Have We Over Glorified World War II?
Books and movies, our own imaginations....but was that really the war?
Shock. Awe. Romance. Adventure. Glory. Tearful send offs. Heroes. Joyful homecomings.
These are things that most historical fiction books, war movies, news reels and articles, and our own imaginations have put forth as how World War II was to be remembered. Not to mention the propaganda that’s been put out for decades about how we should remember the war and honor the veterans.
For some, especially in Europe, this has become a sense of duty, to remember and honor. Almost to the point it means nothing because people are just repeating the same commemoration and the same cemetery visit year after year. They post the same RIP comment on social media every day for certain sites. In a way it’s like they are on autopilot and doing what’s “expected” to honor a veteran or someone who died during the war. It’s a badge of honor to say you attended yet another commemoration or laid flowers or did whatever. But what does it really mean…to the individual and society? Are we consciously honoring or doing what we’ve been told?
Patriots across the country rose up after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Men raced to enlist out of a sense of duty, adventure, or to gain a better life than the one they had. Couples fell in love quickly and often married because you never knew what would happen next. Service members went to war for months or years leaving behind everything they knew and perhaps a child they might never meet. Civilians at home waited, changed their entire lives to support their service members and the war effort. Yet when the guns went silent…nothing would ever be the same. We have been led to view World War II as a sanitized romantic event in which all Americans were heroes and had no issues as a result of their experiences. In reality this is far from the truth.
When people research the war, they usually stop when it comes time to think about what the veterans and their families experienced when the war ended and veterans returned. The story ends upon discharge. People don’t explore the aftermath. The war and the homecoming wasn’t glamorous like we see in the newspapers, film reels, and movies. It was filled with anticipation, anxiety, fear, heartbreak and also hope and love. Yet we normally only focus on the hope and love.
Thomas Childers, in his book Soldier From the War Returning, talks about the sanitization and romanticization of the war when in reality, it was a conflict that killed millions around the world and left millions more broken on a physical, emotional, or mental level. He goes on to say:
It is largely forgotten today, but the public euphoria at war’s end, captured so vividly in photographs of ticker tape canyons and jubilant crowds, was tempered by an uneasiness that bordered on anxiety about what to expect when a flood tide of demobilized GIs began sweeping across America’s homefront.
We have lost touch with the immense pain and suffering caused by the war and the ripples and sorrow that still flow across America from that devastating conflict.1
In my mind, he is speaking to the issue of generational or inherited trauma, not to mention the PTSD or combat fatigue or shell shock, whatever term you prefer to use today, about the mental state of our veterans. Let us not forget the PTSD and other mental and physical health issues that developed within the civilians on the home front.
Is the War Sanitized for Public Consumption?
As I read more of Childers’ book, I began to realize that as a family historian or military researcher, who has read military battle reports for 15 years, I have no idea what it was like to go to war. I research, write reports for clients, teach, and write books on what took place, but the reality is, unless we were there, we really have no idea. Researchers can write and talk all they want about the experience, but unless you hear it from a veteran or read it in a book (fiction of non-fiction) from a veteran’s experience, you will not understand. Add to this the veterans themselves rarely shared the really graphic, gory and taboo parts of their experiences, so how are we to know?
This thought was confirmed by James Jones’ The Thin Red Line book. While fiction, it is based on his experience in Guadalcanal. Usually, people receive the truth better when it’s written as fiction, historical fiction, or science fiction because many believe what’s on the page couldn’t have possibly happened. They retreat to their safe space of war propaganda as to how it “really was.” When we retreat, we don’t feel pain and we don’t have to face the trauma that exists within our families and society.
Why do I believe I only know a sanitized version of the war?
Military Records, Oral Histories, & Family Stories
Pick up any military unit history or battle report and what will you discover?
A record of events of what took place.
A list of people who contributed in big ways to the battle or campaign. Those who stood out.
The aftermath summarized nicely.
Hospital reports that give a basic narrative on psych cases and treatment.
A list of dead, wounded, those who received awards, unit commendations.
Staged Signal Corps photos of men in the field, on a ship, receiving an award, doing their job.
What will you not discover?
The graphic gore of a battle described. What was it like to flamethrow a Japanese soldier and watch him melt into ash? What was it like to watch your friend be hit by an artillery shell and blow half his body away?
How the men felt as they began the battle or campaign. How they felt as they had to kill another human or watch their best friend die.
The survivor’s guilt that was felt and possibly passed down through generations.
Stories of mental anguish over what they saw, did, experienced.
Jump into the Deep End
Childers’ book provides an eye-opening look at what we have not been taught about the war. It allows us to sit with the family stories we’ve heard about our returning veterans. Perhaps even compare the experiences and homecomings from family veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. How were they similar, how were they different? Who was impacted besides the veteran?
In this book, Childers takes you on a journey with three service members, all of whom he knew and interviewed, who had different war experiences. Each chapter begins with a narrative about the veteran and ends with the civilian story. In one chapter we hear the story of an Army Air Forces navigator who was shot down, taken prisoner by the Germans and lives the rest of the war in a POW camp. At the same time, later in the chapter, I learn what life was like for his family.
As this style of storytelling happens in every chapter, we get a sense of what everyone was feeling and experiencing. We also learn about the things we never talk about like fear of who the veteran or family member will be when reunited. How if a soldier’s legs were blown off will he ever have sex with his wife again? Will his body even work or cooperate to attempt sex or father a child? What will his wife think of him with stumps rather than legs? What about the wife who knows her husband is mentally and emotionally different due to his experience but the two can’t discuss it? The fear, worry, mourning of the life they were supposed to have exists in all the layers of each story.
How Do We, as Researchers, Change the Perspective?
War was not a romantic endeavor that ended with everyone living happily ever after. As the planet shifts and humanity’s consciousness rises with more people waking up and asking questions as they see the issues within their families, people want to know what really happened. How did dad or grandpa’s experience shape our family? How can we change this?
For many years, I have worked with the clients and people who are ready to receive it, explain what happened after the guns went silent. I share the reports, ask questions about how the veteran was (usually based on family stories) after the war. I ask how the family responded, behaved and what happened through the generations. We look at the battle reports, medical records, and other documents to try to understand the experience and impact it potentially had on the veteran. We do a little energetic processing whether they realize it or not. In the end, clients and others tell me this perspective of how we do the work, learn the story, and sometimes write it in a book, help them heal.
If you are researching your family’s war history, of any war, I invite you to read authors who will provide you with additional details about a battle. To learn more about the experience veterans had upon homecoming. To dive into the family history of what the civilians experienced and how they responded and changed when their veteran returned (or didn’t). What else do you learn? What memories are sparked of whispers or stories you heard? How does this change how you research and how you tell the story? Most importantly, how does it help you heal?
How Much Truth Do We Tell?
One thing I am certain all researchers struggle with is the question, How much of the truth do I share with my family, readers, the world? This is a question we each must sit with and decide for ourselves.
I’m currently writing a book for a client whose father was a prisoner of the Japanese for more than three years during World War II. It’s been a balancing act to convey in the story what POWs experienced in the raw, graphic, gory detail versus not sharing so much. The client and I want her family to read the book and understand, not put it down because of oversharing of the trauma.
In my own book which tells the story of my World War II Navy Grandpa, his schizophrenia, his wife and family and the generational trauma I was living out, there isn’t much graphic or gore to tell. There is a lot of pain, shame, anger and guilt, to describe though from the past. For the present, I talk about how I identified the trauma, was living it, how it impacted me and how I healed the lineage and moved forward. In this book I’m choosing to lay out a lot of my personal experiences so others can remember they are not alone in their trauma and healing.
What you share is based on many factors that only you can explore.
My Current Perspective on Over Glorification
Having lived in Europe for several years and attended the same commemorations and listened to school children read the same poems at each event, year after year, my thoughts changed often. I have witnessed people both remembering and honoring on an unconscious, almost “expected” level. The country leaders say you should remember this way at this time, so citizens do. The energy I pick up is over glorification. I have also witnessed those consciously remembering what happened and learning the stories of those service members. This energy is different, a reverent and conscious energy.
I do feel the majority of books and movie tend to glorify and provide a more unrealistic view of war, love and life. But what else do we expect from this? We often read and watch movies for entertainment. There are individuals, like myself, who will pick up on certain themes, events, and topics and explore further. We question what we have heard or seen within our own families based on something that triggered us from the book or movie. How often have you read historical fiction only to find it mirrored or triggered something in your family or life? Then what did you do with that triggering knowledge?
In general though, I do feel as a whole, we are not digging deep and really trying to understand what happened to our veterans and war dead. We are not trying to understand how that impacted us for generations. We have mostly bought into the romance and sanitized version of war. Until we don’t. We all have a lot to learn. We all have a lot to heal.
What do you think? Have we over glorified war? Have we only looked for sanitized versions of history? Are we willing as individuals and society to dig deeper and heal the past so we can create a different future?
Would you like help with your WWI or WWII Research?
I am taking new clients and have space for one or two new book clients. To learn more about a possible research or book project, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free consultation to discuss your needs.
Childers, Thomas. Soldier From The War Returning. NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2009, p. 5.
Wow such a thought provoking question! I will spend much more time pondering this, but a couple things came to mind. My Great Uncle was a British soldier killed at Galipoli in WWI. His name is on the memorial there, his mother received a commemorative plaque etc. not much to compensate for the loss of your child, but acknowledgement of his contribution. His brother was also in the British Army and was a POW during WWI. He escaped several times and finally was held in a cage underground. Other prisoners would secretly drop food and water to him. He was released at the end of the war, and in the family story passed down "he was never quite right after that. Had nightmares and would shake the rails of the bed in his sleep". And that was it. Nothing more to the story. (An area I need to research more). The second thing that came to mind was the story of the first Silver Cross mother (a Canadian thing where a mother who lost a child at war represents all mothers of those killed at Remembrance Day ceremonies). In 2018, the mother of a soldier who served in Afghanistan and committed suicide after being unable to cope with life after, was named the Silver Cross mother. That acknowledgement of the " what after "part of the story was a first here. Here is a link to that story if you want to read how long it took. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/silver-cross-mother-anita-cenerini-thomas-welch-1.4882768
Issue of war-time glorification often avoided as it might be taboo or seem un-patriotic to directly question these historic thematic WWII moments and iconic images imbedded in our US psyche. As I have just researched and publishing a book on my grandfather's WWII narrative, I realize that the personal letters written by fellow officers about his character and behaviour under his command are so much more revealing and meaningful personally and go beyond his military accomplishments or the assumed share of gory details he experienced in battle. By the end of my research I coincidentally recvd a typed ltr he had personally written to his family bk in the US after walking through the notorious death-camp of Dachau, telling his human emotions. Profoundly affecting.
Thank you Jennifer for sharing and articulating the need to go beyond the re-told history lesson, and find internal storylines.