I read about the story of Peter Ota, a Nasei; or Hawaiian-Japanese. After Pearl Harbor, Ota and his family were arrested and sent to internment camps. The living conditions there were terrible. “The barracks was all there was. There were no trees, no kind of landscaping. It was like a prison camp. Coming from our environment, it was just devastating” (Terkel 207). Peter Ota’s father put his faith in the US government; he believed that it would do anything that bad to its own citizens. Ota’s father was wrong, these camps destroyed many lives and families. The US government imprisoned innocent Japanese Americans out of fear and racism. America was making the same mistakes that other European nation made in past centuries, mistakes that America was determined not to repeat.

I also read a story about Betty Basye Hutchinson, a nurse in World War II. After Pearl Harbor, she wanted to do something to help in the war effort. “Immediately, I was going to become a nurse. That was the fastest thing I could do to help our boys” (Terkel 211). Hutchinson was on the orthopedic ward, she was struck by horror when she saw all the injuries that soldiers were sustaining in combat; it’s a lesson on Man’s cruelty to Man. I must’ve been incredibly hard for nurses to do their jobs. It was up to them to save many lives. It must’ve been devastating when a patient died right in front of you, after making all that effort to save them.  

In Studs Terkel’s intro to World War II, I read about the dramatic change in the US economy. Just like everything went from “Boom to Bust” in the great depression, everything turned around overnight when the US entered World War II. The narrator recalled, “In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. New Deal was replaced by Dr. Win The War” (Terkel 168). Everything in the US was now being used to help the war effort. The New Deal helped a little with the depression, but World War II was the thing that completely pulled the US out of the depression. Positions in the military were opened up everywhere, which gave men jobs once again. While the men were off in the military, jobs in factories and labor and all the other jobs men were given, were no open to women. If it wasn’t for World War II, the US may never have recovered from the depression.    

I read the story of Arthur A. Robertson, a man who witnessed the stock market crash. His story was very descriptive, and it helped me understand the severity of the stock market crash. In the 1920’s, the stock market was a symbol of hope to people; there was no way this system could fail. But the stock market worked very differently back then. “Today, if you want to buy $100 worth of stock, you have to put up $80 and the broker will put up $20. In those days, you could put up $8 or $10” (Terkel 100). People were investing small amounts of money in stocks that could turn into huge debts. People didn’t know what they were getting into. This irresponsible spending is what caused the crash. When the crash hit, stock fell over 80 percent in value. People’s lives were ruined and many committed suicide. I also read a story about a farmer named Oscar Heline. He had to live through the troubles of the great depression. Like most other people, Heline lost his farm land and could hardly provide for his family. Grocery stores were giving their merchandise away because it was more expensive for them to maintain it. Everything went from good to bad overnight. This is like what’s happening with the economy today, people bought too many things on credit and now they are in massive debt. If a world war brought the US out of the depression last time, what will bring the economy out of this present day deperession.