That is a pretty good analysis of what was happening, Little Hawk. FDR knew we were going to have to get into the war sooner or later, but he had to deal with the hordes of isolationists in this country. I think he put it off as long as he dared, but even he got caught with the Pearl Harbor attack.

In addition to conversations with the Admiral, I had an uncle in the Merchant Marine who went about everywhere and had some pretty interesting takes on what was going on and who was doing what to whom.

And I had a cousin who was in the Philippines (he was a Marine) when the whole thing hit the fan. He wound up on the "Bataan Death March," survived it unlike many, and spent the war in a Japanese prison camp. Not nice!!

Here in Seattle, we were particularly interested in the possibilities of invasion, and especially bombing attacks, because the Boeing Airplane Company was located here, and they built the B-17 "Flying Fortresses" that darkened the skies over Germany, then the B-29 "Superfortress." Even though the B-17 wasn't used all that much in the Pacific, Japan and Germany were allies, and I'm pretty sure they would have liked to put Boeing out of commission. I remember the blackouts. . . .

I read up a lot on the war at the time and later on. As a kid, I was fully aware, as were most people, that the news and such was not giving us the whole story. People did know the word "propaganda" back in those days, and "keeping the morale of the people up" seemed to be considered more important than detailed news, which might not be so encouraging.

But much of what we were not told or were misinformed about did come out once the war was over.

Don Firth

P. S. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the first radio bulletin about the Pearl Harbor bombing. And when Hiroshima was bombed. And not too many days after, when peace was declared.

I may be an officially ordained Geezer, but I have a very tenacious memory.