World War II

Company F called into action February 10, 1941. They went to Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands and other Pacific conflicts. Sent off from the station with a crowd of 1500, school band and rest of students dismissed for that reason.

Victory gardens, Red Cross, women rolled bandages, knitted socks and sweaters.

Commodity rationing, gasoline, speed limit 35 m.p.h., tires, sugar, butter, meat, coffee and shoes. Unavailable‑ appliances, cars, radios, nylons, rubber articles, tin foil.

Recycling: string, tooth paste tubes, tin foil, newspapers, paper of all sorts, grease and fats.

Drives held for scrap iron, phonograph records, old tires, milkweed pods.

Women took jobs in defense plants, shocked grain and other farm jobs, telegraph operators for radio.

Harry Hayashi, Japanese born. In 1941 after Pearl Harbor, his business was seized by the federal government and his bank accounts temporarily confiscated. Despite testimony to his loyalty he was sent to internment camp in the western U.S. for the duration of the war. Though his business was returned they had declined and never returned fully to their former success.

War ended 1945‑ 18 men from Foster County lost their lives.

Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 400