Friday, December 8, 2017

Pearl Harbor Day. World War 2 and the American Spirit

Yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day. Mostly forgotten now, although we remembered it pretty well for many years. More than we remembered 9/11, really. I remember telling Emily after 9/11 how soon the horrible memory would fade from the American interest. It's how we are today, every hot event fading into the next news cycle.

I was only age 3 at the time so I don't remember the event, but the war went on for 4 more years so I do have memories of the times. In fact probably one of my earliest vague memories was of an air raid drill where my mother had to turn off the lights and pull the shades at our house in Pittston. I couldn't have been much more than 4 then.

That war was definitely different from those of today in that it wasn't fought by the military alone. Since then we've had "guns and butter", but not then. The whole population was intensely involved. Things back home were rationed since they were needed for the war effort. I can remember the gas ration stamps which entitled you to only so much unless you were needed for a critical job. Many other things were rationed, rubber, butter, nylon stockings and on and on. Auto plants were converted to manufacturing tanks and planes, so forget new cars. Sports were suspended since all the players went to war. The culture changed. Women went to work instead of staying home to replace the drafted men.

The whole country pulled together. There had been plenty of anti-war sentiment before Pearl Harbor, probably the majority. After the experience of WW1 nobody wanted to get involved in the crazy internecine feuds of the Europeans. But a deadly sneak attack in those days didn't sit well with the Americans. They didn't weep and wail and put up memorials. They got mad!  And FDR, regardless of what you may think of his social programs, was a superb wartime leader. As was his friend Churchill.

After Pearl Harbor, men didn't try to escape the draft, they enlisted. Even if you were afraid you would never admit it because it was  your duty. And for some there was even a certain feeling of excitement to get away from home, which for most at that time wouldn't have happened otherwise. It happened to my 2 uncles, who with both parents dead, enlisted as teenagers to see the world. One, my uncle Ross, came home with a Purple Heart and that meant something then. People proudly displayed their service. A blue star on your window meant you had a son in the military and a gold star was for a son who wasn't coming back. Such families grieved but with pride. The media and the entertainers didn't undermine the war, they promoted the effort. The movies mocked Hitler and Tojo, and esteemed military heros like Audie Murphy. They made movies like the Flying Tigers. And the entertainers volunteered like Jimmie Stewart; some never to come back like Glenn Miller. The government urged us to grow victory gardens and save tin cans.

We knew who was our enemy and put it right out there. I can remember in first grade making stick drawings of "Jap" planes being shot down by the red, white and blue. The war was fought with ferocity, all out and everybody contributed. And the industrial output of everybody working together overwhelmed 2 mighty enemies on 2 continents. It was fought to the finish in 4 years. It's a long time ago and I was little but I can remember the elation of VJ Day.

Today we're at each other's throats. War is some distant event, not even raising the interest of the TV cameras. 9/11 15 years later stirs up little fuss except for 1 day a year. It's pathetic really when you think about it as we should today.