War Diaries (June 17) (nonfiction)

War Diary entries for June 17

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Diaries

Reina Spiegel: June 17, 1940

It’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m turning 16. This is supposed to be the best time in my life. People always say, “Oh, to be 16 again!” But I’m so unhappy! France has capitulated. Hitler’s army is flooding Europe. America is refusing to help. Who knows, they might even start a war with Russia?

I’m here on my own, without Mamma or Daddy, without a home. Oh, God, why did such a horrible birthday have to come? Wouldn’t it be better to die? Then I’d have a long, sad funeral. They might cry. They wouldn’t treat me with disdain. I’d only feel sorry for my mamma, my mamma, my mamma...Why are you so far from me, so far away?

—Renia Spiegel began her diary in January 1939 at the age of 15.

Tatsusei Yogi: June 16, 1945

We were so tired that we could not dig any more. We were able to get enough water in the village. We could only have one meal every other day.

—Tatsusei Yogi was a Japanese civilian in Okinawa.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Reina Spiegel (nonfiction)
• War (nonfiction)
• War Diaries (nonfiction)
• Tatsusei Yogi (nonfiction)

External links

• Excerpts from the Diaries of Renia Spiegel @ Smithsonian Magazine
• A Wartime Diary by Tatsusei Yogi, edited by Takashi Yogi