By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
In the years before World War II, Americans were aware of the conflicts that were happening overseas, but they were determined to stay out of them. George Washington had urged the nation to avoid taking sides in international affairs, and that sentiment had endured. The country’s involvement in World War I, known then as the “Great War,” had not accomplished much besides getting a lot of people killed. The Great Depression had only recently ended.
Given all that, it’s not surprising that many Americans wanted to stay out of the latest in a thousand years of European wars. Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was an outspoken leader of the 800,000-member America First Committee. As explained by the National World War II Museum’s website, one poll in January 1940 found 88% of Americans opposed to declaring war against the European Axis powers led by Germany.
In fact, some Americans were on Germany’s side. Some of German descent formed the German American Bund, which drew 20,000 people to a rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939, along with lots of protesters outside of it.
Sentiment shifted as Americans witnessed Germany’s bombing campaign against the British. By April 1941, 68% favored going to war against the Axis if there were no other way to defeat them. At that point, Americans were divided.
It wasn’t until Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, that outraged Americans finally united behind the war effort. Congress declared war on Japan with only one opposing vote. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States declared war on Germany and Italy.
For the next four years, Americans sacrificed much to win the war. Young men and women went overseas, and more than 400,000 of them did not return alive. Those included my uncle, Wayne Bledsoe of Wynne, a pilot who died when his plane crashed in bad weather in France. Almost 700,000 were wounded. Americans also made great personal sacrifices at home to conserve vital supplies such as food and rubber for the war effort.
These sacrifices were possible because they were all in it together, though not equally. African Americans were still second-class citizens no matter how bravely they fought, while Japanese Americans were sent to live in camps in places like Rohwer and Jerome in Arkansas. It was called the Greatest Generation, not the Perfect one.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was 79 years ago this month. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ran a profile of William Chase, 96, perhaps the last living Arkansan who survived it. Meanwhile, 2,403 of his fellow Americans did not.
Seventy-nine years and one day later, 2,566 new deaths by COVID-19 were reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Dec. 8. That’s 163 more people than died at Pearl Harbor. But there was no sense of national outrage or sorrow that day, just as there hasn’t been since this war began in March.
There probably won’t ever be. Americans are divided about this enemy – about how big a threat it is and how to fight against it.
But this time there will be no Pearl Harbor moment that pulls us together. We’ll see no images of burning ships sinking in a harbor from a sneak attack that abruptly changes our outlook. The deaths will occur one by one in closed, silent hospital rooms and will be reported to us by governors and health officials we either trust or we don’t. And it’s all being caused by something we can’t really be mad at. The virus is just doing what it does, with no ill intent.
The first of the vaccines have arrived in Arkansas. The counterattack has begun. World War II wasn’t won in a day, and neither will this one be. In the meantime, each household will have to decide how to handle all this.
I guess we’re in World War III. Once again, we’re all in this together. But, unfortunately, this time it’s probably never going to feel like it.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.