[Annotator's Note: The interview begins with the interviewer explaining to Roy Stewart how the interview process works.] Stewart has trouble talking about Iwo Jima because he does not like to talk about himself because he did not do anything extraordinary. He was born in 1926 [Annotator's Note: in Amite, Louisiana]. His father was an electrical engineer and ran a general mercantile store. His grandfather was a doctor. When he was 12 years old, he worked in the drug store. When he was a junior in school, he lettered on the football team in 1941. He was proud of that. He knew everyone in town. On 7 December 1941, everything changed. He was taking a nap after church, when his father woke him up and told him the Japanese has bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. That day changed his life. It was a bad time because the country was threatened but it was wonderful because the whole country came together. At school, they heard President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] declare war. Those who were old enough to join the military took a bus to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] and joined the Navy. Everybody went to work including women. The kids were scrapping iron. On 7 December, there were more policemen in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] than there were men in the Marine Corps. Women went to work in airplane factories. There was a factory that made shell casings. Everyone wanted to contribute to the war effort. Stewart finished high school and wanted to join the Marine Corps. He did not want to go to Europe. He was 16 years old, went to New Orleans and told them he was 17 years old, but they saw through that and sent him home. They told him to go to LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana] for one semester. While he was there, he turned 17 years old. His parents signed for him to enlist January 1944. He was sworn into the Marine Corps in May 1944 in New Orleans. After that, he was put on a train and sent to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California].

Roy Stewart went by train to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California after enlisting in the US Marine Corps]. He was homesick when he got there. The next morning they cut his hair, gave him a seabag and a bucket. No one spoke a kind word. The training was tough. The first thing they learned was about rifles. Then they would do physical training. They learned how to wash their clothes. If the barracks were not clean enough, they would put sand and water on the floor and make them clean it up. The last two weeks, they had a 15-mile hike from the barracks to the rifle range. They could take the rifles apart and put them back together blindfolded. They practiced shooting at different ranges. Stewart made sharpshooter, but not expert, on the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. They introduced them to machine guns, flamethrowers [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire], and mortars [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles]. At graduation, they got a parade, and were told they were Marines. When they got to boot camp, they were told their duty is to God, family, and country in that order. After graduation, he got to go on furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] home for three days.

Roy Stewart went to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California]. They lived in tents with no electricity. The showers only had cold water. The mess hall had a tent over it. They ate at a table that was chest high out in the open. His company ate last. They ate rations during the day. They were training the cooks. It was better than boot camp. Every six weeks they would get 48 hours of liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. While they were out at bivouacking [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite] he emptied out his sleeping bag and a tarantula fell out. He wrote his mother a letter about it. She did not know what that was, she thought it was a Mexican prostitute. He received the longest letter from her about it. They had fun at Camp Pendleton. There were two guys in his unit that were from Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. They were older and married. Stewart was seeing a girl out there and he wanted to go see some bands and dance. The guys wanted to see their wives because they knew they were going to be shipped overseas. They made plans to meet at a restaurant. They snuck off in the middle of the afternoon. They went to see their girls. Nobody caught them. They were lucky. Two days later they boarded a ship in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. Unfortunately, the two men he snuck out with to see their wives were killed on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. They traveled for about 10 days and landed in Maui [Annotator's Note: Maui, Hawaii] where they joined the 4th Marine Division.

Roy Stewart was a replacement in the 4th Marine Division. The unit [Annotator's Note: 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] had already been to Saipan [Annotator's Note: The Battle of Saipan, part of Operation Forager, 15 June to 9 July 1944; Saipan, Mariana Islands] and Tinian [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944 at Tinian, Mariana Islands]. 30 of them got on a troopship to go to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Most of the guys got three-day liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], but Stewart was working. They had to be given three days of liberty before combat. After the third time of that, they shipped out. They showed them a map of where they were going, which was Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands]. There was an entire convoy of ships there. He had never seen so many ships together. They left there and went to Saipan. The troops got off the ships [Annotator's Note: for the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan] and got on the Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. They had been taught how to fire the 20 mm [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] guns on the ships while they were at Pearl Harbor. They stood watch around the clock. The guys of the 23rd and the 25th [Annotator's Note: 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] were the first wave. They transferred to amphibious tractors or LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. Stewart's unit got to Iwo Jima the next day. Some big bombers came from Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and bombed it. The ships bombarded it. The next day they unloaded the 24th [Annotator's Note: 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] in Higgins boats. The 23rd and 25th went in on the right. The 23rd went in next to them and joined the 5th Division [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Division]. The 23rd was to secure the airfield. The 5th Division had to go across the island and take Mount Suribachi. After three days the 3rd Division [Annotator's Note: 3rd Marine Division] would come ashore and relieve the 4th Division. It was supposed to be a three-day mission. There were many casualties. The hospital ship filled up and they had to put men on Stewart's ship. The second day they headed back toward Saipan. 60 of the men they had picked up, died overnight and were buried at sea. They took a shell and put it between their legs, then they wrapped them in a flag and dropped them into the ocean. The 23rd was called topside with all their gear. All 30 of them were privates. A Marine officer told them to go ashore to the first airfield, which they could see from the ship, and find the 23rd Regiment. They got on a Higgins boat and headed to the beach. There was so much wreckage they could not get close. They had to wade ashore. Once they got to shore the Japanese started to unload on them. They started running and they split up. They went from shell hole to shell hole. They made it to the first airfield and found the 2nd Battalion [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. They were in a machine gun squad. They all got split up. They stayed there until they got ammunition and a tripod for the gun. On the fifth day, the flag was raised on Mount Suribachi [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, 23 February 1945]. The ships were making all kinds of noise in celebration. That was the first encouraging sign they had seen.

oy Stewart [Annotator's Note: 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] saw Japanese Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] on the airstrip and there were Japanese snipers in there [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. Another man in the unit picked up the machine gun because they did not have a tripod, he had enough of the Zeros. He carried the gun over and started shooting at them. He had to be evacuated because the gun got so hot it burned his hands. The next day they moved out. Stewart was in the third section of the machine gun company. On the first day, he was the last man in line. He had two cans of machine gun ammunition and his M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. If the man in front of him stopped, he would stop. He jumped into a shell hole. If the guy in front of him moved, he had to move. He poked his head out to see if the guy had moved and a sniper bullet went right by his head. He realized this man was shooting at him. If he moved, he would get shot at. He was scared to death. He moved to the other end of the shell hole stood up and did not draw any fire. He moved out. They took the rest of the first airfield. Then they took the second airfield. There was no cover and not enough shell holes. They had to go back for ammunition. They came to Hill 382 [Annotator's Note: called "Nidan Iwa" by the Japanese, on the Motoyama Plateau]; it was 382 feet above sea level. Hill 382 was rugged. The Japanese had a network of tunnels around the hill. The island was only five miles long and three miles wide. They started to take Hill 382. There were caves on the side of the hill. They did not realize the caves were part of the Japanese tunnels. Stewart was following Jim Roth [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] their squad leader. When he was on the ship, he kept his rifle clean. He had a bayonet, and the tip was sharp, but the rest was not. He was sharpening the rest of it, and he was told he could not do that according to the Geneva Conventions [Annotator's Note: standards for humanitarian treatment in war]. On the island, Jim Roth found a bayonet on a Japanese rifle, and it was sharp as a razor. Stewart wanted to find one and show the lieutenant what the Japanese were fighting with on Iwo Jima. The Japanese had sabers so sharp they could cut people's heads off.

Roy Stewart and his unit [Annotator's Note: in the 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] advanced on Hill 382 [Annotator's Note: called "Nidan Iwa" by the Japanese, on the Motoyama Plateau, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. They got into a terrible position. Stewart and Jack [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] got behind a rock. Artillery was coming at them. Over the hill was a pillbox [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns]. Jim Roth [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] got hit in the chest by a round and it came out his back. They did not know what to do. Stewart bandaged the wound. Stewart told Jack they would make a stand there because they could not leave Roth. Others came looking for them and told them they were too far forward. Stewart was told to go back to the company command post to get a wheelbarrow. They put Roth in a shell hole, stuck the bayonet in front of him, and gave him his rifle. Stewart took off running. He did not recognize anything as he ran to the command post. The commander did not want him to go in through the front. He told them Jim Roth was hit bad and they could not carry him out of there. Stewart told him about the terrain. He took two men back with him. They were 50 yards too far to the right. Jack Sims [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] saw them. They had a corpsman [Annotator's Note: enlisted medical specialist in the US Navy who may also serve in the US Marine Corps] from New York, Bankin [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], and he was taking care him. The doctor did not have enough bandages to cover it up. He used his own shirt to pack the patient's chest with. Stewart went to where he left Roth. The bayonet and the rifle were gone. The Japanese must have found him. However, they did not mutilate the body like they normally did. Something must have spooked them. Stewart knew Roth was still alive. When they pulled him out of the ravine they started getting shot at. They got out of there and they got Roth back to the aid station. He did not think Roth would live, but he did. They got together after the war. Then Stewart went back to Hill 382. The Japanese were cutting them to pieces. His company started firing their guns at the Japanese. E Company [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division] came out of there carrying or leading kids they had captured. They captured the pillbox and had a solid line. Then they moved out.

Roy Stewart and his unit [Annotator's Note: in the 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] entered the "amphitheater" on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: an area on the Motoyama Plateau, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. It had high ground all the way around. He and Jack Sims [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] ran out of ammunition. They had to run back and get more. They would move forward until they drew fire. Once they were fired on, they would set up their machine guns and start firing in that direction. While they had them occupied, a man with a flamethrower [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] and a demolition man would slip around to the cave the Japanese were firing from. They would burn the hole out and blow it up. They did this all day long. Flamethrowers were high risk. On the 16th day, they got almost all the way through the amphitheater. On the other side, they had taken Turkey Knob Hill [Annotator's Note: an area on the Motoyama Plateau]. They were waiting for E Company to come [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. They saw Davis [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], the company runner, going by. The runner did not know if they were going to dig in or move out. The Catholic chaplain [Annotator's Note: priest of the Catholic Christian church] was giving last rites [Annotator's Note: ministrations and prayers to given shortly before death] to any man that wanted them. Stewart went over to have his service. Not long after that, they were low on ammunition. By this time the only thing he had in his pack was a mess kit. They got rations and ammunition every day. Stewart put ammunition in his pack when they went to the ammunition dump. When they were headed back, they started to get fired at by a Japanese machine gun. They made it back safely. Then a rocket truck came up behind them. They fired all the rockets at one time. As soon as they finished firing, the trucks would leave. Then the men would experience mortar [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles] fire. The captain was behind a tank so he could use the radio to communicate. He got hit and had to be evacuated. Then a lieutenant became the commanding officer. The man on point stepped on a land mine [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact]. The man next to him experienced a face wound. The doctor was told not to go up there because there was a Japanese sniper in a spider trap [Annotator's Note: also called a spider hole or crawler trap; typically a shoulder-deep, foxhole, often covered by a camouflaged lid, in which a soldier can stand and fire a weapon]. The doctor said he had to go up there because the man might bleed to death. The man looked like half his face had been cut off. The blast was so hot that it had cauterized the wound. When the doctor was carrying him back, he got shot in the leg. They managed to get him to an aid station where they treated his wounds. The doctor stayed behind to be treated. Later that day the doctor showed back up. He told the sergeant they needed him because the other corpsman [Annotator's Note: enlisted medical specialist in the US Navy who may also serve in the US Marine Corps] was killed on the beach.

Roy Stewart's unit [Annotator's Note: in the 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] moved out [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. They found a minefield [Annotator's Note: areas where mines, stationary explosive devices triggered by physical contact are buried or under the water]. Guys were stepping on them everywhere. Stewart went to dig in and he did not find any mines. One guy, Purdue [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], stepped on a mine and half his leg was blown off. Later that day another guy stepped on a mine, and it blew both of his legs off. Stewart had to help carry him back. They could not stop the bleeding. The guy begged them not to let him die. They stayed at the minefield for another day. Then the lieutenant got wounded. Sergeant Sam [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] had to take over the company. The next day they started to move out. Sam picked the doctor up and carried him through the minefield. They started out with 240 men. They had 67 men left in F Company [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. They went wherever they wanted them to go. They had to fill in the gaps on the other companies. They had a dog named Kip; it was a Doberman [Annotator's Note: Doberman Pinscher, breed of dog]. On the way up they had two dogs. But when they got fired on the dogs got into a fight and Kip killed the other dog. Kip would only listen to his handler. The handler tied Kip up and told Stewart if he falls asleep, kick him to wake him up or say his name. The handler was going to go to sleep in the hole behind them. The dog was taller than Stewart sitting up while they were in the foxhole. Stewart told Jack [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] to watch for the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] while he watched the dog. The dog went to sleep. The next morning the dog was standing up like he was up all night.

Roy Stewart's unit [Annotator's Note: 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] got word that there would be a counterattack [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. Stewart was in a foxhole. E Company [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] was going to come through the line. Stewart was in charge of making sure they were their men. He would ask for a password as they walked by. There was mortar [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles] fire happening all night. Just before dawn, Stewart saw a man coming. He thought it was a Japanese soldier. But he also thought it could be a man from E Company that had gotten lost. He waited until the man got closer. Once he saw a saber, he knew it was a Japanese officer. After it got dark the Japanese were coming parallel to them. He saw another Japanese soldier and he shot him. Two others were just out of range. Stewart took a grenade and ran out of the hole to throw it at them. The Japanese made an organized advance. Stewart killed 10 Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] that night. There was a cave that had about one thousand Japanese in it. His unit dug a trench and they put the dead Japanese into the trench. The 4th Division had the most casualties. They were ordered to go back to the beach. The 3rd [Annotator's Note: 3rd Marine Division] and 4th Division cemeteries were right on the beach. Stewart walked through the cemetery. They were buried in perfect lines. The men went aboard a troopship. They had on the same clothes the entire time they were on Iwo Jima. They threw their clothes away and then took showers. This was the first hot meal he had in a long time. He ate too much and got sick. He had terrible nightmares that night. The next day he had some hot coffee. It was a Sunday, and he went to the church service. While he was sitting there, he thought they were going to leave. He thought they were going to leave the dead buried there. They usually made sure to bring everyone back with them, the dead included. He had an urge to swim back to the island. When the chaplain came and started to read from the Bible, Stewart knew those men were in God's arms. He no longer had bad dreams. He was no longer depressed. He missed them, but he knew they were no longer his responsibility.

Roy Stewart went to Maui [Annotator's Note: Maui, Hawaii after the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. On the way back they had Easter Sunday [Annotator's Note: Christian holiday, 1 April 1945]. They had a church service and a nice meal. They began training for the invasion of Japan. Every day they would bivouac [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite]. They learned how to take the machine guns down and put them back together blindfolded in under two minutes. They would race each other. They taught replacements how to throw hand grenades. One day an officer showed up and told them they just dropped a big bomb on Hiroshima, Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945]. It was the biggest bomb they have ever dropped. They thought it would bring the Japanese to their knees. The next day they dropped another bomb on Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945] and the war ended. In war, the guys around Stewart became important to him. When the war was over, he was put in a special unit. He had not been overseas long enough to go home. One unit was going to Japan and the other to China. Jack Sims [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] was in one unit and Stewart was in the other. They went to talk to the colonel to see if they could be in the same unit. They had been together since boot camp. Sims went in to talk to the colonel. The colonel asked Sims if he was questioning him. Sims left; afraid he was in trouble. The next day they found out they were in the same unit. They went to Japan and docked on an island near Nagasaki. Stewart's group was instructed on the .30 caliber light machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun]. He was assigned to the 10th Regiment 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division]. Sims was put into another regiment. Stewart stood guard duty over the warehouses. The Japanese people came from all over during the daylight hours. When they had liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] he would go into town. He was about 19 years old at this time. He could not go into a barroom until he was 21 years old. The only things he could do were go into shops and walk the town. They would walk through the a-bomb area [Annotator's Note: the part of Nagasaki that had been directly hit]. There were no restrictions on it. There were civilians in there.

Roy Stewart was in Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: Nagasaki, Japan with the 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] until July [Annotator's Note: July 1945]. Then he was transferred to a hotel. His duty was to go into schools and make sure there were no flags flying and no evidence of military presence. He got to see a lot of the countryside. They stayed there until August [Annotator's Note: August 1945]. Then they went back to the States [Annotator's Note: United States]. He was discharged in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. He did not draw any money while he was in Japan. He did not spend any money. When he was discharged, they paid him off. He bought an airplane ticket. There were three Army pilots who had bought little planes and were flying men home themselves. They were supposed to get into New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] in 12 hours. The pilot had a map and a compass. They had to make a stop in Arizona for the night. The next day they landed in Shreveport, Louisiana. They spent the night in a hotel. He called his parents and told them he would be in New Orleans at nine in the morning. They took off at seven in the morning and the pilot flew until he found the Mississippi River. They ended up in a storm. At around noon, they landed in a field because the plane was almost out of gas. They walked to the road and asked a Black man if they were in New Orleans. He told them they were Natchez, Mississippi. Stewart then hitchhiked back to New Orleans. He got there that afternoon. His parents were in New Orleans going from airport to airport looking for him.

Roy Stewart thinks about Iwo Jima every day [Annotator's Note: he was with the 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. The memories are not as bad as they used to be. He remembers Jack Sims [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. He talks to Sims every week. Stewart went to Southeastern [Annotator's Note: Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana]. He got married. He went to New Orleans Pharmacy School [Annotator's Note: New Orleans College of Pharmacy in New Orleans, Louisiana, now part of Loyola University]. He opened a drug store. He got a postcard from one guy [Annotator's Note: from his unit] who lived in South Carolina. He wanted to get all the machine gunners together. They had a reunion in Myrtle Beach [Annotator's Note: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina]. Nine of the men showed up. It was an emotional time. They had a great time. The next year they expanded it to half company, and they had it in the Pocono Mountains in New York. They had all kinds of guys show up. Stewart went up early. The first year they got together was in 1984. He was talking to guys as they were getting there. Jim Roth [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] showed up, but he did not remember Stewart right away. He did not recognize a lot of them. Lieutenant Collins [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] came. The doctor came, they thought he was dead. Another man named Bill showed up. They thought he had died. The doctor told Bill he owed him a skivvy shirt [Annotator's Note: underwear]. The doctor had sewn his skivvy shirt inside of Bill's chest cavity on Iwo Jima. They have been getting together every year since then. There are about 12 people left. Most of the guys have died. Sims was a journalist. He worked at Auburn University [Annotator's Note: Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama]. Doctor Collins got all the men's addresses and phone numbers. Stewart had a cancerous tumor he had to have removed. Later cancer showed up in his lungs. Collins was a lung doctor and he told Stewart to go see him for any treatments. It turned out to be nothing to worry about.

After the war, Roy Stewart stayed in touch with Jack Sims [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. Sims wanted to get a master's degree in journalism, but Auburn [Annotator's Note: Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama] did not offer it. He asked Stewart to ask his brother-in-law if he could get a job with the newspaper for LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. Sims got the job. Sims went to LSU for a year and lived in Metairie [Annotator's Note: Metairie, Louisiana]. They lost touch, and then Stewart's wife saw he worked at Auburn University. Stewart reached out. They talk on the phone once a week. They are going to Washington, D.C. to see a new museum. They are going to have a reunion at Myrtle Beach [Annotator's Note: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina]. When he was a junior, Stewart ran track, played football and basketball. His senior year they did not have any sports. He was going to go to LSU for four years. Then he went to war. When he came back from the war, he went to pharmacy school. His wife worked until their first child came along. He thinks it is very important that there is a World War 2 museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. The history books do not show enough about the war in the Pacific due to political correctness. He goes to schools and lectures about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and why the United States got into the war. He explains that we [Annotator's Note: Americans] were not the aggressors. He explains what our intentions were, and why we fought in the Pacific. The books say the United States was the aggressor.