Lorraine Mesken was born in San Francisco, California in March 1928. After the birth of her only sibling in 1932, the family moved to a farm in San Bruno, California where they could keep a goat for the milk her sickly brother required, as well as chickens, a cow, and a prolific garden that produced all the food the family required. This helped during the Great Depression years when a grandmother and an uncle came to live with her family. The population of the area was extremely diverse, and included people of Spanish, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, German and Portuguese descent, to name a few. That diversity increased after the United States embarked on the Lend Lease program in 1938 and 1939 and people from all over came for the jobs in the San Francisco shipyards and related industries. Anyone could find a job. Mesken was still in her mid-teens, and her only paying job was baby-sitting. Before the attack on Pearly Harbor, the Japanese kids were her friends. They were always the smartest kids in the class.

Lorraine Mesken remembers the Sunday that Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: Sunday, 7 December 1941] started quietly. She had spent the previous night with her grandparents in Visitation Valley, and they all piled in the car for a ride to San Bruno and a fried chicken dinner. When they crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, they witnessed a large ship turn around and go back out to sea, causing her grandfather to comment on how disappointed the sailors aboard would be to forego their anticipated leave. When they approached the family farm, her father came running out, shouting that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, and "They're on their way here!" Everybody was out in the streets talking. The California National Guard had been sent to the Philippines, and there was only one policeman left in town. Mesken's father had to report to the American Legion hall, where he was issued a gun. He hadn't carried a gun since World War 1. He and his fellow would be patrolling the San Francisco area, particularly the water supply. Everyone expected they would be bombed, particularly the San Diego military bases and the San Francisco shipyards. The hysteria was very real and present to the citizens of the California coastline. There was no television where they could see what happened at Pearl Harbor, but the radio reports said it was a slaughter, and the United States had lost its whole Navy. The community immediately went into blackout mode. Automobile headlights were painted black halfway up. The following days at school, according to Mesken, were spent learning disaster preparedness. On the first day, the Japanese students attended class alongside all the other children.

Very soon, Lorraine Mesken became aware that the Japanese-American citizens in her area were being gathered at the Tanforan Racetrack [Annotator's Note: between April and October 1942, the racetrack was the site of the Tanforan Assembly Center, in internment camp in which some 8,000 Bay Area Japanese-Americans were detained and processed for forced relocation and internment] where they lived in the stables until they were sent inland. Mesken said they had to move "very quick with no questions asked." One of Mesken's neighbors was German, and wore a German uniform, complete with swastika and boots, to go to meetings at the German-American Bund [Annotator's Note: a pro-Nazi organization established in 1936 to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany]. On 7 December 1941, the American Legionnaires called at his home. Mesken does not know the nature of the visit, and although he was not arrested, or sent to Tanforan, the man never wore the Nazi uniform again. The hysteria calmed a little after Midway, but people on the west coast stayed on high alert because the news reports said the United States was losing the war. Miniature submarines were found on the beaches, there were balloons aloft, and the Minnesota National Guard was brought into California, stationed in tents on the beach, to protect the area. Mesken's family adopted two of the boys, hosting them for dinner and housing them when they were on leave.

Lorraine Mesken said people were eager to participate in victory gardens and bond drives. They felt it was their duty. She remembers saving anything that was tin or rubber; she donated her bicycle tires. School assemblies included a reading of the county's soldiers who were dead, missing in action or prisoners of war. Mesken joined the Junior Air Patrol, drilled after school, and manned a plane-spotter station. She was in high school all during the war and many of Mesken's friends quit. She wrote V-mail letters and baked cookies to send to soldiers. Her social life changed. She went to dances at the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] club, and helped entertain the troops waiting to be sent overseas. Her father was a World War 1 veteran, and was insistent on the family doing everything they could for the soldiers. Mesken's mother, remembering the rationing of the First World War, overstocked their kitchen with flour, even though there was no shortage of flour at the time. The family bought a map, as recommended by President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt], to keep track of current events reported on the radio, in the newspapers and on the newsreels at the movies. Everything revolved around the war. It was both exciting and terrifying. Mesken remembers being very afraid.

There were many gold stars in the windows around Lorraine Mesken's home, and she remembers helping to console mothers who lost their sons. She said everybody had somebody who was serving in the armed forces. Mesken said that before the war started, there was a lot of controversy in California about whether the United States should be involved; once Pearl Harbor was attacked, the mood changed. Everybody got on board. She recalls her own terror, and her belief that America was going to be occupied by the Japanese. She eventually lost that fear, and recollects the day that President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] died. Her classes were dismissed, and they went to church to pray. The same thing happened when victory was declared in Europe [Annotator's Note: VE-Day, or Victory in Europe Day, was 8 May 1945]. The war was always on their minds, and colored her whole high school experience. When she graduated, she went to work at a draft board in San Francisco. After about 1944, she noticed that they were taking young men who were 4-F [Annotator's Note: a Selective Service classification indicating that an applicant is not fit for military service due to medical or other reasons] into the service because the losses in the Pacific were so great. When the war finally ended, she and a friend went into San Francisco to witness the celebrations, and the crowds were so exuberant that windows were being broken and transportation couldn't operate; it was "Bedlam." It was a period in Mesken's life that she will never forget. She lost friends who meant a lot to her, and has difficulty talking about it even now. She has some survivor's guilt. [Annotator's Note: Mesken cries.] She thinks it was an interesting experience and that it taught everyone who lived through that era to be very grateful.

Lorraine Mesken said she had to grow up very quickly during the war years. She noted how different the teenage years of her children and grandchildren were from her own. She thinks children of any era should be concerned with history, and that it is very important to talk about the events that formed our country. She has visited The National WWII Museum, and said she was awestruck and overwhelmed by the content and quality of the exhibits. Mesken thinks it important that the museum continue with the oral history program to preserve the firsthand stories. She said there were people who were monsters, trying to destroy civilization; don't dwell on it, but learn from it. Her message to future Americans is to learn to get along, be nice, and appreciate what you have.