“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

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.

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.