The Color of War Episode 11 Home Front
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00:00During the Second World War, an entire generation recorded their personal experiences for posterity.
00:20Combat cameramen braved enemy fire to send home moving images, many of them in color.
00:27They captured history, and in the process they captured ordinary people caught up in
00:32extraordinary events, bearing witness to the color of war.
00:58World War II was the most extensive armed conflict in recorded history.
01:04It touched the lives of nearly every person on four continents.
01:10The millions of combatants in various armed services bore the brunt of this devastating global war.
01:18But a struggle of this magnitude could not be limited to the fighting forces alone.
01:24The civilian populations of the involved countries also endured their share of hardship and sacrifice.
01:32Severe wartime conditions were often inflicted on those least able to deal with them,
01:38women, children, and the elderly.
01:42Soldiers underwent rigorous training to prepare for the slings and arrows of war.
01:47Most civilians were not afforded that luxury.
01:51They were forced to cope with this global conflagration entirely on their own.
01:57Their homelands embroiled in total war, they bravely shouldered their wartime duties,
02:03while suffering the overwhelming burdens of material shortages,
02:07personal hardship, and concern for their loved ones overseas.
02:21After Japan crushed the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor,
02:27there was nothing but miles of empty ocean between the Imperial Navy and the west coast of the United States.
02:35Many believed that a day would soon dawn to find a Japanese task force in Santa Monica Bay,
02:41or Japanese troops landing at the foot of the Oakland Bay Bridge.
02:47It was important to galvanize the civilian population for the possibility of such an attack.
02:58In May of 1941, President Roosevelt established a National Office of Civil Defense.
03:05Civil defense, or CD workers, assisted American citizens in activities
03:10which would protect them and their homes in case of enemy attack.
03:16Men who were found unfit for active military duty often became CD wardens.
03:24I was classified 4F because of a circulatory condition in my legs.
03:30And since I felt a duty to the war effort, I went into civil defense as an air raid warden.
03:36Our mission is to protect the home front.
03:40In World War I, all they had to worry about was submarines.
03:44Now, we have to worry about airplanes coming into Philadelphia.
03:52One of the chief duties of the wardens was enforcing mandatory blackouts.
03:56Masking of any illumination which might guide enemy planes to their targets
04:02was ordered by the Office of Civil Defense.
04:04Coastal homes were outfitted with blackout curtains
04:08and were expected to remain dark for the duration of the war.
04:12Training films prepared other CD volunteers to become firefighters or plane spotters.
04:18Whatever duty they performed,
04:20civil defense workers gave the American populace a sense of direct participation in the war
04:26and of national solidarity against a common foe.
04:30In January of 1942, the Office of Price Administration was established
04:36to ration items needed for the war effort.
04:40Twenty essential commodities, from sugar to rubber to meat, became strictly regulated.
04:48Each was given a designated point value.
04:52Ration books were distributed to every household.
04:56For the war's duration, Americans could only buy items
05:00when enough points remained in their monthly allotment.
05:04Almost immediately, citizens of the United States learned how to make do.
05:10We're still having fun getting our food.
05:14Meat seems almost non-existent, although last Friday,
05:18Mrs. Buffum and I happened to be at the Piggly Wiggly just as five hounds arrived.
05:24We pooled our ration points and bought one together,
05:28having it split lengthwise so as to have it equally divided.
05:32Potatoes have entirely disappeared, and we're substituting macaroni and our ijani cakes,
05:38but nobody seems to mind.
05:44Careful planning was essential to make the available food supply last.
05:48Wartime recipes were devised, featuring such delicacies as creole liver,
05:54a meat-rice combination, and franks and beans casserole.
05:59Leftovers were saved and served the next day as hash over rice, macaroni, or whatever was available.
06:08To offset food shortages, Americans were urged to plant their own vegetable gardens at home.
06:14To promote a sense of aiding the war effort, they were dubbed Victory Gardens.
06:22Millions of small-town backyard gardens sprang up around the country.
06:28Even in urban areas, plots of previously unused earth were soon sprouting seedlings.
06:35Dear darling, I've been canning tomatoes almost all day, and it's a long, hard job.
06:42Alice was down, and Mom was showing us how to do it.
06:46All I did was skin tomatoes, and then more tomatoes.
06:51It's a good thing to can, though, for if you get them in the stores by the can,
06:56you'd have to use so many ration points.
07:00At their peak in 1944, over 20 million Victory Gardens were taking root across the United States.
07:08They produced 40% of the vegetables available in the country.
07:13But scarcity of other commodities was experienced constantly throughout the war.
07:20Severe gasoline shortages hit in the spring of 1942.
07:25The OPA reacted by requiring the country's 8 million automobile owners to register for gasoline ration cards.
07:34Depending on how each citizen used his car, a windshield sticker dictated how much gas could be purchased each month.
07:42Pleasure drives were prohibited.
07:46The rationing of valuable commodities allowed the lion's share of these goods to be set aside for military use.
07:54At the same time, it permitted citizens to feel like they were striking a personal blow against the Axis.
08:01With every tomato they grew, and each gallon of gasoline they saved.
08:07But these efforts were merely one part of the government's propaganda campaign to bolster public morale.
08:14Radio programs and short films shown in movie theaters were produced.
08:19From Berlin, from Rome, from Tokyo, the campaign started.
08:26Propaganda to confuse, divide, soften up their intended victims.
08:33In this pre-television era, a strong visual message which could be seen daily was still needed.
08:41In response, government and industry turned to one of the oldest forms of mass media.
08:46Posters.
08:48Thousands were plastered across the country, in storefronts, factories, and on street corners.
08:55Their messages were simple and direct.
08:58They ridiculed, they coaxed, and they persuaded.
09:03They drove home the messages which kept the home front's fires burning.
09:07This constant repetition of the might and right of America was effective in soothing the public.
09:13But propaganda alone would not achieve victory.
09:17That took planes, ships, and the mass production of other tools of war.
09:22In the 1930s, the United States had suffered through the most crippling depression in history.
09:28In January of 1942, many Americans still had no jobs and little money.
09:34How they responded to the immense challenges of the war?
09:37Many Americans still had no jobs and little money.
09:41How they responded to the immense challenges of global war would spell the difference between victory and defeat.
09:52Darling, you are now the husband of a career woman.
09:56Just call me your little shipyard babe.
09:59Open my little checking account too.
10:01It's a glorious feeling to write a check all your own and not to have to ask for one.
10:05Anywho, I'm going to start stocking it in the savings so we'll have something when our sweet daddy comes home.
10:21For the American economy, still reeling from the Great Depression, the onset of war was a bitter blessing.
10:29Gearing up for war production pulled the United States from its economic doldrums.
10:35The military's huge demand for manpower, coupled with the unprecedented need for war materiel, instantly erased unemployment,
10:44which stood at 18% just two years before.
10:49The national workforce rose by over 6 million between 1941 and 1945.
10:56People from all professions and backgrounds were drawn into the war effort.
11:01Scientists and laborers, teachers and truck drivers, all turned their attention to the consuming task of winning the war.
11:11But every facet of America's economy needed to work overtime if she were to prove victorious.
11:18A national war production drive was launched.
11:23The production drive means at least a 25% boost in output of all existing war plants.
11:30It means every critical machine in every factory in every city, town and village working every hour of every day in every week.
11:39Three full shifts, no time off for machines, Saturdays, Sundays or holidays.
11:48Farmers who had been almost wiped out by the Depression were given new life by the wartime demands for food and fiber.
11:56Factories which had lain dormant now sprang back to life.
12:02Automobile plants were converted to make aircraft.
12:07Shipyards ran 24 hours a day to combat the great losses at Pearl Harbor and in the U-boat infested waters of the North Atlantic.
12:17Suddenly, there were more jobs than workers to fill them.
12:21Teenagers, the aged, even convicts were handed war effort jobs and still more labor was needed.
12:32The solution for filling these jobs was both obvious and unexpected.
12:37Women.
12:39Before the U.S. entered the war, women comprised less than 23% of the American workforce.
12:45By 1944, that number had risen to over 36%.
12:50During those years, over 5 million women began new jobs.
12:56They crossed the complete spectrum of race, economic class and educational background.
13:02These women took jobs never before thought appropriate or even possible for a woman to perform.
13:09As welders, munitions workers or truck drivers.
13:15Rosie the Riveter became one of the most enduring symbols of the war.
13:20With her bulging muscles, perfect makeup and shapely figure, Rosie was a striking gender-bending persona.
13:28Of course, bucking stereotypes is never an easy proposition.
13:33I walked in there in my overalls and suddenly all the machines stopped and every guy in the shop turned and looked at me.
13:42It took two weeks before anyone even talked to me.
13:47The discrimination was indescribable.
13:50They wanted to kill me.
13:52My attitude was, okay you bastards, I am going to prove that I can do anything you can do and maybe better than some of you.
14:04Perhaps the greatest hardship America's women endured was loneliness.
14:09With their husbands, boyfriends or sons fighting overseas, American women had to cope with their intense feelings of separation and concern for their loved ones.
14:20Marjorie Cartwright's remembrance crystallizes their agony.
14:26I lived alone for four years during the war.
14:29They were the most painful, lonely years I think I will ever spend.
14:34I look back and wonder how I ever got through them.
14:38I spent many nights by myself in my room crying because I was so lonely.
14:45The lonely vigil of waiting for news from overseas was a common experience shared by millions of civilians.
14:53Letters and newspapers were heavily censored for security purposes.
14:58This meant most families had no idea where their loved ones were or when, if ever, they would see them again.
15:06Star banners, a blue star on a white background, were hung in the windows of houses that had a family member on active duty overseas.
15:17A Western Union man coming up the drive was a feared and heart-rending sight.
15:23Telegrams delivered tragic news, a serious battle injury, a missing in action report or death.
15:31After losing a loved one, the window banner was modified.
15:36A gold star replaced the blue, a reminder to all who passed by that the ultimate sacrifice had been made.
15:45But other hardships were also necessary.
15:48One of them was financial.
15:51In 1942 alone, over 53 billion dollars were spent on defense production.
15:57To offset these immense costs, the government began to issue war bonds.
16:02These bonds were, in effect, loans from the general public to the War Department.
16:08The government sponsored huge campaigns to cajole the public into putting some of every paycheck into war bonds.
16:15School children were given stamp books for pasting in ten-cent stamps.
16:20When full, these books were redeemed for one bond.
16:23Even soldiers serving overseas were influenced by the Home Front's campaign to purchase bonds.
16:32Say, have you stored up many kisses for me while I've been away?
16:37I want you to buy war bonds and store up some kisses for me.
16:43That's a good part for you to play in winning this war.
16:46These campaigns worked.
16:49By 1945, nearly 85 million people, over half the population of the United States, held war bonds.
16:58The United States was a sleeping giant when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
17:03Her immense economic resources, coupled with an immeasurable will to win,
17:08proved deciding factors in turning the tide of the war.
17:12But geographic isolation was also in her favor.
17:17Thousands of miles of ocean insulated America from enemies,
17:22allowing her valuable time to gear up for war.
17:27But her closest ally was not so fortunate, and neither was her ally.
17:33Go to it! Go to it!
17:36That's the way to it. Put your back into it.
17:40Show the world we're strong.
17:43And if the whole darn sky is gray and blue,
17:48we're going to win.
17:50We're going to win.
17:52We're going to win.
17:54We're going to win.
17:56We're going to win.
17:57Show the world we're strong.
18:00And if the whole darn sky is gray and dark,
18:05the sun will show through it, if you go to it with a cheery song.
18:21By the spring of 1939, things were indeed gray and dark for England.
18:27German conquests had gone unchecked,
18:30and a sense of the war's inevitability was setting in.
18:35Discreet inquiries from London went out to thousands of small towns across the British Isles.
18:41The government's plan was to remove children from the urban centers
18:45into the countryside in the event of German bombings.
18:50Germany's invasion of Poland in September of 1939
18:54elicited the order to begin the evacuation.
18:57Over the course of four days, 1.5 million people, most of them children,
19:03left London, Manchester, and other cities throughout Britain.
19:08Children as young as six left their homes without a parent to accompany them.
19:14This abrupt separation from home and parents was harsh, but sadly necessary.
19:20Many children would not see their homes or their parents again for months.
19:24For some children, it would be years,
19:27but their very presence proved a blessing in some of their new homes.
19:32We were a couple living alone when we got our little evacuees.
19:36We always wanted children, and it's been our life's honour that they were denied us.
19:41Now our home is alive for the first time.
19:45Thank God for our little evacuees.
19:48After war was declared, one of the first acts by the British government
19:52was to issue every person an identity card and a gas mask.
19:57The ID cards were meant to single out saboteurs,
20:01as well as to identify the deceased.
20:04The masks were to prepare for a possible poison gas attack by the Germans.
20:09It was made illegal to not carry these two items at all times.
20:14As the German blitzkrieg rolled westward, the sense of urgency in England grew.
20:20Late in 1939, a new law called the Control of Employment Order
20:25compelled every able subject, man or woman, into the armed services or a war-related job.
20:32Only a year later, 91% of single women and at least 80% of married women
20:38in the United States were allowed to work in the armed services.
20:42And 80% of married women in the United Kingdom were working in some aspect of war production.
20:48Wartime also meant severe rationing on the English home front.
20:53Meat, fruit, rubber, gasoline, even clothing were in short supply.
20:59British families registered at specifically assigned stores
21:03from which they were to make all of their purchases.
21:06Waiting in long lines became a way of life.
21:10The government introduced wartime recipe books
21:13to make the limited food supply stretch as far as possible.
21:17The pages of these austerity cookbooks included such delights as
21:21Marrow Surprise and Sparrow Pie.
21:25In September of 1940, the German Luftwaffe began unrelenting aerial assaults on Great Britain.
21:32Night after night, enemy raids rained down tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs.
21:38The industrial east end of London was soon a massive pile of rubble.
21:45On each side of the front line, the German Luftwaffe attacked.
21:49London was soon a massive pile of rubble.
21:55On each night of the raids, thousands of fires erupted,
21:59leaving the thin line of civil defense wardens and short-staffed fire departments to contend with them.
22:11During this time, England began her own women's services auxiliaries.
22:16English women differed from their American counterparts
22:20in that they were actually directly involved in combat-related activities.
22:25They operated aerial searchlights and controlled the ponderous barrage balloons
22:30meant to impede low-flying German aircraft.
22:34Perhaps most impressively, they formed crews for staffing anti-aircraft batteries.
22:41Although the notion of putting women in these crews was suspect,
22:45the answer in charge of the first battery to shoot down a German plane was quickly won over.
22:52The girls cannot be beaten in action.
22:55And in my opinion, they are definitely better than the men on the instruments they are manning.
23:00They are amazingly keen at going into action.
23:06Throughout it all, the worst continuous bombardment in the history of the United Kingdom,
23:12the British people focused on one common goal.
23:15Victory.
23:19But there was another military invasion which, although anticipated, proved nearly as difficult.
23:26That of the American army.
23:30In the months leading up to D-Day, over one million American troops were stationed in England.
23:36While these soldiers were sorely needed allies, many English resented the American presence.
23:42U.S. troops were paid over six times as much as their English counterparts.
23:47One of the most common phrases regarding American troops was,
23:51they're overpaid, oversexed, and overhear.
23:56The American brass realized that their troops needed a lesson in manners to help reduce friction.
24:03Brochures were distributed to instruct the men on suitable behavior.
24:08Don't comment on politics.
24:12Don't try and tell the British that America won the last war.
24:17Never criticize the king or queen.
24:21Use your head before you sound off.
24:26But the G.I.s were attractive to some of the British.
24:30The women.
24:32So many nice lads.
24:36We made dates we could never possibly keep,
24:39and had the time of our lives never expecting the war could be such fun.
24:44There was no question of settling down with anyone.
24:47We'd recut our mother's dance dresses, wore as much makeup as we could,
24:51and loved every minute of it.
24:56The arrival of the Americans signaled something else.
24:59The turning of the tide.
25:03The huge build-up of troops in England pointed to one inevitable event.
25:08An invasion of Europe.
25:12Just as things were beginning to brighten in the British Isles,
25:16across the Channel, another population of civilians was about to be plunged into its darkest days.
25:24I saw the S.A. men on the streets as they pushed the Jews together and destroyed the stores,
25:33went up in the homes and took the Jews away.
25:37It was horrible.
25:39I thought, for God's sake, what kind of government do we have?
25:44I was completely in shock.
25:54In the early years of Adolf Hitler's reign,
25:57those Germans shocked at the conduct of their new government kept quiet.
26:03For most in Germany, life was better than it had been since the turn of the century.
26:10The downward spiral of the Deutschmark had flattened out,
26:14unemployment was vanishing, and pride in the German state was soaring.
26:18The diabolically effective propaganda machine, masterminded by Joseph Goebbels,
26:24made films highlighting the decadence and weaknesses of the Western democracies.
26:29They ridiculed many aspects of American culture.
26:34Labor riots, fundamentalist religions, even professional wrestling.
26:41But their most vitriolic attacks were mounted against Africa's most powerful states.
26:46Their attacks were mounted against African-Americans and Jews.
26:54Swing is in.
26:57We are not in Africa.
27:00But in New York, this dance contest by Negroes promotes jungle memories
27:06as the latest invention of American culture.
27:10Roosevelt talks about freedom of religion, but means Jewish power and control.
27:17Here, veterans of World War I are marching past a group of rabbis in New York.
27:26Unlike her enemies, life within Germany was relatively unchanged during the early years of the war.
27:33Hitler was adamantly opposed to food rationing,
27:35which plagued the German populace in the First World War
27:39and contributed to the nationwide collapse of morale.
27:43One woman remembered Nazi Germany after her father was sent to fight in France.
27:49Meals were usually the same as before Papa went away.
27:54We usually had a three-course meal with soup,
27:58usually a clear soup with fine vegetables and noodles,
28:02then meat and vegetables, then pudding.
28:06We always ate at the dining table and put on a white tablecloth.
28:14The rapid fall of France in June 1940 was the high-water mark for German pride.
28:22The entire country was caught up in a furor of nationalism.
28:27Children were also swept up in this wave of patriotism.
28:32The offspring of the country's elite were induced into joining the Hitler Youth.
28:38This ultra-nationalist program featured camps where youthful Aryans could enjoy the outdoors.
28:45Songs were sung, sports competitions organized,
28:49and the bonds of German brotherhood were cemented with a heavy dose of Nazi propaganda.
28:55For this moment, the sun shone brightly on the Rhine.
29:01But the war dragged on. England never capitulated.
29:06The United States' entry into the fray in 1941
29:10and German reverses on the Russian front in 1942 and 43
29:15turned the fortunes of war against the Third Reich.
29:19As D-Day approached in early 1944,
29:22an eerie sense of calm pervaded Germany.
29:26The government-controlled media insisted that the war was proceeding exactly as planned.
29:32Victory was still assured.
29:35But on June 6, 1944, the invasion of Normandy changed everything for the German people.
29:43By the middle of the summer, Allied bombing of German cities intensified dramatically.
29:48The double dose of American planes during the day and RAF bombers at night took its toll.
29:56The most horrifying explosions and vibrations shook us and the earth began to sway.
30:03There were whistling noises followed by a chain of explosions.
30:09Then it stopped. Some of the people in the shelter pushed outside.
30:14Eventually, I dared to follow.
30:17Everything had changed.
30:20Where one street of houses had stood, there were now heaps and bricks and rubble.
30:26The schoolyard where we played the day before was a line of craters.
30:34Soup kitchens sprang up, offering food and warmth to those who had lost their homes.
30:39During this time, the German high command began warning its citizens about the oncoming Allied troops.
30:47They were told these invaders were barbarians who would plunder the country and slaughter its people.
30:53They were encouraged to defend the motherland at all costs.
30:58Many wondered what was left of Germany to defend.
31:03By January 1945, the country was in a state of panic.
31:07By January 1945, the country was nearing collapse.
31:11The British and Americans had crossed the Rhine into the very heart of Germany.
31:16A German prisoner of war was found to have the following letter in his possession.
31:21It was from his wife in the city of Bonn.
31:24I write these lines, Fiss A, Broken Heart.
31:30But the future brings nobody knows.
31:33We are so terribly close to the front lines now.
31:38The great wandering begins.
31:41Like tramps, we must journey with our belongings on our backs.
31:47Faith would be kind if my life were to end.
31:52Our future is so uncertain, it is not worthwhile to go on like this.
31:59Eternally yours, Rita.
32:03When U.S. and British troops finally did arrive,
32:07many in the civilian populace breathed a sigh of relief.
32:11They were not the monsters that the high command had claimed.
32:15One woman remembered how it was.
32:18Then we heard them.
32:20They weren't loud, like our soldiers who had Hovner boots.
32:24The Americans had rubber soles.
32:26But when many marched at once, one heard it.
32:29We'd have liked to run up to them with flowers, but we were scared.
32:34You weren't sure if you might get shot.
32:37They all looked so healthy and red-cheeked.
32:42They looked fantastic.
32:44Oh, to us, they looked like gods.
32:49For these civilians, the war was finally over.
32:53But the difficult truth of the evil inflicted within the Nazi concentration camps
32:57now confronted the German people.
33:01While American combat cameramen were capturing the results of these atrocities on film,
33:07many German civilians professed ignorance of the camp's frightful work.
33:12We knew there were concentration camps.
33:16But you must picture, they were so camouflaged.
33:20People who lived in nearby villages hardly knew anything of them.
33:24I lived right over there, and I didn't know anything about it.
33:29Most Americans didn't believe these claims.
33:33In order to prove the dreadful purpose of the camps to any doubters,
33:37Allied troops forced German civilians to confront the horrors they held.
33:44The army has wisely made every man in that town come up and dig graves.
33:50It's too bad we aren't barbarous enough to push those Germans in those graves.
33:55They said they knew nothing of the place right in their own town.
34:00I say every one of them is guilty of murder.
34:06How much who knew when about the death camps is a question which may never be fully answered.
34:13However, what films such as these prove beyond a shadow of a doubt
34:17is that the unspeakable atrocities which occurred in them were all too real.
34:28Neither my sister nor I ever considered ourselves anything other than Americans.
34:34At school we saluted the American flag.
34:38All our teachers were white, as were many of our friends.
34:41Everything we read was in English, which was, of course, our native language.
34:56The war in Europe concluded in May of 1945,
35:00but in the Pacific, the Japanese had yet to be defeated.
35:04Significantly, on the American home front,
35:07it was the fear of this enemy that had motivated
35:10one of the most striking acts of discrimination in U.S. history.
35:16Its origins stretched back to the dark days following the attack on Pearl Harbor,
35:21when a palpable sense of alarm swept over the west coast of the United States.
35:26From Seattle to San Diego, one flight of planes,
35:30From Seattle to San Diego, one thought had gripped people's consciousness.
35:35Are we next?
35:37The large Japanese-American population living on the west coast
35:41merely intensified this fear of Japanese attack.
35:45Over 100,000 Americans were of Japanese ancestry.
35:50The Issei were born in Japan and not eligible for citizenship.
35:55However, the Nisei, or American-born, were citizens by birth.
36:00Many Japanese-American families had been in the country for over three generations.
36:07Unlike Americans of either Italian or German descent,
36:11Japanese-Americans were unable to blend in with the majority of their Anglo countrymen.
36:16Their physical characteristics alone made them immediate targets.
36:19Many in the media put forth the notion that Japanese-Americans were still loyal to the emperor
36:25and would carry out acts of sabotage inside the United States.
36:30Columnist Henry McLemore wrote about his attitude toward Japanese-Americans
36:35in his syndicated newspaper column in January 1942.
36:40I am for immediate removal of every Japanese on the west coast
36:45to a place deep in the interior.
36:49Let them be pinched, hungry, and dead against it.
36:53Personally, I hate the Japanese, and that goes for all of them.
36:59In response to building political pressure and public sentiment,
37:04President Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 on February 19, 1942.
37:10This authorized the immediate internment of over 110,000 Issei and Nisei Japanese-Americans.
37:19Given virtually no time to make proper arrangements,
37:23Japanese-American families living on the west coast had no choice
37:27but to sell their houses and possessions, often for very little money.
37:32When their turn finally arrived, they left by bus or train.
37:36They were allowed to bring with them only what they could carry.
37:40Many were never to see their neighborhoods or friends again.
37:47Since the signing of E.O. 9066,
37:51the Department of War had rapidly constructed ten internment camps across the southwest.
37:58Placed in the very harshest of geographic locations,
38:01these camps stretched from near Death Valley in California all the way to southern Arkansas.
38:09Life inside the camps was strange for Americans used to complete freedom of movement.
38:15The presence of armed guards was something few would ever become accustomed to.
38:21The amenities in the camps proved primitive at best.
38:25The amenities in the camps proved primitive at best.
38:30The first sight of our rooms was dismal.
38:33No furniture, unfinished walls and ceiling.
38:38We had to sweep out the dust and mop before we could bring our suitcases in.
38:43Army cots were delivered that night, giving us something to sit on.
38:49Eventually, Father made a table and stools out of pieces of scrap wood.
38:56Barracks were roughly divided into apartments for each family.
39:01None of the apartments had running water.
39:04Electricity wasn't available for all residents when the camps opened.
39:09There were no kitchens.
39:11All meals were prepared in community cooking facilities and eaten in mess halls.
39:16The internees had no choice but to settle in.
39:22In January of 1943, a bone of contention was placed between the Issei and their American-born children.
39:29It had been determined that an all-Nisei fighting unit would be good for America's image as a true democracy.
39:37But many Issei objected to their sons fighting and possibly dying for a country which had stripped them of their rights.
39:46Yet thousands of young Nisei men did join up.
39:50They had their own reasons, which their parents often failed to comprehend.
39:55A lot of us felt that this was our only chance to demonstrate our loyalty.
40:03We would never get a second chance.
40:06This was it.
40:08We wanted there to be no question about what we were and where we were going.
40:16The Nisei unit became the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, whose 8,000 men served gallantly throughout Europe.
40:26The regiment became the most decorated unit in the entire U.S. Army.
40:31Its men won over 18,000 decorations, including a Congressional Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Bravery Under Fire, one of only 29 awarded during the war.
40:45By the summer of 1945, the war was nearly over.
40:50Many internees wondered what would become of them.
40:54The answer was simple.
40:56After V-J Day, the camps were quietly emptied, one by one.
41:01Each family received bus fare to its old neighborhood and a meager stipend of $50.
41:08Now the ex-internees faced yet another challenge, beginning a new life with none of the property or assets they had held just a few years before.
41:19They faced this hardship with typical grace and courage.
41:23One young woman remembered.
41:25I left the camp determined to work hard and prove I was as loyal as any other American.
41:33I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to make good, not just for myself, but for all Japanese Americans.
41:44I felt I was representing all the Nisei, and it was sometimes an awesome burden to bear.
41:53In the rest of the country, however, the anticipation of Japan's final capitulation brought a far different experience.
42:01Four long years at war had left the public craving the peace they felt was finally within reach.
42:09On August 14th, Japan surrendered.
42:13Upon hearing the news, Americans went wild with joy.
42:17New York became a huge block party stretching for miles down the Great White Way.
42:23One woman wrote to her fiancé, still serving overseas.
42:28Darling, if you haven't seen Broadway during the victory celebrations,
42:33then you've missed one of the most unbelievable sights in the world.
42:38The gutters were jammed with people singing, laughing and dancing.
42:43The gutters were jammed with people singing, laughing and blowing horns.
42:49Confetti and streamers were ankle deep.
42:52Sailors and soldiers grabbed every woman in their arms and passionately kissed them.
42:58People sat on the curbs at Times Square in front of the cops and necked but most violently.
43:06These celebrations continued for more than four days.
43:13On the other side of Broadway, there is a film called Valley of Decision.
43:18And that seems a prophetic enough title, and we might call Times Square tonight the Valley of Decision.
43:24The great decision has been won. The Allies have won over Japan.
43:33Though the medals given to the brave soldiers of World War II were genuinely merited,
43:38whole populations of civilians exhibited the very same courage and fortitude.
43:45That they survived the all-consuming global conflict surrounding them,
43:50with few resources and little support,
43:53is a story of both sacrifice and triumph.
44:08The Valley of Decision
44:38The Valley of Decision
45:08The Valley of Decision