The Record Headline said it all 75 Years Ago Today: ‘JAPAN SURRENDERS! World War II is Over – Peace on Earth Again!’
The Fayette County Record reported 75 years ago today that U.S. President Harry S. Truman had announced the unconditional surrender of Japan on Tuesday afternoon at 6 o’clock.
“Thus, after three years, eight months and seven days of the most costly war of all mankind – a war that engulfed more territory and more peoples than any previous struggle – peace has once more returned to the world. And may it be a just peace, a lasting peace, a peace to endure for generations to come,” wrote Editor L.J. Sulak.
War years bring back memories
Although Gene Guettler and his wife, Doris Petrusek Guettler, were only 10 years old when World War II ended, the Fayette County natives remember the war years.
“I recall going to Ellinger with Dad (Kirby Guettler) right after Pearl Harbor was bombed and hearing a farmer say that since it was just an island, the U.S. ought to be able to defeat Japan in about three weeks,” Gene says.
The youngster avidly studied the news stories, reviewed the maps and examined all the warrelated photos in Life Magazine that arrived in the family’s mailbox each week. Gene wouldn’t let his mother toss his growing stash in the small farmhouse, but she eventually talked him into storing it under the house with the potatoes. The first time a torrential rain fell, Gene lost his library of Life Magazines. He was bitterly disappointed.
The Guettler family, who lived in the Gay Hill community between La Grange and Ellinger, also listened to the war news on the radio. Another of Gene’s memories is that every time a neighbor was drafted, his father would agree to farm the land until the enlisted man returned. By the end of the war, Gene’s dad was raising corn and cotton on most of the acreage in the Gay Hill flat using a 1942 John Deere tractor.
One particularly vivid wartime experience in Gene’s mind was viewing the 81-foot, two-man Japanese submarine that made a three-hour stop in Schulenburg in February 1943. Billed as the first overland submarine cruise in history, it had started out at Mare Island Navy Yard in California loaded on a huge tractor-trailer. The sub made 153 stops in towns and cities across the nation on its War Savings Bond promotional tour for the U.S. Treasury.
“I can still remember looking inside,” Gene says. He would have been eight years old.
Gene remembers hearing that like the kamikaze pilots, the Japanese submarine officers were prepared to sacrifice their lives for their country. However, this sub, which was loaded with explosives, had been captured before that happened.
Gene’s wife, Doris, was living with her family at Holman during the war years. Her father, Alois Petrusek, who later taught high school in La Grange, was principal of the two-room Holman School across from St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church. The family lived in the teacherage next door to the schoolhouse.
“I remember Mother worrying about the food rationing. She was feeding my sister, Ruby, my dad and me, as well as the woman teacher who taught with my dad and lived with us.”
More war news
Another front-page news story in The Record’s August 17, 1945, edition highlighted the bravery of Major Wilton H. Bremer, the 30-year-old son of Fred Bremer of La Grange. Major Bremer had been awarded a second Silver Star Medal, the nation’s third highest award for gallantry in action. He also had received a Purple Heart and three battle stars for his Asiatic-Pacific Ribbon.
In other military news, Harding H. Cordes, the son of Edwin Cordes of La Grange, arrived home after receiving an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy after more than three years of service. He had four brothers still in the service, two of them overseas.
A news story of particular interest to those on the home front was rationing had ended for gasoline, canned fruits and vegetables, fuel oil and oil stove. That meant civilians would be able to order a full tank of gas. It was hoped that meat, butter and other items such as tires and shoes would go off the ration list soon. However, the War Production Board said sugar would likely be scarce for another two years.
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