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Letter: A Pearl Harbor Day plea

To the Editor:

I write this on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day for those of us who were old enough to recall the events of that Sunday in 1941, a “day of infamy” as FDR proclaimed to Congress and the world. A joint session of Congress unanimously declared war the next day. America had entered World War II and committed itself to a total wartime footing.

Young and not-so-young men stretched in long lines to sign up to join the fight. “Rosie the Riveter” showed up to build the tanks, planes, ships, and material needed to fight a two-ocean war. She learned to drive, work shift work in the factories, had her own money, kept the home and family running and never looked back. World War II emancipated the American housewife!

I remember it all, from Hitler’s prewar tirades over shortwave radio to the frantic newscasters on WOR radio announcing the attack and the early successes of the Japanese army in the Pacific: Wake Island, the Philippines, and the Aleutian Islands.