THIS DATE – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  On this date in 1945 the Second World War came to an end.  Japan formally surrendered on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.

Today the Missouri is a museum ship docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  It is close to the sunken battleship USS Arizona, which was destroyed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  That attack forced America to enter the war.  The symbolism of the two ships – one representing an American defeat, the other the ultimate American victory – cannot be missed.

I note the date in part because of Donald Trump's campaign theme – "Make America Great Again."  Some scoff at it, but it has meaning. It reflects the belief that we have lost something in America, not necessarily anything physical or touchable, but a certain spirit – a belief that, with all our faults, we are the last great hope of humankind.  Certain self-appointed "sophisticates," including our president for the next four months, scoff at it, too.  To them, American exceptionalism is just a juvenile, simplistic idea.  But it is not.  It is the reason millions of people from around the world want to migrate to the United States each year.  Are they all misinformed?  Victims of Fox News?  Islamophobes?

The American phase of World War II lasted only three years and nine months.  Somehow, we think of it as much longer, perhaps because World War II was "the war," the central event of the 20th century, the drama around which many of our families' lives revolved.  In that short period the United States, reflecting its traditional spirit, went from a relatively weak and unprepared nation to the world's superpower, creating what has been called the "American century."

In recent decades it has been fashionable to denigrate America, to doubt its greatness, to question its abilities.  During those moments we often think back to the era of World War II – the bravery, the war production, even the music, and we hope to once again be that good.

September 2,  2016