My granddaughter has asked me to pose a question to you, the readers of Bits & Pieces.
I think it would be really neat if we could get the answer from people all over the world. Here is the question-
“How have the events of WWII impacted life today?”
Anyone care to share your thoughts on that? I don’t think she wants you to do her homework for her, (she better not anyway) but to offer an opinion so she can do a report on the variety of thoughts.
P.S. Her report is due Friday.
Never under estimate anyone. Everyone believed Hitler could not get very far but he did, and we all saw what happened
My father fought in WWII with the Canadian forces in both Italy and Holland – Germany.
He returned home and lived the rest of his life with constant emotional problems from what he witnessed and did there. He became an alcoholic and was quite abusive to my mother and his children.
How did the war affect me? I had to live with the emotional problems manifested in my father. I grew up constantly on guard of the mercurial temper he had and the ever present threat of his lashing out with a belt or even his fists. I learned to be circumspect in how I approached a problem and in how to respond to them. I learned that anyone can harbor things just under the surface. I learned (later in life) not to judge someone without learning the whole story and looking into the background a bit.
I also grew up knowing that there were people in this world that will leave the comfort of their homes to go and try to make things better for others. There are people who will give of themselves to protect our freedom. Because of them, I did not grow up speaking German or Italian or Japanese. Because of them I grew up in a society that values individual freedoms and will fight to preserve them.
However, we, as a society, treated our WWII vets in a terribly shabby manner. We essentially told them to suck-it-up and stop whining and get on with life. We treated our Viet-Nam vets even worse because “they lost the war”. We actually spit on them as they returned home and called them “Baby-killers” and “Murderers”. I am shamed by those actions and have nothing but contempt for the ones who performed them.
Things are changing now and we are seeing that our forces returning home are changed men and women. They need time to readjust and get out of “war-mode”. They need our support and love. They need our understanding. In a lot of cases they are receiving it but there are still too many cases that slip through the cracks. Government cannot do it all. We need to step up and find organizations that can and do help. and then support them with our dollars and time.
Look up “Project New-Hope” (http://www.projectnewhope.net/)as one that I volunteer with. there are others in your area that are just as deserving of your support. Find them and give a Vet a hand.
My grandfather was a pilot in the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and was shot down and captured by the russians. He escaped as the war was ending and settled in the Eastern (russian controlled) part of Berlin. He got word that the Russians were coming for him, and he, my grandmother, mother and uncle fled in the night and emigrated to America, and eventually to St. Louis where she met my father.
I feel that the events of WWII were cruicial to my existance.
tim
Personally, it hasn’t impacted me directly. However, Being from California, I know a lot of Japanese friends whose families were put in internment camps. Further on down the road the government made amends (or so they say) with the Japanese people and gave them money -$20,000 (finally given to them 50 years after the fact, if they were alive).
I also hear that many of the Japanese people were farm workers. Since many of them were in camps, there was a need for farm workers. This explains the Mexican immigrants and farm workers we have here in California today.
Don’t think there would be an Israel had there not been WW II.
I’m Hungarian. Due to being on the loosing side about half of our county’s territories was given to our neighbors forcing about 15-20% of Hungarians to live abroad where they are a not wanted minority.
Oh yes, and 50 years of communism… well that didn’t go unnoticed.
Our country is in debt, communist buildings are not just ugly but falling apart, everyone is either corrupt or poor, and our parents have too many bad memories to live happily.
(though it is getting better…)
It’s really difficult to narrow down an answer, but in the light of current events, the Mid-east would have very different boundaries that were more in line with tribal and religious tenets. We would have a Kurdistan, the whole area of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait would look very different and Israel would not exist. That oughta get her started.
WWII ushered in the nuclear age. Though we (USA) are no longer locked in an arms race
with another superpower. We are still, as is all the world, haunted by the threat of nuclear weapons, especially those in the hands of “unstable” or unpredictable nations. Not to mention the threat of terrorists buying, stealing, or developing such a weapon.
While the end of WWII saw the end of many horrors and fears, for example the Holocaust, The Third Reich, An aggressive and militaristic Japan. The nuclear age presents it’s own fears.
The world has benefited from nuclear energy, while at the same time spawning nightmares of the possibility of another Three Mile Island, or worse another Chernobyl.
Well anyway, cheers
WWII strengthened the U.S. Government’s control of the American marketplace. On the plus side, the steel, airplane manufacturing, shipbuilding, and coal industries flourished with building war goods. Technology advanced quickly.
On the minus side, it lead to large corporations which worked hand in hand with government regulators, which in at least some part has lead to today’s economic conditions.
What the world didn’t learn with the mistake of Hitler, bared fruit with Mao and is coming into completion in China today.
The tragedy of the Holocaust is not that we didn’t learn from it, we only learn to profit from it.
Too many first-person shooter video games that all look alike.
We rebuilt their country after we destroyed it.
And then… we made them write in their constitution that they have a limited national defense. Consequently they dominated the world economy for decades, while we were/are blowing tax money on stupid wars: Korea, Vietman, Iran.
… and what Gary said…
sorry… forgot to say “we rebuilt Japan…”
Here’s an Australian perspective (although universal I think).
War of course is a big negative in terms of human suffering. One of my jobs is to interview veterans from that time and for many it has shaped their characters in very positive ways, creating a genuine desire to make the world a better place. The other aspect to mention is the amazing advances in technology in almost all areas, transport, medicine, communication which were forged because of the pressures of war.
Wars always speed up technology. Maybe someone else can elaborate on this one. WWII and Wernher von Braun gave us a huge jump start on rocket technology not only for military purposes, but it also quickly brought on the space race and manned space flight to the moon, putting satellites in orbit, sending spacecraft to Mars and other planets and beyond our solar syatem, Hubble telescope, Space Shuttle, etc… for most of us, communication using satellites is a part of our daily lives and they couldn’t get into space without rockets.
Hi,
I think it must be difficult to grab the impact of what went on with the people that were involved directly with WW2 as it gets watered down as each generation passes the information on… my father served in the british 8th army (Desert rats)to defeat Rommel in North Africa and chased the Nazi war machine up through Italy to defeat Hitler in Berlin and had many medals to prove his honour (with bar, which means exceptional valour) but he never ever said anything to explain why he did what he did. he was always against the violence of war and would not want any of his children to have experienced the full horror of total war as he saw it. Sadly he passed away peacefully in 1992 and asked only that his family would lead a happy and peaceful life. Many people died during that terrible time and some were able to stop some of the dreadful things, those people deserve the recognition they deserve as trying to keep the peace and to stop tyrany to give the rest of the world free speech.
For one very important thing many people choose to forget, Yhe British and the French are not speaking German today.
Where do you start? Revolutionary developments throughout electronics and aviation…jet engines, helicopters, rocketry? Invention or further development of radar, sonar, plastics, synthetic rubber, Jeeps, VWs, Spam, M&Ms, canned potatoes, freeze-drying (of blood plasma & platelets)?
How about the invention of a process to manufacture penicillin by Aussies & Brits, opening the door to the modern era of medicine? This saved many hundreds of thousands of lives during the war…deaths from infection & disease in WWI were more than 31 times greater than those suffered in WWII. And it is still saving lives in the 21st century.
How about the US defeating and then reaching out to its enemies and shaking hands, rebuilding, and standing with them as allies now for over 60 years? How often has that happened in history?
The issues of women’s rights and the civil rights movements in the United
States were results of the Second World War. Both women and blacks contributed hugely to the success of the American effort, and as a result were less than happy to return to the narrow roles to which they were relegated. Black troops fought valiantly in France and Italy, women worked hard on the home front to manufacture weaponry and to organize fundraising events and social support for the war. Neither group was satisfied to return to the narrow, pre-war roles to which they had been relegated.
I was 6 and what I remember vividly is my sister and I dropping a 5# bag of sugar in the street on the way home from the store and my Mom sent us back to scoop up the best part. We had used the last ration stamp on it. I also had a hole in the sole of my shoes and no more ration stamps. When I went to kneel for communion everyone could see the playing card my father had put there, I was mortified.
The returning GI’s were quite happy to see their significant others…. which lead to something called “the baby boom”….
Of which I am a card carrying member… while the statement explains much to me…. it has social significance beyond my ability to ‘splain….
back in the late 40’s and into the early 50’s all of a sudden “make love not war” became a way of life and Im a product of that movement… and there are a bunch of us around for the moment….
My mother was in Birmingham, England, when it was bombed night after night for weeks. She saw many dead bodies etc. It had a lasting affect on her nerves – she spent the rest of her life in and out of mental hospitals – and that, in turn, has affected the lives of my sisters and I … a long reaching effect!
We discovered that no matter how well thought out your plans may be, 60 million people being killed is a very serious argument for diplomacy. It’s the first war to create death on such a massive scale that we truly cannot image it. Death became industrialized, easy to do, and just a few men, like the crew of a bomber, could kill hundreds of thousands of people in just a few seconds.
Our war machine evolved in World War Two at a rate that frightens those of us who wonder what we would have done with another year of it.
The way we looked at war changed very rapidly. The way we fought and died changed faster.
World War Two should have taught us not to consider war at any level, and what we did not learn has affected us muchly.
Well, I wasn’t born during that time but I found out later on in my History Class that my ethnic background makes up the three evil axis of World War Two : Japanese/German/Italian. You can bet your bottom dollar I got that question right on the final exam. And I wonder why I’m such a naughty girl 😉
I’m an American, living in Japan, teaching English to Japanese school children in a Catholic school. Japan is a peaceful country. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution forbids Japan from having anything but a national guard. Its soldiers are not allowed to engage any enemy on foreign soil. Though soldiers have been sent on peacekeeping missions, they were sent as support personnel rather than combat troops.
The emperor is no longer a God. He appears on TV. People look him in the eye and can shake his hand.
Instead, laws are made by a representative, elected government.
And all of this would be impossible without WWII.
Great question. First, it is a constant reminder that there is such a thing as evil in this world. Secondly, all humans are capable of committing evil. I studied genocide for my master’s thesis and visited many memorials in Europe, Rwanda, and the US (Boston’s is my favorite – the most powerful I’ve seen). As I consider the events of WWII, the ability for “normal” humans to commit such atrocities, although unthinkable from our very comfortable lives in the US, is very rationale when considering the zero-sum messages that the genocideres make. The most important lesson for me, and the one thing that all genocides have in common (which have occurred on every inhabitable continent on this globe) is the dehumanizing of our enemies is powerful. If I can remember that my “enemy”; whether political, social, or even militarily, is human, and value them as such, that is the only way I can ensure that I do not commit the same crimes that ALL humans are capable of. These holocaust/genocide memorials (and WWII as an obvious component) have taught me how to be a better human. From a geo-political perspective, there is a poem that I came across in my studies that sums up my thoughts on war and reflects my political leanings as well (again, learned lessons from WWII):
If we could learn to look instead of gawking,
We’d see the horror in the heart of farce,
If only we could act instead of talking,
We wouldn’t always end up on our arse.
This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;
Don’t yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!
Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again.
The end of WWII saw the greatest economic growth of a strong middle-class and established our expectations of what the “American Dream” could be/should be/would be. We became fearless in our pursuit of it.
(I am not the tim that responded above).
Besides what has already been mentioned, I find it interesting that the facts and opinions of what happened in WWII have changed in the interim 65 years. Not that it is appropriate for a school report, but the other day, Mr. Colbert referred to Harry S Truman as a war criminal because he used atom bombs on Japan. Mr. Colber said we should have dropped an atom bomb near Japan as a warning shot, and to warn the innocent citizens (that is, the non-military people living near Hiroshima and Nagasaki (sp?). Too bad Mr. Colbert did not let facts get in his way: The US dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets on those two cities as well as about 30 others stating that people should evacuate immediately because we were about to do something. After we dropped the first bomb, Japan kept on fighting, but the emperor and others started thinking of surrendering; after the second atom bomb, Japan was going to surrender. On his way to announce the surrender, the emperor was almost kidnapped by what I guess could be called Japanese extremists to keep him from surrendering. Those extremists wanted to fight to the death–even the death of all the Japanese in Japan.
Think about how different the world would be today if the emperor was kidnapped and Japan did not surrender. Hundreds of thousands more people and soldiers would have died than died because of the atom bombs.
I guess the “take away” here is that even though there were many, many people involved in the war with almost countless important battles, just a few minor things could have changed the war completely (like the above kidnapping attempt, as well as the various attempts to kill Hitler).
I make terrible, tasteless Hitler jokes all the time…but I’m not sure that’s what she’s looking for, lol!
Actually. Derek, it did assure us there would be a ‘German Guilt” thing forever
WWII changed the workforce, drastically, women went from domestic to hard labor in factories. Proving women can do anything. Think Rossie The Riveter.
WW1 AND WW11 defined our whole country. It gave us an identity and a pride that we keep even today. I didn’t have family in the wars as they all had restricted jobs. In fact during WW11 my Grandmother was asked to go back to work in the science department at Melbourne University. She made the glass for the sights on weapons, her ability to be more than just a married women has defined the women of my family. We all have a wide range of jobs and qualifications and still value our roles as mothers and wives. WW1 and WW11 gave Australia it’s heart.
Mike F – Wasn’t diplomacy going on for years between the US/UK and Germany & Japan? As usual, the ‘civilized’ world talked and blustered and argued amongst themselves and patted themselves on the back, all while Germany pretended to engage in ‘diplomacy’ while building up a massive war machine with the sole purpose of conquering the European continent and beyond.
And wasn’t diplomacy of sorts actually being conducted in Washington with Japan prior to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor?
I think we should have learned that not everybody looks at diplomacy the same way – some look at it as talking civilly and negotiating, and some see it as a convenient cover and extra time to buffalo the naive ‘enemy’.
Obviously we have never learned that not all nation’s leaders have the same desires as we do. Do you not see the same thing right now in Iran?
the one lesson my Grandfather taught me he learned during the war years he was in the C.C.C. and built roads for the military. His Lesson is no matter how bad things get get off you butt and work till it is better. when things are better you keep working to keep it that way. don’t complain about your situation it is your problem and up to you to make it better. my Grandfather was a great man. he will be missed.
Father-in-law was born in the Ukraine. Mother-in-law was born in the gulag. He witnessed the German invasion and retreat. She lost her father and 4 siblings. They were both communist party members. They knew communism was corrupt but they learned to play the system like everyone else. They survived. Many didn’t. I met my wife as a result of their ability to beat the system…
How have the events of WWII impacted life today?
This one’s really simple…
It gave sufferers of insomnia LOTS of movies to watch while they are up.
From a completely different perspective…Most of the people alive today would not have been born. People who died in WWII, had they still been alive could have gone on to marry other people, have different children, not have the same circumstances for which things exist today. Even those who did end up with the same partner could have had a child weeks after they originally started up resulting in different people. Things like Google, Twitter, internet, personal computers, and everything we know today would not exist. Perhaps if they did exist they could exist before they came out or later in life and would most likely be called something else. Life today is the way it is because of what has happened, including WWII even if nobody was directly impacted.
When I was in elementary school, I wrote how WWII changed the world by dividing powers: East and West Germany, Cold War powers, Communism…
Now, there’s one Germany, Communism is giving way to Commercialism, and nuclear is pronounced “nuculer”
In short: WWII may have changed things, but time is the greatest changer of all
The events of WWII mean that I can read and understand this blog, written in English instead of having been born and raised in an England speaking only german, russian or japanese!
I’m currently stationed on Guam, and there are still numerous WWII relics and debris all over the island. Andersen AFB and Naval Station Guam are here only because of WWII. It’s a very-near main stream, technologically inclined island…we just got HDTV a couple months ago! But sometimes I wonder what Guam would be like if it never saw the battles of WWII. The Navy and Air Force wouldn’t be here, so how much would they have “evolved” on their own? Or better yet, what if we had failed at freeing the Chamorro people from the wrath of the Japanese? This beautiful island could be unrecognizable.
Just some thoughts. =o)
MK
another thought….we the air force be a separate service if it weren’t for WWII? We might still be the Army Air Corps…
Guam is the only US soil to ever be occupied by a foreign force. On the way to bomb Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Guam was taken over by the Japanese. The local population, Chamorros, were forced into camps to work for the Japanese. In July of 1944 “Uncle Sam” came back to Guam and rescued the people of Guam from the abuses of the Japanese. Today, Guam is a territory of the United States because of the US victory in WWII.
I am from India. Though the war largely stayed away from the Indian sub-continent, there were some after-effects here.
Great Britain suffered enormous losses, monetary and human, during the war which disrupted their colonial rule all around the world. Most colonies, including India, were already revolting for independence for a number of years and in the aftermath of WWII almost all had to be freed by the British, who had enough after-war problems of their own.
They had the last laugh (sic) though. They left the sub-continent divided in a bloody mess in 1947 and we have seen little peace on our borders since then.
That was a great read…i especially liked what WT wrote.
My great uncle was honorably discharged with a gunshot wound to the left buttock,we always joked it was because he was running away.
Tim
May 13th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
(I am not the tim that responded above).
—
Jonco: I have a correction: it was Jon Stewart, not Steve Colbert that called Mr. Truman a war criminal. My apologies to Mr. Colbert.
The Toothbrush moustache also called Hitler moustache, Charlie Chaplin moustache, 1/3 moustache, or soul (mou)stache, is no longer cool and never will be, thanks to Hitler. The bastard!
Dirk Nowitzki would be everyones favorite basketball player.
David Hasselhoff would be everyones favorite alcholic.
My mum lived in Swansea in South Wales, she lived near the docks where her father worked. She was five when war was declared, she was six when a german fighter plane shot at her when she was walking home from school, she was saved by a complete stranger who grabbed her, threw her to the ground and lay on her (neither were hurt). War brings out the worst and the best in people.
Probably not a good topic because its pretty gruesome but depending how old your grandaughter is its possible to be used as it does raise a etical and moral questions – some of the experiments done by Josef Mengele in the concentration camps have lead to modern advances or understands in medicine. The human experimentation performed by the doctors in the various concentration camps, while vile and immoral was carefully documented and preserved, some of this information that we use today we would not have because of the methods needed to obtain it. Contemporary knowledge concerning the manner in which our bodies react to freezing is based almost exclusively on these Nazi experiments. We wouldn’t be able to treat much less save limbs destroyed by frostbite if it were not for these experiements. They also lead to modern understanding in how our bodies react to low altituds.
It increased out understanding of the genetic susceptibility to tuberculosis, gave us very extensive documentation of dwarfism. His extensive research on twins was some of the earliest progress in the discovery of DNA as the underlying cause of heriditary traits.
Many other experiments were conducted at Auschwitz on a smaller scale, such as Dr. Eduard Wirth’s studies of precancerous growths of the cervix of women. Dr. Wirth selected inmates were subjected to various experiments which were supposedly designed to help German military personnel in combat situations, develop new weapons, aid in the recovery of military personnel that had been injured.
see more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation
– On a bad note this – the experiments performed by the Japanese during WWII lead to advances in bio-warfare which we see today more often as bio-terrorism.
Medical advances made during WWII acutally would be a pretty kick-ass topic if shes old enough. Plenty of material and ethical deliemas to fill a few pages and lots of source material.
Also – WWII lead to the creation of Plastic Sugery and post-WWII lead to huge advancements in prosthetics.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medicine_and_world_war_two.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medical_changes_from_1945.htm
http://www.bookrags.com/research/medicine-world-war-ii-aaw-03/
http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/thoracicsurgeryvolI/preface.htm
http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/feb09/youraaos2.asp
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-53751.html
http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/08/31_plastic.html