Letter: ‘We stood united as one people’

Published 10:47 am Tuesday, September 1, 2020

To the Editor:

On this day, Sept. 2, 75 years ago, it was finally over. World War II would be sealed in the pages of history as the Japanese signed the surrender documents on board the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Weeks earlier, two bombs, code named Little Boy and Fat Man, shocked the world with their devastating atomic blasts. The emperor of Japan, viewed by his people as a deity, was heard for the first time via radio, “We must endure the unendurable,” and unconditionally surrendered. The fighting was over.

George Barber of Beech Creek (died in 1999) was a boarding officer on the Missouri and witnessed the ceremony. The Japanese envoy was met by ranks of the tallest men in the Navy. It was a solemn occasion as one by one the victors and vanquished affixed their signatures to the surrender document. General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander, intoned, “These proceedings are over.”

America had been blindsided at Pearl Harbor and was at war with not only Japan, but Germany as well. Sixteen million men and women would be in uniform and many millions more serving on the home front, producing the myriad items necessary to wage war. In all, 416,800 would die, and 671,278 would be wounded. It was a terrible toll for this country to bear. The cost to the world was over 70 million dead.

But for three years, eight months and six days, we stood united as one people, patriotic Americans with no division as to our allegiance to each other and nation. Perhaps our finest moment. How we yearn for that once again.

Dave Traylor

John Day