Our old friend William Campenni is a retired engineer and a 33-year Air Force/Air National Guard fighter pilot. He served in the same Texas Air National Guard as President Bush and has exposed the absurdities of the CBS News “New Questions on Bush Guard Duty” story several times over (most recently, here). Bill writes to memorialize V-J Day:
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Today — August 15 — marks the 80th anniversary of the surrender of Japan. Actually, it was August 15 in Japan, but more accurately August 14 on this side of the Date Line. And yet today I can find little notice or commemoration of this date. It was probably the zenith of American power and patriotism, which has been an exponentially decreasing quotient ever since.
There is a personal component to this day. I was five-year-old visiting relatives in suburban New Jersey and my mom decided to take me over to the City to see a Giants game at the Polo Grounds. (We were Yankee fans, but they were out of town that day.)
On the subway segment to the Jersey PATH trains after the game, mom decided to stop at a now long-defunct Childs restaurant in mid-town for a quick supper. So we get off at the Times Square subway stop and come up to the street to be greeted by probably a million, give or take another half million, people yelling and dancing and celebrating. It was a terrifying scene for a runty little five-year-old. I asked mom what was going on and she read off the moving electric news sign on the Times building “The War is over! The War is over!”
When you see that historic photo of the million(s) jammed into Times Square on V-J Day, yep, that’s me right there. No, not that sailor guy – that little speck over by the copy of the Statue of Liberty at the far end.
Even for a little kid, the importance of that moment was not lost. My uncles and cousins and neighbor dads were coming home. (My own dad had already done his share getting his right lung and seven ribs blown out years earlier in the Argonne Forest.) The V-Mails with censored mark-outs would become real birthday cards and letters. The Blue and Red Stars in the windows would be retired to the family treasure chest. The ration books would be tossed.
Most of all, there would be no more telegrams opening with the dreaded “I regret to inform you . . .”, no more stars in the window being changed to Gold.
That euphoria and pride and thanksgiving that August now seem so far away. Save for some minor excursions in outposts like Grenada and Panama, we no longer have wars where V-days can be applied. Even where and when our warriors have been successful on the battlefield, in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, their victories have been squandered by the media-political complex into ties and losses. It seems like we even squandered the Cold War victory.
Today I can’t conceive of a scenario where that euphoria, that unity, and sense of accomplishment of a difficult job well-done will ever come again. A unified nation willing to take on all challenges is so remote. Now our adversaries are not only without, but within, foreign and domestic. A major political party and its near-half of the citizenry seems intent on destroying all that is good to slake its thirst for power.
Today, a scan of the media shows nearly none of the that historic day will be remembered or solemnly celebrated.
Few will have the joy that I was so lucky to experience on that wonderful day in 1945.
It was “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There” in one glorious medley. You should have been there.
