- If you respond, please help keep this thread from turning into a pit or GD one, thanks.*
In the wake of all how heavily the first anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy is weighing on our minds, I wonder what it was like a year after another national tragedy- the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Was it a day of mourning, or did life go on as usual? Was the media of the day (radio, newspapers) all over it, or was it ignored? If the day was treated differently than Wednesday promises to be, which do you think is more respectful of the dead and their loved ones?
I asked my mother this, and she said, “we were at war, we didn’t have time to stop and pay any attention to anniversaries. Besides, we didn’t have TV back then.” I told her, “I think we’re at war now,” and she sniffed, “Oh, I mean a real war.”
I was running around in short pants, but the way I remember the adults acting was pretty much like what Eve’s mother said. The war was a big part of everyone’s life. Even at that young age I knew a lot about what was going on, because there was always something to remind you of the war. As to the remark about a “real war” that is probably the same thing that Civil War vets said to those fighting WWII: different times, different wars.
I think it shows something that I didn’t really think of the difference that being in a “real war” would make in regards to how much attention an anniversary would get. There hasn’t been US involvement in a major war since before I was born (the draft for Vietnam ended about two years before I was born) so it’s harder to conceptualize how all consuming living through a “real” war would be; to be frank, I’m thankful for that.
I was talking again to my mother about this last night, and she said, “You know, the general public was not told every little detail, like they are now. We didn’t know about a lot of what was going on in Europe until after the war; the internment of the Japanese Americans wasn’t in the papers or on the radio—we never even saw Roosevelt in a wheelchair!” And Mom worked for the Navy and Air Force, so she was pretty up on the news.
Partly cloudy, highs in the mid-50’s, light winds from the Southwest. What, you didn’t remember?
Okay, I’ll shut up now.
If I recall correctly, um, I wasn’t born yet.
So I wouldn’t know.
This column by Patt Morrison in the Los Angeles Times talks about this.
I don’t recall anything special that was done, or that happened that day. At least not were I lived.