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Victory Two!

It's September of forty-five. 
We remember the dark months 
when France was overrun and England stood alone 
against the force of Nazi armies.
Soon Germany attacked Russia. 

Then Japan committed a tactical triumph 
and a strategic blunder: they attacked Pearl Harbor.
Our ocean fortress had been breached.
That Day in Infamy galvanized the nation; 
to win, no matter what the cost.

Two early events boosted morale: 
Jimmy Doolittle's daring raid on Tokyo 
was of little strategic importance. 
The Battle of Midway was a great sea victory.

Things got worse.
Japanese occupied the islands almost to Australia. 
For months nothing could stop them, 
until the tide turned.

We forced the Japs back, island by island.
We were happy with each battle won
and sad for all men lost.

We had beaten the Germans, 
but we must invade Japan itself – 
until with two enormous blasts
we forced them to complete surrender.

What a glorious time, 
with the war ended and peace at hand! 
Now the whole world can have 
free speech and worship,  no hunger or fear. 
Nations will be united in a lasting peace,
with disputes settled without war.
Japan and Germany can never rise again;
Russia and China will always be our friends.

warpeacePacificwartimeWWIIPearl Harbor

◄ Victory Won!

A Bell and a Boy ►

Comments

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David F. Freeman

Thu 11th Jun 2020 13:38

Cynthia, You're right that the atomic bomb was a terrible event with lasting repercussions, yet it saved many Japanese and American lives. The last paragraph is intended to be irony, the expectation that peace would settle everything.

M. C.,Although I wrote this many years later, on VJ Day I was in France expecting to be shipped to the Pacific. Even then, the introduction of atomic energy was sobering.

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Cynthia Buell Thomas

Wed 27th May 2020 15:51

This poem is well and honestly written, strong.. Thank you for sharing.

I do find the expression 'What a glorious time' cheek to jowl 'with two enormous blasts' very hard to appreciate. It's the idea of 'glory' in such vicious circumstances. But you are truthful and I wasn't there. The war was long and crushing and full of fear. I'm sure that was how victory truly felt - 'glorious', under any circumstances.

But the bombing of Japan was also a terrible 'human' event that still sends shock waves worldwide. And raised a terrible new kind of 'war' that threatens human annihilation.

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M.C. Newberry

Wed 27th May 2020 15:33

The deeds of that great conflict must never be forgotten or, worse,
taken for granted. So much cost! Now, in late May 2020, we recall
the miracle of Dunkirk in this same month eighty years ago. For
without it, the German juggernaut would have felt emboldened to
rush headlong across the Channel and lay siege to Blighty...with
every confidence in success and the start of the downfall of freedom
throughout the world.

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