Peter Ota and Betty Basye Hutchinson Response

Peter had a really rough life I learned from the reading. His dad had to go to jail, his mom later passed away, and he and his sister had to go to a camp. His father was later transfered to Montana. His father was later sent to the same camp as his kids. His living quarters were mentioned as, "...horse stables were converted into living quarters. My sister and i were fortunate enough to stay in a barracks. The people in stables had to live with the stench. Everything was communal. We had absolutely no privacy" (206). It illustrates how Peter lived a very tough life early on. I can't even imagine all of that stuff happening to me earlier on in my life. It would be so difficult to cope with all of that. He later went to Utah to find a job that turned out to be minimal pay, but at least he still made some money to help his family. After he got to Union Station in LA, military policemen had to escort them through the station, "...the people recognized me as being Oriental. They knew I was either an escaped prisoner or a spy...they called out names...dirty Jap..." (208). Japanese at this time were treated very poorly, which is really sad because they are just normal people like Americans. The reason for this hatred towards Japs is because of the war going on. Why are people so rude towards people that aren't the same ethnicity as them? Why were people sent to camps under poor conditions and treated badly?

Betty was a girl that went to Fresno State to become a nurse to help out in the war. This is because this is the fastest thing she can do to help out the people at war because women can't fight in the war. Betty did really well at her job, "In six weeks, we became so skilled in plastic surgery that they wouldn't let us go" (213). It shows that women should be treated as equally as men with jobs because they can do as well as men in the job field. Her whole dream was to be a nurse in the war and help out her country and she achieved her goal. How else can women help out in the war besides being a nurse back in those times, where men had many advantages over women because men had more rights than women for most things? In my opinion, Peter could never get the experience of the American dream because he had so many bad things happen in his life, but Betty in my opinion, did achieve the American dream because she got to do what she always wanted---be a nurse and help out her country in war. The American dream is everyones dream.

Peggy Terry and E.B. Sledge (Marine) Response

I learned from the Peggy Terry letter that she had to work in awful conditions to produce war supplies, "Tetryl was one of the ingredients and it turned us orange...some of the woman had breathing problems...The fumes...burned the nose and throat...it was difficult to breathe" (190-91). I feel bad for her because she had to make money for her family, but she was causing harm to her body because she was working in awful conditions that was bad for her health. While she was working one day, "This terrible thunderstorm came and all the lights went out. Somebody knocked a box of detonators off on the floor..." (191). It shows how scary and high risk her job was for her own safety. When her mom's mom got sick and died, she asked to take some time off and they told her no, and she did, so they fired her. It shows you how awful the industry was back then. E.B. Sledge was a marine in the Marines. He had some really rough experiences in the war, "I saw Mac take great pains to position himself and his carbine near a Japanese corpse...Mac was trying very carefully to blast his off the head of the corpse's penis. He succeeded" (201). It shows you how disgraceful some people were to others in war.  He shows some other rough experiences in the war as, "Another kid got his leg blown off" (203). There was an old woman in pain, who had some bad wounds. She asked people to shoot her because she wanted to die. Someone on Sledge's team shot her because she asked for it. It illustrates that Sledge had to go through some extremely rough experiences in war. He survived though. How is an industry allowed to stay open when they are hurting their workers' health and killing them from fumes? I even further realized how tough it is to go to war. I greatly appreciate those who go to war and pray for them because it is such a hard task in every way. You must have to be an extremely strong person and must be extremely strong mentally. Sledge was extremely strong mentally and physically. All of the people who went tow war should be praised a lot. It shows that to be an American you have to be able to support your country by supporting the people that go to war if they want to go to war or supporting the war in other ways on the home-front, like making war supplies or making donations towards the war/praying for those in the war to make sure that they are okay. These things are very necessary because we have to support our country when it is in need.

"The Good War": World War 2: Introduction and Bob Rasmus Response

 I learned from the Introduction that by the end of WWII, Americans had become much more involved in world affairs and the major involvement of women and blacks in the military and industrial industries helped push the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Also, WWII caused America to be the top leader in the world/have the best political and military position in the world for the first time in history. I also learned that before the war, blacks couldn't really find any jobs except for being in the military and it was also hard for women to find jobs. The war helped boost the economy drastically and helped end the Great Depression. WWII gave jobs to millions of people in the US and soldiers were paid and women worked in factories to help make equipment that was needed for the war. Making war production supplies really help boost the economy because these supplies were drastically needed for the war and were always needed throughout the entire war, "The war had also prompted the country to invent a miraculous economic machine that seemed to grant as many wishes as were asked of it" (167). The war provided a drastic increase in the economy because of the great demand of war production supplies. Robert Rasmus was in the army and was in the infantry. In learned about Robert's drastic experience in the war in WWII. It affected him in many ways. He doesn't judge people by their appearance or looks now and he had the best experiences of his life in war. He loved it so much. He experienced fear, misery, hope, and excitement. He was very happy to observe such a great experience that helped the US in so many ways, like political, foreign policy, the economy, ending the Great Depression, giving blacks and women jobs, and for him being a small participant in the war. He shows his experiences in the war by stating, "I had the most tremendous experiences of all life: of fear, of jubilance, of misery, of hope, of comradeship, and of the endless excitement, the theatrics of it" (189).  It illustrates all of his wonderful experiences and happiness he got out of the war. He wasn't like most people nowadays because most people nowadays don't want to participate in war, are afraid of war, and don't want to be enlisted in the draft. It shows his courage and determination to help his country and to fight for his country. How did the war impact families of war veterans? How did the war impact the war veterans mentally? Did they have mental and psychological problems later in life because of the war?