And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus
... that I came of age, so to speak, during World War II, being seven when it started and 11 when it ended. My memories of that time are mostly childish in nature. For example, I remember such things as the huge mountain of newspapers at the southeast corner of my school, gathered for the war effort. And I remember taking dimes down the school corridor to a table where Postmistress Theresa Moroney would sell us stamps, which, when a book was filled, turned into a war bond.
It is common to call those who were adults during that 1941-1945 period “the greatest generation.” What I was taught, or at least what was suggested, led me not to doubt the accuracy of that assessment. Not through high school and college and introduction to Navy service. It truly was “all for one, and one for all” during the war, I believed.
But as later wars or police actions or armed conflicts succeeded each other, some historians began to note that all was not as suggested. The actions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in particular came more and more under scrutiny, and as those who participated in that war began to die away, with nothing in the way of recrimination effective any longer, I started to read and hear things which began to color my view.
I noted here before that I was reading Maury Klein’s big book, “A Call to Arms” which covers the mobilization of the nation for WWII. It is almost 900 pages long and has a lengthy bibliography and 75 pages of “notes.” For those with an interest in the history of that period, be warned statistics and numbers make it a difficult read. It’s too bad there isn’t a “Cliff Notes” treatment.
No groups and few individuals come out unscathed in Klein’s work. Labor unions and greedy businessmen and corporations were often not only warring against each other, but often engaged in actions against the national interest, i.e., the war effort. Ditto for some career politicians, who put personal advancement to higher positions ahead of the greater interest.
“Patriotic” citizens had no trouble setting up and patronizing black markets to avoid rationing’s rigors. Groups lobbied heavily to keep their husbands and sons safe from draft boards.
Klein reminds us of such things as the huge migration of rural citizens to southern and western cities where there were jobs in the war industries, and the same for southern minorities who came north looking for jobs in plants engaged in production of wartime vehicles. Most of them remained where they were after the war.
And he describes the entry into the work force for the first time of thousands of women, who competed with and worked side-by-side with men. That changed their roles and their attitudes, and they, too, continued working outside the home and not just in “girlie” jobs.
The nation won the war, but perhaps lost a lot more than the 300,000 who died. Survivors, including those of us who were children, lost innocence.
