Christmas in the Depths of Global War

Dr. Harmsen has produced several insightful works on the conduct of W. W. II in the Asia-Pacific theatre, notably Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City. In this often very moving book, however, he gives us a series of vignettes of the war in what many would consider the season of peace, selecting Christmas of 1942 “Because it was a unique time. Much remained undecided that fateful December” (p. vii), the decision arguably still uncertain.

Harmsen opens with a discussion of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”, first widely heard that December, which surprisingly turns up often in the vignettes that follow.

Drawing upon letters, diaries, memoirs, and other original sources, Harmsen more or less looks at individual experiences on that Christmas Day, following the sun across the globe from Hawaii. In some cases – everywhere – it was almost a “normal” Christmas, albeit darkened by the omnipresence of the war. The national leaders and the commanders barely noticed the day, having a war to plan and manage. For many it was almost surreal, such as Americans holding a Christmas party for Polish orphans in India or Allied personnel holding modest observances as prisoners of the Japanese, and some observances even in German concentration camps. Still others, many others, passed the day at war, fighting and often dying while on bombing missions or in combat at Stalingrad or Tunisia or the jungles of Burma and New Guinea or on merchant ships, warships, and submarines at sea.

Harmsen concludes with a look at post war recollections of the season, which includes what he considers some very improbable “truces”, and how Berlin’s song helped shape memory of the war and future Christmas. He adds an appendix, in which the ultimate fate of the hundreds of people he has mentioned appears.

Darkest Christmas is an excellent, informative, and often moving read.

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Note: Darkest Christmas is also available in e-editions.

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