Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Marilyn Wagner Battle was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
Today is December 1st, 2001. We're in Modesto, California. I'm Wesley Battle interviewing my grandmother, Marilyn Battle. And you worked at what hospital?
Camp Stoneman, Pittsburgh, hospital in Pittsburgh.
All right. My first question for inquiry is your childhood, like give me background of yourself.
My background of myself is that I was born in Hollister, California; lived there about four or five years; moved to San Francisco where I went to school to the second grade, and at that point, that must have been about 1928, we moved as a family, my brother, Bill, and dad and mother, to Antioch, California; and my father was the manager of the theaters there in that town, and my sister was born there in 1928, and we lived there for, oh, let's see, well, I graduated from highschool in 1939 and stayed around there about two years, and then moved to San Francisco where I worked for awhile at various jobs, and then came back to Modesto, and then I worked at Camp Stoneman.
When was the first time you thought about war?
Well, I can remember in my senior year in highschool in our world history, it wasn't world history class, it was political science or political something, U.S. history. Excuse me. And I -- we would hear airplanes going overhead and everybody would laughingly say, "Look out, the Germans are coming", and it was just kind of a joke. We didn't really pay much attention to what was going on in Europe at the time. Being in a small town you didn't get a lot of information about anything, communication not being what it is today, and so, we didn't take things very seriously; but I can remember thinking how did I get to be so lucky to be born in the United States of America. What fate lead me to this? And being very pleased and happy that I was an American.
Gram, where were you on December 7th?
On December 7th I was in San Francisco staying with my future sister-in-law, Lillian Peterson, and we had gone out on Saturday night before and had awakened in the morning and turned the radio on in her room, when all of a sudden something cut through the news and we weren't really listening carefully, but we heard something about the bombing of the fleet at Pearl Harbor, and we didn't really have any idea what they were talking about, but we stopped and turned it up and listened a little bit, and couldn't even realize where Pearl Harbor was, and we weren't exactly on top of everything, and we were real scared, because we thought, "Oh, my God, they are on their way to the Pacific coast of California. If they are in Hawaii, they are on their way." And we didn't know what to think, and I wanted to get home, which was really Antioch at that time, and I just didn't know how to think things through. We couldn't decide what we should do. Should we be all upset and crying or should we be just ignoring this and thinking, "Oh, well, it's just a little passing thing, it will go away"? And that was about the size of it.
Okay. And how did you first get involved in the war effort?
Well, living in Antioch, they needed a lot of people over -- there was this base, it was a debarkation and embarkation point, sailors left from there and they returned to there, and there was a big hospital at that place to take care of the wounded soldiers that came back, and I wanted to get a job over at the army base, and, so, applied, and working on the x-ray ---became the manager of that Department. It was interesting work. So ---and so, applied, and would go in the x-ray Department and became the manager of that Department. And it was interesting work.
So, the reason you became involved was because you wanted a job?
I wanted the job, and I wanted something to do with the war effort.
Okay. And what kind of training were you given?
For my job?
Yeah.
Well, it was kind of catch as catch can. In those days we didn't have the equipment that people have in the offices now with all of the computers and things. I had a Dictaphone which is a very sort of a rude sort of an appliance. You -- they made the captain of the Department who read the x-rays, the doctor, would speak into a microphone onto a disk, and when he had finished, that disk was brought into my office and put on this little machine, and I had earphones and the disk played and I listened and I typed what he was saying from the earphones on to the paper to make the reports to go back to the X-ray Department, the people who, the doctors who needed the reports.
So, what was your title?
Just Office Manager, X-ray Department.
And who was your supervisor?
I can't think of her name. I didn't care very much for her, but when she -- She at first was over me, and then she left and I took over her job. First I used to do some filing and answer the door, reception office part, and file the reports and deliver them down if they were needed to staff, and so, when she left I took over her job of doing the transcribing.
And were you unionized?
I beg your pardon?
Were you unionized?
Oh, no.
Okay. How did your life change because of the war?
Well, for one thing I got married, and it wasn't a very brilliant move on my part, but the fact remained that it looked like all of the eligible men were going to be gone, and I was 21 and I thought, I am getting very old at 21, it's getting very old, and I felt that I should make an effort to get married, and I met this nice man and we married and soon afterwards he was sent overseas to Japan or the islands. I don't really know where; and but when he came back, we found out that we were not compatible and we divorced. And at that time I had a daughter, Sandra, and she and I lived with my brother's wife in Antioch, and we -- she had a boy, and we had a little house, and we lived together, and just made the best of things while the men were -- my husband was overseas. And my brother was in the musical end of it, the entertainment, I forget what they were called. There was a name for it. But they did entertaining overseas of the troops and he went over -- he went over with a band by the name of Hal MacIntyre, and they went to Europe and oh, throughout Italy, Germany, France and so forth, and he was not able to be in the service because he had asthma very badly, and, so that's why Lillian and I were together, because he was gone and --
How did -- When you went to work, where was Sandra or Sandy?
My mother and father took care of Sandy and I worked, and by that time I had been divorced about a year and I met my future and still husband of 54 years, Dr. Battle, who was at Camp Stoneman, and we have certainly been happily married ever since.
And any like habits or rituals that you developed since because of the war that you have kept?
No. I can't think of anything that the war -- Well, it taught me a lot about poverty I can tell you. We lived a life of food stamps, clothing stamps, there was no gasoline for civilians. There was no butter. There was no -- I don't remember, but it seems like flour and sugar were rationed and you were presented with your amount of food stamps every month and when they were gone, they were gone and that was it. So, you learned to be a little provident with what you had. And I think that kind of followed me through life. I didn't exactly throw things away. I made a habit of sort of budgeting my allotments. That was another big thing that used to bother me was with the shoe rationing, and fortunately having a little baby that didn't need shoes, didn't wear shoes, wore booties, I got her shoe stamps and my shoe stamps, and I am kind of a shoe nut, and so, but the shoes that we got were not leather, because the leather shoes were saved for the soldiers, and I think they were made out of cardboard or plastic or something anyway. They were not -- they were not really real shoes. They were the darndest things you ever could see. And I had a hard time finding shoes because I had a very narrow foot, and I used to be so thrilled if I could ever find a shoe. That was a big thing for me. So, sounds silly, but that was a big moment.
Understandable. How did you budget your time with the shortages, was there -- did you ever go on the black market?
Oh, no. No. No. We were really not -- people were really patriotic, I think. There were I think hoarders, but in this small town that we lived in, it was quite a little small kind of farm town really, I guess, and I don't know of anyone that was really doing wrong by hoarding or trying to get things on the black market. We -- you took what you got and you were satisfied.
Okay. And what were your feelings toward your like local community?
Antioch?
Yeah.
Well, I worried about our being as close to San Francisco and we were close to a place called Port Chicago or Bay Point it was called at one point where there was a big ammunition dump, and we felt that that was a target for the Japanese. And at one time they had a big explosion at Port Chicago. And later there was much written about racism, race problems, that they had the black soldiers doing work, we weren't aware of this at the time, but doing the dangerous work and not protecting them, and they rioted and we weren't aware of all of this. All we knew was that we heard the explosion and we thought we had been attacked. And we had -- everybody had a room in their house that you could shut off. We had a hall that all the doors could be closed and no light would be showing, and that was what you were suppose to do at night, pull all the curtains, turn the lights down so that there would be no lights to attract the enemy to the coast line. And when I was in San Francisco, the streetlights were all blacked out on the ocean side. They painted them black on one-half of the lights, and it was a little dark, and when I would come home from work at night in the winter, it was a little scary coming clear out from downtown San Francisco out to the Sunset District where my brother and his wife lived. I lived with them for awhile, and it was frightening to be out there when it was so dark and I walked about six blocks from the streetcar to where they lived, and believe me I was looking right and left to make sure that no one was following me or anything, and yet in a way, it was very safe, much safer than it is now. There was not the fear of being mugged particularly, certainly we weren't afraid of any of the soldiers or the sailors or anything, but still in all you worried a little.
How did you feel about your country during this time?
Well, you were patriotic. I just knew that we were going to win. We just had all the faith in the world in President Roosevelt and our Army, Navy. It just never occurred to us that we wouldn't win. That's all.
You never worried that you would lose?
No.
Never?
No. Never thought we would. We thought we were the strongest people in the world, the best there was, and undoubtedly we would. There were times when we would get the bad news when we would listen to Walter Winchell, who was the one broadcaster that was very famous at that time, and he would, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, all the ships at sea and so forth", and but when the bad news would come, we would think, "Well, it will be better tomorrow", and then when we would have a victory, people were very happy, and I don't know, I just never thought that we would lose the war. We were the Americans and we were going to win.
Did you know anyone who was killed or wounded in war?
Yes. I had a very good friend that I had as a somewhat boyfriend in highschool, and he was a navigator in the Air Force, and he was shot down over Italy, and his brother was a sailor and he was lost at sea, and there were a few others that I can't remember their names, but we heard that they were lost, and it was -- we all felt pretty bad about it, but it was to be expected.
Did this affect the mental health, any like mental health around you?
No. No.
It was just, you know, taken in stride?
We took it in stride. We knew we were going to lose people, and it depended on how close they were to you, how badly you felt about it, and I know if it had been anyone in my immediate family it would have been really quite devastating, but I felt badly enough about this one boy that died, but it was at that point nothing, but it didn't change my life.
What was your social life like?
Well, when I was in Antioch, we used to go, my sister worked over at the hospital, too, and we used to go over to the Officer's Club, and they had, oh, kind of open house sort of thing every night, and they would have a band and food, and most of the girls that worked at the camp in the offices and so forth would go over to the Officer's Club and be available to dance and talk and meet the fellows that came through that were serving their time out until they were to be released from the service, and we -- that was sort of our entertainment was to go over there and just dancing and something to eat and meet some kids that were to be discharged or leaving to go to the war.
What was your most memorable experience during the war time?
Well, I really can't say that there was anything that was more vivid than anything else. It was -- We were always somewhat frightened that we would be attacked because we lived near the coast, and we were concerned that that was a possibility, but -- and we would hear the sirens. Whenever the sirens went off, then we were to go in our dark room and that happened every now and then, and enough to make you think, oh, my goodness, here they come, but nobody ever came. And so, after awhile you got to the point where you figured, I don't think this is going to happen, and fortunately, it didn't. Although at one time they, I believe a Japanese submarine was discovered off the coast of Santa Barbara and shelled the beach down there, but that was far enough away from where we were that it didn't affect me. And of course we got -- we had so little news, we never really knew what was happening, we just had to read what we could. Antioch had a paper that was printed three times a week, and of course we took the Chronicle which was a San Francisco paper and we got a great deal of news from that, but we didn't -- and what little we saw on news reels at the theater, but there wasn't the intimate communication that we had with so many of these stations today. And I think we get too much news, and I think they go too far in reporting what's going on. I don't think that the public needs to know exactly how many men have landed in Afghanistan and where they are and how many more are going to join them and so forth. I think in the long run it's best left to the military.
What were like -- What was the radio like back then, news reels, where you got your information?
Well, it would be reporters on, the news came on at certain times like it does now, but on television, but it's an entirely different situation when you are just listening to someone talk and give you the latest word without seeing pictures of what's going on, and it also -- the newspapers didn't have photographers out there on the field doing the pictures that they do now, and correspondents in all the countries and so forth. We just got little canned bits and pieces. And one of the things that I did do when I was in San Francisco, I was a part of the Stage Door Canteen. I don't know if you ever heard of that organization, but it was a national group that entertained soldiers and sailors and service men, and they had a club, a canteen they called it, and they would interview girls who would like to belong to it and go down once a week and spend time talking and dancing and being friends just, you know, just to cheer up the kids that were stuck in the city, didn't have much to do. And I have a couple of pictures that I didn't realize they had taken of me dancing with some sailor. I have no idea who he was. We just met people and danced with them, talked with them, tried to cheer them up, friends. And, so, the two papers in San Francisco printed this picture, and then it turned up in a New York sort of a magazine, like those four that are on the stands today, you know, the Enquirer is that one of them? What are those silly four magazines, I don't know, tabloid type things, you know, that are on the racks as you go out of the grocery line, and I was really surprised that they would pick that up and put it in the national paper. But anyway it was fun to go to that, and then they finally closed those down as the war wound down.
Who is the most memorable person for you?
Who what?
The most memorable person?
That I met during the war?
Or that you just, you know, relate to the war?
Well, General MacArthur was certainly a pretty well-known person and we kept up with him pretty much. And Antioch was a little off the main road and not too many celebrities or anyone came through there. But I'll have to say that the war was not an intimate thing to me, it was just something that was going on, and while it was a bother to us, I certainly wasn't really involved in any way, most of us weren't in the small town like we were in, and there was no opportunity to do much of anything else. I wouldn't have been accepted into the WACS or the WAVES or anything because I was very nearsighted and I would not have passed an exam, and it never occurred -- I don't think it ever occurred to me to try to do that, but I didn't have any person that I thought about particularly or was taken with.
With your work at the hospital, did you have any interesting stories or cases?
No. I didn't, because I wasn't involved in the nursing end of it. I was just in the X-ray Department where they brought the patients down to have their x-rays done, and then they were read by the captain who was the medical director of the X-ray Department, and I just typed up the reports and sent them back to the wards where the patients were, and that was as much contact as I had with anyone.
How did you feel at the wars end?
Very, very grateful, happy, and knew that was it.
And did life go back to normal, per se, or?
Not right away. I stayed on at the hospital for some time, and then after I met my husband, Dr. Battle, we went to Dallas, and then he went on to a residency in Wisconsin and I went with him, and we spent about three years up there. The first time I had been out of California. I was a real native daughter. And I was pretty lonesome back there. I didn't like the weather. But we were glad to get back to either -- We either wanted to go back to Dallas or come back to California, and we came to California. Very grateful because all of my family was here.
Understandable. Anything you would like to share with future generations about the World War II?
Well, we certainly thought we were fighting the last war. I couldn't even believe that we got into the Korean war. The Korean War was a nonentity to me. It didn't seem like an important war, and yet it certainly must have been to those that were in it, but we thought we had ended the war, the war to end all wars, and that was the great World War II. And it didn't seem possible that we would ever be in another one.
Any additions to add to this recording?
I suppose that it changed my life a great deal. I had always just lived in that small town, and definitely never expected to go many other places, but I ended up going back to Wisconsin and then we came back here, we came to Modesto, and my life changed completely, the type of life I lead, and I never regretted a day of anything I did. I have regretted things I didn't do, wish I had done more, but I don't know how I would have or what I would have done, but it's played out well.
Thank you.