Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit: The World War II Generation Remembers the Tragic Event That Transformed a Nation

Your book had great meaning for me. It is a remarkable collection of personal narratives that bring history to life!

Art Linkletter

Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit is perhaps the first publication to document the broad human experience of December 7, 1941. In this groundbreaking book, people from all across America recall how their lives were suddenly changed forever by Japan's dastardly attack in Hawaii.

These fascinating stories carry the reader back in time to vintage diners, filling stations, railroad depots, drug stores, family farms, sports stadiums, churches, barracks, and other places where the alarming news of the Pearl Harbor ambush was announced to a stunned nation.

The speakers tell how they dutifully answered the call to arms while experiencing dislocation and heartbreaking separation from loved ones in the process. During the war, millions of young Americans eventually left home for military camps, defense plants, and foreign battlefields. Their fleeting adolescence had ended with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Many narrators discuss significant personal, national, and world events from the time of the Great Depression through WWII, thus making this book a fine introduction to the momentous Roosevelt era. Readers learn how the children of the Depression overcame hardship and acquired the sturdy character that enabled them to emerge as liberators of the world.

Plain-spoken, patriotic, and poignant, these captivating narratives portray a humble, remarkable generation in their grand hour of distinction.