Five men pose for a photograph.

A scribble on the opposite side of the picture dates it back to 1945, the same year World War II would end. Franklin Roosevelt’s 12-year presidency would come to a close following his death, ushering in Harry Truman’s first term. The first V-E (Victory in Europe) and V-J (Victory over Japan) days would be celebrated, the latter claiming more than 260,000 lives in its wake.

But none of that is captured in the snapshot.

In this photo, 32-year-old Frank Hager stands on the far left, his wide smile still palpable despite being in sepia-tone and a slight blur. Joseph Lakata wraps his arm around the man to this right, identified as Butch Gogal. Bernard Krajcir and Bernard Jacobs crouch in front, Krajcir propping his arms up on either knee while Jacobs leans toward the camera, one side of his face illuminated by the Guam sun.

The men are no strangers, hailing from the same small hometown: the southwestern Nesquehoning neighborhood called Hauto. All serving in the Navy, the five friends found themselves on the Western Pacific island at the same time; they posed for this photo and sent it home to their families.

“I could see a dozen being there from Allentown, or five or six from Palmerton, but not just that really little burg,” Frank Hager Jr. marveled at the photo.

Frank had seen the photo before, in his childhood home, but up until a few years ago, he’d forgotten it. Then a relative of one of the men sent him another copy, reviving Frank’s memory of the day his father found friendship in the midst of one of the world’s deadliest conflicts.

A few friends from Hauto

Frank is sitting in Hager Furniture on Delaware Avenue in Palmerton when he retells the story of how his late father opened the store.

Before his deployment, Hager worked at a furniture shop called N&J Greenburger, located in Lansford. He was hired by Silver Furniture — a company that had acquired N&J — to manage a shop in Palmerton upon his return home. A few years later, in the late 1950s, Hager opened a store of his own in the borough, right up the street from Silver.

Once Silver closed its doors, Hager Furniture moved into the space.

Raised in Hauto, Hager loved the furniture business, just like he loved his family, his hometown and sports. He was a hard worker, his son remembered, who labored in a supply warehouse during his service stint in Guam.

After the war, Hager remained friends with the other four men in the photograph. In fact, Frank was the best man in the wedding of Thomas Lakata, Joseph Lakata’s youngest brother.

Their lives

Thomas lives with his wife, Lenora Lakata, in Nesquehoning. He has stayed close to his hometown of Hauto, where Joseph resided all his life.

With an 18-year age difference between them, Thomas was almost a son to Joseph, who never married.

“He always looked out after me,” Thomas remembered. “I was always at his side.”

After graduating from Nesquehoning High School, Joseph went to work at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. He was later drafted into the Navy, joining its construction battalion known as the Seabees.

A quiet man, Joseph “hardly ever spoke about” his time in the service, Thomas said. When he came home to Hauto, he took a job at Bundy Tubing Co. in Hometown, where he worked until his retirement.

Joseph was an avid hunter and devoted Catholic who spent much of his time wading through the deep blue waters of Lake Hauto.

As a kid, Thomas would watch Joseph and his friends hanging around a carpet shack that sat behind their home. Like most younger siblings, he wanted to join in, but was rarely allowed.

During the war, when Joseph and his friends were fighting abroad, the shack was empty, and Thomas sat on its steps alone, crying.

“Thankfully, they all came home,” he said.

Squatting in the front of the photo, Bernard Jacobs was still in his teens when he enlisted.

Jacobs, whose father had drowned when he was a boy, had recently lost his stepfather. He joined the Navy to support his mother and siblings.

At 28, Jacobs married Mildred Jacobs in 1955, but two weeks into the marriage, Jacobs lost his job. He spent some time at a storage yard and even tried his hand at being a refrigerator salesman.

Eventually, Jacobs landed his dream position as a customer engineer at the International Business Machines Corporation, where he was employed until his retirement in 1987.

Being one of 13 children, Mildred had a large extended family. She said Jacobs got along with all of them.

Even more, the two got along with each other.

“I always say, ‘If your husband is your friend, you’ve got it made,’ because you have to be friends to have a good life,” Mildred said.

“He was a good husband. He was a good man,” she added of Jacobs, who died in 2014. “I miss him a lot.”