Eleanor Roosevelt's
"My Day" Column
December 8, 1942
One year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Eleanor wrote
the following in her "My Day" column:
Yesterday afternoon Miss Frysinger and a group of women representing various organizations, such as the Associated Country Women of the World, came to tea with me and presented me with a symbolic can of plums from great Britain. These plums were canned by no less a person than Queen Elizabeth herself, and the can and the machinery which was used in putting on the top were presented to the Women's Institutes of Great Britain by the rural women of the United States.
This preservation of food for use in the home is something which our women on farms and in villages understand very well and they were glad to be able to make some contribution to the women of Great Britain who have not undertaken canning to this extent before. I was also presented by Mr. L.F. Holt, who is interested in promoting the use of apples from the State of Washington, with a little box containing 365 recipes as to how apples can be used in the home day by day and meal by meal.
Before this group left me, Mrs. Patton and Mrs. Eisenhower came in to join us and it seemed a far cry from the campaign in North Africa, which naturally engrosses their interest, to a can of plums and the use of apples, but when you live in the White House you soon discover that life is made up of a variety of interests!
Today I am going to meet with Mrs. Woodward's group at the Social Security Office to answer questions on anything they feel interests them in the British situation as I saw it. At noon I am to go for a few minutes to the meeting of the Community War Fund which has made a wonderful record.
All day yesterday I was trying to think what the lesson of Pearl Harbor was for most of us in the United States. It seems to me that there would be very little point in celebrating this day as a holiday but I think there is every reason for keeping in mind this tragic day. First, we must try never to be unprepared again, either mentally or physically, to defend the things in which we believe. Peace is something we want to work for, day in and day out, but we want to work for it with the knowledge that only justice keeps the people of the world at peace. Therefore, when injustices occur we must always be sure of our position and be strong enough to defend it. This presupposes that the people of our country are going to know what they think is right; in other words, they are going to be mentally prepared at all times to face world problems and, in addition, they are going to impose upon themselves the kind of training that is necessary to keep them able physically to meet any need for action that may ever occur.
Eleanor Roosevelt