V-J Day

Sixty years ago today the Allies officially declared V-J Day, signaling the end of WWII. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do the same today.

The end of WWII brought the beginning of one of the most prosperous and peaceful periods in American history. In the year after World War II ended, Detroit produced 2.1 million cars, a 2500% increase from the year before.

Hundreds of thousands of happy couples had romantic reunions after the end of World War II, and nine months after V-J day, in May, 1946, 233,452 babies were born in the United States. It was the largest number of babies that had ever been born in a single month in American history. By the end of 1946, 3.4 million babies had been born, the largest generation of Americans ever born at that point, the birth of the 'Baby Boomers.'

More than anything else, these new American families wanted houses. The country became so crowded that more than a half million families were living in Quonset huts. These were cheap, lightweight, portable structures that could be put up by untrained people as requested by the Navy Department. The Quonset hut (name comes from first site of manufacture, Quonset, RI) skeleton was a row of semi-circular steel ribs covered with corrugated sheet metal. The ribs sat on a low steel-frame foundation with a plywood floor. The basic model was 20 feet wide and 48 feet long with 720 square feet of usable floor space. The larger model was 40 by 100 feet.

Around 170,000 Quonset huts were produced during the war, and were too good a resource to throw away. So the military sold them to civilians for about a thousand dollars each. They made serviceable single-family homes for returning vets. The structure pictured above in Buckeye, Colorado was augmented with a fireplace to serve as a farm cottage.

Many newly married couples had to move in with their families. The government provided a mortgage program for returning soldiers, and developers began to build houses by the tens of thousands. The most famous developments were built by the Levitts of Long Island, NY, who built approximately 140,000 houses. The average house in Levittown cost about $8,000 and had an average mortgage of $65.00 a month. When people first moved into the new neighborhoods, there were no streets or streelights, and the lawns had yet to grow grass. But every new house included a stove, a refrigerator, and a washing machine.

For many Americans this would be one of the greatest periods in the history of our country. This economic boom would last for a good 30 years. So whenever you hear us old timers referring to the good old days, these are the years we are talking about, the time after WWII.

When people recall the good old days, they also recall the brutality of WWII. It was the worst war in history. An estimated 60 million people died; about two-thirds of them were civilians. In the United States, the war had been going on for three years and eight months. About one in every eight Americans served in the war—more than 16 million American soldiers. Virtually every American family had at least one member overseas. With 400,000 Americans killed, most families knew somebody who had died in the war, and the most American casualties had come in the last year of the war.

Unlike the war we are waging today where we only have a small percentage of the country impacted, Americans back then had been living under strict food and gas rationing and people tried to keep their lights off after dark to save energy. Every single person in the country had a stake in the war by the sacrifices that were being made in order to support our troops.

Now we support our troops by forking over a few bucks and buy some insignificant stick-on ribbon and place it on our gas guzzling SUVs. Thanks, I am glad to know that you support our troops and I'm sure the Ayatollahs thank you for consuming more gas with your gas guzzling vehicle. They can use this money to support the terrorists who ultimately kill our troops and innocent people.

The greatest generation is being replaced by the aloof generation.

"Stay the course!" Easy to say when all your kids are safely tucked in bed.