by Garrick A Moritz, Gazette
Eighty years ago, on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed congress, asking them for a declaration of war and addressing the nation over the radio waves.
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date, which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” Roosevelt said.
There are many Garretson area residents who remember that day. On a recent trip, Kris Frerk went to the Pearl Harbor Museum, and because of that experience she came to the Gazette office with an idea. With our staff, she created a list of local citizens who were around at that time, and we called those citizens to ask what they remembered.
“I remember the day, though I don’t remember exactly what I was doing at the time,” said Darlene Zweep. “I remember the radio broadcast though. I had two uncles who went into the service just a few months after that.”
“I honestly don’t remember much, as I was only ten years old at the time,” said Bernice Semmen, “but I do remember that we had some special goings on at the church that night, and it was what everybody was talking about. That the United States had been attacked at Pearl Harbor and there would be war. I didn’t know where Pearl Harbor was, as again, I was just a little girl, but I do remember it, and learning a lot more about it in the years that came after.”
“I was a freshman at Augustana Academy,” said Doreen Rollag. “I was actually in the hospital at the time. I had to have surgery to remove my appendix, which was a pretty big deal at the time. I was recovering from my surgery, while I was in the hospital all the nurses were talking about it and I didn’t know what was going on. They told me all about it and didn’t want to talk about anything else. I went in to have an operation and the world changed around me.”
“I remember that speech very well,” said Frank Koens. “I was just about 10 years old. My family lived on a farm north of Garretson. It’s actually I believe the farm where the VanHollands live now, the home of our now famous first Lady Dragon Football player Jenna VanHolland. I was in school, but it was the weekend and we were all home, and doing chores around the farm. We didn’t’ have a television, we didn’t have anything like that in those days. Just a battery-operated radio. Dad called us boys over, saying that the United States had been attacked and that we’d better listen.”
“I remember when I heard about the attack,” said Owen Wiese. “I was just about 12 years old, and I remember how it greatly affected my father. We were living in St. Paul Minnesota at the time. My dad worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps, at their headquarters there.” (For those who don’t know what the CCC was, it was probably the most popular public work relief program of the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal. At its height in employed almost 300,000 people ages 17-28, and did public works all across the nation.) “With this attack, well it greatly affected my dad because he knew that it would be the end of the CCC. The CCC as an organization was run by the US Army to build projects nationwide. Anyone who was in a management role at the CCC was military trained, or was in the reserves. And the workforce was made up of men, all of draftable age. My dad knew that they would go into active service soon, and that’s just what happened. The attack had a real and permanent effect on my family. It changed the course of my dad’s life and it’s why we moved back to South Dakota in fact.”
“I remember the President’s words,” said Koens. “That day that will live in infamy. Just a few months later, my older brother Ben Koens was inducted into the military. He went through the whole war. He was a tank driver, and luckily, he got through the whole thing without a scratch. Said he had a few tanks shot out from under him, but he always got away and got a new one. He was part of General Patton’s third battalion. He landed at Normandy, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. All of it.”
“I can remember too when Hitler took power in Germany,” said Koens. “I was just eight or so, so I didn’t know too much, other than he’d been in the German Army and fought us before. I was just a boy at the time, but I knew that he was a bad man, an evil man. If Hitler didn’t like what you had to say, if you got in his way or even just who you were born as, then you wound up dead. It was a terrible war, so many people died, more civilians than army people. But we beat them, it took a lot, but we beat them and the world recovered.”
“My war was the Korean war,” said Koens. “I served until the tail end of it, and left its shores three weeks after the cease fire. I always figured I was pretty fortunate. You see just one person dead, you never forget it, and there were so many dead after the second world war. Then we had Korea, Vietnam, and so many others, just one after another. It’s pretty sad actually. Makes you wonder if there will ever be a day when we’re not fighting somebody. But I will also say this, that the people back home worked and sacrificed just as much as the guys who fought. Everybody was working to end the war.”
“The attack directly affected every part of our lives,” Zweep said. “I remember the rationing. The stamps, tokens, shoes, sugar, tires, and gas rationing. You could only own so many pairs of shoes, that was the level of rationing that happened. My mother was smart and bought a large stock of sugar before they started rationing, and we made our own butter. Good thing too. You couldn’t get things without the right ration tokens, flour, gas, tires, real necessities. All the schools got rations, and we ate things like beans, noodles and rice, and we were often happy just to get a hot meal.” (Most certainly not up to today’s national nutrition standards.)
“I remember D-Day and then V-Day, when it was over, better,” said Zweep. “When it was all over, the big parade in Brookings downtown. The celebration, that’s what I remember best. How happy everyone was that it was finally over.”
“It really affected us students,” said Rollag. “We had an early graduation that year so that the boys would be free to go to war. Everybody was getting drafted. When I went to St. Olaf’s college there were no men enrolled. It was a very serious time, nothing was normal and it left a scar on the nation. People talk about these shortages because of the pandemic, but they have no idea what shortages are really like. Having to stand in line for hours in a Sioux Falls department store just to get a single pair of nylons. My father couldn’t drive me to college because he needed every gallon of gas for the farm because of the rationing, so I took the train instead.”
Rollag also recalled helping on the farm, pulling a disc to plow the field because there was no one else to help. She also got a job early at the First National Bank in Sioux Falls, because there were so few people in the workforce that they needed anyone.
“I remember an accident I had, I went into the ditch and my first big worry was the tires because we needed our tire ration for the farm,” she said. “We couldn’t waste a single one. Thankfully it was fine, they pulled me out and it was all right.”
“I still have my ration book from World War two,” said Koens. “We all had one, and you had to have it if you wanted to get groceries of any kind. It’s just what you had to do. I know there was a black market that existed, but I never did any business with them. It was hard, but if you were careful you could make it work.”
Talking with these elders from our community about the anniversary of Pearl Harbor yielded more than a few pearls of wisdom. Their sacrifices bought us the liberties and freedoms we enjoy today. So, thank a veteran and/or elder in your life.
“If people really want to show their gratitude and their patriotism, they should go out and get the COVID vaccine if they haven’t done it yet,” said Rollag. “Not getting the vaccine is an act of idiocy and selfishness. People don’t remember polio, well, I had a nephew that died of polio. It was a terrible disease, especially for children and it was everywhere. But when they developed a vaccine, everyone got it. Everyone. We beat polio because everyone came together to fight it, just like we did after Pearl Harbor. So do what’s right and get your shots.”
Update 12-15-21: The original version of this article incorrectly quoted Frank Koens as serving only three weeks. This has been corrected.
