A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette Madison, Wis. August 15, 1945. Dearest Bob: (/ wrote to our boy in the Philip-pines') Well, the long-hoped-for day of peace is here at last, an i we can...
...Try to keep your sights high enough to see over the details which may irk you to see what it all adds up to...
...In other words, I am not thinking of the Germans and Japanese alone, but of you boys who are to "police" them and the effect of this experience on you and the cause of democracy...
...I don't blame you lads for resenting the black-marketing of prices, and having to pay $5 for an ordinary meal...
...With your interest in politics, from now on I suggest you watch and think about the policy of Gen...
...This elation will be shortly followed by a natural reaction of the "army gripes" and you will all be fretting to come home...
...You may consider our sanitation and other habits superior to those of other people, but they still have their own ideas...
...Well, kiddo, I must get back "on da ball" and get dinner...
...The problems ahead demand almost superhuman knowledge, judgment and faith, of a world society close to exhaustion...
...However, the Filipinos have no corner on black-marketing ! I do not worry that you will get far off base in this direction, but I do wish I could urge on every overseas soldier the danger of generalizing on a people...
...Naturally I have been thinking about what this means to you, and the millions of boys like you...
...Now that the war pressure is over, everyone is reverting to his natural feelings...
...However, one must always remember the marvellous human capacity to revive...
...You have always insisted on being a participant among your fellows rather than an observer, and this held true of the war...
...ast evening after President Truman made the official announcement, I was sitting alone listening to the radio—Phil is in the east on business and Judy still up harvesting cherries—while Sherry was tearing around the neighborhood on her bicycle gaily decorated with ribbons and streamers...
...I suppose the chances are that you will go on to Japan with the occupation forces, although probably a certain number will be left in the Philippines...
...and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave...
...the attitude many of them are returning with about the "Flips," or "the Frogs," or "the Germans" is the same habit pattern which operates at home concerning "the Jews," "Labor," "Niggers," or "the farmer," etc...
...It indicates a basic lack of understanding which bodes ill for future peace at home or elsewhere...
...TO summarize, whether you remain in the Philippines or go on to Japan, you have a rare opportunity to study a wide field of education an the ground rather than from text-books...
...You may retort that a common GI doesn't get much chance to observe the activities of the Commander-in-Chief, but I reply that with your background you certainly will be able to correlate what you observe in a general program...
...Picture to yourself how you would feel to have the natives step off the sidewalk to avoid coming into contact with you, or leave their glasses half-emptied in the cafe when you and your associates walk in...
...HOWEVER, man may propose but in wartime the Army disposes, and we are all eagerly waiting to see what plan will be worked out for the release of the armed forces...
...His relations with the Australians and Filipinos with whom he lived and worked is outstanding, and I think we are very fortunate to have a commander of his calibre and experience jn charge of our relations with Japan in this tragic period...
...Those with length of service and battle experience should come first, of course...
...The vast relief that the killing has stopped is associated too closely with what the whole business has cost in lives, material, and, what too few people have appreciated, a lowering of human vitality everywhere...
...As you and I have discussed so many times, this experience is certainly not one I would have chosen for you, but at the same time we both tacitly agreed that one has to face up to his responsibilities as a citizen...
...I endorsed this attitude—-I see no other hope for democracy—but it certainly was tough to have to pay the piper...
...Now, however, that, the combat element is out and you run only the ordinary risks of life, you have a valuable if often trying experience ahead...
...Like their homes, people want to run their own country...
...Dearest Bob: (/ wrote to our boy in the Philip-pines') Well, the long-hoped-for day of peace is here at last, an i we can scarcely believe it...
...I keep thinking of that priceless wisdom of Lincoln's, that "This is a world of compensation...
...Either assignment raises its questions...
...Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God, cannot long retain it...
...In the latter case you will observe the gradual resumption of their lives and civilization of a free people, but if it is your lot to go on to Japan, I foresee a new and painful experience for you...
...Quite a sermon for celebrating the end of the war, but as your LTncle Bob said when he called me last night to say how happy he was for me, the future lies in the hands of the lads like you...
...MacAr-thur in dealing with Japan...
...I debated taking her up town for the excitement, but there was so much going on hereabouts that I thought she had plenty of excitement...
...I have never forgotten the trip Phil, Mary La Follette, and I took through the Rhineland during its occupation by the French after World War I. We were not there long enough to make a study or peer much below the surface, but no sensitive person could escape the atmosphere of glowering, unhappy gloom, as much on the faces of the occupiers as of the occupied...
...I thought his opening statement as given over the radio today was masterly...
...All love, Ma...
...I reply that men have done wonders even from a prison cell and you lads are far from that even though you may sometimes feel that way...
...YOUR recent letter describing the growing independence and, to you, ingratitude of some of the Filipinos does not surprise me at all...
...The fates decreed that you should be fortunate enough to escape death or injury, and I can well picture the wild joy with which you all have received this reprieve...
...Also I was in no mood to "celebrate...
...I realize that from this distance it is easy for me to write this way when I can't appreciate the deadening regime of Army life...
...Naturally we can hardly wait for you to come home, but appreciate that this is very unlikely for many months to come...
...What concerns me, as usual, is the way you handle yourself in the months ahead...
...No one can rule his own country, much less another's, to the satisfaction of all those concerned, but I think we have every reason to expect that General MacArthur will, to the best of his ability, do the job with firmness but fairness and respect for human dignity...
...Willy, nilly you are where the Army places you, but wherever that may be, it will be your own faults if you stagnate and fail to make use of this period in which to grow...
...You, like most of us Americans, are abysmally ignorant of Asia and the Far East, but you will now have an opportunity to observe a statesman as well as a military genius, operate in a field in which he has had long and broad experience...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 35
