War Brought Trials and Anxiety at Home and Overseas
Author
Catherine C. Brooks
Publisher
Infinity Publishing
3 Review Copies Left
After Pearl Harbor, life in the United States changed for everyone. Brooks had access to the entire local and many daily newspaper clippings from 1942-1945. From these, she gleamed survivor’s stories—hair raising and emotional tales that tear at the heart. She gives details given by prisoners from both Germany and Japan. The daughter of “Car,” Bowing, who served on Attu in the Aleutians, found the diary she hadn’t read among his pictures. You will have access to this and parts from another diary. Then, Brooks’ husband-to-be joined the Navy when he completed high school at age 18. She shares his letters, filled with homesickness, loneliness, battle fatigue, and love. He served with the PT boat squadrons in the South Pacific—a dangerous group. Sometimes before his monthly delivery of 32 or more letters arrived, he just couldn’t write home. There was nothing he could tell except to answer letters. There are over fifty pictures, the majority from the south Pacific.
At home, gas rationing limited activities. In 1943, graduations were banned—students showed their ingenuity with the situation. Black outs, rationing of almost everything one needed became a nuisance, and salvaging was the norm. Rich housewives learned to do housework while their maids donned pants and took work in factories. The hardest burden was when one didn’t hear from a son, a sweetheart, or a husband for weeks, then months and into years. Many of these men served in prison camps and survived.
The book ends soon after the Japanese surrender. While her fiancé watches his buddies leave for home, he learns he must earn more points before sailing homeward. Many PT boats needed repair and the materials were on the bases. Then, all bases had to be decommissioned. The couple rejoiced, content that in a few months their hopes would materialize.
Brooks’ son advises that one purchase a box of tissues before they settle down to read. And he doesn’t usually enjoy a tearjerker. But this book is real!
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