56 pages • 1 hour read
Studs Terkel“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1984A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction
Book 1, Section 1
Book 1, Section 2
Book 1, Section 3
Book 1, Section 4
Book 1, Section 5
Book 1, Section 6
Book 1, Section 7
Book 2, Section 1
Book 2, Section 2
Book 2, Section 3
Book 2, Section 4
Book 2, Section 5
Book 3, Section 1
Book 3, Section 2
Book 3, Section 3
Book 3, Section 4
Book 4, Section 1
Book 4, Section 2
Book 4, Section 3
Book 4, Section 4
Book 4, Section 5
Book 4, Section 6
Epilogue
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaBook 1, Section 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“John Garcia” Summary
A Los Angeles apartment manager from Hawaii, John Garcia was present as a pipe fitter apprentice during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After working for a pipe fitter, John wrote to President Roosevelt personally, requesting that he be allowed to join the military. John’s naivete and experience presented some difficulties. For example, he did not know what Jews are, and though he is from Hawaii, he was labeled as Caucasian and separated from other Hawaiian recruits.
While stationed in Hawaii, John had to shoot and kill a Japanese woman and her baby. He became traumatized by the deaths he saw and briefly became an alcoholic. Eventually, he stopped drinking, but he retains nightmares of the woman he killed. After the war, he became a police officer in Washington, DC, and refuses to kill anyone in the line of duty.
“Dennis Keegan” Summary
Lawyer Dennis Keegan recollects enlisting in the army after Pearl Harbor. Before that, he remembers how paranoid the people of San Francisco became after Pearl Harbor, with one woman believing she and Dennis had to keep the lights out or risk being bombed by the Japanese.
“Mayor Tom Bradley” Summary
At the time of the Pearl Harbor bombing, Tom Bradley was a police officer in Los Angeles. He remembers widespread panic throughout the city. According to Tom, “It was panic that simply overwhelmed us” (27).
“Ron Veenker” Summary
A teacher at a small Kentucky college, Ron Veenker was raised in South Dakota but went to live with one of his grandmothers during World War II. He recalls standing with his grandmother at a trolley stop, where a Japanese man offered him a stick of gum. Ron intuited the man’s kindness, but his grandmother grabbed him and ran two blocks to another trolley stop. The seven-year-old Ron later observed that all the Japanese neighbors had been taken away, but nobody talked about it. He was told the Japanese were to be feared, and so he did.
“Peter Ota” Summary
Peter was a Japanese American man in Los Angeles who lived with his family at the time of the Pearl Harbor bombing. His mother died of tuberculosis, and he and the rest of his family were sent to a Japanese internment camp. After school, Peter was in the ironic situation of being drafted into the army at the same time his father and sister were in an internment camp.
While in the army, Peter was placed in a unit with other Japanese Americans and kept stationed at San Francisco Bay. After the war, the family assimilated into American culture. Peter’s daughter joined the Sansei generation, who questioned why Japanese Americans did not resist internment and were politically active.
“Yuriko Hohri” Summary
Yuriko recalls her childhood in a Japanese internment camp, where she was educated by other adult prisoners. They left the camp in April 1944 because a Quaker in Iowa offered to sponsor them.
“Frank Keegan” Summary
The brother of Dennis Keegan, Frank discusses how “[w]e were dreadfully frightened of the Japanese…Even before Pearl Harbor we were scared of them” (36). Frank joined the merchant marines. He also recalls the moment the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “It’s over, that’s what it meant. Nice goin’, Harry [Truman]. You did it to ’em, kid. That’s how guiltless I was” (37).
Book 1, Section 1 Analysis
From white American to Japanese American perspectives, this chapter encompasses eyewitness to the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing by Japanese Air Force on December 7, 1941. This attack led the United States to declare war on Japan, which in turn provoked Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, into declaring war on the United States. It is important to note that racism against Chinese and Japanese migrants had been common in the United States, especially the West Coast, dating back to the latter 19th century.
In particular, Frank Keegan refers to the “Oriental Exclusion Act” (36). Officially called the Chinese Exclusion Act, the law was passed in 1882 and banned Chinese laborers from entering the United States. These attitudes persisted well into the 20th century, with East Asian migrants facing more hostility than European migrants. Chinese, and to a lesser extent Japanese, laborers were historically viewed as more alien than people of European origin and as unacceptable competition with white Americans over low-paying mining and railroad jobs.
Also, these accounts challenge the view of “the good war.” Innocent Japanese civilians were placed in internment camps throughout the war, even women and children. In addition, people living in Southern California reacted with fear and paranoia. This section presents a view other than patriotic indignation in response to the United States being attacked. It is also an account of fear.
