The following is a letter I just wrote to a friend’s father who served in WW II. I just wish I had had the foresight to do the same for my own relatives while they were alive.

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Dear Hugh,
Since today is the anniversary of V-J Day, I just wanted thank you for everything you did those many years ago.

Being an amateur student of history, I’ve tried to imagine what it might have been like in that place & time. But obviously, imagination is one thing, reality another. Reading about it can’t quite match a reality of having a kamikaze flying down upon you! But I do know that it was a herculean & heroic task you guys did back then. Again, I thank you.

I also wanted to send along some very heartfelt thanks that I got in my travels. While biking in Normandy back in the early 80s, almost everywhere I went I had folks just coming up to me and thanking *me* for the American efforts on D-Day & beyond. They were near tears in their gratitude, expressed with great struggle in their very rudimentary English (and you know how the French are about English being spoken on their soil!). These tended to be middle aged+ folks who had actually lived through it, but in a couple of instances when their kids were along, the point was as much a thanks as it was to impress upon their kids the importance of the Americans’ endeavor. (Keep in mind also that this was a time of pretty extreme anti-American sentiment in Europe given the whole Pershing Missile debate.) I meekly protested that it wasn’t me, but that I’d definitely pass the thanks on to those who were actually there.

In 2000 we took a trip to the Philippines and almost everywhere we went there was a similar outpouring of thanks. Even when we were hiking in the deep outback of jungles & rice paddies, we would have entire villages spontaneously pouring out to tell stories (again, in very broken English) of how bad it was under the Japanese; how they helped shelter the escaped GIs (they even re-named a village “Behind the Clouds,” permanently adopting the American code name for a hideout for escapees from the Japanese POW camps!); fought as guerrillas and; most importantly, how much they appreciated everything the Americans did. They knew that their efforts would have been for naught had it not been for your efforts. And mind you, we were hearing this some 55 years after the fact! The kids were there, assembled, listening, taking it in. These very poor folks, living in very simple grass huts, were keeping the memory of your efforts alive.

So I’m passing along the thanks from around the world, as well as from Madison, Wisconsin!

Yours,
Mike