Lillian Drucker was born in July 1925 in Biloxi, Mississippi. She grew up there, attended school, and got married. Her family rented their homes in nice neighborhoods. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] was very difficult. There were no jobs. Her father raised a garden and went fishing. They got along and neighbors were good. Her father did a number of things including hunting alligators. He was a carpenter and worked for the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration]. Her mother took care of the home. Drucker had four sisters and three brothers; she was the last child born. They used ration stamps. The children saved gum wrappers. There were government programs. The children were required to get blood tests. Anyone anemic [Annotator's Note: having anemia; lack of healthy red blood cells] went on the free school meal program. Other kids brought lunch from home. Sometimes, Drucker would get some bananas and a sweet roll together. As early as 1939, they got a Catholic paper that had articles about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. Her family and invited neighbors would gather to listen to the six o'clock news on the radio. Drucker did not think a lot about it as she was 12 years old. After war was declared, money-wise, things became easier. Her father and brothers were building ships.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Lillian Drucker if she remembers what she was doing when she heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] She was on a picnic in the woods. She heard about it when she walked in that evening. There had been a lot of threatening news. She was shocked and scared. She had one brother in the Coast Guard. Her youngest brother was home and had just graduated high school. All three of her brothers volunteered. She was proud of them but frightened for them. She waited for letters. Her middle brother and his wife worked out a code in their letters. His ship broke down in the Mediterranean Sea and was left behind by their convoy. They only had rotten potatoes to eat, he came down with bad ulcers and got a medical discharge. Her youngest brother was sent to the tropics and developed a terrible skin condition. He served three or four years then was sent home. She tried to take care of him and his sores. He had those until the day he died. Her oldest brother served the whole war. His ship was strafed, and he caught a lot of shrapnel. He also had a medical discharge. They served until the war was over. She thinks her brother's ship was strafed in Greenland.

Lillian Drucker's brothers did not talk much about the war to her afterwards and she was afraid to ask. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Drucker if they talked to their father.] Her middle brother received a Purple Heart Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is an award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] and he talked about carrying a wounded buddy to safety. Drucker was still in high school in 1941 and graduated in 1943. It was patriotic to correspond with different members of the service. At one time, she wrote to 33 different men. The boys she grew up with were anxious to get into the war. Most of the letters were about where the men were going. One she remembers is when the war was over. She received a letter from an elderly lady who wrote that her son had been killed in action. She found Drucker's address in his personal belongings. He had said he wanted to marry someone, and his mother asked if she was that girl. Drucker would mostly write that they went to the USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organizations] and danced. Everybody did what they could to help keep up morale. Drucker and friends signed up at the USO. They would dress nicely and go to dance. There were no restrictions on how they dressed. They did not have silk stockings. Drucker was 15 and young for that anyway. They would take an eyebrow pencil and draw lines on the backs of their legs to make it look like they had stockings on. Her brother sent her a pair of silk stockings and that made her feel like a queen.

Lillian Drucker did not have any Gold Star mothers [Annotator's Note: women entitled to display a gold star on a service flag as the mother of a United States military member that died while engaged in action against an enemy] in her neighborhood. Her own brothers came home safely from the war though they had different medical problems. She was happy to have them back home. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Drucker if she noticed any difference in her brothers.] It was a bad experience. They had memories they did not want to talk about. The war was over, and they wanted to get back to life and normalcy. She did not feel their personalities had been altered. They still had their sense of humor. Her favorite cousin was in the Navy but stepped on a landmine in Italy and was killed. She got the news from her aunt. In those days, you got a telegram. When anyone saw a telegram being delivered, they were aware of what it meant. She had friends in school that had left; some she never heard from again. One boy she went to school with was killed. Drucker's husband was in the Air Force. She knew him during the war. When Keesler Air Force base [Annotator's Note: Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi] was built, Drucker lived on the street that was the entrance. She was 15 years old and would be on the porch when the convoys went by. The men would howl and whistle and throw sticks of gum with notes. There were fun times. Her parents had rules for dating. There were far more boys than girls. Her sister met a Greek man at the USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization]. She got her dates mixed up and had made a date with two different men. She went out with the first one who came to get her. The Greek man asked Drucker to the club. Another man came in that Drucker had dated. He was the one she ended up marrying.

Lilian Drucker graduated [Annotator's Note: from high school] in 1943 and got married on 3 September 1944. Her husband had been transferred to Spokane, Washington. Drucker was pregnant and at home. Her husband was due to go over [Annotator's Note: to Japan] when the point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] let him return home. She was not paying too much attention to the news of the war then. There were rumors and everyone was listening to the radio. When it ended, trains whistled, and ships blew their horns. It was more that everyone was thanking God it was over. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Drucker about how people felt towards the Japanese and the German peoples.] They felt terrible about their treachery. Her parents had taught her to be very forgiving and to understand that people are individuals. She felt sorry for the Japanese-Americans who were taken into custody. She did not have strong negative feelings. Having been in a military family for so long, they were sort of inured to the fact that these things happened. They were negative towards the Germans. Drucker married a Jewish boy, and she was a strict Catholic. Her family had no trouble with her marrying. Her parents took to him before she did. So many people were hurt by the war but they learned to live with it. Life had to go on. She thought President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] was a great man but she liked Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] better. He was a simpler man and understood the simpler life. He wanted healing for everyone. Roosevelt and his wife [Annotator's Note: Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States] were very smart to pull the country up by its socks during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s].

Lillian Drucker's brothers all had medical discharges and had income from that. She and her husband bought their first house on the G.I. Bill. The war made Drucker a better person. She learned to be more forgiving. She wishes more people could see and hear the problems that were occurring during the war. She is not sure they could understand what was happening to them. The country is in a big mess today and could use somebody like Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Drucker what she thought about the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945.] She felt the horror of it. She felt it was a terrible thing. She thinks the President did not understand what a horrific thing it was. They were happy the war was over. There was shock and fear as to what would happen to the earth with something that powerful. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings and the interview is paused. When the interview resumes, the interviewer asks Drucker what her greatest memory of the war is.] How one man's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] craziness could affect the whole world. She still hopes there will never be another war like that. Drucker feels The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is great and that every school child should visit it at least once. It brings these things to life for the children. It should continue to be taught. It was a sorry time, but she is glad she lived through it. Going through things makes a person stronger.