Pearl Harbor times two

Like all Americans my age I remember exactly where I was when I first heard the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. It was unusually warm on that Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 . Some of my friends and I had just emerged from a matinee at the Plains Theater in Plainview.

Another friend rushed up to us on the sidewalk and blurted out the news that Japanese planes had just attacked Pearl Harbor. Ordinarily we probably would not have known just where Pearl Harbor was, but the movie we had just seen was a light-hearted film about the peacetime Navy and some of the action was supposed to have taken place in Pearl Harbor, so we felt that we knew just where those ships were located.

There was a good bit of discussion (on the teenage level) about what the attack would mean for our country. Somebody mentioned war, but we really had no idea about what war was, or how it would affect our lives. Then we all headed for home, to get some explanation from our folks who (as it turned out) really had no good answers to our questions.

There was no TV of course, but we listened to Edward R. Murrow and other commentators on the radio until late that night, then went to bed to troubled sleep. (My wife, Jean, says that for weeks after Pearl Harbor she had nightmares that Japanese planes were crashing into the grove in back of their Wisner farm home.)

The next day the entire school was herded into the high school auditorium to hear President Roosevelt's "This Day Will Live In Infamy" speech. In this speech he made the declaration of war on the Japanese and the Nazi Germans, and outlined a bit about the united effort, which would be required of us all, and the sacrifices that the American people would be called upon to make to assure the victory that would again bring peace to the world. In those days there were no grief counselors in the schools, but our Junior High Principal did take pains to reassure us that the United States was strong that we were safe from invasion, and that though it might take awhile we would win out eventually.

It didn't take long to see that our lives had changed. During those years the country came together as never before. It was as if everyone felt the need to contribute to the war effort on a personal level. Boys rushed to enlist and the draft board began to select boys to serve. We got used to the rationing of gasoline, sugar and other commodities. We had a civil defense committee, which organized mock air raid alerts and made detailed plans for dealing with any emergency. We bought bonds and gave blood. Scrap iron pick up drives took place and people were urged to plant "Victory Gardens." And worst of all, those dreaded telegrams began to arrive -- "We regret to inform you -- ". In a small town these killed and missing boys were relatives or friends. Plainview, a town of 1,400, suffered a disproportionate number of casualties in the war (22), but no city or town was immune. The war went on so long that most families had a relative or close friend who was killed or wounded in combat.

Then came September 11, 2001. As the news of the terrorist attacks on the Trade Towers unfolded that morning I was struck with the same feeling as with the Pearl Harbor bombings -- fear I suppose, but a hopeless, empty feeling in my stomach -- then rage, that such a thing could happen to the United States -- again.

It was immediately apparent that our world had changed. Our President put us on a war footing, but this is different from 1941. Then we knew exactly whom it was we were fighting. In 2001 our enemy has no face. We just know we are fighting terrorists and somehow that seems even more sinister. We all know we are in for a long fight and that we will all be called upon to make sacrifices, but what?

As one of our officials said, "It's like fighting mosquitoes. If you swat 1,000 mosquitoes another 1,000 will immediately appear. What we need to do is drain the swamp." What it takes to "Drain the Swamp" will be revealed to us in the next months and years. In the meantime we can take comfort in the fact that Americans have become united -- in our grief and in our resolve in a manner we have not seen, probably since the days of World War II -- the politicians, the religious leaders, the men and women on the street. And the support from civilized countries around the globe has been heartwarming. Let us hope that this unity will last. Together we can put our broken world back together, to restore that time when our children could go to sleep at night unafraid. I think we will succeed.