Food, gas and clothing were rationed. Communities conducted scrap metal drives. To help build the armaments necessary to win the war, women found employment as electricians, welders and riveters in defense plants. Japanese Americans had their rights as citizens stripped from them.
The mood (or tone) of the prologue is considered as sombre, dark, macabre... since from the start we're being told that this story is going to be a story of love, death and loss.
