By the time World War II ended in September 1945, nearly every family in America had a member who had either served as a Red Cross volunteer, made contributions of money or blood, or received Red Cross services. The American Red Cross became involved in the war in a major way as early as 1939, becoming the chief supplier of civilian relief supplies for the International Red Cross Movement. This assistance eventually aided 75 million victims overseas. At the U.S. government's request in February 1941, the organization also began a Blood Donor Service, and by the time it ceased operation in 1945, it had collected 13.4 million pints of blood, most of which went into the preparation of lifesaving plasma. When Japan's bombs rained on Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941, Red Cross-trained first aiders, many of them Japanese Americans, were among the first on the scene. The organization also recruited more than 70,000 of its enrolled registered nurses to serve with the military, and provided 42 million emergency communications between the troops and their families. At the peak of American Red Cross service in 1945, 7.5 million volunteers joined 40,000 paid staff to provide services to soldiers and civilians alike. Perhaps the most grateful beneficiaries of the war effort were the nearly 1.4 million U.S. and Allied prisoners of war in Germany and elsewhere. Many of them returned home alive mainly because of the more than 27 million food and medicine parcels prepared and shipped to the warehouses of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross by the American Red Cross.