The Briar Philosopher - That's the Way it Was

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my recent quest to find older things to go in our Out of the Past section. I was thrilled early this year to find that our 1942 edition was in good enough condition to glean stories and pictures from. It is like stepping back in time. The little stories and pictures really transport you to a point in this nation's history that was like no other. This was a time when the entire country came together as one nation, one people, all dedicated to doing their part to defeat the rise of fascism across the globe. 

We hear the word fascism thrown around a lot, but it’s important to understand what we were united against. I found this description to be helpful. It’s from a site called “World 101” that delves into the history of our nation. “Many experts agree that fascism is a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of the nation over the individual. This model of government stands in contrast to liberal democracies that support individual rights, competitive elections, and political dissent. In many ways, fascist regimes are revolutionary in nature. They advocate for the overthrow of existing systems of government and the persecution of political enemies. However, such regimes are also highly conservative in their championing of traditional values.
And although fascist leaders typically claim to support the everyman, in reality, their regimes often align with powerful business interests.”

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were the fascist regimes in question during WWII, and they made it clear that it was their plan to spread their form of government across the globe. We and our Allies made it clear that we didn’t intend to let that happen. Though the US had long been somewhat isolationist when it came to entering global conflicts, we could not stand idly by when it became obvious that our democracy and our lives were potentially at stake. At the time, we didn’t have industry in place to provide for a huge push into the war effort, but once the will and cooperation of the people were ensured, the “sleeping giant” awoke. In what would now be considered a very short period of time, we built factories, machinery, weapons of war, planes, ships, bombs, vehicles, ammunition - everything that was needed to ensure our soldiers had the best of everything needed to enter into the fray. Men enlisted in droves, and women took over factory jobs. The famous “Rosie the Riveter” was born. 

It wasn’t just soldiers and workers who gave of themselves for the cause. Every man, woman, and child was touched by the effort. Practically everything was rationed so that goods would be available for the War Effort. From tires to coffee, one could only get so much and had to produce a stamp showing they were entitled to it. Families here in Jackson County were encouraged to try to grow enough food on an annual basis to feed their families throughout the year so that other food supplies could be used to feed troops abroad. People were encouraged to save their anti-freeze from one year to the next because the components used to make it were being used in explosives, and it couldn’t be guaranteed that there would be any anti-freeze to purchase the following year. We are so used to having whatever we want at our fingertips, it's hard to imagine being down to your last cup of coffee and knowing you couldn’t buy any more until the next round of ration stamps came through. But people didn't complain. They knew that even that cup of coffee they were missing was helping their nation defeat the scourge of fascism. 

All of that is enough, in and of itself, but what really got to me was reading about the hospitals nearby that were designated and trained to receive war wounded should the conflict come home to us. It’s hard to think of our not very distant ancestors sitting around the radio or huddled around the woodstove at a country store listening to or reading the reports of the war and thinking, when will it come here? Am I safe? Are my children safe? What do we do if the bombs start falling? Where will we go?  Except for Pearl Harbor, the war never reached the shores of the us as far as bombing or hand-to-hand combat was concerned, but there was a very real chance that it would. Hitler showed no signs of slowing down his attempt to create what he called a “New World Order” in which he and his allies would have supreme command over the globe, bringing with it the same “cleansing” of those thought unworthy that was happening in Germany. People were being burned alive in ovens for no other reason than their religion, ethnic heritage, or worldview. Disagree with the Nazi party, and your life was in danger. Jews, priests, pastors, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled, homosexuals, and anyone who was ideologically opposed the the regime could find themselves forfeiting their lives.  The idea that such things could reach our shores must have been terrifying. 

The Boy and I were discussing how well-informed the common people might have been in the US during that time. It may seem that their fear wouldn’t have been so great since there was only radio and newspapers to keep them informed, and so they wouldn’t have known about it. 

I don’t believe that was the case.  WWII now seems such a long way away in time, and there are very few left alive today who lived through those times, but WWII ended just 18 years before I was born. It wasn’t thought of as ancient history when I was growing up, and people would have been far more interested in finding out what was going on. People would visit those who had radios and sit around it, hanging onto every word coming from President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat. The Jackson County Sun had extensive coverage of what was going on both here and abroad, and I’m sure that copies of the paper were carried in many a bibbed overall pocket to the conversations being held around woodstoves in country stores and restaurants and other places where folks tended to gather. There is a very good chance that the people of that time were better informed than we are today. Though we have tons of information coming at us from all directions, many of us are too distracted with our daily struggles to give the condition of their county, let alone their country of the world, much more than a passing nod. When you read in the paper that the local Air Raid Wardens have been named, you have to believe that an Air Raid is possible.  You have to know how quickly you can get to your root cellar, if you have supplies to sustain you, if you could escape to another area of the country. 

These things seem foreign to us now. We, as a nation, have been fortunate not to taste the threat of actual attack very often. 9/11 was the first time we were attacked on US soil since Pearl Harbor. But we were willing to answer our nation's call as well as the call of the world to rise up and help defeat fascism in 1942.  It is easy to think of all that as long ago, and it is easy to think that such things can’t happen now. It would be a mistake to think so. Fascism is still around and down through history for thousands of years. Every attempt to sustain a democracy has eventually fallen into fascism within 500 years. We’re halfway there. Can we sustain our democratic ideals through the coming years? Of course we can, but it will take all of us deciding and agreeing together as we did then that Fascism will not be allowed to stand.