Sixty-five years ago, Caesar “Pat” Pasquesi was a student at Highland Park High School, and history was his favorite subject. Then history itself swept him up into the drama of World War II. He was drafted into the Army in 1941 and served in the Pacific until 1945. Later he became an amateur historian and author.
Pasquesi, 81, of Highland Park, who has written about the history of Italian immigrants and their children in Highwood, has turned his attention to World War II. To commemorate the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and America’s entry into the war, Pasquesi recalled some of the 300 letters written to him by his father during the younger Pasquesi’s military service. The letters chronicle events on the homefront and are available for examination at the Highwood and Highland Park libraries and the Chicago Historical Society.
The elder Pasquesi, a Highwood businessman, wrote to Caesar about the somber mood on the North Shore during the war’s darkest days. He wrote also about coal strikes, the scarcity of basic commodities and the sad separation of families as young people went off to war.
Pasquesi’s letters were always upbeat and optimistic, yet truthful about the problems at home during the war. So a father’s letters to his son contribute to our knowledge of history.
