WWII Politics

Elizabeth:  What did you think about the politics surrounding WWII?  Were things as idealized as it is portrayed now?  Or were people more befuddled and confused about war and politics?  How do you compare it to the politics now?

You do realize that I was 7 yrs old when the war started and only 11 yrs old when it ended.  I did know more about the war than most kids who were my age because I delivered the newspapers from age 9 to age 11 and couldn't avoid the headlines.



 President Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, were often on the radio.  I think he gave a weekly "fireside chat" to the nation. 

We subscribed to Life magazine that covered a lot about the war.  Seeing this cover with the price 10 cents on it reminds me of a joke from my childhood.  It goes like this:  What's Life?  A Magazine.  How much does it cost?  Ten Cents.  I don't have ten cents.  That's tough.  What's tough?  Life.  What's Life?  A Magazine...... and the joke goes on forever.

We also went to the movies, because the church ran the "show house" and if you paid your ward budget, you got to go once a week for free.  Before the movie started they always ran a news reel that was mostly about the war.  It often had footage taken at the front lines and would show diagrammed maps of what was taking place.  In addition, many popular movies had plots associated with the war.

By "idealized" do you mean "united"?  If you do, I would have to say that "yes, the majority of people felt that the U.S. was doing the right thing."  

 Tojo

We had been attacked by Japan who was an ally of Germany and Germany was taking over most of Europe and threatening England, which we still identified as the source of our legal system as well as our language. 

Hitler

Almost everyone eligible was either drafted or volunteered to go.  


My father's youngest brother, Lincoln, was in the navy and was assigned to a submarine.   Since my mother was one of the youngest in her family some of her brothers were in World War I and were  too old to be drafted, but many of our cousins were in the armed services. At least three were killed during the war.   Conversation between relatives often centered on what was happening with these servicemen.  Being sort-of a nosy child and knowing many of these cousins personally, I listened to all of the adult conversation going on around me.  More than ten of my cousins served in the war. I will try and get pictures of them.

We sang a song called "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer."  In school we learned to sing all of the anthems of the various armed services groups...Anchors Aweigh,  The Marine Corps song,The Army Air Corps(as it was called then)song, and the Field artillery song.   One of my teachers would keep us informed about her son who was in the service.  Whenever she got a letter from him, we would have a little classroom party of some kind.  Roosevelt got elected to a fourth term.  I can still remember seeing a political cartoon where the message was about not changing horses mid-stream.  I think that people of both parties regarded him as "their" president.

Women and others took jobs in factories to help produce what was needed.  Food, clothing, and gasoline were all rationed.  People gathered up paper, tin foil, and scrap iron to help in the war effort. 

 People grew Victory Gardens to provide their own food. They canned food and sewed their own clothes.  People did all this and did not complain.  





Before Pearl Harbor, there were people opposed to getting involved in Europe's problems but afterwards, it became obvious that we couldn't avoid getting into it.

  
The public did not know that Roosevelt was wheelchair bound.   No pictures were allowed to be taken of him in a wheel chair or as he was lifted from place to place.He was always pictured standing and sometimes walking (two secret service men were supporting his weight walking on either side of him) but you never saw his feet in the walking pictures.  Everyone knew he had polio and we had a March of Dimes drive every year to donate for polio, but it was assumed that he had recovered.  I think we knew that he had braces on his legs (We still have the March of Dimes but they have since changed it's purpose to birth defects I think.)  It is interesting to me that the new  memorial for him at the mall shows him in a wheel chair. 

  America's work ethic and natural resources allowed America to win the war.  It brought out the best in almost everyone.  Of course, there were some who sold things on the Black Market and perhaps others who cheated on government contracts, but for the most part, Americans felt good about their country and were proud of what America could do.  It was a time when patriotism was uppermost in almost all school, church and civic activities.  Most of  what I know about this comes from books and magazines read when I was older, just like for you.  During the war, I really was just a child and had only a limited perspective and nothing to compare it with. 

I have since lived through the Cold War, as well as the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Middle East, Afghanistan, and Iraq.   Times have changed in communication technology, in journalistic ethics, and in how students are taught about history.  To acknowledge that America isn't perfect in all ways seems to give some people the justification to put America's unique goodness aside or to say that all cultural differences are equally valid and that none are better than any other.    As a senior citizen, I feel that America is still a great country, but I will have to agree with you that many people are confused and befuddled and seem to have disparate agendas that may not be compatible with each other. 

This is a 4th of July party idea book,  typical of the illustration from my childhood. 

I will end this"Fourth of July " speech. I don't know if anything I said could be of interest to you.   I'll write another blog later describing what I can remember about the specifics of the War as it affected me as a child in a little Arizona community called Snowflake, Arizona.