I’ve never gotten to experience anything quite like it. It happened prior to my lifetime. It seems incomprehensible, considering the climate of political, racial, religious and financial divisions that exist today.
Yet there once was a time when the United States was completely unified and of one mind and purpose. I was reminded of it during the recent Memorial Day weekend as I watched a documentary about World War Two. Sadly, it took war to bring the nation together in a way it has not seen again in the last eighty years.
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese conducted a bombing raid on Pearl Harbor. As President Roosevelt announced the horrifying results on the radio, the country was shocked to learn that 2,403 military personnel and civilians had been killed. 1,178 others were injured. The attack forced the U.S. into doing what it had been trying desperately to avoid, entering the massive war which had been ongoing in Europe.
Watching the old videos, I was seized by a wave of sadness over the loss of life, but I was also struck by how the event galvanized the American people in a profound way. Suddenly, nobody cared whether you were conservative or liberal, black or white, Christian or Muslim, rich or poor. Now there was a common enemy. An evil force that had to be stopped at all costs. A genuine threat to our democracy and way of life. A compelling sense that Americans were all in this together.
Millions of young men voluntarily enlisted in the military to fight for their country and risk their lives in combat. Others were drafted. By 1945 more than sixteen million men and women had served during the war. Back home, Americans dug into their wallets and bank accounts and purchased $180 billion worth of war bonds to support the troops. 85 million people took part in the sales, despite the average annual income at the time being just $2,000 a year.
Before the war, women in the workforce were sparse. Most married women were housewives. But with their husbands overseas engaged in battle, the women came out of their homes and diligently worked in the factories and shipyards, helping produce machinery and weaponry in support of the effort, spawning the iconic “Rosie the Riveter” symbol. The war likely could not have been won without them.
Even Hollywood was unified to the cause. Movie producers put out encouraging newsreels and fundraising videos which were shown in theaters before the main feature. The time was considered a golden era for filmmaking, as many movies came out depicting the bravery and success of the Allied soldiers. Stars such as Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Henry Fonda put their careers on pause and enlisted in the military. Oh, and one other star, a fellow by the name of Ronald Reagan, did as well. Bob Hope was a major radio celebrity and movie star at the time. He tried to enlist, but the government told him he was more valuable as the leader of a band of entertainers that travelled throughout war zones entertaining soldiers and boosting morale.
The war was not going well in the first years of U.S. involvement, but the collective will and drive of the American people, both in and out of the military, simply wouldn’t allow failure to be an option. The victorious but costly Normandy landing in 1944 is broadly considered to be the turning point in the Allies favor. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. Japan followed on September 2 of that year. The victory resulted in an unprecedented celebration in our land. More than two million euphoric people flooded Times Square in New York, where there was dancing and confetti and people kissing everybody in sight. Strangers embracing without reference to their differences. The Chicago Tribune reported that a man climbed a ladder to light an 18-foot-tall solid wax victory candle that had taken three months to make. In downtown Chicago, a half-million people crowded into the Loop, singing and dancing down the main streets. In the South, overjoyed folks ran into the streets of Birmingham, Atlanta and New Orleans, singing and shouting and hugging.
What a time that must have been. What an incredible feeling of unity and pride in America must have swept through the hearts of the people. It was the clearest example of what this great nation can achieve when it is united. As tragic as the war was, more than 70 million people lost their lives worldwide, I find there somehow is a part of me that wishes I had been there. I can imagine there must have been intense grieving for the lost, but at least a partially redeeming sense that the deaths had meaning, that these brave soldiers helped save a planet from despotic, inhuman rule. That they were, indeed, heroes all. I can’t shake the feeling that I missed something special and rare. What must it have been like to share in that tidal wave of patriotism, with no petty bickering or partisan slander.
World War Two ended six years before I was born. It’s getting harder and harder to find those who experienced it. As of early 2025, less than one percent of the veterans from that war are still with us. I’m trying to remember a moment in my lifetime when our country had that kind of bond, that kind of devoted focus together. Nothing comes to mind. There were glimpses of it, such as the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, the response at the outbreak of Covid. But the harmony quickly melted away under the heat of political accusations and hateful mistrust. I wonder if America will ever achieve the unanimity of the early 1940s again.
I also shudder at the thought of what event might have to take place to inspire it.
