A Look Back

Jim Hoel's encounter with a German Corporal who had, at one time, been a neighbor in Evanston, Illinois, must have caused him to reflect on the many unbelievable ironies of war; but also, the early circumstances that led him to this point, a prisoner of war in Germany. Here is Jim's description, in his own words of his perceptions of the state of our nation before the United States entered World War II and his thoughts about serving his country.

As a start, I think it's important to do a little background on where we were when World War II started, as long this undoubtedly is going to be directed to people who are younger. We had been in a Depression for 10 years up until the start of World War II. The United States, following World War I, became an isolationist country. All of the people in the United States, or at least the majority, and the government itself said we don't want any part of any wars any place, any time, and therefore we don't have any military. The war, at the time we got involved in it, had been raging in Europe from 1939 on until 1941 when Pearl Harbor happened.

It's hard to believe, but we as a country just absolutely paid very little attention to that war going on in Europe. Germany almost conquered all of Europe. It's amazing that they didn't invade England because England itself had been an isolationist country; had a weak military in comparison to Germany's. So, there we were, not willing to become involved and happy with the whole thing.

Personally, I had gone to college for a year and a half and just became a little discouraged with it, I don't know why, so I quit and I was negotiating to go to Canada and join the Royal Canadian Air Force for flight training. In fact, I was all set to go in early December 1941. My father had been in World War I, and in discussing it with him, he said he understood my feelings completely. He had tried to get from the Ambulance Corp which he was in in World War I, into the Air Force then, but he couldn't pass the physical test to do it. So, as I say, he understood what I wanted to do.

He did suggest that I wait and get into our service, which I couldn't do because I didn't have 2 years of college credit to do it. So he prevailed upon me to stay through Christmastime with the family because he was convinced that it was going to be a long war and then eventually we were going to get drawn into it. Again, bear in mind, here we come up to early December and the American people wanted no part of any war and Congress wouldn't pass an appropriation for a nickel's improvement in our military situation.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, we were sitting in the living room (my whole family--my sister, my brother and myself and our parents) when the announcement came on, "Pearl Harbor has been bombed." This was a complete shock to everybody in the United States that you couldn't believe.

The following morning President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and that automatically became a declaration of war against Germany because the two of them were allies. And of course, the American public at that point, incensed at this attack said, "Let's go get 'em," and the mood of the country switched overnight. We've got to get involved and really do it and we'll get it over in a hurry. What they didn't know, or didn't think through, was we didn't have any Army, we didn't have any Navy, we didn't have any Marine Corp, we just really didn't have a military machine.


That we have to know going into this story I'm about to tell.