The Home Fronts of Iowa, 1939-1945

Conclusion

155 Conclusion War hurts everybody. —John Wayne in Back to Bataan (1945) On January 20,1945,President Roosevelt delivered his fourth inaugural speech on a cold and overcast winter day in Washington, DC. Roosevelt ’s speech would be one of only three inaugural addresses ever in the United States during a war, and his was the shortest. To some Americans, it seemed almost a prayer. “We have learned lessons at a painful cost, and we shall profit by them,” Roosevelt began.“We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our well-being is dependent on the wellbeing of other nations, far away. We have learned to be citizens of the world.”A few hours later the president departed for theYalta Conference. Roosevelt did not live to see an end to the terrible conflict, but in a draft for an April 11 speech, he called for an end to all wars. He wrote, “The work, my friends, is peace.”1 Franklin Delano Roosevelt suffered a massive stroke onApril 12,1945. America’s greatest soldier of the war was dead. A ten-year-old Iowa boy with the same birthday as President Roosevelt constructed a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the president’s death because Roosevelt had served as president for this young boy’s entire life. The newspaper photos with their ragged edges were carefully arranged and pasted, telling the story of a grieving nation in the following days. One photo caption expressed some of Iowa’s grief: “Sober faced women pause before 156 The Home Fronts of Iowa, 1939–1945 The Register and Tribune bulletin board Thursday afternoon to read the news of the president’s death, which shocked a nation already burdened by war.” One woman blankly stared at the bulletin, another dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, and the third clutched her little boy’s hand.2 President Roosevelt had initially defined American citizens’future involvement in World War II in a radio address two days after Pearl Harbor calling on all citizens to “cheerfully give up” for the war effort.“I am sure that the people in every part of the nation,” he had continued,“are prepared in their individual living to win this war.”3 Victory in Europe would be officially announced on May 8, 1945. Other than New York City’s celebration, however, communities in the rest of the United States quietly observed V-E Day. Red Oak celebrated respectfully with a meeting at the Methodist Church after many residents listened to President Truman’s radio address. The town paper tried to capture the day’s events: “The fire whistle and siren sounded a prolonged blast, which also was the signal for the cessation of business activities. People gradually disappeared from the streets and soon the business district was almost completely deserted.” Winterset residents reacted in a similar fashion:“The news of the war’s end was received with restrained rejoicing. Whistles blew, and bells rang, but the sacrifices had been too great for any boisterous or unrestrained celebrating here.”4 Victory in Europe represented a “half victory,” as the Des Moines Register explained, because the fighting still continued on the Pacific front. For that reason, the reaction in Des Moines was extremely quiet on V-E Day as compared to Armistice Day, the end of World War I. A reporter rhythmically described the contrast, “People who had expected to sing said prayers. People who had expected to dance in taverns worked in victory gardens. People who had expected to tell the boss what to do on VE-day hurried back to a machine at the arms plant.”5 Although the Second World War was not over yet, America’s home front still had much to be thankful for, mostly that it did not resemble the ravaged European home front. When President Truman toured Berlin during the Potsdam Conference in July, he noted in his diary the long lines for essentials and the absolute devastation. Many homeless people were “scavenging to survive” among rubble and trash.“The destruction is a terrible thing,” Truman later commented, “but they brought it on themselves. It just demonstrates what Man can do when he overreaches Conclusion 157 himself.”On a more sympathetic note, he later reflected,“I fear that machines are ahead of morals by some centuries.”6 Summer’s End, 1945 Later that fateful summer, after the absolute devastation of the atomic bombs...