American Childrens Life during the Second World War - Essay Example

American Children’s Life during the Second World War War was on the thoughts of the children of military families, or also called ‘homefront children’. A key literature, based on children’s first-hand accounts of the Second World War was circulated in 1946 (8). The authors of the book The Child from Five to Ten interviewed children about their views of ‘war.’ Children aged four below had little understanding of the topic, but those aged five and six had given suggestions to end the war (8). Below was one of the invented plans of a girl aged six, as mentioned by Tuttle: Get up behind Hitler when he isn’t looking and shoot him. It would be fine if there were millions of Americans on one side, and only one Jap on the other side. That Jap could be Hitler. Then we would say [cooing tones], ‘Come over here… We won’t hurt you.’ Then when he got here—Bang! We’d blow him all to pieces. No more Hitler (16). Children aged seven and above discussed more frankly and freely their fears; worried that moles were residing among them, they had terrifying dreams about the war. One child had a dream that a mole asked her if she likes her government (8). Nevertheless, at age eight and nine these worries sunk, then realistic questions started to emerge: What caused the war? How did the war begin? Children also became fond of war comic books and films, and eventually they took part in war activities by buying war bonds and scrap-collection campaigns (6). They played war games as well. According to Gruenberg, Even though therapists counseled parents to provide channels for children’s anxieties, one parent was worried that her eleven-year-old child “seems delighted at the war… He and his friends talk constantly about going out and ‘blasting’ Hitler. ‘Just my luck’, he says, ‘to live where there’s no fighting. Boy! Would I love to have an air raid!’” (261) An age-oriented point of view aids in reconstructing children’s experiences of World War II. According to Tuttle, sociologist Glen Elder Jr. states, “The imprint of history is one of the most neglected facts in [human] development” (17). But what makes up such history? According to Elder, lives are influenced by the contexts where in they are lived. These ‘contexts’ involve all the important environmental aspects, like the school, community, and family, as well as religion, socioeconomic class, gender, ethnicity, and race (8). World War II was a confrontation between good and evil, particularly for America’s children. Ranging from age five to adolescence, these children studied well the message of their nation’s virtue before every country, absorbing it in their homes, churches, and schools. Certainly, even though feelings of moral confidence and indestructibility were two characteristics broadly shared by America’s children, another was a feeling of individual, sense of worth, empowered by involvement in the war initiative (3). As stated by a homefront girl, as mentioned by Tuttle, “Our pride in our country made us proud of ourselves” (112). These children gathered scrap objects for reuse, and they wove blankets and purchased War Bonds (8). Born in 1935, George Curtis recalled that even doing household chores to help his parents encourage in him a sense of worth and a feeling that he was part of the group. As stated by Tuttle, whether doing household chores or taking part in school activities, George viewed World War II “as a time for children such as me to feel of greater human worth or value; to be more respected by adults, because we had the opportunity to… contribute” (112). The lives of America’s children during the Second World War diverged sharply from those of preschoolers, toddlers, and babies. The lives of school-age children involved not just the school but the mainstream culture as well, plus involvement and nationalism. While the family was the center of the lives of preschoolers until age five, the school became the center for the lives of older children (5). As expected, the grade-school phase is the period of children’s political socialization. The grade-school years are also the period of intermission, envisioned by Freud psychology as the stage to learn and gain social abilities uninterrupted by sexuality (5). Similarly, teachers view it as the time when children had to be taught of how to become responsible citizens. Studies on political socialization report grade-school years as the determining period (8). There is no way to assess to emotional and psychological effect of World War II events on America’s children, but it was no doubt enormous. According to Olster, Norman Mailer narrated that, “Probably we will never be able to determine the psychic havoc of the concentration camps and the atom bomb upon the unconscious mind of almost everyone alive in these years” (41). He added: For the first time in civilized history we have been forced to live with the suppressed knowledge that the smallest facets of our personality… could mean… that we might… die as a cipher in some vast statistical operation in which our teeth would be counted, and our hair would be saved, but our death itself would be unknown, unhonored, and unremarked… in a gas chamber or a radioactive city (42). The Holocaust opened the eyes of these children to the works of evil. As mentioned by Tuttle, a homefront girl admitted that “those images have haunted me my whole life. Sometimes you would see stacks of bodies, and I would look at the newsreel through parted fingers, not wanting to see, but unable to look away” (232). Printed media also showed pictures of the Holocaust. One child recalled that these images “horrified and terrorized” (232) her, that it came to the point that she was unable to eat and sleep. Definitely, many children failed to forget these dreadful images. Throughout the lives of World War II children there would be no eternal peace and harmony in the world. In the latter part of the 20th century numerous armed confrontations have taken place in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Millions of children will endure the psychological, emotional, and physical wounds of war for the remaining days of their lives. The effect will be damaging for some; others will choose to go on with their lives and live with these haunting experiences, as did most of the Second World War children. But we should not be sad. Because the tales of these World War II children enlighten us that violence- and war-stimulated psychological and physical suffering are not permanent. We can help the children of war, heal the scars of the wounded and suffering, and provide shelter for people in need of protection. Helpful and sympathetic people did that for Second World War children. This goodwill can be repeated. We can empower and inspire the children of war, and give them the concern, care, and affection they need. We can utilize schools as sites to revive order and harmony in these children’s lives, where they can become skilled at reviving their world in tranquility. It had been done before, when the entire planet was in a terrible chaos. It can be done again. However, if we desire an eternal harmony and peace in the future, we have to pay attention to and understand the lived experiences of Second World War children. They can enlighten us better than any soldier, ambassador, or government official about the impact of war on the human soul. They have witnessed and experienced it firsthand. They have witnessed personally and defenselessly the suffering of the innocent. Works Cited (1) n.a. “Children and World War II.” Digital History, November 28, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. (2) n.a. “America During World War II: Displaced Children.” Historical Boy’s Clothing, December 24, 2006. Web. 28 Nov. 2011 (3) n.a. “The American Family in World War II.” United States History, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011 (4) Cohen, Stan. V for victory: America’s home front during World War II. Pictorial Histories Pub., 1991. Print. (5) Gruenberg, Sidonie. The family in a world at war. Harper & brothers, 1942. Print. (6) Hornestay, David. “Kids on the World War II Home Front.” American History, August 2, 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2011 (7) Olster, Stacey. Reminiscence and Re-creation in Contemporary American Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Print. (8) Tuttle, William Jr. Daddy’s Gone to War: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Print. Read More