President Franklin Roosevelt was on target in 1941 when he asserted that Dec. 7 would be a “date that would live in infamy.” 

What he called “a sudden and deliberate attack” by forces from Japan brought focus to the tragic and powerful events of World War II.

Those in the so-called Greatest Generation have varying memories. My peers were too young to read about the progress of the war, but were conditioned to hear talk of things both fearful and strongly resolved. Words such as draft board, ration books, Gold Star Mothers and victory gardens built a community looked on as ‘the home front”.