The Hardest Thing in War

The quote below is excerpted from an oral history interview with Tucsonan Donald Moore. This interview was conducted by City High students as part of the VOICES 2005-2006 World War 2 Stories Project.

Donald Moore in full uniform, 1945.

Donald Moore was drafted in Tucson, Arizona on August 1, 1942. He was sent to Camp Roberts, California where he was trained in combat infantry. He fought on New Guinea and was also part of the re-taking of the Philippines when General MacArthur “returned.” He fought in the treacherous jungles of northern Luzon as part of that campaign and was injured. After Japan surrendered, he was sent to Nagasaki where he witnessed firsthand how the A-bomb had devastated that city and its adults and children His only brother, a Marine, also served in the Pacific Theater of Operations and was killed.

“In the fighting in the Pacific, like at night when we were in the jungle, it was so dark you couldn’t see anything, from here to you. So the Japanese would sneak right up and stab you in the back right in your own foxhole. You didn’t know who was who. A lot of guys just go completely out of their mind. The psychological aspect of trying to go through the war meant you had to keep your sense, your own self, you had to really look at yourself every day and say, I hope I make it to the next day. You had to have that thing: Well, if it’s my time it’s my time, right? You’re sitting here and there’s your buddy, he gets it right between the eyes. That’s the hardest thing in war. So many memories come back — sorry, it’s hard to keep your composure, especially talking about it….That’s why it’s so tragic. You see all your friends go and when you lose your family someday, that makes it very tough.

During the occupation of Osaka, Moore joined his unit’s baseball team and enjoyed playing against the Japanese team.

That’s the hardest thing to go through, I tell you. It was the hardest thing for my parents. My brother was a superb athlete, and, in fact, he was better than I was. He was All-State in football and All-State in baseball. He would have made a great professional ball player, because he had the skill, he was great. Here he is, he gets killed — that hit in our soul. That’s the thing that’s hard to deal with.”

Read the complete version of Donald Moore’s interview and all the oral history interviews with 19 of Tucson’s Pacific Theater of War Vets:

Go to www.ww2stories.org