Editor’s Note: Art Buchwald was a syndicated columnist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and author of nearly 30 books. Erma Bombeck called him “the reigning genius of American satire for over 40 years.” The following is excerpted from Buchwald’s memoir, Leaving Home, which used humor to lighten the story of his troubled childhood in an orphanage and foster homes, his wartime experiences, and his adventures in Paris after the war, where he talked his way into a job with the International Herald Tribune.
A group of us were in a bowling alley in Forest Hills, New York when the news of Pearl Harbor flashed over the radio. Everyone was certain of the brevity and outcome of the war, and fearful it would be over before we could serve our country.
Our group was not too informed about the Japanese, but those of us who had been raised in Jewish homes knew what a butcher Adolf Hitler was. Every Jewish family in America knew what Hitler was doing to their relatives — but President Roosevelt didn’t appear to know and neither did anyone else in the government.
