On December 7th, 1941, Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes attacked the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On just one of the American ships, the battleship U.S.S. Arizona, 22 Nebraskans died. This was the beginning of World War II for Nebraskans, as well as the rest of the nation. Most listened closely to radio coverage when President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) told Congress the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor was "...a date that will live in infamy."
Like Americans a generation later, most have vivid memories of precisely where they were when they heard the news.
"Even though I was only seven and a half years old, I remember December 7, 1941, as if it was yesterday.
It was on a Sunday afternoon when we heard on the
radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. It seemed our lives changed right then."
— Betty Safarik Spilger, who was a Farwell grade school student
in 1941.
"I remember we were playing sandlot football when the young ladies who were sitting in their car listening to the radio came to tell us that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. To be very honest about it, at the time, I think most of us kind of wondered where Pearl Harbor was."
— Paul Thompson, Cozad student
Did Nebraskans make any contributions to World War II, other than sending men and women to serve in the armed services? Was life on the home front changed? Did Nebraskans suffer any effects from a war being fought in foreign lands that were scattered around the globe? Explore this web site to not only find the answer to these questions, but to also learn more about what Nebraskans were doing during the war.
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The war affected the life of every Nebraskan. Share those experiences through interviews that were conducted and photographs taken of Nebraskans living during World War II.
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