When Jake Larson was 15 years old in 1938, he lied about his age to join the National Guard in his hometown in Minnesota.
Over the next seven years, he was sent overseas to fight in World War II, stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and survived enough close calls to deem himself “the luckiest man alive.”
Now, at 101, he might seem like an unlikely candidate for social media stardom – in fact, he asked his granddaughter McKaela Larson, 31, “What the hell is TikTok?” when she first mentioned it to him.
“He thought it was like a clock,” McKaela said.
But with her help, Larson – better known as “Papa Jake” – has indeed become a social media sensation, sharing his life stories with more than 800,000 followers on TikTok, connecting with younger generations and bringing his audience along on his returns to Normandy and Northern Ireland, where he was stationed during the war.
And he’s not shy about the success of this latest chapter of his eventful life.
“I’m a TikTok star!” Larson said in an interview at his Martinez home, where he has lived for more than 35 years with his family. “You got somebody different. I’m not just the ordinary.”
Larson’s TikTok account began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Home from her job working on cruise ships, McKaela Larson asked viewers on the platform to “send [Larson] some love” after his plans to attend the 2020 D-Day anniversary ceremony were canceled, she said.
“They really, really loved Papa Jake and his story,” McKaela said – and demanded that he start an account of his own.
That account, @storytimewithpapajake, is now closing in on a million followers and has garnered a cumulative 8.9 million likes. Larson has shared his stories of fighting at the Battle of the Bulge and D-Day, showed old wartime photographs and detailed his experience returning to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The response to her grandpa’s account has been “mind-blowing,” McKaela said. “It really got my head around how important it is to share his stories.”
At his home, Larson is surrounded by memorabilia and honors from his time fighting in World War II – photographs, pins, patches, American flags. He even has a custom Funko Pop figure of himself on a nearby shelf. This serves as the backdrop for most of Larson’s videos, which are filmed and posted by McKaela.
Larson’s TikTok videos and life story have brought him worldwide attention: He has bins of letters sent to him by TikTok viewers. He accompanied the Zac Brown Band onstage twice, including in July at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where he received a standing ovation from tens of thousands of attendees. He was featured in an NBC Sports feature narrated by Matt Damon that played during the 2024 Olympic Games.
“I get teary-eyed when I start telling this stuff. This is unbelievable,” Larson said. “I don’t think I’m worth all this stuff. I don’t think I’m any different from anybody else.”
Most recently, Larson traveled to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, where he honored his fellow fallen soldiers, met his French fans and shook the hand of President Joe Biden.
“Those people – it was so crazy – they wanted my autograph, they wanted to shake my hand,” Larson said. “One guy laid up on a tabletop – he didn’t have anything to write on, so he stretched out his jeans and I signed his buttock!”
“Those people went through hell, and they are so thankful,” Larson added. “The people in Belgium and France are the greatest.”
He added that he plans to return to Normandy for future D-Day celebrations every year that he can.
“If I keep feeling like this right here – no aches, no pains – I’m going,” he said. “I owe it to the people in France.”
Larson not only fought in D-Day – crediting his survival during the Omaha Beach landing to his small size and the Germans not learning “how to shoot a toothpick” – but also was involved in the top secret planning of the invasion due to his ability to type.
“Every person that landed on Omaha Beach, every person that landed on that beach on D-Day … came through these fingers,” he said, holding out his hands and miming typing.
McKaela said that it is important to continue telling stories from World War II because “you are doomed to repeat history if you don’t know it.” Hearing these stories from someone who experienced them firsthand – and watching how telling them changes their posture and tone of voice – adds depth, she added.
“Not that many people … have their grandpas or great-grandfathers around to tell those stories anymore,” McKaela said. “It’s very important to keep that history alive.”
McKaela had heard many of Larson’s stories before they began filming them to post online, but she was struck by the new details he would remember with each telling.
“It was amazing – it kind of unlocked his memory in a way,” McKaela said.
The project is one she is extremely proud of, she said, because of the joy it has brought her grandpa. She is also glad to have these videos to share with her kids – and all the future generations.
“I’m so happy to share my papa with other people around the world, so then they can appreciate him as much as I do,” McKaela said.
“I made it through the war – through six battles – without a scratch,” he said. “The amazing thing is I’m here today, and nobody else that I was in the service with is still alive.”
“They didn’t make it, but they paved the way for me to make it,” Larson continued. “I want to make sure that those guys that are up there – they sacrificed their life – I want them to know that we all appreciate what they did, and this is my way of doing it.”
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