Popular sentiment understandably favors consigning 2020 to a nondescript box in the darkest corner in Time’s warehouse. I strongly disagree. In fact, I hope 2021 sees us enjoying collective celebrations acknowledging the momentous anniversaries that went by this year with only virtual recognition.
It was my wife who pointed out how not one, not two, but three major historical milestones received COVID-19-induced short shrifts this year, including the Mayflower’s sailing 400 years ago.
The voyage and Plymouth Colony’s establishment is actually an international event with Britain, the Netherlands, the United States and the Wampanoag encompassing five Native American tribes all claiming an historical stake in the Mayflower.
Revisiting the Mayflower’s 400th anniversary is a heritage celebration worth pulling out all the stops for providing the pandemic permits a major commemoration in 2021.
Acknowledging the sailing is also an opportunity to discuss and analyze the first steps leading to the United States’ formation and the heritage of people who lived on this continent long before Europeans bumped into it.
Victory in Europe Day and Victory over Japan Day should have been huge occasions for military commemorations saluting the last veterans who fought their way into the heart of Nazi Germany and battled the Japanese across the Pacific.
COVID-19 shrunk these 75th anniversary remembrances down to virtual acknowledgements or flag raisings. The men and women in their 90s who left high school and family to build the Arsenal of Democracy and battle enemies who enslaved nations deserve a do-over and one more salute to their prowess and sacrifice.
For Americans who fought in Europe, May 8, 1945 was more a time for reflection than celebration. Soldiers who stood on German soil looked back 11 months, even longer if they served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, and remembered comrades and friends who died.
Americans who survived the war in the Pacific included thousands of soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen, plus nurses and women filling other roles, who until August, 1945 knew without being told that the war would end with an invasion of the Japanese islands and a yard by yard fight costing millions of lives.
Atomic bombs ended the war, but the end only came after battle after bloody battle on Pacific islands.
An August 15, 2021 VJ Day salute is right and fitting and marking VE and VJ Day next year is a chance to examine a question that hasn’t received much debate: How do Americans perceive their role in the world and how does the world perceive the United States?
Revisiting VE and VJ Day allows for a 2121 post-presidential election reflection on the nation’s global role.
Oh, by the way, Smokey Bear is 75 this year.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
