William B. Richard World War II letters

Overview

During February 12 and November 2, 1945, Corporal (later Sergeant) William B. Richard wrote a collection of 15 letters to his mother, Mrs. Sarah Richard in Akron, Ohio. This object was made when he was stationed in Tezgaon, Dhaka in then-British India, in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II. World War II was a global conflict that occurred during 1939 till 1945. The main countries involved were Germany, France, England, Russia and later on, the US. The US involvement was crucial to the victory of the allies. As seen from this one soldier, the US army was deployed worldwide even to India.

Ownership

The letters made by William B. Richard were purchased from Kurt Kitasaki, 2010. It was purchased from Kurt Kitasaki by the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, making the publisher now the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. There is no evidence of the object being copyrighted or licensed.

Physical Analysis

Substrate

The letters are composed of a combination of different materials however the most prominent is wood pulp based paper. This is due to the paper having a light tan color and a very thin and fragile feel. This is what was available at the time. There were consistently only 3 sheets of paper used in each of the letters. This limit can be explained with the wood pump shortage that occurred beginning in 1943 because of labor shortages in the US and Canada. Wood pulp supply fell from 12 million tons in 1942 to 11 million tons in 1943. Rationing controls on wood pulp began in late 1943 and lasted until 1945.

Letter from March, 11, 1945

Pulp paper is made from timber cut into logs and then converted into fibrous masses. It is then placed in a digester for further pulp refining consisting of washing, screening and bleaching. Then, the pulp is treated to form individual fibers and is made into a furnish. The sheets of paper pass into presses and dryers and then cut. The production of pulp is around 200 mills and the paper production is 2000 mils. This intricate process was responsible for the formation of the letters Richard wrote to his mother.

The use of wood based pulp paper was essential to the war. Its utility spawned a number of industries. For example, it was needed for transmitting complicated data or instructions which were responsible for constructing new military equipment, for packaging especially food products and communication like letters. The industry had over 3,000 establishments and employed over a million wage earners. Furthermore, it was interconnected with other industries such as the electrical supply and transportation. When shortages began to emerge in 1942, it limited the amount of paper available for sending letters and for many other applications.

Format

The book object is a letter. The biographical format is three loose manuscript sheets. They are about 30 centimeters by 15 centimeters in size and are written on both sides. They are not folded so are therefore not a folio, quarto, octavo, etc. so it is three loose manuscript sheets. The object is not bound at all. It is made up of usually 3 single sheets of paper and they have no attachment to one another. Given that he was limited in how many pages he had to write in, perhaps this affected what he wrote. Since he was short on space we would expect that he did not waste space on mundane or irrelevant details. For example, we can see that the writing is not extremely large fonts and based on the content he does not ramble or repeat himself within the letter. The same can be said about the time it took for each letter to arrive home, around 1-4 weeks. Given this time, it would change the content he wrote in his letter. Instead of being day to day events, the letters were a combination of things that had occurred over a few weeks and nothing was said with a sense of urgency since it would be weeks till his mother could read it. Despite the page limit and long wait times, certain sentences are repeated in every single letter. Perhaps this was because he found it very important to reiterate how he was always feeling "fine and dandy" regardless of how much space he was given. The repetition of those words made his letters unique and easy to be recognized by his mother and other family members.

Historical Significance

Letter from March, 11, 1945

World War 2 and US involvement in India

World War 2 was a global war which began in 1939 due to German invasion and was followed by a defense of the allies France and England. US involvement began in December 1941 after the unprompted attack on Pearl Harbor as a declaration of war by the Japanese.

An often forgotten focal point of the war was the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II. The purpose of the US in this region was to protect China against Japanese invasion by giving them support in terms of supplies and some manpower alongside the other allies: the British, Chinese and Indian. The large number of troops made sure that the Japanese could not deploy their troops elsewhere, lessening their power globally. Only 3000 volunteers became dedicated US ground fighters. The main role of the US soldiers was to bring lend-lease supplies to China. This is what can be assumed that Richard was involved with. The surrender of the Japanese occurred on the 28th of August 1945. Therefore, based on the time period, Richard was present during the war and remained 3 more months once the War had concluded in order to aid in the readjustment of the area.

From the 12,300,000 million Americans involved in World War 2 only about 2% were assigned to the Theater making each of their soldiers, Richard included, extremely unique. Given this scale, Richards' letters are extremely important in learning about this area of the war. Even in today's search of World War 2 material, the China-Burma-India is hardly covered. The remarkable efforts by the soldiers is often overlooked therefore it is crucial to gain understanding of this geographical area during the war. The letters take place past the main conflict period but still give great insights into what day to day life was like and some of the tasks the soldiers had towards the surrender of the Japanese. It is also important to have a letter from a US army official because it provides an alternative viewpoint and is perhaps slightly less biased than Chinese or Japanese writing. in terms of the day to day life there and other aspects of a soldier stationed in the rare place.

Hearing from Loved Ones

Letter Collection from February, 12, 1945

Letter writing is a very ancient practice which has long served as forms of expression for all members of society. Before the appearance of newspapers, letters were the only form to receive gossip and news. As other forms of writing developed, the letter has remained a unique window into the writer's mind and is crucial for human connection and emotion even when two people are very far apart. Letters, as physical objects, come directly from the hands of the sender. This creates a transient bond between sender and receiver that even a phone call cannot forge. Because the handwriting is familiar and the way words are said can remind one of the writer, it is not surprising the importance letters had to maintain morale during world war II.

The most important use of letters was to enable communication which allowed families to not feel so distant during such a hard time. Being able to touch something that your loved one has also felt in a close amount of time made the war experience more bearable. Because of this, both the soldiers overseas and the family members in the US had motivation and energy to keep fighting in the hopes that one day soon they would be able to return home and hug their loved ones. Without a physical piece of paper, family members at home would grow stressed and worried not knowing if they were never going to see their loved one again. This also explains why these letters were kept. The letters Richards' mother was receiving could have been the last thing she had to remember him by in the case that he passed away. Furthermore, because this was such a remarkable time in history and, as mentioned previously, his unique geographical location in the global conflict she kept these as important artifacts of the future to be looked at and studied. On average a soldier would write 6 letters a week and they took anywhere from 1-4 weeks to arrive. Because we cannot see who else Richard wrote to but see that the timing is very frequent we can assume this was a very important part of his routine.

Importance on a Personal Level

Letters like Richard’s had more significance than just to the world around him. Writing letters was a task that took time away from their tasks at war. Writing was a form of self expression and a time for the writer to develop their own identity. This is extremely important especially in a war zone. All the soldiers had lost some sense of identity as they all became dressed in the same uniform and addressed the same way for one collective mission. These letters gave Richard a way of restoring himself and through his writing we see him create himself. He was able to express his sentiments and feelings in his own unique manner and reflect on himself in the process. Therefore it is fair to assume that even aside from the joy of thinking he is in contact with his mother it is also a moment to himself to reflect at such a difficult time.

Masculine Emotion

These letters are also significant because they highlight the emotion or lack thereof of men on the battlefield. Before letter writing and even after it, it was uncommon for men to express their feelings or thoughts in such an open manner. There was hesitation and danger in spreading too much sentiment especially for a man at war. This can be clearly seen in Richards' own letters. Each letter starts off similarly where he mentions how he is fine and dandy. These words never change throughout the whole collection. It is unlikely that during his whole time at war he never felt any negative emotion or anything other than fine and dandy therefore this reflects the controlled and cautious action from men at war to never express their sentiments too deeply. This also probes the question of how insightful these letters actually are if there is always a lingering hesitation on the writer's part. Meaning that we would also not be able to learn from the letters about all the truly raw and unpleasant things that were happening.

Circulation

Envelope from March, 23, 1945

The letter comes enclosed in an envelope. The envelope varies in color slightly but is usually white and contains about 3 to 4 stamps and is the same size as the letter. The stamps are: one with the date, the US postal service stamp, the 6 cents Airmail stamp and a pass stamp from the examiner. In 1945 alone, nearly three billion pieces of mail were exchanged between service members and the friends and family who supported them on the home front. . However, this meant they took up valuable space on cargo ships and planes. To combat this, the US invented V-Mail which photographed and reproduced letters onto microfilm. Richards's letters were not sent via V-Mail since it would have been in a particular one page format. This suggests this technology was hard to come by in India or because there were so few people it was not as hard to transport physical letters.

Authorship

The only author of these letters is Richard and there is no external writing. There is usually a different font usually in capital letters which says “finis over” in quotation marks indicating the end of the letter. Additionally, sometimes there are stamps within the letter for example one saying Ohio state in the May 24 1945 letter even though it was sent the 14th. This is not strange because it would usually take 1 to 4 weeks to arrive and it also shows someone in the Ohio office needs to sign off on this. As previously mentioned, it was very important that these letters remained in Richard's possession. This is because during the war it allowed him to have at least one thing that was purely his and he didn't have to share with his other soldiers or preform as a duty.

Readership

All of Richard's letters were addressed solely to his mother Mrs. Sarah Richard in Akron, Ohio. While we do not have any physical letters on her end, we know she received the letters because he responds to things she brought up. For example, there are many letters mentioning his concern over her getting her eyes checked meaning she has read the letters and addressed the fact she has not done it yet. For many mothers, being able to write letters and communicate with their children was a way to mother from a distance. From his responses it seems she makes sure to update him on all the family members' important events and information and asks him to make sure he is taking care of himself. The same aspect of care and nurture is seen from Richards' side as he often asks her to see someone about her eyes and teeth. Because the two were so far away from each other, there was no physical help they could provide to one another. This means they would use their letters to provide as much advice as possible in terms of their health and wellbeing. The correspondence of the children to the mother meant a lot to either side. It is thought that even when fathers were home, the children would only address the letters to the mother so it might suggest that Richard truly intended the only recipient to be his mother.

Stamp Example

However, perhaps there was more than just more than the mother as the reader. During this time, a mother often would find herself as the center of the family's network of correspondence. This means that she would pass on the messages she got from Richard in his letters to other members of their family.

In order to aid the reading of his mother and any other potential readers, Richards provides navigation tools. Each page on the letter contains a page number which is usually on the middle top of the page. This is extremely useful as the pages are not attached so it would be hard to figure out which order they are in. These mechanisms assume that labeling the pages is simpler and easier for the reader to understand what page they are on instead of piecing it together themselves. This was perhaps also done in case in their transport the pages became disorganized or the envelope they were in was lost.

Aside from the stamps, there is no external manipulation to the letters. It would not have been surprising to see censorship as throughout World War II, the letters written by enlisted men were censored by ranking officers, who read them to ensure that no useful information would fall into enemy hands should mail be intercepted. It is therefore very likely that his letters were read but nothing was ever found to be too important. This would have definitely changed what Richards would write. Because he knew his letters were read by other officers, he would have never thought to include important details of his task as a soldier even if it was something that in person he would have mentioned to his mother. Furthermore, because being a traitor is one of the worst things imaginable, perhaps he was scared to mention anything related to any part of his job and therefore we see these letters being so mundane. Because of this fear of readership from army officials, our learning about the China-Burma-India Theater is much more limited. We will not know for certain whether soldiers truly were burdensome or just did not feel comfortable sharing.