Tuesday, September 4, 1945

THE END. With today’s posts, I bid farewell to this blog.

When I began keeping this blog in March of 1939, some 3,287 postings ago, I intended to record a few highlights and comments on what I airily hoped would be a European crisis of perhaps a few more months’ duration. The alternative of all-out war seemed too dire to contemplate. I remember an article in Radio Times from May of that year, postulating how an all-out Nazi air raid of London would be reported on the airwaves, with sensationalistic bulletins of "thousands" killed. That seems so quaint now. We have traveled a terrible distance since then, and for all the horrors we’ve seen, heard of, and read, we’ve avoided the one unspeakable horror, that of defeat. And we now live in an America that is, both for better and for worse, profoundly different than the one we have ever known in our history. There will be no "return to normalcy" this time. We are now a full partner with the other great nations of the world, and must remain so.

Our world has come to a place where we have never known such potential terror, or such hope. The two walk hand-in-hand. The atom bomb is for now in America’s custody, but a future dictator will surely have such weapons, or worse ones, easily enough to wreck civilization completely. Yet, with the coming birth of the United Nations as a peace-time organization, we will have the all the great powers joined together for the first time in history, and given an opportunity to put an end to war on a large scale.

Such an effort has never succeeded before. But it has never had such incentive.

posted by Michael 8:26:00 AM

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THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. A fitting way to close would be to quote General MacArthur’s concluding remarks at the surrender ceremony --

"A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concept of war. Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start, workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military alliance, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advance in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the last 2,000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh."

Let us all work and pray to "save the flesh," in the challenging years ahead.

posted by Michael 8:20:00 AM

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Sunday, September 2, 1945

THE DAY OF SURRENDER. The official signing onboard the U.S.S. Missouri was certainly the grandest ceremony held anywhere in the world since this war began six years ago yesterday. But how pathetic -- and how appropriately so -- were the last duties of a statesman on behalf of the once-haughty Axis. Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signed on behalf of Hirohito, and Homer Bigart writes eloquently in today’s New York Herald Tribune of what this small, gnarled man was called upon to do --

"If the memories of the bestialities of the Japanese prison camps were not so fresh in mind one might have felt sorry for Shigemitsu as he hobbled on his wooden leg toward the green baize covered table where the papers lay waiting. He leaned heavily on his cane and had difficulty seating himself. The cane, which he rested against the table, dropped to the deck of the battleship as he signed."

The whole thing proceeded in a calm and orderly manner -- the signatures by represenatives of the nine allies at hand, the signatures from our former enemy, the opening and concluding addresses by General MacArthur in his capacity as Supreme Commander. It was actually pretty anti-climactic. Though President Truman took pains to proclaim that this was the "real" V-J Day, it sure didn’t feel like the "real" anything. The New York Times noted this morning that the Times Square crowds during the ceremony were "no larger than an average Saturday night," and nobody seemed to seize upon this as a chance to do another round of wild celebrating. I think for most people V-J Day came in the unbelievable burst of pent-up joy on that day when the news was first flashed to the world. Strangely enough, it’s kind of old hat by now.

The Times also says today that automobile traffic for the Labor Day weekend is close to the 1941 level, and that gas is "plentiful." Now there’s some real news.

posted by Michael 11:01:00 AM

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"IT WAS THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY..." It was interesting how President Truman’s radio speech last night seemed to frame World War II as an ideological war between democracy and dictatorship. It’s something we heard plenty from the Roosevelt administration when the war was still a European conflict, but much less so after Soviet Russia became an ally. It sounds refreshing hearing it again. The best of the President’s words --

"This was a victory of more than arms alone. This is a victory of liberty over tyranny. . . . It was the spirit of liberty which gave us our armed strength and which made our men invincible in battle. We now know that that spirit of liberty, the freedom of the individual, and the personal dignity of man, are the strongest and toughest and most enduring forces in all the world. And so on V-J Day we take renewed faith and pride in our own way of life. We have had our day of rejoicing over this victory. We have had our day of prayer and devotion. Now let us set aside V-J Day as one of renewed consecration to the principles which have made us the strongest nation on earth and which, in this war, we have striven so mightily to preserve. . . . Liberty does not make all men perfect nor all society secure. But it has provided more solid progress and happiness and decency for more people than any other philosophy of government in history. And this day has shown again that it provides the greatest strength and the greatest power which man has ever reached. We know that under it we can meet the hard problems of peace which have come upon us. A free people with free allies, who can develop an atomic bomb, can use the same skill and determination to overcome all the difficulties ahead. . . . God’s help has brought us to this day of victory. With His help we will attain that peace and prosperity for ourselves and all the world in the years ahead."

posted by Michael 10:56:00 AM

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A QUICK-DRAW DUCK. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Houston, duck-hungry Stanley J. Bonner was shot in the knee, by a duck which collided with his pistol hand."

posted by Michael 10:52:00 AM

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