This week marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was on August 14, 1945, that Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender in a radio address to his nation that also was broadcast around the world. A few weeks later, General Douglas MacArthur and representatives from the Japanese government signed the papers that formalized Japan’s unconditional surrender on the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Japan’s surrender was preceded the week before by the dropping of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). Both of those bombs, which fell on targets of minimal (if any) military value, killed tens of thousands of civilians and caused radiation fallout that affected survivors and ensuing generations thereafter.
For those of us whose fathers and uncles served in combat roles in WWII, the marking of the 80th anniversary of the end of that conflagration is bittersweet. They were members of the Greatest Generation who answered the call to rid the world of the evil fascist governments who wreaked death and destruction across the globe, eventually drawing the United States into the conflict with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
However, our fathers and uncles have long since passed. It is estimated that of the 16 million Americans who served in WWII, only about 60,000 are still alive today — and if (God willing) we’re still around 10 years from now to write about the 90th anniversary of the end of the war, at most there will be only a handful of veterans, who will be approaching their 110th birthdays, who will still be around.
What is most striking to us about the era of the Greatest Generation is that it marked the only time in our nation’s history that our citizenry truly was united around a common cause. Even during the American Revolution, about 20% of Americans (known as the Tories) remained loyal to the British Crown. In the run-up to WWII, a substantial number of Americans actually identified as being sympathetic to Hitler and the Nazis, and the country was split 50/50 as to whether we should provide arms to England when it stood alone against Hitler. (President Franklin D. Roosevelt eventually persuaded Congress to approve arms shipments to England with the Lend-Lease Act.)
Our country’s unity has been fraying slowly but surely over the past 80 years, leaving us where we are today: A nation that is far from a “United” States that is segregated into red and blue states. When Americans recently were polled as to whether they would approve of their child marrying a person who belonged to a different political party, only four percent said it would be okay. Politics has supplanted race, ethnic background, and religion as the driving force of division among Americans.
So let us salute the brave Americans who overcame the evil that existed in the world 80 years ago. We never should forget that their sacrifices enabled America to become the greatest nation on earth for those of us who are alive today — their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.