Fireside Chats, posters and window banners were signs of patriotism during World War II

Editor’s note: This is the seventh installment in the West Hills Gazette’s nine-part series that looks at life in Robinson Township during World War II. This series, written by Janet Gonter of the Robinson Township Historical Society, originally ran in the Suburban Gazette in 2017 but is timely now, as the 80th anniversary of the end of the war will be observed later this summer. Check back each Sunday for a new installment.

Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, radically changed America’s isolationist thinking. As World War II raged on, most of the country chose to remain neutral; however, the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor was a sudden unifying moment for our country.

The very next day, droves of American men and boys flocked to recruiting stations around the country. Robinson Township residents enlisted at the post office in downtown Pittsburgh. That night, listeners were riveted to their radios to hear President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech.

All through the war years, Roosevelt conducted Fireside Chats – a series of radio addresses that began during the Great Depression — to win public acceptance of his policies. A local resident recalls, “The U.S. was transformed by the war — more involved with the outside world. People’s hopes and expectations grew.”  While much of that patriotic optimism came from the Fireside Chats, there were many other bases of patriotism, including the ubiquitous posters, comic books and “Stars in the Window.”

Patriotic posters were used to motivate workers to increase production and everyday citizens to enlist. “Uncle Sam Wants You!” was revived from World War I and used again for recruitment. A favorite poster featured a kerchiefed “Rosie the Riveter” flexing her muscles, encouraging women to fill the many workplace vacancies resulting from the draft.

To ensure that patriotic posters would be seen in every store window in every town, the Office of War Information recruited the Boy Scouts of America to deliver them literally nationwide, and Robinson Scouts faithfully delivered new ones every two weeks to stores in Moon Run, Groveton and Robinson. They were so successful at their assigned tasks that the chairman of the War Production Board wrote these words in 1944: “Such activity by the Boy Scouts of America must hearten our military and naval leaders and their fighting forces, just as it heartens us in the knowledge that there is an army on the homefront, an army of growing youngsters who will someday be guiding the destinies of the nation.”

Posters were used as patriotic propaganda, and the same was true of comic books. America and American heroes represented “good,” and the Axis powers always represented “evil.” In their stories, well-known comic book heroes like Superman, Batman and Captain America fought alongside American troops to defeat the enemy. The United States government, via the Office of War Information, worked with writers, filmmakers and advertisers to ensure that all messages in all media were coordinated to support America’s war efforts.

Families of servicemen displayed their patriotism by hanging “Stars in the Window.” Banners showing blue stars represented a son or daughter in the military. All too often, a blue star was replaced by a gold star, meaning the son or daughter had died in the war. A lifelong local resident remembers, “We kids all knew what the gold stars meant, and we were very quiet and respectful around those homes.” Many banners contained more than one star; the Story family in Groveton had four sons who served in World War II. Their four-star banner was proudly displayed in their window throughout the war, and today, you can see all of the Story boys’ names (Austin, Harry, and twins Marvin and Melvin) engraved on the World War II memorial in Groveton.

We are not likely to ever again see such patriotism in our country. World War II brought Americans together with an imperative purpose: winning the war and bringing our boys home.