Pearl Harbor was bombed seventy-six years ago today. My mom, Lillian Koroschetz, started a brand new diary on New Year’s Eve 1941 reflecting back on the previous year and the effects the barely three-week-old war was already having on the every-day lives of Americans.
See this link at Naval History and Heritage for a thumbnail sketch of why the attack in Hawaii was such a surprise and how it enraged and united Americans into a singular resolve to defeat Japan as well as the German Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes.
December 31, 1941 – 10:15 pm
![Wreckage of the USS Arizona after attack on Pearl Harbor. Image from Wikipedia "Day of Infamy speech"](https://lindagartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PH-USS-Arizona-Wreckage-Wikepedia.jpg)
Wreckage of the USS Arizona after attack on Pearl Harbor. Image from Wikipedia “Day of Infamy speech”
By pure coincidence, I am beginning this book practically at the dawn of 1942. What will this New Year bring me—I wonder. For that matter what will it bring the world?
![President Roosevelt delivers his "Day of Infamy" speech 12/8/1941. (Wikipedia image). Within an hour after thespeech, Congress declared war on Japan.](https://lindagartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PH-Roosevelt200px-Fdr_delivers_speech.jpg)
President Roosevelt delivers his “Day of Infamy” speech 12/8/1941. (Wikipedia image). Within an hour after thespeech, Congress declared war on Japan.
Automobile tires, too, are unobtainable for civilian use, and car production will be eliminated in favor of defense activities by the auto plants.
I have a firm conviction there will be a severe depression in possibly 5 or 10 years and I am determined to save some money.
I have a start now, $34.00 in postal savings. Also I buy 10 cent defense stamps. When I have saved sufficiently by way of these stamps, I shall buy an $18.75 defense bond.
Redlined tells a first-hand story about a West Side Chicago family’s personal struggles and dreams intersecting with the racial upheavals of the 1960s.
You are fortunate to have preserved moments like these from your mother’s diary. Curating items in my aunt’s house this spring, I have found 4-5 diaries and a snippet of my grandma’s. Each is hard to read because of the handwriting, faded by age of course.
Dear Marian, That is so cool that you found those diaries. Yes, these old diaries can be hard to read. Oddly, in my case, the handwriting was still very clear and the paper in amazingly good condition. I think that first, they hadn’t seen the light of day (or any light) for decades, stored in boxes, closed tight. Second, I think the paper was less acidic in the past. Even my grandparents’ 100 year old diaries, letters, postcards, etc. were sturdy and barely yellowed. My mother’s scrapbook pages, however, cheap paper, were crumbling. I recommend keeping at it, if you… Read more »