Overview
By the time of the Second World War (1939-1945), Clemson Agricultural and Mechanical College already had a long tradition of training young men for military service. Founded as a land-grant college in 1889, Clemson reflected the belief that a military atmosphere produced the highest academic excellence. In 1916, a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) was established at the college under the National Defense Act. But Clemson was not West Point. The young men who attended the College were the sons of farmers or middle-class families in small towns and cities in the Depression-era South. Most of them chose Clemson because it was close to home and affordable; they wanted to become engineers or work in agriculture, not become soldiers (Korth 38-42). Nevertheless, when the United States entered World War I in 1917, Clemson men answered the call of their country. Of the 1,549 who served during the war, thirty-two gave their lives (“Military History at Clemson”). Unfortunately, this “war to end all wars” did not result in a lasting peace, and the next generation found themselves facing a second global conflagration.
During the 1930s and early 1940s, Americans watched with growing concern as the Nazis conquered Poland, the Low Countries, and France, bombed Britain from the air, and invaded the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Japanese forces had invaded China and threatened the rest of Southeast Asia. While Clemson men, along with most young men in America, hoped that the United States could stay out of what seemed to be a foreign war, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 changed everything. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States, drawing the country into the European theater of the conflict as well. These events did not generate a rush to enlist, but they awakened Clemson men to the reality that they could no longer stand by and watch the world disappear under the Swastika and the Rising Sun. They prepared themselves physically and mentally to do their duty when called. A total of 6,475 Clemson men served in World War II. At least 376 made the ultimate sacrifice ("Military History at Clemson"; Reel 307-308).
This project documents the experiences of Clemson cadets and alumni during World War II through letters, photographs, newspaper articles, memorials, and other materials. The aim of the project is not to depict Clemson men as more heroic than the thousands of other American men who fought in the war, but to show how they responded, as Americans and Clemson Tigers, to this frightening interruption in their youth, and how their College and community memorialized them.
About
Jessica Foster is a first-year graduate student in the M.A. History program at Clemson University. She created this thematic research collection as a term project in Fall 2020 for HIST-8500 Digital Methods in History with Dr. Douglas Seefeldt. Jessica's research interests include World War II and the Holocaust. After completing her M.A., she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in modern European history.