Daniel Inouye: “Mr. President and my fellow Americans, during the past 4 years, Americans have gathered in cities and towns and villages…”

“Mr. President and my fellow Americans, during the past 4 years, Americans have gathered in cities and towns and villages throughout this land and in strange places with strange names like Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Anzio, Normandy, Guam, and in many other places to honor the 299,131 American men and women who stood in harm's way and gave their lives on our behalf. Thousands upon thousands of our fellow citizens participated in parades and festivities, and many inspiring speeches were heard. As a veteran of that war, I am grateful to America for the many honors bestowed upon our fallen comrades; but, most respectfully, I feel that these glorious parades and inspiring speeches may have missed the real essence of why we were victorious, what made us win. I remember the thousands upon thousands of schoolchildren scouring the countryside looking for scrap metal, tons of scrap metal that found its way to the front lines as bullets and bombs. I remember the many thousands of victory gardens in every village, hamlet and town, gardens that produced over one-third of all the vegetables that we Americans consumed during that war. I remember the long lines of citizens to give blood and to buy war bonds. I remember the 866 American ships, merchant ships, that were sunk by submarines, carrying our cargo and the nearly 7,000 American seamen who rest at the bottom of the sea.”