12. The Attack on Pearl Harbor

The United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor. A few days later, Hitler declared war on the United States. So the United States was forced to fight two powerful enemies at the same time.

Erick Kyro believed that war was coming so he enlisted voluntarily before Pearl Harbor. From March 12 to June 2 1941, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve at Grosse Ile, Michigan, and soloed the N3N Navy biplane.

When Navy bureaucrats processed his paper work they noticed that Erick had been born in Canada. They decided that he could not continue in the Navy since the rules at that time required that all new Navy officers must be native born. This turned out to be a lucky break because Erick’s Navy classmates became pilots of torpedo bombers. That group attacked the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. All the planes were shot down and only one man survived.

Erick transferred to the US Army Air Corps as a flying cadet beginning on November 7, 1941 -- exactly one month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Erick trained at Kelly Field in Texas, learning to fly progressively faster and “hotter” military aircraft. He continued to serve as a fighter pilot throughout World War II.

After all their children had left home, William and Anna Kyro moved to an apartment on Woodrow Wilson Avenue, not far from the old house at 1939 Glendale. William returned to the insurance business but still kept an eye open for business opportunities. He and Anna were very active in relief activities for the war-distressed civilians in Finland.

Daughter Laura and her husband, Leonard Dixon, and their children John and Ann continued to operate their gift shop in Detroit. But when war production ramped up, Leonard closed the store and obtained a better-paying job in a defense plant. Leonard became night foreman at Rite-Way Tool Co. making metal parts for guns and tanks. The Dixon family moved into the flat above the store at 12938 Grand River. (The old gift shop was occupied by a new tenant and transformed into Winters Beauty Parlor.)

Daughter Helen was in Finland during the war and communication by mail was delayed and infrequent. The Virjos first two children were Marja and Helle, both born in Finland.

The United States, a peace-loving nation, was ill prepared for war. During the first half-year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US lost every battle in the Pacific. Frantic efforts were made in the United States to boost war production. The tide finally turned in the late spring of 1942 with US victories in the battle of the Coral Sea in May and the Battle of Midway in June. On June 6 American aircraft sank three Japanese aircraft carriers. The US lost only one. These battles broke the back of the Japanese Navy and set the stage for the Allied victories which followed. During the decisive battle of Midway, the opposing fleets never sighted each other. All contact was made by aircraft.

One of the clearest military lessons was the importance of air power. It was learned early in the war that no battle could be won without control of the air. Hence, the first step in any conflict must be to gain air superiority.

Erick Kyro was called to active duty. Anna attended Erick's graduation from flying school as a pilot and his commissioning as a second lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas, on 3 July 1942. William visited Erick while Erick was delayed in San Francisco awaiting shipment overseas. Erick was sent to the combat zone in New Guinea in September 1942

As a fighter pilot, Erick flew 215 combat missions, 480 combat hours, in P-39 Bell Airacobra and P-47 Republic Thunderbolt fighter planes in New Guinea for 17 months during W.W.II. His P-39 was named “The Flying Finn.” His missions were mostly bombing and strafing enemy positions in support of Allied ground troops. However, he did shoot down one enemy bomber.

William Kyro always valued education and encouraged learning by his children and grandchildren. In 1942 William was selling the Encyclopedia Brittanica. He gave a 12 volume set called Brittanica Junior to John Dixon for his eighth birthday in September 1942. John spent many happy hours reading these books and learned a great deal of general knowledge.

In the midst of war, Helen Virjo gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Helle (sometimes called “little Helen”). A few months after her birth she fell into a coma. The diagnosis was congenital diabetes. She did not respond to the normal insulin injections. The doctors decided that Helle needed a special type of insulin available only in Sweden. Helen needed to take her baby to Sweden very quickly if her life was to be saved. But travel was difficult in wartime. Helen found that the next flight was fully booked. She obtained the passenger list and selected two men who she thought would be able to postpone their trip. She begged them to give up one of their seats, but they refused. She went to their hotel and followed them around, carrying the unconscious baby. She begged them again, asking if they wanted the death of this baby on their conscience. Finally one of them relented. Helen and Helle made the trip to Sweden, little Helle was given the special insulin, and came out of the coma. This adventure is a good example of sisu. Helle had to take daily injections of the special insulin for the rest of her life.

During W.W.II the folks at home sent letters to serviceman overseas by a system called V-Mail. A V-Mail letter was a single sheet of paper. The message was written on one side of the sheet. The address was then written on the back. The sheet was then folded into the shape of an envelope with the address on the outside and the message on the inside. It was then mailed. When it reached a military post office in the US, it was opened and the message was photographed at a reduced size. Thousands of letters could be placed on one reel of 16 mm movie film. The film was then flown overseas. A copy of the film was saved in the US so that if the aircraft were lost, a replacement copy could be sent. When the reel of film reached a combat zone, the letters were printed on paper at full size and delivered to the servicemen.

William and Anna Kyro communicated with Erick during the war by V-Mail

At age 8 John Dixon sent a V-Mail to Uncle Erick in New Guinea. The letter included a drawing of Erick’s P-39 aircraft. At that time everyone was very interested in the equipment, strategy and progress of the war. A school boy who could not distinguish between a P-39 Aracorbra and a P-38 Lightning fighter plane would be regarded by his fellows as hopelessly retarded. Erick still has that V-Mail in his files.

During W.W.II there was tremendous public interest in and support for the war. Movies, newspapers and radio constantly urged everyone to buy war bonds and do everything possible to support the war effort. In movies plots, men were eager to get into the fighting and always bitterly disappointed if they were rejected by the military for any reason.

During the war, production of military goods was pushed to maximum levels. Many factories operated 24 hours per day. Three shifts became normal (the day shift, the evening shift and the night or “graveyard” shift). Thus there was a greatly increased demand for war workers while at the same time many men were being drafted into the military. As the factories recruited additional workers from farms and small towns, housing in the big cities became a problem. The Kyros rented a spare room to a war worker.

Women were encouraged to join the workforce. Anna Kyro learned tool and die making (machine shop work) during the war. One of the women in Anna’s class became upset and quit when the foreman criticized her work. In recounting this story, Anna explained to young John Dixon that it was the nature of woman to become emotional and it was the duty of a man to remain calm and rational (preferably puffing on a pipe) until the female silliness ran its course.

Production of automobiles, nylon stockings and many other civilian goods were completely stopped. Food, gasoline and many other items were still available, but rationed during the war. Civilians were given a book of “ration coupons” each month. To buy a rationed item, the shopper had to pay the price of the item in money from his wallet and also in coupons from his ration book. The Dixon family planted a “Victory Garden” to grow part of their food. John Dixon pushed his tricycle to school and contributed it to the wartime scrap metal drive. John also collected several hundred pounds of paper for the war effort and earned a certificate as a “PaperTrooper”

William Kyro was very proud of his son’s war record. Each time Erick received a medal or a promotion William would prepare a press release and send it to the local papers with a photo of Erick. These were always printed. When the article appeared in the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press, William would clip it out of the paper and paste it into his scrapbook.

Pilots did not have an easy time during W.W.II. When Erick first arrived in New Guinea he was assigned to share a tent with seven other pilots. Erick was the only one of those eight pilots to survive.

Erick Kyro returned to the US in March 1944, still on active duty. Erick married Violet Erickson in Detroit on April 8, 1944, in a Finnish language ceremony. The Kyros and the Dixons attended the wedding. It was the first wedding ever attended by John Dixon who was then 9 years old.