In the last couple of months, as we have worked to add a new exhibit to our museum, I have spent a considerable amount of time studying the history of WWII.

 

I wasn't looking only for statistics. I was looking for the stories behind them. What I quickly discovered was that Americans understood winning the war would require far more than the courage of those serving on the battlefield. It would require an entire nation willing to sacrifice, serve and pull together for the greater good.

 

Families lived with rationing.  As men went to war, women went to work in factories. Children collected scrap metal, planted victory gardens and bought war stamps. Americans were repeatedly reminded that even small everyday actions mattered. President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the home front as a place “where everyone in the United States, every man, woman, and child, is in action.”

 

 

Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. The Fu-Go balloons began arriving over North America nearly three years later, in late 1944. Japan launched thousands of large hydrogen balloons carrying explosives and combustion devices. Using high-altitude winds (the Pacific Jet Stream), the balloons traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific to start forest fires, cause fear and convince Americans that they were no longer safe.

 

When the balloons began to land,  the United States government made an incredible request of newspaper editors and radio broadcasters: Do not report them.

 

The request was not to keep Americans in the dark. Our government did not want Japan to know if the balloons were reaching their targets.  They also wanted to prevent panic. It was an amazing example of cooperation during the war. The American media honored the request. Newspapers and radio stations largely remained silent.

 

 

 

That same thinking was why the phrase, “Loose lips might sink ships,” was stressed to everyone. People were asked to be careful what they said, not because their voices did not matter, but because they mattered so much.

 

 

The lesson was not that Americans must always agree. Our freedom to question, debate and disagree is one of the liberties our servicemembers have defended. The lesson once again is that with freedom comes responsibility.

 

Those who served did not sacrifice simply so we could inherit freedom. They sacrificed believing we would preserve it. We preserve it by learning our history, respecting one another, participating in our communities and, when necessary, placing the common good above our own interests.

 

 

The following quote is worth repeating:

 

“To defend a land, you need an army. But to defend freedom, you need education,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.