Complete text of "Mike Royko"

Reprinted from "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II.

Published in 1984.

"The world was very simple. I saw Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo: those were the villains. We were the good guys."

Mike Royko was nine years old in December 1941, when the United States entered World War II. He lived in a Chicago, Illinois, neighborhood made up of Polish, Irish, German, and Slavic immigrants. Mike's neighborhood was his entire world. The neighborhood included a tavern owned by his father, and the Royko family lived above the tavern. Mike's chief recollections of the war years revolve around his family and customers of the tavern.

In this excerpt Mike recalls that his sister, whose husband was stationed overseas, went to work in a war industry factory. He remembers her "sense of mission" about her work. He also describes the responsibilities...