Admiral Nimitz Historic Site National Museum of the Pacific War Center for Pacific War Studies Fredericksburg, Texas Interview with Mr. Arnold Spielberg (World War II - U.S. Army) Date of Interview: September 19, 2003 Admiral Nimitz Historic Site National Museum of the Pacific War Fredericksburg, Texas Interview with Mr. Arnold Spielberg (WW II - U.S. Army) This is Eddie Graham. Today is September 19, 2003. I am interviewing Mr. Arnold Spielberg. This is taking place in the George Bush Gallery, Fredericksburg, Texas. The interview is in support of the National Museum of the Pacific War, Center for War Studies, for the preservation of historical information relating to World War II. Mr. Graham: Mr. Spielberg, thank you very much for taking time to talk with us about your World War II experiences. To begin with, I would like to ask you where and when you were born? Mr. Spielberg: I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 6, 1917. I grew up there and went to public school through high school. I had a good time growing up there. Lived on a wonderful street. The street was steep and during the winter they closed it off so we could do sled riding down it. At the bottom of the street was a park and there was a small baseball field there. Further around the park were tennis courts. A kid couldn’t have been raised on a better street than I was in Cincinnati. Mr. Graham: What were your parents’ names and where were they born? Mr. Spielberg: My father was named Samuel Spielberg, and he was born in the Ukraine in Russia. My Mother was born in a town near where he was born, also in the Ukraine in a town called Sudilkov. Her maiden was Rebecca Chechik. My Father came to this country in 1904. He had served in the Russian Army for six years and had left the Army. He was raised as an orphan by his uncle on a ranch and he became a cow-puncher. He would get on horses and herd cattle. Later he became a cattle buyer for the Russian Army operating in Siberia and up in Manchuria. When the Russia/Japanese war Παγε 2 οφ 23 started he said, “I’m getting out of here.” That is when he came to America. Three years later he brought my Mother over and they were married here in the States. Mr. Graham: Do you have any siblings, and what are their names and ages? Mr. Spielberg: I have a brother, Irvin Spielberg. He is two years younger than I am. I had a sister, Natalie. She was the youngest and passed away about ten years ago. Mr. Graham: Do you have any children and what are their names? Mr. Spielberg: I have four children. My oldest is Steven Allen Spielberg. He was born in Cincinnati in 1946. My next daughter was Anne Spielberg Opatushu, and she lives in the Los Angeles area. Her husband’s father was a screen actor and he acted in the movie Exodus. Then I have a middle daughter, Sue. She lives in Silver Springs, Maryland. She is about 44 years old now. My goodness, my kids are getting old. Then I have a youngest daughter, Nancy, who lives in Riverdale, New York. My two youngest kids have children. Sue has a boy and a girl. Her son, Phillip, is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania in Civil Engineering; her daughter, Rachel, is just entering the University of Pittsburgh. My youngest daughter, Nancy, has two girls, Jessica and Melissa, and they are respectively 15 and 11. Mr. Graham: You have quite a family. Mr. Spielberg: I have a nice family. Mr. Graham: I would like to ask you one question – Where were you and what were you doing on December 7, 1941? Mr. Spielberg: That is an interesting question because a number of people have asked me. I do remember – I had gone to a symphony orchestra concert in Cincinnati at Music Hall and when I came out there was an “Extra” saying that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I had just come out of the concert at that time. Παγε 3 οφ 23 Mr. Graham: When did you enter the military? Mr. Spielberg: I had a low draft number and I was working in Kentucky at that time as a manager of a department store. I knew they were getting close to my low draft number and I decided to enlist. I dropped my work, quit, went back to Cincinnati to be with my parents for a while. I walked into the Navy and said, “I would like to enlist.” They looked at my glasses, gave me an eye test, and said, “Not good enough.” I saw 20-20 with my glasses on and 20-30 without them. That wasn’t good enough for the Navy at that time. I walked next door and joined the Signal Corps. Mr. Graham: That branch of service would have you. Mr. Spielberg: Yes, the Army Signal Corps. I went across the river to Fort Thomas, Kentucky, got my uniforms, etc. I was in Fort Thomas for about 1 ½ weeks, had one pass to go home, then went on to Louisville. I spent five days there and then right down to New Orleans. I was stationed at the New Orleans Army/Air Corps Base on Lake Pontchartrain with the 422nd Signal Company attached to an A-20 Bomb Squadron. I had been a ham radio operator before going into the military, even in high school, and I ended up teaching code to the recruits. They made me an acting Corporal so we would march around and then practice code. I couldn’t get those guys to learn the code, so what I did was to send “dirty” stories. Mr. Graham: That got their attention. Mr. Spielberg: It got their attention. I spent from mid-January of ‘42 til mid-April of ‘42 in New Orleans. I was in the Signal Company and transferred to the Air Corps and was sent to Jefferson Barracks for two weeks of training where they beat the heck out of you. You know, up at all kinds of hours. I was worn out. Then I shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, where I boarded the Santa Paula to go to India, although I didn’t know at that time that we were headed to Παγε 4 οφ 23 India. Mr. Graham: Let’s back up a little to your training. Was this infantry training...? Mr. Spielberg: Well, I was in a Signal Company. We were taught communication, code, and since I knew code they had me teaching code. We started to learn a little about signal equipment, but things were so disorganized at that time in the service that I spent most of my time drilling ----- useless drilling? Mr. Graham: Just to keep you busy? Mr. Spielberg: Yes, keep you busy. Since I was the Acting Corporal, I would march the guys down to Lake Pontchartrain. I would say, “Fellows, let’s take a break here, get out your gas masks in case the officer comes, and then sit there and shoot the bull, but if an officer shows up put the masks on.” I figured I was wasting my time there so I applied for Officers’ Candidate School. I passed all of the tests there, but then I had received orders to be shipped overseas. I was sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis and there we had bayonet drill. That was infantry training. After two weeks there they shipped us by train to Charleston, South Carolina. I spent about two days there and sometime – 10 or 11 o’clock at night, long lines, we boarded the banana boat, the Santa Paula, and headed out in the ocean to who knows where. That was a Grace Line Banana Boat that used to take tourists down to the Caribbean and bring back bananas in the hold, so we ended up in the hold of the boat. That sucked. I want to tell you a story about that. As we marched onboard the ship, we climbed up the gangplank up to the top deck. The cabins were all pretty much occupied with groups of people that looked like they were in organized groups. We went down the hall and I saw one empty cabin there. So, two of us left our bags in the cabin. I stayed in the cabin and locked the door, he went down and Παγε 5 οφ 23 got ten other guys and we filled up the cabin. So, for the rest of the trip we had a cabin. Mr. Graham: How were you fed? Did you eat in a military line? Mr. Spielberg: We had to eat in line. We had mush, SOS, wormy breads, and mutton. We were fed twice a day. Mr. Graham: What times did you eat? Mr. Spielberg: About ten o’clock in the morning and about six or seven at night. Mr. Graham: Where did you end up on that ship? Mr. Spielberg: We started across the ocean in May of ‘42, which was the height of the worst sinkings of World War II. We were in a large convoy. There were two battleships that escorted us through. The Battleships were British The Nelson and Rodney. We also had six destroyers, and there must have been a hundred cargo vessels. There were two troop ships, the Santa Paula, the one that we were on, and the Mariposa, which was a large ship with quite a number of troops on that ship.