Memorial Day Thoughts

Mostly about Productivity

How did we win WWII?

There are many answers to that question, but one of the answers resonates very strongly with me. We won because we had the military might to win the war. Before you say “yeah, duh!”, let me explain. Our military might was strongly based on the ability to produce military supplies.

Let’s look at a timeline.

June 30, 1939, was just before the time that WWII began in Europe. At that point, the United States had a total of 394 active warships, which included 127 destroyers and 5 aircraft carriers.

(Data from Naval Ship and Heritage Command website.)

By Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, we had 790 active warships, including seven regular carriers and one escort carrier. (Ships named “escort” were smaller ships, usually designed for convoy escort duty.) Before Pearl Harbor Day, the United States was already taking part in the Battle of the Atlantic by having some American ships on convoy escort duty.

Let’s look ahead to the end of the war. On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the surrender documents, officially ending the war. On August 14,1945 (VJ Day), America had 6768 active warships, including 28 full-size carriers, 71 escort carriers, and 377 destroyers.

In 1939, the United States had 334,000 in the armed forces. According to Wikipedia, the United States had 12 million men and women in the armed forces at the end of WWII.

September 1945 in Tokyo Bay.

My husband was a kindergarten child when the Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Hundreds of Allied ships were in Tokyo Bay for the signing. By my rough count from the Naval History article, there were 48 destroyers and 10 destroyer escorts in Tokyo Bay. Later, George served on the destroyer USS Wedderburn, which was at Tokyo Bay the day of the signing. The Wedderburn is pictured at the head of this post, near its home port of San Diego.

As the signing ceremonies ended, 450 airplanes from the carriers flew over the ships. Then huge Superfortress B-29 bombers flew over. According to reports, the Japanese were very impressed with the number of ships and planes the Allies still had, after fighting a war. (Photo at the end of this post.)

Fighters and Materials and Willpower

To win a war, a country needs fighters, materials and will power.

Leaving WWII for a moment, I think back to high school, where our senior-year social studies teacher had us do a class project about the Civil War. Each student was assigned a state, and we had to get a map of the state as it was in 1830. Then we used tracing paper to make overlays to show railroads and canals being built (one overlay for every ten years until 1860). A separate overlay for the growth of towns. Finally, we had discussion day, where each of us presented “our” state to the whole class.

The differences were incredible. The Northern States were building railroads, canals, towns. The Southern States seemed stuck, with little growth in population or infrastructure.

This type of research was very hard in those days. We had to get special permission to use the University of Chicago libraries. We were seniors in high school, not college students. (I am always grateful for the Internet!) The presentations took too long. They spilled over into the next day of class.

When we finally finished our presentations the following day, the teacher asked us to guess, just from our work, which side would win a civil war.

That was an easy question. It was clear that the North would win. They had the factories and the infrastructure. They had attracted immigrants that swelled their populations and armies. In contrast, the slave states were not a destination for most immigrants, and slaves were not recruited into the Confederate Armies.

If the various states had done this project in 1860, perhaps they would not need to have fought the Civil War. The results were predictable before it started.

Memorial Day Today

I am not a pundit who predicts world events. And yet, looking at the immense effort the Allies made to win WWII, I wonder if we could do it again. In many ways, we are set to do so. We still have a large population. We have the raw materials: for example, America is the currently one of the world’s greatest producer of hydrocarbons.

Would we still have the will to succeed, if we needed to mount such an effort again? I don’t know.

The America of WWII was a deeply imperfect society. For example, the Armed Services were segregated. That is a shame to America forever, in my opinion. We are still an imperfect society. We need to remember, however, that it is not virtue that wins wars. It is bravery, sacrifice and productivity.

Memorial Day remembrance

For me, this is a day to remember the people of WWII who fought for our country on battlefields and in factories. To realize the flaws in the people of those days….and to try to be worthy of their many virtues. To realize that it took bravery AND productivity to win the war.

In remembrance of our war and factory heroes.

In special honor and memory of my uncle Phil Vision and George’s father and George’s cousins.