids laughed at. Jane said “And I can remember thinking the hell with it. I don’t care what…it doesn’t mean a thing. Laugh hard, you’ll get it out of your system.” Children strive for the approval of their peers and fear becoming an outcast. Jane was so desperate to be warm that she was willing to let all of the other children make fun of her. The extent of her suffering actually forced her to become more mature. I know I take my life for my granted but maybe that is because I cannot truly imagine a life like Jane’s. As Tom said “I don’t think my generation can really comprehend what all this means. I’ve never gone to bed hungry…”. Until you actually experience something it is nearly impossible to actually comprehend it. I think that relates to all of history. We can know the facts, everything that happened, and even hear people’s stories but to truly understand something I think you have to be there.