December 7, 1941, Attack on Pearl Harbor
After much pondering, I’ve decided that this project should concentrate on the Mexican-American experience during World War II in the Bay Area. After viewing “Tora, Tora, Tora”, “The Longest Day,” and “Saving Private Ryan” (movies depicting WWII), I often wondered what were Mexican-Americans doing during this period? Were they serving in the military and going away to fight for Democracy? Did they work in California’s defense and agricultural industries?
Well, they did all of this. It is estimated that 500,000 Mexican-Americans served in this war. According to historian, Manuel G. Gonzales, there were three reasons why Mexicanos served. They could improve socioeconomic situation, they had a sense of gratitude to their new homeland, and their Machismo, their manliness, it was a way to prove their manhood.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America joined the war effort. The sons and daughters of this country would rally together in an unprecedented effort in order to stop the threat of Hitler and the Axis Powers, which included Japan and Italy. California was at the forefront of development during this period. Many industries made their homes in California. These industries were in need of labor and turned to untapped sources to fill their needs. Many of these were Latinos.
In my search to acquire information about WWII, Chicano veterans I googled “Mexicans-Americans duirng WWII.” Most of the material dealt with Ken Burns and his exclusion of Latinos in his WWII documentary “The War.” There was a KCET documenatary, “California at War” which was very informative on the role that this state played during the war. There are war narratives from Mexican-Americans but there not specific to Northern California. My task is to try and find these stories. They have to be outhere, somewhere.
**Note: The use of the terms Chicano, Hispanic, Latino, and Mexicano will be used interchangeably to refer to Mexican-Americans.
Bibliography
http://www.thesoundsofhistory.com/pearlharbor.html
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/ww2latinos/
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jis/2001/Santillan.pdf
http://www.kcet.org/californiaatwar/doorsteps.php
Acuna, Rodolfo. Occupied American: A History of Chicanos. New York: Harper Collins. Publishers, 1988.
Gonzales, Manuel G. Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2009.
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