East High School - Eastonian Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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jdid .96 Our Sfory rom eginning fo - - .7!1e gfaaa of 7 94 7 In September of 1943, Allied troops crossed the Messina Straits and landed in Italy. We had passed from grade school into our first year of high school. In a short while the Italian government accepted Allied surrender terms, and we resigned ourselves to school. General Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied Commander for the invasion of Europe, as we launched the attack on a new semester of school work. The devastation of war was brought closer to German soil when Berlin was bombed in its first big daylight raid. We ourselves realized that misfortune would fall upon us if those grades weren't improved. In the late spring of '44, the Germans abandoned Rome to the Allies, and we will- ingly gave up school books for baseball bats. During the summer vacation, we hoed, weeded, and watered victory gardens. We were not only helping to increase the food supply, but were benefiting ourselves by this healthful outdoor exercise. We entered our sophomore year in Sep- tember of 1944, as the British entered Ant- werp. The Finnish-Russian armistice was signed, and we stopped fighting the idea of another school year. In connection with our school activities, we were collecting scrap paper, metal, old clothes, and we were filling boxes to cheer our soldiers and the unfortunate people of other countries. We cooperated in all the jobs necessary for the all-out war ef- fort. The Big Four, Stalin, Churchill, Boose- velt, and Chiang Kai-Shek met in the Dumbar- ton Oaks Conference to draw up the first blue- print for the world security league. This in- ternational blueprint is now forming the pat- tern for the future of our individual lives. In the fall of I944, President Roosevelt was re-elected as President of the United States. He was the first man to fill this office for a fourth term, but the excitement caused by this was replaced by sorrow. President Roosevelt died a short while later, and the whole nation mourned his passing. He was the only president we could remember. When he left, something went out of our own lives. We were affected by a personal loss which made us realize that we were passing from childhood into a more serious world. Hitler and Mussolini were killed, but we didnit cheer. The world was rid of two men who symbolized the forces of evil. So many men had died to wipe out this evil that we could only be quietly thankful. The Russians took Berlin, and VE Day, Victory in Europe, was celebrated. Joy and happiness for the end of the war were mingled with tears and sor- row for those who did not see the victory. In early summer, Churchill resigned from the office of Prime Minister of England, and We departed from school to enter summer ac- tivities. During the summer of 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, and this was followed by the Japanese surrender on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri. Most of the sol-