Hours
Tuesday and Thursday
11:30 - 3:00
First four Sundays
1:00 - 4:00

Martinez Historical Society

1005 Escobar Street - Martinez, CA -  (925) 228-8160

Current Exhibit:

 The 1940s: Kilroy Was Here

Who was Kilroy and what does this all mean?

This unique expression and graffiti appears to have originated with U.S. servicemen of WWII through the Korean War.  They would draw the distinctive doodle of “Kilroy” peeking over a wall with the text Kilroy Was Here on surfaces wherever they landed, fought, or were stationed.  Our series of visits through the decades brings us to the 1940s – an era that brackets the WWII years.  We offer a glimpse of the impact the war had on everyday life on the home front.

Common throughout the country, and specifically to Martinez, individuals and community pitched in toward the war effort.  There was a sense of purpose, even if it meant sacrifice.  Community participation took many forms; the Martinez Canteen, victory gardens, and women’s growing role in the work force – among others.  Sacrifices included rationing of food and resources, plus metal scrap, grease and paper collecting.

Through it all, popular culture, in its many forms reflected the latest in American social trends: movies, music, radio shows, fashion and a heightened interest in travel for recreation.

Photographs, newspaper articles, interviews, plus loaned and donated artifacts from the community help us to share this story.

   From 1939 to 1945, the world experienced the most terrible period of modern times.  After Pearl Harbor, it was clear that the U.S. must join the war effort. Women, “Rosie the Riveters”, worked in munitions factories, men flew lonely combat missions, and children collected materials for scrap drives. By February 1942, more than 5 million volunteers had joined community war efforts.  Industry moved into high gear, churning out so many tanks, planes, guns and ships that the economy was pushed out of the Depression.

   The end of WWII was the beginning of prosperous times in the U.S.  Good paying jobs were plentiful, cities were growing, highways were being built and low-cost suburban houses were springing up everywhere to meet the demand for affordable housing.

   Lives were changed forever in Martinez on that fateful morning of 12/7/1941.  Many of our young men and women went off to fight the war; most returned home as heroes, some were not so fortunate.  People on the home front met numerous challenges. In 1942, the government found it necessary to ration food, gas and clothing.  Martinez folks responded by planting Victory Gardens and recycling aluminum, metal, paper, rubber and grease.  War Bonds and stamps were sold to provide war funds, and the community united through volunteerism.

   Between 1943 and 1946, 1,348 volunteers established and operated The Martinez Canteen, located on Ferry Street. The Canteen provided restrooms, showers, offered food, reading material, music and conversation to 401,322 servicemen and women as they passed through town on troop transport trains.

   Not all Martinez citizens fared well during the war.  Several honorable Italian families, longtime residents, were torn apart when those identified as “enemy aliens” were required to relocate inland; proud and industrious Japanese families were interned – in spite of the fact that many Italian-Americans and Japanese-Americans served in the  U.S. armed forces. 

    Many Martinez residents recall the tragic Port Chicago explosion of 7/17/1944, the largest homeland disaster of WWII.  It destroyed & shattered many lives, and the social impact helped change American society. 

     This decade changed the world forever –the global nightmare of WWII followed by peace, prosperity and the challenges of the postwar years.

1940’s Trivia

QUESTIONS

1   What plant helped save soldiers’ lives during WWII?

2   Why was the GI Bill of Rights (1944) important?

3   What was Executive Order 9066 - signed into law by FDR on            2/19/1942?

4   What was the most dreaded disease in the 1940s?

5   Who or what are the WACs?

6   When and where did the battle known as D-Day occur?

7   What became known as the new dance craze in the 1940s?

8   What candy coated chocolates, perfect for soldiers on the field         who could not afford to get their hands or weapons sticky, were        invented in 1940?

9   What Walt Disney movie combined cartoons with classical                music and had no dialogue?

10  Automobiles driving on the Pacific Coast Highway during                 WWII were not allowed to:

11  What song that became a Christmas favorite was first heard               in 1942?

12  Why were toothpaste tubes recycled?

13  What was the speed limit in 1942?

14  Who was Kilroy?

ANSWERS

1   Milkweed made life vests buoyant.

2   It was designed to provide the returning veteran with access               to education, training, status and loans to buy houses.

3   It authorized the internment of Japanese Americans.

4   Polio, caused by a virus, is one of the most contagious                     diseases known.

5   Over 150,000 American women served in the Women’s Army           Corps during WWII. The WACS were the first women other            than nurses to serve within the ranks of the US military.

6   On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the Allied troops landed at Normandy,        France, invading German-occupied France.

7   The jitterbug was all the rage during the 1940s.

8   M&M Candies were created for the U.S. Army.  They “melt in          your mouth, not in your hands”!

9   Fantasia,  a 1940 Walt Disney Animated Classic.

10  Cars were not allowed to turn on their headlights at night; they            were only permitted to have a slit of light shine through thus               making the West Coast hard to distinguish by the Japanese,               hampering their efforts to bomb us.

11  “White Christmas”, an Irving Berlin song, was introduced by             Bing Crosby in 1942.

12  The lead went to make weapons

13  During 1942 a national speed limit of 35 mph was imposed and          pleasure driving was prohibited.

14  Kilroy Was Here is an American expression and graffiti which           appears to have originated with U.S. servicemen of WWII                through the Korean War. They would draw the distinctive                  doodle of “Kilroy” peeking over a wall and the text Kilroy                 Was Here on the walls wherever they landed, fought or were              stationed.