September 28, 2006
Kids Say the Darnedest Things Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 03:00 PM EST A little girl that I know is at the age where she’s started asking awkward questions. Recently she said to me, “Why did World War II start?”
I replied, “Well, there was a very bad man named Hitler who was the ruler of Germany, and he wanted to take over all of Europe, so he sent soldiers into Poland. Some other countries didn’t like that, and they tried to stop him, and that’s how the war began.”
She frowned. “Was that before or after Pearl Harbor?”
“Oh, Pearl Harbor came later,” I replied. “The Japanese wanted to rule all of East Asia, so they dropped a bunch of bombs on our ships at Pearl Harbor. That’s how the United States got involved in the war.”
She nodded, thought for a moment, and said, “Well then, how did World War I start?”
“Well . . . ,” I said, “a man shot a nobleman from . . . um, someplace in Europe, and, er, the other countries . . . uh . . .” She stared at me with the no-nonsense look that seven-year-olds seem to specialize in. And after a few more moments of fumbling, I fell back on the ever-useful last resort for kids with inconvenient questions: “Go ask your parents.”
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