Homefront (Reel 2, 1985)

the Axis powers knew that they must win the war in 1942 or eventually lose everything I do not need to tell you that our enemies did not win the war in [Applause] 1942 after a year of preparation and planning the United States has finally joining the battle against the German Army American Guns in the battle against German tanks sh fire blasting the enemy Nai pancer forces photographed by an army signal core cameraman who films enemy Cannon bombarding the American position the way of battle in Tunisia where both sides are hitting hard as 1943 begins Allied and axis troops are fighting for control of North Africa so far the outcome is in doubt [Music] America's also tried to gain territory in the Pacific but with little success on the island of guadal canal American and Japanese troops are locked in a seesaw battle with neither side able to gain an advantage I would always write my son every Friday a long letter of what happened during the week and I wish just in the process of writing this letter when the um doorbell rang and I went to the door and it was a little man elderly man with a message and he handed it to me and I said Is it bad news he didn't answer me he just walked away and I opened it and when I read it I couldn't move I started screaming I don't know why but I did I screamed and My Neighbor Next Door heard me and she came over I don't think that anyone only a person that had gone through this can really know the feeling that comes over you I had prayed so hard before that he would come home but if he didn't that I prayed that I would have the courage to take it I don't know whether I had the courage or not but he was lost he was [Music] [Applause] [Music] gone the servicemen were looking for companionship most of them were kids first time away from home the whole thing was so new and scary to them I was a camera girl during the War I took pictures in uh nightclubs with a it was a journalist camera a speed graphic 4x5 and it took the most beautiful pictures that you've ever [Music] saw I covered 29 nightclubs every night in the city of San Diego but I took pictures of sailors and their girls or servicemen and their girls and if they didn't have a girl with them I'd have the waitress take a picture of me sitting with the guy they like that it's a long time ago but I was very pretty then there are a lot of guys I got to know real well they go overseas and uh was just no way to develop a permanent relationship man might leave the next day might ship out might get killed never see him again and and everything had to be so now it's the only way I can describe it is now intense make it perfect for this moment this very moment because there might not be another Moment Like This this might be all there [Music] is oh look Alice we can't wait we must it wouldn't be right oh Jo sure we'll never be more sure don't you see we might never have found one another again I've got to say look please please will you marry me the social pressure for young women to marry soldiers was incredibly strong the man you married was giving everything to his country he was giving arms legs his eyesight his life his blood and the least you could do was give yourself to this man and since uh uh sex outside of marriage it was uh frowned upon officially uh the only thing left was to marry so you married it was almost a duty in the space of a month I remember so many weddings that I lost track of how many got married when I got married I probably got one of the last wedding gowns that was made with beautiful material and beautiful styling and it cost a great deal of money I loan that wedding gown out out to eight different people and they had no time for a honeymoon and we even didn't have time for a reception in one case and they had to say goodbye to each other right there at the church I be seeing you in every lovely Summer's Day in everything that light and G I'll always think of you that [Music] way I'll find you in the morning sun and when the night is is new I'll be looking at the moon but I be seeing [Music] you as 43 draws onone more and more men are shipping out for points overseas they are leaving behind not only their loved ones but also their jobs women wanted for war production work here in our city why it takes human power to keep War factories going and much of our Manpower is going to war more and more men are being called into the Armed Forces their jobs must be filled and filled now and who can fill them you you women you're the ones who must fill them who can give our boys what they need the first job I had was in The Foundry a motor helper the dirtiest job that anybody can imagine the only thing I could compare it with would be the coal mines and that's the way I looked when I come off that job one day there was a terrible accident one of the crane operators lost a load of Steel the big vat of Steel was opened and accidentally spilled out they had to take him off the crane they needed an immediate replacement they looked around there wasn't anyone there except a woman so they offered it to me and I took it and I loved it and I did a good job at it they didn't like us in there taking their jobs they didn't like that at all and let us know about it and in order to make life miserable for us and get us to quit they would do everything they could when you'd ask him for a load of ball bearings to delay giving it to you this stopped you from doing your production work there was resentment among the men toward the women that worked there in the steel mill I think that this was directly related to the question when the war is over what will happen to our jobs will our boys come back and won't have a job are these women going to stay in these good paying jobs an effort must be made to relieve the Public's anxieties about women working EDI stoner's husband is in Alaska she took this job for the duration how do you like your job Mrs Stoner I love it how about after the war are you going to keep on working I should say not when my husband comes back I'm going to be busy at home good for you without women the production effort cannot go forward the recruitment effort intensifies we were caling the area for some 8,000 women and so was every other defense plant and War plant we began to get uh the rather unusual mix of millionaire women uh women from the main line of Philadelphia who were driven to work in their chafford cars uh and they' leave their Furs in in the locker while they beat their brains out on the assembly line for 8 hours a day I didn't really look for work they were advertising these the Seattle papers were full of women workers needed to uh help the war effort and being a Dar that's one thing I wanted to really do is help the war effort my husband thought it was utterly ridiculous I had never worked I didn't know how to handle money as he put it women just didn't do what he called fact work and he didn't know any Factory women and he didn't want me to be one they put me in this huge tool room I had never seen a tool that I don't think my husband could hold a hammer so I never didn't know about tools and uh some man came and he said he wanted a bastard file and I thought he was being rude and I thought I told my supervisor I said you'll have to correct this man I couldn't tolerate that kind of language where this big hook runs up and down you have tracks they must be sanded because they become slick and your hook will slide so they have to be sanded about every 8 hour shift I found out that the crane operators had to sand them this almost scared me to death I thought I can't do that I can't look down at that concrete and put this little bucket of sand up and down I just can't do it and one of the men said she'll never sand them tracks well that'll get her she'll never sand them cracks that's what made me sand them if he hadn't said that I probably never would have sanded them but then I had to I had to show them that I could do it by mid 1943 5 million additional women have joined the workforce not only in the defense plants but throughout the economy but women are not enough with 8 million new jobs to fill in 1943 America must draw on all of her Human Resources the elderly and the young are draw g into action now there's a place for the handicapped on the production line and now minorities are hired in increasing numbers to win the war America must forego her prejudices I I was fearful I had never been uh in close association with a white girl in this respect working together uh she had never had this experience and we had to work through our our hostilities uh Plus getting a job done we had a war to win we had deadlines to meet production goals continue to rise us factories are now supplying not only our own troops but also the British the Russians and the Chinese for 1943 the president has asked for more than double the amount of War Goods produced last year this will be the crucial year in the Battle of production [Music] in hundreds of new factories the wheels of Industry are humming 24 hours a day producing guns and planes and tanks production and production alone is all that matters to meet the goals of 1943 workers are asked to be on the job 50 60 sometimes 80 hours a week what about those boys that are getting up at 5:00 haven't been to bed maybe maybe they're leaning their chin on a bayonet just to stay awake on watch overseas somewhere I don't even know their names they don't even have faces to me but they're out there somewhere and I'm saying that I don't feel like going to work today because I got a headache that would get me out of the bed and into work [Music] pra the pra the praise the the the all in no member of 43 war production Peaks at the bomber plant at Willow Run a B24 rolls off the assembly line every hour the Chrysler plant in Detroit is producing tanks at the rate of 50 per day uh we had a common purpose uh we worked as a team we achieved we had the skills we had the Machinery uh we had the materials we had the [Music] knoow America is now out producing Every Other Nation Allied and axis combined all the the ad of [Music] [Applause] [Music] all the enormous weight of American War production is one of the deciding factors in World War II the tide of battle has irreversibly [Applause] turned in the Pacific one Island after another Falls to advancing US [Music] forces the Allies have also gained the advantage in a European theater by July Italy is invaded by September Italy has surrendered but for the United States the major battle of the war is Yet to Come the invasion of Nazi held Western Europe As Americans at home try to follow the battle lines new words are entering the American vocabulary wadle Canal amio param World War II was a very exciting thing for me from 9 to 13 World War II was like a gigantic Stage production was like uh I was a character actor on a global stage all of us kids acquired military uniforms from friends and relatives and we'd wear them with the patches and the metals and so forth that was very important for us to identify with our older brothers and with our fathers it was a a great adventure by early 1944 four nearly 5 million American soldiers are overseas for each of these men their one overriding desire is for the war to end so they can return home until that day the country must let them know they are not [Music] forgotten thank you I'd like to deliver just one personal message before they pull down this connection between here and wherever you're listening I met a lot of swell audiences and shook a lot of swell hands but I remember one audience in particular they were from the 29th Division I didn't get to meet them so I don't know their names they didn't look like any Movie heroes in their battle dress and they could have done with a shave but I like their smiles and they seem to be pretty swell joies if you happen to be one of those guys I'd like to say that I wish we'd had a chance to meet just don't forget that there's a gal back here who's wishing you smoother sailing G named [Applause] D people have often asked what I thought about and what I dreamed about when I was overseas and I can tell you I dreamed about coming home to a beautiful wife and establishing a home and having kids and it was this dream this wonderful dream that just sustained me and kept me going how many of you fathers in the armed forces haven't had a chance to see your own babies yet well all babies look pretty much alike I know yours is the prettiest but you could put in your own eyes and your own nose and your own mouth and your own hair my husband was stationed in California and I was in New York when our daughter was born our daughter sui and uh so he didn't see her until she was a year old and I spent a great deal of my time that year writing to him trying to make him see her and understand the things that she was learning to do learning to sit up learning to walk learning to hold a spoon all the things that that baby do but I knew that he got those letters sometimes sometimes he didn't was you didn't have a feeling of really being in communication at all the link between home and Soldier is difficult to maintain letters are delayed as much as 6 months then they might arrive all at once you live for the mail but the mail was censored so any mail that you got might tell you absolutely nothing we got to be like little detectives we could tell by certain things when we would get a letter from the men uh where they were sometimes by they'd say well I was eating a coconut today or something like that well you know where he's going to be someplace in the South Pacific I would get letters from my husband telling me to to keep up the home front and that uh everything was going all right and and the fun he was having but you know between those lines you you got the feeling that that uh a lot of this he was saying to to to keep my spirits up when I write to you and say everything is okay if my letters seem gay can't the long separations some as long as 2 or 3 years begin to take their toll psychiatrists are now warning that many marriages will not survive the [Music] war when we were in England we hadn't been overseas too long one of the boys got a Dear John Letter and I read it to him because he couldn't read and he got up and walked away in total silence and left me sitting there and then he came back back and he said would you please read that to me again I could see the lines of grief in his face and the lines of the total disbelief and I could feel the emptiness Within Myself And it spread all through the men throughout the whole company who shared the feeling of that man who had this loss and it made us all very insecure we had no way of knowing when this was ever going to end and I remember a few times on myself too breaking down and saying it's never going to end God it's never going to end I'm sick of living like this I worried about how I was going to live and and uh what life was going to be like for me and and also worried about whether he was ever coming back cuz you know many fellas go and they never come back you know my husband's ship was hit by a Japanese kamakazi plane in the Pacific I got word that his ship was coming back into Portland Oregon to be repaired so I wanted very much to come to Portland to be with him anticipating what was probably going to be a long war in the Pacific and it was my opportunity to see him the wives and girlfriends of servicemen are embarked on their own special Journey traveling to Ports and army bases across the country they are following their husbands men not yet shipped overseas or others brought home suddenly the first night we spent the night in the hotel and I dressed the children up and we went down to the dining room to have a lovely dinner in the dining room of the hotel in the middle of dinner my son suddenly burst into tears and said I wanted to go home and I realized that he didn't know where he meant and I didn't know where he meant and um that we' had so many years of wandering that that uh we didn't have a home the war is having a serious effect on family life even those families not separated by War are finding their lives have been changed one of my major problems with working was the fact that I had a 2 and 1/2 yearold daughter I was 6 or 700 miles away from home I didn't know anyone and at that time I had a real guilt complex about working three different shifts changing every week and not having proper care for my daughter there are few facilities to care for the children of working parents small children are found roaming the streets alone or left in movie theaters for 10 hours until their mothers can pick them up the door key kid whose working parents leave her to ship for herself at home is today a familiar wartime phenomenon children of all ages are left alone more by 1944 authorities have declared a child welfare crisis the problem with teenagers is especially conspicuous the high school dropout rate has taken a dramatic rise even more alarming the juvenile delinquency rate since 1941 has risen 60% some authorities point to the lack of Parental supervision or the easing of social restraint during war time whatever the cause most Americans see it as symptomatic of a collapse in family life [Music] When The War Began I was 12 my father went to work in the shipyards Naval shipyards uh worked many broken shifts midnight uh swing shift slept all day uh and he just wasn't there anymore for me at all so naturally the discipline kept breaking down more and more to many adolescent girls even those in their earliest teens war is opening up Avenues of unaccustomed [Music] excitement to their any man in uniform seems a hero being around that many sailors it was a drug I was addicted to it I I just loved every minute of it all the attention saying I was beautiful uh wanting me to be their girlfriend it was terrific but this was the time I really needed my father to be there to say hey that's enough you're still a little girl I don't want you to grow up so fast but it didn't happen