Thoughts of Eleanor Roosevelt and the end of the war with Japan!

I had a number of people email me about my blog on Eleanor Roosevelt this week and on my blog on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.  As I rested last night I wondered what Eleanor thought about the end of the war with Japan, a war that ended on August 14, 1945.

Luckily I had been to Val-Kill and Hyde Park as well as the FDR Library, and figured correctly that her many columns must be preserved and available on line….they are!

So here is her released statement on the ending of the War with Japan published on the “day after” ..August 15, 1945 held via her request.

ER……When word was flashed that peace had come to the world again, I found myself filled with very curious sensations. I had no desire to go out and celebrate. I remembered the way the people demonstrated when the last war ended, but I felt this time that the weight of suffering which has engulfed the world during so many years could not so quickly be wiped out. There is a quiet rejoicing that men are no longer bringing death to each other throughout the world. There is great happiness, too, in the knowledge that someday, soon, many of those we love will be at home again to give all they have to the rebuilding of a peaceful world.

One cannot forget, however, the many, many people to whom this day will bring only a keener sense of loss, for, as others come home, their loved ones will not return.

In every community, if we have eyes to see and hearts to feel, we will for many years see evidences of the period of war, which we have been through. There will be men among us who all their lives, both physically and mentally, will carry the marks of war; and there will be women who mourn all the days of their lives. Yet there must be an undercurrent of deep joy in every human heart, and great thankfulness that we have world peace again.

Sadly, we never really have had “world peace” again….and now the wars…. though just as horrible…the impact of them like Iraq and Afghanistan”….are really only felt by those who have lost someone or have someone fighting there.

The wars no longer are in our thoughts daily, and most of us have given little up nor thought much about them except for the jiber-jaber in the news about the tight US budget or the cost in terms of $$$ that our taxes must pay!  Only saddened when a local soldier is lost….

Take a trip to Hyde Park and the FDR Library as well as Val-Kill, and realize that we were lucky to have these elected people in power at that time….

We had the right choice for President of the United States and for Vice President….though we couldn’t choose the right First Lady....We got her anyway she was the best part of the deal!

A Trip to Hyde Park..Springwood