World War II Experiences

Can't really answer most of your questions but my father's family were stationed in the Philippines 1937 to spring of 41. Loved to hear my Nana tell stories. One thing I got was the sense of isolation from the States. My Father was a career man and we lived in German in the early sixties and Okinawa 69-71. I actually got to visit Luzan on my own, great time. Anyway the sense of isolation was pretty pronounced in my time and we had jets. Before the war they had transports named after Generals that took about a month. The sense of isolation meant dependents were very keen to keep up on music and trends. The movies that came were usually a year old.
My bet is that there wasn't much entertainment during the war. The cars were American and I'd guess the Japanese occupation used much of what they captured especially stuff like staff cars.
One thing that struck me about the Philippines was the rebuilt vehicles, wooden body buses, old jeepnies with wood back ends and old jeep or car front ends.
American General's rated captains as aides. A regular major didn't rate an official aide but often had indiginous servants. The American forces in the Philippines were split between regular units and constabulary or Philippine army units that had mostly American officers. I imagine an American major in the constabulary rated some kind of aide, someone with military rank and not a servant. The Americans were rather odd in that they were double minded in regard to colonialism. They believed in democracy and self determination, were supposedly getting the Philippines ready for self government but were often rather racist, enjoyed having household staffs they would never be able to afford in the states and could be pretty snooty.

Hope things are working out for you and order is restored soon.

Terry

gwendy85 said:

Hi there!

I got a little spurred to start this thread from Bravo's last questions on WWII. I'm writing a WWII novel set in the Pacific theater (specifically the Philippines) and I was wondering if anyone here has experiences on that era and area of the war.

Specific info I'm looking for are the kind of entertainment during those dark times, the kind of music, the radio (small ones, parts of it and how the Japanese recondition it so that it won't be able to receive international broadcasts, some needed parts, how it can *illegally* get international broadcasts). I'm also looking for cars used during those times (esp. in the Philippines). Studebakers? Chevrolets? Did the Japanese prefer a car?

Also, officers (both Japanese and Americans) have aides right? How many are assigned? What would be the ranks of the aides if the American/Japanese officer had the rank of:

Major General
Major
Captain

And who chooses the aides? And can anyone explain to me about armbands?

I may have more questions later. I know this is a lot and hopefully, someone will be able to answer

Gwendy

Click to expand...

One of my grandfathers served in the Phillipines during WWII and like many vets who saw true combat duty did not talk a lot about the war (except when he was drinking on occasion). From what he told me - and other family members - there was not much entertainment save staying alive and avoiding capture by the Japanese. Letters from home were precious and appreciated.


He is now deceased so I can't ask particulars but maybe this little bit helps.

check out some of the links on this site

http://www.britain-at-war.org.uk/

predominantly english there is also stuff about americans