Zero, at 2 o’clock!!
Little-Known US World War II Strategy
It was obvious from the reaction of the Japanese High Command that our strategy was working. It seemed to my buddies and me on those hot summer days of 1943 and ‘44, that the Japs were throwing more and more air power against us all the time
When I was a teenager going to high school in the 1940’s, we lived on the third floor of a six-story apartment building in Brooklyn, NY. Next-door to the building was an empty lot, and on the other side of the lot, a Chinese restaurant. After school, I’d hang around with my buddies, playing stick-ball in the street, flirting with the girls from the building, or working in the photo dark-room we had set up in the basement.
Some days we’d ride our bikes around the neighborhood, at times—- for a thrill——we’d hang on to the back of an electric trolley car that ran along Flatbush Avenue, only one block away.
A more serious —- and less dangerous —-activity would occur on saturday mornings in the empty lot I mentioned. All of us had been briefed at school and we were convinced that the outcome of the war was, to some extent, in our hands: that if we succeeded in producing veggies in our gardens for home use, we would avoid the pain of food rationing and also assure the defeat of the Axis powers: Hitler’s evil Germany and Hirohito’s treacherous Japan ——— that’s why they were called Victory Gardens! And six of us buddies had six of them in the lot next door.
Mine was a garden-variety garden: radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, carrots. Others were more exotic: squash, string beans, even cabbage. So, saturdays would see us all in our gardens: weeding, watering, fertilizing, and, most important of all, killing the hated Zeros (as we would call the bugs) before they destroyed all our veggies. After all, we were giving a hand to our brothers and fathers and uncles in the Armed Forces,
The real Zeros, of course, were the formidable Japanese fighter planes of WWII. My older brother was in the US Army unit that was part of the first attack wave on one of the Aleutian Islands near Alaska. The names Attu and Kiska come to mind. So, I kept track of the war in the Pacific pretty closely, whenever any news came over the radio.
It was obvious that the Japanese High Command was aware of our seemingly innocent gardens, and convinced of their military significance. If not, why would they send almost continuous waves of beetles to foil our efforts? These Japanese beetles were our hated Zeros.
The fight against them was hard and long, and often ran into the lunch hour. But it could not be continued in the afternoon because it was saturday, and saturday afternoon was the time to go see the double bill at the local movie house, complete with early karaoke with the words on the screen and the little ball bouncing along the lines. Afterwards, we’d go for a hamburger and a shake, if there was any money left.
Obviously, the Victory Garden Strategy worked —— Japan’s surrender was announced by General McArthur from a battleship in the Pacific in September 1945. None of my buddies or I were invited to the surrender ceremony. But, anyway, we were very happy it was over, and that we’d won. Soon, our fathers, uncles and brothers would come home!
Quick forward about seventy years: I don’t do veggie gardening anymore; I do bonsai training. I don’t drive a Chevy anymore; I drive a Toyota. I do hamburgers very little now: more sushi, tofu, or miso. One American dollar was worth 360 Japanese yen after the war ——— now only worth about 100.
Wait a minute, who’d won the war…….?
Never mind. Just pass the wasabi, please.
