American Independence Day: July 4, 1942 and 2009
by admin | July 3, 2009 | In Education, Revolution | No Comments
It was the first Fourth of July since the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The name ‘Liberty House’ is well known to Hawaii’s old-timers and kama’ainas, a department store whose very name evoked one of America’s most cherished values. Those who opened up their editions of the Honolulu Advertiser on July 4, 1942 would have seen these words on Page 5:
“America: Resting securely upon the inalienable rights of man -upon the age-enduring foundations of Justice, Honor, Liberty, and Order; Cherishing ideals that inspire unselfish devotion to the common welfare of mankind; Fostering a spirit of self-reliant industry that seeks the just rewards of worthy achievement and usefulness; Progressing so swiftly that yesterday’s vision is overtaken by today’s realities; Aroused anew to meet the challenge defined by George Washington –that ‘the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican form of government may be entrusted to the hands of the American people.’”
In the same edition the Wing Sing Wo Company, Ltd., on North Hotel Street in Honolulu contributed both space and patriotic sentiments with these words, with our World War II soldiers in heart and mind:
“Keep the Flag Flying!” the ad declared. “We can, we will, we must.” –President Roosevelt
“Never before in all our glorious history was our flag in such dire peril. Nor was there ever a time when the Stars and Stripes flew so proudly over so many battle front in all the far corners of the world…more than ever, it is a symbol to millions of people in lands that tremble under the tread of the oppressor’s heel that freedom is still worth fighting for…worth dying for…worth paying for. True, all of us cannot take up arms in defense of the freedom for which “Old Glory” stands, but we can all rally around the Flag to help to buy the guns, tanks and planes our fighting men must have to win. We can all buy War Bonds and Stamps to the limit of our powers…one dime out of every dollar invested in War Bonds for freedom, for Victory!”
“Independence Day, 1942!” proclaimed another advertisement. “The spirits of Paul Revere –of Nathan Hale- of Washington and Lincoln- are marching with our farflung forces on this day, backing up the boys who are back of the guns. Their ideals are still our ideals –in the beginning we dedicated this country to a free people –throughout the years we have maintained it so- today, we are again battling to uphold our original conception. And we shall –in the end as in the beginning the United States will ever be a ‘land of the free and the home of the brave!’”
J.W. Howe was once quoted as saying, “Blessed is he who takes comfort in seed time and harvest, setting the warfare of life to the Hymn of the Seasons.” In a time in a young century when life for many seems overtaken by the “warfare of life,” its many stresses and worries Americans can find strength, virtue and even delight in pausing for just a day to celebrate on July 4, 2009 the 233rd birthday of the United States of America. Despite those worries there is much to applaud and consecrate.
Today’s national birthday marks yet again a tradition of commemorating the actualization of a set of concepts and values not confined to any one continent, nationality, race, ethnicity or group anywhere. Our Independence Day marks a milestone in humanity’s progress, providing an opportunity to recall what the Declaration of Independence was intended to do. Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration, referred to this as “an expression of the American mind, and to give that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.”
Our Declaration of Independence is a story whose supreme power and authority has been told, and retold throughout the centuries. It is a story that provides Americans and freedom-loving peoples everywhere a voyage into our collective past with a vision of a future that is ours to behold. Can we afford to forget the names of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and scores of American revolutionaries who took up arms and resolve to defend freedom, liberty and thus change the course of history? Can we afford to forget such a hallowed mission for a nationality invented by its citizens “with a firm reliance upon the protection of Divine Providence” that culminated in the dream of a modern republic?
Our celebrations this day offers more than just the extravaganzas aroused and cultivated by fireworks along our island shores, bell-ringing from church steeples and at the Arizona Memorial, and cookouts under trees and in backyards among friends and families. The glorious traditions of America are deep in our hearts. Those traditions also bring responsibilities, burdens and duties –and a sacred trust recorded in a history all our own. For those things we pause, give thanks, and celebrate.
The William C. Nye was an American ship berthed in the placid waters of Honolulu’s harbor in early 1845. A lone sailor beheld the ship’s flag of the United States of America and composed a poem I have found particularly heartfelt and inspirational. I share it with you because I hope in the course of those screaming and colorful firework displays and barbeques –and in the course of current worries and cares- that you will pause and quietly ponder the immortal words this unknown sailor penned 164 years ago. Did he have us in mind? I’d like to think so.
I hope it stirs your heart as it does mine. Read it aloud, smile and say ‘God Bless America’:
The flag of our nation waves proudly on high,
Our magnificent streamers are sweeping the sky
And the proud bird of freedom now soaring afar,
Is illuminated by the radiance of liberty’s star.
On the bright azure vault in rich beauty above,
O’er our land it is floating, the land that we love,
O’er that land that our fathers long fought to secure,
Where the real fires of freedom burn brilliant and pure.
As that banner unfurled proudly kisses the skies,
So the nation in grandeur was destined to rise,
Till at length on the summit of glory we rest,
A vast nation of nobles, a world at the west.
By the strong bond of freedom, united we stand,
With our glory unsullied, immortal and grand.
While our name and our banner will ever convey,
To the realms of the earth our omnipotent sway.
But that sway is not despotic, our just laws are those,
Made for freemen’s protection from insolent foes;
Made to shelter the weak from the strong arm of spoil,
And secure to the laborer the fruit of his toil.
We do not wish for conquest, we strive not to gain
By our arms, or our gold, either island or main,
But we ardently hope that our “liberty tree,”
Long shall wave its broad boughs o’er the sons of the free.
From the masts of our barks as they roam o’er the waves,
From the hills that look down on our forefather’s graves,
From the temples of freedom that proudly aspire,
Like our own monarch bird, though far prouder and higher.
Now our stripes and our stars to the breezes are flung,
Though the bowstrings of war by our land are unstrung;
And ourselves, while our grandeur gleams proudly and far,
Rest secure in our homes, ‘neath our own natal star.
May this banner, now kissed by the breezes of heaven,
Float long o’er those shores, (by no despot e’re riven,)
Be the “signa” of freedom, and tyranny’s fall,
While united we stand, till divided we fall.
Jeffrey Bingam Mead is the Founder and President of the History Education Council of Hawaii.
