The Trees Grow Tall on Guadalcanal – Sunday, July 21, 1985
1985 marks the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II: in May of 1945 peace came to Europe; in September of the same year the war ended in the Pacific. And so, today a brief remembrance of that time—of B-29s and torpedoes, of bombs and bayonets, and of courage and sacrifice.
One of the blessings of the passing of time is the softening of pain, yet the horror and carnage of war is not easily forgotten—nor should it be. But time can quickly erase the physical reminders.
Four short decades ago the shores of Normandy were strewn with wreckage, and with men—the dying and the dead, with their combat boots pointed towards a land they would never see again, the surging waves have washed the imprints from the sand.
Only forty years since many a ship with many a brave sailor was brought to rest among the coral and ocean canyons—baptized together by the ancient sea and many a mother’s tears. And now, the parrotfish and sea urchins claim it for their home.
And trees grow tall on Guadalcanal, and the rubble has been swept from France. Little trace remains of the war machines, and grass covers the graves of the past.
But it is not memory alone which honors the past. It’s not just what we remember, but what we are, that’s the true memorial to history.
So, we must look to the present to see what those eternal spirits, whose work is done, have bought. Mark this teeming and wealthy land, where no iron boot trod. See these ribbons of concrete and steel stretching from coast to coast, freeways built by free men, with singing hearts and hammers.
Watch the parade as it passes; note the flag which precedes all with its stripes and stars—they are the same; the same that was lifted under fire above the ridge on Iwo Jima.
Watch our children sleeping, with neither hunger nor fear to break their slumber.
And worship in our chapels to sing varied hymns and recite the sundry prayers of unsuppressed religion.
And that those untimely and tragic deaths brought death to tyranny: to the violence of Nazism, to the oppression of Fascism, and to the domination of Imperialism.
Yes, we remember those who fought the Battle of the Bulge, who fell in North Africa, who crawled across island sands, and who were lost in the jungles. But we remember them best as we look to the present and see what was bought.
July 21, 1985
Broadcast Number 2,918