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| Looking back at our nation after the Pearl Harbor attack |
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| Opinion | |||
| Written by Jan Sykes | |||
| Wednesday, 09 December 2009 08:00 | |||
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With our overstuffed Christmas schedule, we often rush right by an earlier December date: the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 12-7. We seldom pause and reflect, even though that event had far worse consequences than this generation’s 9-11.  With America already fighting Hitler and Mussolini in Europe, 12-7 affected every single person. Most families had a family member sent somewhere in the world to fight. My own dad was spared from the draft throughout WWII. He had a ministerial deferment. At first, his younger brother, Orville, had an occupational deferment. Orville was at home on the ranch, and food was considered a national necessity. However, when big wages unloading ships lured Orville to Oregon, he was immediately drafted. Orville was sent to Germany to follow the front lines and send Morse Code messages about their statuses. Orville never told my dad a single story of the carnage he saw everywhere he looked. There was no post-traumatic-syndrome treatment for any returning soldiers. The soldiers were expected to cope on their own — and they did. A few months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, my dad helped build barracks for a Japanese internment camp. Dad never second guessed the ethics. Ethnic profiling was the rule of the day. Roosevelt wanted all Japanese American civilians rounded up, dragged away from their businesses and homes, and safely locked away for the duration of the war with Japan. He took no chances as to which ones could be trusted or not. Unfortunately, none of the homes or businesses were returned to the Japanese Americans after Japan surrendered. The camp doors simply opened, and the Japanese walked out. Although Dad now laments the atrocity committed to the Japanese Americans in the name of national security, there sure was no Fort Hood incident, which today’s political correctness allowed. Instantly on 12-7, Roosevelt placed a freeze on selling any large hardware products so the hardware could be used to make weapons for America’s overextended military. That included ringer washing machines, refrigerators, stoves, bicycles, tires, refrigerators, etc. Eventually, rationing was instituted. To regulate how much food in tin cans, butter, gasoline, etc. was sold, stamps were distributed. Merchants couldn’t sell anything needed for the soldiers to anyone without a stamp. To combat price gouging of the scarce supplies, Roosevelt froze all prices and wages. No new construction was allowed. A housing shortage followed. When Truman finally dropped the bomb on Japan ending the war, Dad, by then back in college to become a chaplain, cheered. The Japanese civilian collateral deaths were tragic, but the alternative was worse. America seemed safe until this generation’s 9-11. However, this time there is no geographical country to fight. Who and where is our enemy? President acts like we are the enemy. He apologizes for America’s having meddled in world affairs decades ago. He is closing GITMO. He bows to foreign thugs. He wants to subject our carbon footprint to an international standard. If he appeases the world, will it bring peace? The generation before us would have been outraged if anyone suggested they “invaded” and “occupied” foreign countries. They went to “liberate and “preserve” Europe and the Pacific. They have sent their sons and grandsons to continue to keep the peace on those same foreign soils. Seven decades later, there are still no “exit dates” in many of those liberated places. Obama was born in Hawaii, not far from Pearl Harbor. Will his own “war of necessity” in Afghanistan finally teach him the lessons he failed to learn from the bombings of his own home state?
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