Kevin Higgins (KH): OK, this is our interview with Mr. Hector Letourneau for the World War II Homefront Project. Mr. Letourneau, what is the first thing you think of when you think of World War II?

Hector Letourneau (HL): Well we got attacked by Japan and a lot of us enlisted right away.

KH: What are your strongest memories of the war years?

HL: What are they? Oh, I went into the war. At first I was on a battleship for about a year. I didn't care too much for that. Then I went back to the submarines. So I put in about four and a half years on submarines.

KH: Did you have any children during the War?

HL: No, I never got married while I was in the service.

KH: Did your family experience any economic consequences because of the War? Were times harder for you or were you more prosperous?

HL: No I don't think so. Everything went pretty smoothly. Of course, my family… I had eleven brothers and sisters. And they all… five of the boys were into the service so it wasn't too bad.

KH: It wasn't too bad. And you lived here in Worcester?

HL: I lived here in Worcester yeah. I lived on Grafton Hill.

KH: Grafton Hill? OK. What were some of the biggest changes in your life or your family's life during the War? Obviously you had five brothers go to, along with you, go to the War. How did that affect…

HL: Well… I think there was two of us… two of us were in World War II. One, two of us… three of us were in the Korean War.

KH: So you took up a different role with the start of the War obviously being called to military service. How do you remember that experience now?

HL: Well, what happened, it's like I say, the Japanese attacked us. And a lot of us in my age group back then December 10, so I enlisted in the Navy. Six days later I was in the Navy, got sworn in and everything. From there of course I went to boot camp. I only spent three weeks. And then I was assigned to the Arkansas battleship. And I was on that one. We took on four convoys-two to Africa, two to I don't know where they ended up but we ended up in Scotland. The battleship did but the two ships were gone someplace else.

KH: So five brothers including yourself go on to military service for the United States. You have six sisters then?

HL: Six sisters, and I have… six. There was six of us. It was four brothers that went into the service. My older brother, he was deferred because he was working at Norton company and he had a family so they deferred him. I'm sorry.

KH: No problem. He was working at the Norton Company?

HL: Right.

KH: Where was that in Worcester?

HL: In Worcester, yeah.

KH: OK. Did you notice, did your sisters or your brother, did any of them work at American Steel & Wire? Did they ever take up an industrial role during the War?

HL: No. No. Most of my sisters ended up graduating from high school. They went to parochial high schools. They lived here most of the time. A couple of them became sisters, you know, nuns. And the others all did alright for themselves.

KH: Great. How did you feel when Pearl Harbor was attacked?

HL: Oh I felt that it was our duty to turn around and enlist, to get in the service. Because they attacked us and that was worst thing they could do really. And everybody that I know of, all wanted to go in the service in my age group and everything.

KH: What about on D-Day?

HL: D-Day. Well, D-Day I was in the Pacific. D-Day was a big day as far as I can recall. But D-Day I was on a war patrol, I was on a war patrol sub, so I can't recall too much about it. Except that it was a big day.

KH: I understand. How did you perceive the enemy, both the German and the Japanese armies?

HL: Well I didn't have nothing to do with the Germans. I mean, we did take two convoys over to Casablanca in Africa-that was when we started going after the Germans when I was on the ship.

KH: So your sense of why we were fighting back then was obviously that we were directly attacked by the Japanese? What about the Germans? Why was it necessary for us to fight the Germans?

HL: Well the Germans, they were after us too I think. I think we should have been at war in 1940. The Germans, they were after us, they were after our shipping and everything. We had to declare war against both of them.

KH: Has that sense of why, why we needed to fight, changed at all over the years?

HL: Over the years, well that's hard to explain. Of course my views on… well the Korean War we needed that. That was good. My views on the Vietnam War… that was a political war… and I didn't care too much about that. I'm not saying that I was against the guys fighting it. I appreciate the guys who fought it, you know and everything else. To me it was a political war and I didn't care too much for it. You couldn't win or lose that war. Actually I say we lost. But, a lot of people would disagree with me.

KH: Let's go back to before the War begins when you're living here in Worcester. How distant was the War from you? Did the number of war-related activities, press coverage, calls for increased industrial production, the purchase of war bonds-did those bring the War closer to you in some way?

HL: Oh sure. The war bonds, we were getting that before the War. And as far as once the War started, that's when the women all went to work and everything else. They did a good job. Anybody that was in civilian life here, they did a good job on everything. They were doing their time. They got the stuff out that they needed. In fact they, instead of building automobiles, they turned around and built tanks, built jeeps. They didn't build no automobiles from 1942 to 1946 because everything was for the War.

KH: Everything was for the War. Did anyone that you know, maybe your sisters or neighbors, were they any experiences that they had that you think were unique to Worcester?

HL: Not really, because they were younger than myself most of them. They were younger than myself. I was the third to the oldest. I had nine younger brothers and sisters.

KH: Did you feel that you or Quinsigamond Village as a whole, did you have to make any sacrifices during the War? If so, what were they, and what helped you understand the need to make those sacrifices?

HL: That's hard for me to add to because I wasn't home. You know, I was gone all the time.

KH: Did you get a sense of what, or in talking to your siblings, things that had changed during the War as far as domestic life, and things that you had to go without?

HL: Well they had to go. They were on rations, but I don't think it bothered them too much.

KH: Right. Not with four siblings abroad.

HL: Yup.

KH: How about, prior to the War were there any patriotic posters or decorations that your family had around the house or did that come while you were away?

HL: No, in 1940 they started the draft. I can remember when they used to say you'd only be gone for a year. But before the year ended, the War started and you had to stay in. They were all young guys, good guys. They, how can I put it, they were in their youth. They were all like myself. I lost six years-that's all part of my youth. My youth was gone really.

KH: How old were you when you... were you drafted in 1940?

H. No, I went in when I was 18. I went in in 1941, right after they bombed Pearl Harbor.

KH: What did you learn about the War in school? Because you're 18 in 1941, so did you graduate from high school….

HL: No I didn't graduate from high school. I only went through the tenth grade.

KH: OK. Was there and discussion of the War in the tenth grade?

HL: No. Not really. Everything was a surprise. You know, when they bombed Pearl Harbor it was a surprise to everybody. They didn't expect it.

KH: So from your perspective the War really go going after Pearl Harbor. Before that it was kind of an indecisive….

HL: For the United States, yeah.

KH: OK. What was the news coverage leading up to Pearl Harbor, and then afterwards? Did it add a lot to your understanding of what was going on?

HL: Oh sure. Everything in the news was about the War. We lost a lot of people at Pearl Harbor.

KH: What were your opinions of FDR and the government in general at the time of the War?

HL: FDR? FDR had no choice. He had to declare war. He declared war right away and Congress approved of it the following day. So actually the War didn't start until December 8. It started December 7, but the United States declared war December 8.

KH: Do you see any difference in the way you remember the war and the way it is portrayed in movies?

HL: Well, you know, some of it is true. Some of the scenes that I've seen in the movies were pretty well true… on a lot of it. Some of it, of course they do put in fiction because it's… to make the stories look a lot better. A lot of movies are that way.

KH: Have you seen "Saving Private Ryan"?

HL: No, I didn't see that. I wanted to see that but I haven't had time. Not that I didn't have time, I just….

KH: Never got around to it.

HL: Right.

KH: Do you remember the movies that came out soon after or during the War? Things with John Wayne or….

HL: Sure. Sure, "The Green Berets"… and uh…. He was in a lot of good movies about the war.

KH: Did they strike you as being accurate depictions of what was going on?

HL: Well those movies there, was a different part of my life in the service.

KH: So you came back, you were in the service for six years.

HL: Six years. Yup.

KH: So you came back… was the war over by the time you were back?

HL: Oh yes. The war ended in 1945. And I still had a couple years to do in the service. It was more a… toured different countries… oh it was… like I ended up in Japan after the war and everything and saw how that was. It was like a happy tour, you know what I mean.

KH: Prior to the war, although I guess it's only about a year really when the idea that war might happen and Pearl Harbor, that you're living in Worcester, right?

HL: Yup.

KH: OK. During that one year, what kinds of things did people do around Worcester for fun? Did you go downtown? Did you go to White City at all?

HL: Oh yeah. Yeah. White City. We went to movies. White City was a big attraction, until they ripped it down. It… I don't know how to really explain it. They had good rides… games. They had the uh… they had a ferris wheel. They had the… what do you call it?

KH: Roller-coaster?

HL: Roller-coaster. Yeah that was… then they had a dance hall. They had quite a bit of things there.

KH: Did you keep in touch with your family during the War much?

HL: Well yes. Well, I tried. But when you was in the service and you were all alone there was nothing you could tell them anyway.

KH: Yeah.

HL: Cause everything was censored. They censored your mail and everything else. You couldn't actually put too much in the letters.

KH: Right.

HL: But I used to… when I was in submarines I probably wrote once every couple months, three months.

KH: What did they tell you about what was going on here in Worcester?

HL: In Worcester? Oh there wasn't too much they could tell us cause they never got attacked by anybody you know. Of course Pearl Harbor-but there wasn't anything like that. There was the war… it was blacked out. Some places, I guess it was on a train… and they was going by the ocean or something… that was all blacked out.

KH: Did they tell you about… just simple things-what they did for fun, how or any organizations they joined during the war, social or political organizations?

HL: Well I never had too much chance to talk to them. I'll be honest with you, because I was gone most of the time. I know they used to go over to Johnny's Heinz's to go dancing. They used to go to movies. There wasn't too much more they could do really.

KH: Right. What was Johnny… how do you spell… how do you pronounce that?

HL: Johnny Heinz.

KH: Johnny Heinz's? Where is that?

HL: It was up around Main St.

KH: OK.

HL: It was a pretty good dance hall/

KH: A dance hall? OK. That's pretty interesting. Was there any change, looking back on your experience in that one year period before you went to the war and the little that you corresponded with your family during the War, was there any change in your faith lives during the war? Religious services….

HL: Religious services… well… when we were out to sea, we didn't have no… especially if we were on subs… we didn't have too many religious services. We had no place to have it on a sub.

KH: Right.

HL: On a battleship, when I was on a battleship, oh yeah, every Sunday or holy days, they had the Mass-Catholic Mass, and they had Protestant Mass, Jewish Masses. They had that, of course those are on the bigger ships.

KH: What is your religious affiliation?

HL: Catholic.

KH: What parish did you belong to?

HL: St. Joseph's.

KH: St. Joseph's here in Worcester.

HL: In Worcester yeah.

KH: OK, in the year prior to, prior to the War… was there any change that you noticed in what they talked about in Mass, what they prayed for in Mass… leading up to the War?

HL: They used to pray for people going into the service and that. Oh yeah.

KH: How about after Pearl Harbor?

HL: After Pearl Harbor… I was in the service. I went in…

KH: You literally went in December of 1941?

HL: Right away, yeah. I went into the service December 16. That was eight days after we entered the war.

KH: Did any of your friends or fellow Worcesterites go in with you that you knew well?

HL: What uh….

KH: ...to the war?

HL: Friends of mine and that? Oh there was a lot of them. Definitely. Yup, almost everybody I knew that was 18. They were either getting drafted or they enlisted. Cause if they enlisted, they could take the branch of the service they wanted. If you were to get drafted, you had to go in the service where they wanted you.

KH: You had to take what they gave you.

HL: Yeah.

KH: Now what did you and your friends do right before the War? Were you working at the time?

HL: I was working… I guess I was making… for about a year I guess I was working for an electrician and making about ten dollars a week, which wasn't bad for a 17, 16-year old kid in those days. (laughs)

KH: No, that's not too bad.

HL: In those day.

KH: Right. Yeah.

HL: Then I worked in a shoe factory for a while. And if you made $16 a week, you were doing real good.

KH: Where were these… where was the shoe factory?

HL: Oh they were in Worcester. You had Brown Shoe…. You had…. I can't think too good no more. Pheiffer Shoe-they used to make slippers… and shoes.

KH: Quinsigamond Village has a heavily Swedish population.…

HL: It was see… but I wasn't born in Quinsig Village… that's what I was trying to explain.

KH: Oh OK.

HL: But, Grafton Hill ain't too far from Quinsig Village.

KH: Because Quinsig is heavily Swedish, and I know you didn't live there, but did you, in the year that you were here and the few days that you were here after Pearl Harbor, did that fact that Sweden was neutral during the War influence the way people thought about Quinsigamond Village and the people that lived there?

HL: Well, it was a good place to live. And around Quinsig Village, you know they had some good factories. You had… steel companies all around there. Yup.

KH: But, the fact that people were Swedish… did people think of Quinsigamond Village as a haven for Swedish-Americans?

HL: Oh yes. Yes. We all had our own like… Quinsig… Quinsig Village… that was Swedish. Grafton Hill... you had Italians, French, and Irish. You know, just like, all kinds of… the city was different.

KH: Different ethnicities.

HL: Right.

KH: Once the War started, this is not necessarily America's entry into the War but once the War started in Europe, the fact that Sweden was neutral-decided that they didn't want to get involved-especially after American involvement, did that change the way you thought about Sweden and maybe the people that were living in Quinsigamond?

HL: No, not at all. That didn't bother me at all whether somebody entered the War or didn't really…. It… they were all nice people, good people. There's nothing I can say against them for not going into the War really.

KH: Did any, you talked about when you were writing back with you family, when they told you a little bit about what they did-about going to the dance halls, going to the movies-simple things like that that they did to amuse themselves during the War, did you notice that there was any change in what they did as opposed to what they had done before?

HL: No, not really. It was always quiet. There wasn't that many automobiles around. There was no drive-in theaters. It wasn't… it was a slow part of the time, you know. You went bowling, like you went to the movies. You didn't have too many hangouts. You went to Ionic Ave. Boys Club.

KH: What's that called? Ionic Ave.?

HL: Ionic Ave.. Yeah, that's the one I belonged to when I was a kid.

KH: OK. How did you feel when the War ended? Just start, how did you find out that the War ended? You were in the.…

HL: Well, I was home on leave.

KH: You were home on leave!

HL: Yup.

KH: Really, so you're back in Worcester when you find out the War's over?

HL: Yup.

KH: And how… how do you find out?

HL: Well we knew it was going to end at a certain time. At seven o'clock at night they turned around. The cops closed every bar room. The sirens went. The church bells rang and everything else. And everybody just got together and more or less all congregated downtown.

KH: Downtown?

HL: It was jammed down there. It was jammed… you couldn't even walk. You couldn't drive down there or nothing.

KH: Wow.

HL: And at Holy Cross, the ROTCs… they wouldn't let the ROTCs out of Holy Cross to celebrate. I don't know the reason. But they wouldn't let them go out and celebrate. I remember that. I remember walking in the bar rooms and them closing all the bar rooms at seven o'clock.

KH: What bar were you at?

HL: At that time I was in South Worcester. I was not in a bar when they closed, but I knew that was going on.

KH: So… when… specifically, how did you find out the War was over? Was it through the radio?

HL: Oh yeah. The radio-that's all we had then. That's all we had was the radio. If you had T.V…. there wasn't too many around. They were just coming out with them at the time.

KH: OK. And do you remember the names of any of the announcers that were on Worcester's stations?

HL: Oh no. I can't remember them. My mind is leaving me really.

KH: So you're with your family on Grafton Hill….

HL: Oh yeah.

KH: …at this point, is anyone still overseas, or is everyone home?

HL: No… they're all home. Actually I lost… well I didn't lose any in the service. But two of my younger brothers had passed away already. Outside of that, I'd say that everything went along smoothly.

KH: How did you used to listen to the radio? Did everyone just sit in the living room and listen to the radio, especially as the war… in that they would want to find out that finally the war was over?

HL: Well yeah, we had the radio on. I didn't stay home too much. I used to go out. I only had 30-day leave. I had to get back. But I was home when it ended. Right after they dropped that second atomic bomb, that was it.

KH: Right.

HL: That was it. The war was over.

KH: Do you remember at all… we already talked about how you went to St. Joseph's… after the war, what is it like going to Church in those thirty days? Is everyone just elated?

HL: Oh yeah. It was the same way as before. Everybody was happy. I know that. I mean the young ones were coming back home. Especially the ones that were married and had families. I always said that I would never get married when I was in the service.

KH: When did you get married? You came home in '47 and then….

HL: I got married in '47.

KH: In '47. Oh OK. And where did you live at the time?

HL: At the time, I lived with my mother-in-law in South Worcester.

KH: In South Worcester.

HL: Yup. Then from there, I moved back to Grafton Hill-Cutler Street.

KH: Well I've been talking with other people about how they remember the end of the War, and specifically, celebrating that the war was over….

HL: Oh definitely. There was a big celebration.

KH: What kinds of things did you do around Worcester to celebrate?

HL: It's like I say. You all try to get downtown. Once… that was so jammed that nobody could get by. Oh it was… just a big congregation that's all it was. I mean, everyone was so happy that's where they all flocked… downtown.

KH: So you went downtown?

HL: Well I was in South Worcester with my girlfriend at the time, and I wanted to get to my mother's house on Cutler Street. So we had to go through downtown and that was… that was hard getting by. Especially if you had a uniform. Everybody tried to grab you. Everybody was just jubilant. They were happy.

KH: That's great. Well is there anything about this time in your life that we haven't talked about that you think is particularly talked about-something that I haven't gotten to in this question that I've asked you that you think is…. The last person that I asked this question, she said that if there's one thing I can stress it's that, after the War, when I moved back to Worcester, she had lived in Vermont… everyone was so much closer.

HL: Oh sure.

KH: It's hard to imagine what it was like today where everyone is kind of doing their own thing. After the war, there was a real community feeling about living in Worcester.

HL: Right. Right. And then it came back a lot… when… when… after 9/11. I've never seen people buy so many flags and patriotic stuff as what happened after 9/11. Anyplace you look, on cars, they're all flying "Old Glory."

KH: Right. I notice your suspenders. Was your house, your mother's house, on was it… Cutler Street?

HL: Yeah.

KH: Were there any patriotic decorations that you saw after the War… things that you had around.…

HL: No, not too much.

KH: Not too much? Did she have any stars in the window? Because, what was it? You had a blue star if you had someone in the family overseas, and then a gold star if.…

HL: …if somebody got killed I guess. No, my mother never did any of that. She… my mother thought it was all the same really. No one was better than the other-which was a good way of doing it.

KH: I just want to go back to one question that we've gotten a lot of responses to in the past and that's the perception of the enemy-the German and the Japanese. How in that year leading up to Pearl Harbor and in that brief time that you're here in Worcester afterwards, your main source of information was the radio.

HL: Right. Right.

KH: Looking back on things now, how did the radio shape the way that you thought about the Germans or the Japanese? Were there any catch phrases that they used to use… was it straight news reporting?

HL: Straight news reporting I believe.

KH: The facts kind of spoke for themselves as far as what needed to be done.

HL: Of course the Germans, they went after the Polaks-the Polish people-you know, the hit Poland really bad. Stuff like that… that was bad. Of course we didn't have no use for the Germans. Less use for the Japs. Yeah, it was something. The Japanese… we didn't know that was going on. Maybe Washington had an idea. We didn't. That was just a surprise when they turned around… their planes came over and bombed our battleships, cruisers, and everything.

KH: That was shocking.

HL: Oh that was real shocking. We had no idea that that was happening. In fact, I believe the Japanese diplomat was talking peace in Washington the day before. They caught us by a big surprise.

KH: Were you more conscious of what was going on in Europe before the War in that year?

HL: Oh definitely. Because we didn't hear nothing about the Japs. See, everything was Europe.

KH: What was the newspaper that you got at the time? Worcester Telegram & Gazette?

HL: We had the Telegram & Gazette. We also had the Post.

KH: So really the newspaper, and even more so the radio, are your news sources.

HL: Well, all your news came by paper. Like I say, radio… you did get some. But, really nobody got too interested until T.V. came out, and then they could see what was going
on.

KH: Uh huh.

HL: Radio at that time… I don't think they could give you too much information. I don't think that they had that many correspondents around the world. It was seated in the United States. It wasn't publicized the way everything is today.

KH: OK. Do you remember looking at the Telegram & Gazette the day after the War ends?

HL: The day after… the war ended… big display… oh definitely.

KH: Well, we've covered all the questions that I wanted to ask. Was there anything else that you wanted to mention?

HL: Well I could tell you some stories about submarines. But this isn't what you're writing about I believe.

KH: Well, I was more interested in what you thought about Worcester, but I….

HL: Oh yeah. I understand that now, you know. Oh yeah, Worcester was… Worcester did its share… Worcester lost a lot of good men. We lost a lot of good men in the service.