The Day After. The front page of the Nashua Telegraph's Dec. 8, 1941 edition is all about the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequent declaration of war against Japan.

EDITOR’S NOTE: To readers: If you are reading this Saturday or first thing Sunday morning, there will be a Pearl Harbor memorial service at 9 a.m. Sunday in front of Bicentennial Park, next to the Main Street Bridge. All are invited to attend.

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Sure, the radio reports, movie-house newsreels and newspapers kept us Western folks fairly well informed of the latest developments in what we often referred to as “the gathering clouds of war.”

It was a sort of umbrella term for the goings-on over in Europe, where some madman from Germany had inexplicably succeeded in winning over many of his countrymen and women, not to mention the vast majority of his nation’s military forces, which he was intent on building up to the point it would one day become invincible and, yes, take over the world.

“Fear Japan Plans to Invade Thailand … Capital Looks on East Situation With Some Worry” was among the headlines on the front page of the Friday, Nov. 28, 1941 Nashua Telegraph.

As for that date, it was either the day after Thanksgiving or eight days after Thanksgiving that year, depending on who you asked or when you bought your turkey and began to prepare the fixin’s.

A back-and-forth over whether Thanksgiving should be observed on the last Thursday of November, rather than the fourth Thursday of November, wasn’t decided until 1942, when President Roosevelt’s signature put Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November forevermore.

As for the above mentioned headline, the story goes on to reveal that a Texas Senator named Tom Connolly suggested “the Japs are bluffing,” and that he “sees a peace solution … .”

The Associated Press reporter wrote that “it was learned today from the best available sources in Washington” that the “American government has ruled out any possibility of a compromise with Japan … .”

The next day, in the Saturday, Nov. 29 Telegraph, the topic of the lead editorial was Christmas Clubs, which at the time were a common method of saving up money for Christmas shopping.

That banks often offered Christmas Clubs at somewhat higher interest rates than their standard savings accounts, sweetening the pot a bit more for account holders. Each week on payday, they set aside a portion of their earnings and dutifully walked the cash over to the bank, a novel concept compared to today’s methods of depositing funds.

According to the editorial, Nashua’s banks collected a total of “nearly a half-million dollars” in Christmas Club funds, which they began distributing on Nov. 28. The writer noted that some families opened Christmas Club accounts to save up for property taxes or to cover the winter’s fuel supply.

It’s kind of eerie looking at newspapers published in the days leading up to a world- and life-changing act of war the magnitude of the Pearl Harbor attack. Informed Americans, certainly, were well aware that those “gathering clouds of war” could very well darken our skies one day.

“British Ready for Japs at Singapore” was the top headline of the Saturday, Dec. 6 Telegraph. Sub-headlines hinted, and not very gently, that the series of recent developments halfway around the world pointed more toward impending war than a peaceful solution.

Nazi Germany had just invaded Russia, and was making headway. England was on the verge of going to war with Finland, of all countries. In the Philippines, leaders were urging the evacuation of all non-essential citizens in Manila.

All the war talk on the front page was softened a tad by a story about shoe workers at J.F. McElwain presenting $790 – big bucks in those days – to the police so they could host a Christmas party for needy children.

On the back page, an ad invited the public to the NRC Ballroom on High Street, where for just 50 cents they could witness a “battle of music” between “two of New England’s outstanding bands – Rudy Wallace and his Orchestra and Bernie Larkin and his Orchestra.

“The greatest battle since Dunkirk,” the ad noted.

The story under the “British Ready for Japs” headline, meanwhile, announced that England’s military was “suddenly recalling all fighting men to their posts in Singapore,” and sending troops and tanks to bolster Dutch forces in the Indies in case “the Japs strike there.”

The Japs were getting ready to strike, all right – but not in that part of the world.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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