Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II (review)

Leder's parents lived through World War II, their lives shaped by the war years. They had only been married one year when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and, in fact, Leder was conceived and born during that time. So, more than sixty years later, she uses her own parents' experience as a launching pad to tell the broader stories about the romances and the relationships of that war and the resourcefulness of the World War II generation.

It's an enjoyable read, accessible to a general audience. Leder draws upon the established scholarship about World War II, providing a strong foundation for each topic she introduces, including gender roles, changes in mores brought about by the wartime, and the internment of Japanese Americans. She also delves into other areas that are not as well known, topics not often included in mainstream treatments of the war: the segregation of the wives of African American men serving in segregated "colored" units, birth control, venereal disease, prostitution, and homosexuality.

Her contribution is to bring the themes together in one place, binding them with interviews that illuminate and make each topic more human. The euphemisms are inventive: "Khaki-Wackies," "Victory Girls," or "Good Time Charlottes" for the man-crazy women or even teen-aged girls looking for a thrill and "industrial girls" for prostitutes. A few opportunistic women married more than one man—looking for multiple monthly allotments given the spouses of active duty men and earning the label of "Allotment Annies."

Relationships faced challenges, Leder notes. And in fact, the divorce rates in the U.S. during the war years were high. In 1942, there were 321,000 divorces. By 1946, the number was 610,000 (47):

So many factors conspired to send couples to the divorce courts: hasty marriages, long separations, battle fatigue, the newfound independence of women at work and in the home, children, and wartime passion mistaken as love. In an environment of confusing messages about relationships between men and women, a time in which women were often cast as the 'predatory enemy,' it is a wonder that even more marriages didn't end in divorce and the suspicion and mistrust did not completely undermine the possibility of true and lasting love.

(47)

Some sections bring a chuckle. Don Hyde, stationed in Cornwall, England, found himself entangled with a young woman, although he had a girlfriend back home. "Hyde cheated but did not lose his virginity. That waited until his wedding night after the war. Still he enjoyed a 'loving relationship' that lasted from June to December 1944, when he left England . . ." (117), which reminds this reader of Bill Clinton's statement in 1998: "I did not have sex with that woman." One supposes that what is involved in a "loving relationship" depends on how the narrator defines the term.

In yet another anecdote, two wives shared a one-bedroom motel room in Waco, Texas. On weekends, when the two womens' husbands were allowed off base, the couples took turns in the motel room, taking two-hour shifts, while the other couple waited in their car parked outside (80).

Today's issue of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military is nothing new. In World War II, gay servicemen had their own newsletters, "The Myrtle Beach Bitch," then "The Myrtle Beach Belle," and "The Bitches Camouflage." But when those gay servicemen's preferences were revealed, they were discharged, given a "blue discharge" that labeled them "undesirable for military service" and prevented them from receiving veterans' benefits. (57)

The book has shortcomings. It is unknown how Leder found her interview subjects. It is also unclear whether she tape-recorded these interviews and whether she archived them in a public institution. She quotes from at least one unpublished memoir of a World War II veteran; hopefully, it is archived somewhere.

The other weakness is in her citations. In some places, Leder makes statements that beg attribution. For example...