VE Day and my father’s sacrificial love for America

Today marks “VE Day,” short for Victory in Europe Day. While celebrations and commemorations have taken place across Great Britain and the Continent, the day is not nearly as noted in the US. It is neither a national nor a state holiday here.

The reason is simple: World War II was not over for us when it was over in Europe. We continued fighting the Japanese in the Pacific until September 2, 1945, when the Empire of Japan formally surrendered.

I have been thinking about both theaters of World War II in light of my father and grandfather’s war experience. My father fought the Japanese in World War II; his father fought the Germans in World War I.

In neither case did they nor the millions of American soldiers who joined them defend the US from an imminent threat to our homeland. When Hitler declared war on the US four days after Pearl Harbor, he did so to honor his alliance with Japan and Italy and because of numerous “crimes” he claimed the US had committed against Nazi Germany. However, he had no apparent intent or way to invade the US as he did the nations of Europe.

The situation was the same in World War I: while Germany encouraged Mexico to invade the US, it had no plans to do so itself.

Nonetheless, my father volunteered to serve in the US Army when World War II began, just as his father had done when America entered World War I. Both saw horrific bloodshed on the front lines. Neither would discuss their war experience in any detail.

When asked why they chose to serve, they both answered in the same way: “It was my duty to my country.”

“The greatest idea that has ever been born”

John F. Kennedy famously observed, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”

My father and grandfather were willing to fight and die for the idea of patriotism and love of country. Millions of women and men across our history have made the same choice, choosing to die that we might live. We owe them a debt we can never repay.

What is the “idea” for which you and I should be willing to risk everything?

According to Scottish biblical scholar James Stewart,

Every new idea that has ever burst upon the world has had a watchword. Always there has been some word or phrase in which the very genius of the thing has been concentrated and focused, some word or phrase to blazon on its banners when it went marching out into the world. Islam had a watchword: “God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” The French Revolution had a watchword: “Liberty, equality, fraternity.” The democratic idea had a watchword: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Then he added:

The greatest idea that has ever been born upon the earth is the Christian idea. And Christianity came with a watchword, magnificent and mighty and imperial; and the watchword was, “the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus called us to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The Lord said of himself, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10). The psalmist declared, “God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne” (Psalm 47:8). No matter the circumstances or appearances, God is right now “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible” (1 Timothy 1:17).

How do we make this King our king?

Jesus’ famous prayer is our answer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). We make God our king to the degree that we do his will on earth as fully as it is done in heaven.

Why “the true soldier fights”

My father and those of his time are often called the “greatest generation.” Not only did they save the world from Hitler and the Japanese, but they went on to build America into the world’s greatest superpower and create a future for their descendants they could scarcely have imagined for themselves.

One key to their significance was their commitment to duty.

My father suffered a massive heart attack at the age of thirty-six. Nonetheless, despite the physical challenges he faced daily, he continued working to support his wife and two sons until the week he died at the age of fifty-five. 

After my grandfather’s war service, he raised his son and daughter on a farm in Kansas until the Great Depression caused him to lose everything. He then taught himself a new trade of carpentry, moved his family into town, and began work again. At the age of ninety-five, he added an entire room to a house for a family member. He continued working as a carpenter until he died at the age of ninety-nine.

G.K. Chesterton observed, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

How “life becomes rich”

When we see Christ not just as our king but as our Savior, we then serve him as unconditionally as he loves us. We acknowledge his rule over every dimension of our lives and every day of our lives out of gratitude for his grace. We make no separation between the sacred and the secular, Sunday and Monday, religion and the “real world.”

We give all we know of ourselves to all we know of him.

As a result, we experience his best in every dimension of our lives. He leads us to victory in the spiritual wars we fight (Ephesians 6:10–20) and empowers us to advance his kingdom in our lives and our world (Matthew 6:33).

So, as we remember today the sacrifices of so many to free the world from Hitler, let’s also remember the sacrifice of the Savior who freed us from slavery to sin (John 8:34) and promises, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (v. 36).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted,

“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

How rich will you be today?