Wallace McKay was born in May 1925 on a snowy morning in Brainerd, Minnesota. He grew up on a farm outside the city as the youngest of five kids. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945], McKay's father owned four farms and had no debt. The family was well off. McKay worked on the various farms. The farm he lived on had various animals on it and sold cream. One of his brothers had been in the Marine Corps prior to the war. His family enjoyed the news, so McKay believes his parents knew war was brewing. They did not talk about it much. One of McKay's sister was an Army nurse stationed in the Philippines. In 1941, she wrote a letter saying war with Japan was imminent. McKay's classmates did not think the Japanese could wage war. His parents were fine with his sister joining the Army because jobs were so sparse. After graduating nursing school, she traveled around for work until she joined the Army. McKay remembers two officers interviewing his father. McKay did not give any thought to military life. He was proud of his brother in the Marine Corps. His brother served on the USS Vincennes [Annotator's Note: USS Vincennes (CA-44)]. McKay's family turned on the radio and heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He called his sister and parents to tell them the news. He was excited but did not understand the significance of the event. He worried for his sister in the Philippines. McKay was a sophomore in high school. Some of his friends were anxious to go into the military. Some kids left school to go to college, then ended up as officers. There were war bond [Annotator's Note: debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war] sales and scrap metal drives. McKay did not know if he was making a difference in the war effort.

Wallace McKay left high school in 1943 and enlisted in the Navy. His enlistment was to end on his 21st birthday. His niece picked up his high school diploma for him. McKay had a hernia, so he was surprised when his recruiter told him that was not a problem. His father reluctantly allowed him to go into the Navy. McKay went to boot camp in Farragut, Idaho [Annotator's Note: Farragut Naval Training Station in Bayview, Idaho]. Because of his age, he accepted boot camp for what it was. Many of the men in boot camp were from the Midwest and West and were older than McKay. Everyone got along well. A feeling of comradeship was instilled in everyone. McKay enjoyed boot camp. He got leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home. He enjoyed going around town in his uniform. McKay was assigned to Signalman school.

Wallace McKay was sent to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], where he joined the USS Pollux (AKS-4). She was a supply ship and McKay worked the mimeograph machine [Annotator's Note: stencil duplicator]. He made catalogue pages used aboard other ships. McKay traveled from San Francisco to New Guinea. Between boot camp and signalman school, McKay had surgery on a hernia. His hospital stay lasted a month. One of the pharmacist's mates was from McKay's hometown and they became lifelong friends. His surgery scar was held together with staples. McKay and another patient were in a contest to see who could get their staples out faster. After crossing the equator, there was a ceremony to honor King Neptune [Annotator's Note: Line-crossing ceremony; initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator; also called Shellback in the United States Navy]. McKay was treated pretty well, but the officers had a rough time in the ceremony. McKay had his hair cut and had to crawl through a garbage pile. When his sister was taken from the Philippines in an American submarine, she went through the same ceremony. McKay's ship was steaming towards Milne Bay, New Guinea. He remained there for a long time. He tried hard to avoid a work detail. During one detail, he had to help unload bags of cement. It was a very hot and miserable job. He saw an Australian soldier with a pet wallaby [Annotator's Note: an animal similar to a kangaroo, but smaller]. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] created a large swimming hole on the island. There was a Navy brig [Annotator's Note: prison] operated by Marines. McKay watched inmates move rocks in their camp. He decided he never wanted to be in one of those prison camps. He did not think much about being in New Guinea and did not want to know more about the island.

Wallace McKay was transferred to the USS Henry T. Allen (APA-15). On that ship, McKay became a signalman again. He performed all types of visual communication. When he first went aboard, he felt rusty, but quickly got back up to speed. When he left signalman school, he became a Seaman 1st Class. His daily routine included two, four-hour watches a day. There was not much to do when he was off duty. The Henry T. Allen was an attack transport, so it had a double crew of signalmen. Both groups had to be able to do each other's jobs. The ship was built after World War 1 by the Army as a hospital ship. It was then leased to a cruise line that operated in the Pacific. Because of her age, the military decided to scrap her. Instead, the ship was refitted and pressed into service for the war. McKay was told it had been crewed by men who had been in the brig [Annotator's Note: military prison aboard a Naval vessel or base; slang for jail]. After sailing through the Panama Canal [Annotator's Note: Panama Canal, Panama], she arrived in Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] to train troops and participate in the North Africa landings [Annotator's Note: Operation Torch, French North Africa, 8 November to 10 November 1942]. From there, she sailed to the Pacific, where McKay joined the crew. He joined in time to participate in the invasion of Hollandia, New Guinea [Annotator's Note: Operation Reckless, 22 April to 6 June 1944, Hollandia, New Guinea; now Jayapura, Indonesia]. He was afraid to be a part of the battle but was never shot at. McKay never went to the beach as the ship unloaded. Some sailors found a warehouse full of sake [Annotator's Note: rice wine] and brought it back to the ship. Much of it was confiscated. Some weeks late, the ship picked up an Army unit so they could train for the invasion of Wakde Island [Annotator's Note: Battle of Wakde, Operation Straight Line, New Guinea, 18 to 21 May 1944]. McKay's ship left after the invasion, which was its last mission as a troop transport. Afterwards, she worked as a training and communication ship.

Wallace McKay went to Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Solomon Islands], where troops were being trained for the invasion of the Philippines. There was a weekly routine of loading troops and equipment onto the ship, then practice invasion tactics. McKay would go ashore with the shore party to handle the communications. The Navy sent meals with the sailors that went ashore. He was the last one to get back on the ship. Sometimes he had to swim. One time, he cut himself on a coral and got an infection. Another time, a shark swam by, so he never went swimming again. After training was finished, McKay was sent to Australia for repairs and fumigation. In Brisbane [Annotator's Note: Brisbane, Australia], the crew was allowed off the ship for a couple of days. McKay was given leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] so he could visit his sister in Sydney [Annotator's Note: Sydney, Australia]. He was given a ride on a PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] but had to make his own arrangements to get back to the ship. The plane flew low enough for him to see kangaroos. He spent the next four or five days with his sister. One night, they went to meet a Chinese woman. His sister brought the woman some ingredients from the United States. She made him his first real Chinese meal. Her husband was a Merchant Marine. McKay was then sent to stay with an Australian family for the remainder of his leave. His sister was sent to New Guinea but made arrangements for him to get back to Brisbane. He was flown back to his ship in an Army C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft]. Everyone on the plane was an officer except McKay. He told them where he was going, and they told him it was not going to Brisbane. As the plane landed, he could see his ship nearby, which excited him. All the other sailors were jealous that he was given leave.

When Wallace McKay departed for New Guinea, he returned to Hollandia [Annotator's Note: Hollandia, New Guinea; now Jayapura, Indonesia], where his sister was stationed. He was able to go visit her occasionally. McKay was able to tour some of the island, where he saw downed Japanese planes. He took some souvenirs but got rid of them years later. He was able to bring his sister aboard the ship for Thanksgiving dinner. Some other nurses joined the group, and the cooks made a nice dinner for them all. All of the nurses were officers. McKay's ship was not a part of the invasion of the Philippines, but he saw all the ships going to the islands. He did not mind not being in the invasion. His ship [Annotator's Note: the USS Henry T. Allen (APA-15)] made it to the Philippines in December [Annotator's Note: December 1944] or January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. McKay applied to go to Annapolis [Annotator's Note: United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland] and took a physical exam. He was given orders to return, but could not find a ride, so he went with his ship to the Philippines. When he got there, he experienced a kamikaze attack for the first time. McKay slept through general quarters [Annotator's Note: a call to battle stations], which he was ashamed of. He was able to send a message to his sister and they met on a beach, where he told her about going back to the United States. He did not see her again until after the war. She helped set up a hospital where all the nurses who had been POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] ended up.

Wallace McKay caught a merchant ship back to the United States. It took six weeks to make it back and he was only given two meals a day. On the way back, the bread got weevils [Annotator's Note: a small insect] in it. After some time, they gave up and ate the bread anyway. His sister had been on Bataan [Annotator's Note: Bataan Peninsula, Philippines] but made it to Australia on a submarine. When she arrived, she only weighed 95 pounds. They were starving on Bataan. Starving people will eat anything to survive. When he got back to the United States, he took a train from San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] to Camp Peary, Virginia [Annotator's Note: Camp Peary in Williamsburg, Virginia]. There was a school there for men to prepare for exams. McKay did have enough time for him to properly prepare, so he did not qualify for the exam. He was given leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and was allowed to go home. All of his friends in town were gone, but there were a lot of girls. When he returned to base, he was transferred to an advanced signal school in Noroton Heights, Connecticut. The base had been a soldier's home, but the Navy took it over. He was fed well. He enjoyed the school but did not know how much it helped him. He received orders to return to San Francisco, from where he then sailed to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. There was a USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization] event on the back of the ship. After arriving in Hawaii, he was trucked to a camp where he stayed until the end of the war. While at Camp Peary, Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] died [Annotator's Note: on 12 April 1945]. He went to the parade grounds during the funeral.

When the war ended, Wallace McKay was sent to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], where he worked in a beach battalion. There was still material there to be used for the invasion of Japan. Despite their trucks being taken from them, some sailors kept a set of keys, so they took a truck and toured the island. McKay saw his first Japanese prisoners on Okinawa. McKay, was taken to Japan, where he worked as a signalman in a port office. He lived in a Japanese building until a barge was brought in. The buildings were then destroyed and Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building] were built in their place. McKay moved into one of the huts for the rest of his time in Japan. The sailors had enough freedom to explore the area. McKay inspected a Japanese submarine. He admired the sailors that could operate the small boats they used. One time, he decided to be a coxswain [Annotator's Note: pilot of a boat] but ended up crashing the boat. He did not see any hostile Japanese civilians. There was an Army Nisei [Annotator's Note: first generation Japanese-Americans] interpreter working in the harbor. The Navy had employed former Japanese naval personnel to act as ship pilots in the harbor. The Japanese would bow to the Nisei soldier. McKay watched a documentary about POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] and how the Japanese bowed to the Americans when the war ended. At a reunion, McKay did not recognize his former crew. He was given a tour of Nagasaki where the atomic bomb detonated [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. He took a first-class train car to the city. By the time he got there, the roads had been cleared, but the city was destroyed. Seeing the remains of the hospital was eerie to McKay. He could have gone to the atomic tests near Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands]. He was glad he did not do that service. When McKay first heard about the bomb, he did not know much about it, but was happy the war was ending. His opinion did not change when he saw the remains of Nagasaki. He does not think there was any other decision they could have made. He thinks there would have been an uproar in the country if it came out that Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] could have dropped the bombs but did not. The Japanese had many opportunities to end the war first .There would have been a mass slaughter of the Japanese and Americans if the war kept going. In Sasebo [Annotator's Note: Sasebo, Japan], where he did occupation duty, McKay saw little damage to the city, but there was some fire bombing. The train station was a big tourist site in Sasebo, because there were unisex restrooms with no doors.

Wallace McKay did have bad feelings towards the Japanese. He married a Canadian woman. He was concerned about the Nazis as well. He did not find out about the atrocities in Europe until later on. He was given opportunities to stay in the Navy but declined. He wishes he would have stayed in because he got polio [Annotator's Note: poliomyelitis, an infectious disease that affects the central nervous system] not long after leaving the Navy. While in college, he considered going back into the service. McKay used the G.I. Bill to go to college. He received a degree in agriculture education. He met his wife in college. In the fall of 1948, he had a ticket to go to the Little League World Series [Annotator's Note: annual American baseball tournament, 25 to 28 August 1948 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania], so he asked his future wife to go with him. The Army sent his sister to college at the University of Minnesota [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which campus in which city], where McKay and his new girlfriend attended. The two girls lived in the same dormitory building. His sister helped grow the relationship. McKay does not think he would have attended college without the G.I. Bill. It was possible for people to go to school without spending too much money. He thinks he would have gone into a trade otherwise.

Wallace McKay's most memorable experience of the war was going to Japan. It was memorable because of how docile the Japanese were. McKay did not understand how they could be so docile. The Americans were mean to the Japanese when they first arrived in Japan. There was a man who worked very hard to move coal on his barge and the sailors would throw small rocks at him. They also threw rocks at people using an open bathroom. Before the Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building] arrived, a Japanese man would show up to give haircuts and massage. Some kids would clean the huts for the sailors. Brainerd [Annotator's Note: Brainerd, Minnesota] was the home of a tank unit that lost all but 30 members, which affected McKay's feelings towards the Japanese. His sister was friends with many of those men. McKay could not have been kept out of the war. He thought it was a grand adventure. He decided to go before he was of age and was glad to do it. World War 2 changed society and also changed his aspirations. It gave him an opportunity to pursue different avenues he never thought were possible. The people in college with him were kind and ordinary people. He rented a room near campus and became friends with his roommate. McKay's service has given him a broader and better understanding of the world. It allowed him to travel, which he kept up after the war. He thinks the war is seen as another historical event in the United States. He does not think anyone has taken a lesson from the war. He does not see much reaction to stories of the war by people in the country. He does not know if the war should be taught in the country. He thinks the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865] should be taught because people do not understand what it was about. When he travels to the South, he hears people give differing reasons for the cause of that war. He thinks people should live in the moment. He does believe in institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He thinks having museums and other historical markers benefit those interested in the subject. He believes the country has been at war constantly since the end of World War 2. He thinks the country has great pride over its record in the war but has failed to win a war since then. He thinks about the benefits the World War 2 generation received and how those same benefits are not given to today's veterans.