Remembering The Good War: Minnesota's Greatest Generation

War’s Impacts: The Human Side

World War II forced men and women, whether civilians or veterans , to confront a wide assortment of situations and to make necessary adjustments. Two very different perspectives have already been presented: first, the memories of those who remained on the Home Front, living and working as civilians, and second, those of service personnel who were exposed to combat situations. Their experiences were worlds apart, yielding diverse concerns and daily routines. In this chapter, the focus turns from working lives and combat reality to what might be termed the human side of war. By discussing the value of correspondence and the role of faith, men and women from all walks of life share their memories about who and what was important to them and why. Finally, service veterans from the medical field talk frankly about the horrific costs of modern war and their roles in the healing process. 177 War’s Impacts The Human Side [5] Staying in Touch: Letters to and from Home In an era without e-mail or readily available long-distance telephone service, people kept in touch by writing letters. As evidenced in literally scores of interviews, servicemen and -women liked getting mail and, more importantly, viewed it as an important link to what they had left behind. Home-front civilians, too, looked forward to receiving word from those who were away; for them it was less about “hearing the news” and much more a means of maintaining human contact, however tenuous. By far the strongest and most meaningful memories of writing and receiving letters were shared by women; some men did not recall writing at all, even to family members, and for those who did, the experience generally lacked the emotion conveyed by women. Other interesting details emerged as military personnel and civilians recounted their experiences. Long periods apart, at a relatively young age, led to the breakup of relationships: “Dear John” letters were a reality. Servicemen and civilians alike admitted to sending and receiving these messages. One Pacific theater sailor recalled consoling more than one shipmate whose wife or girlfriend had strayed from or decided to end the relationship. For several in uniform, there were memories of helping illiterate others write out a letter; one soldier bravely acknowledged that he was the one who required such help. By far the most difficult writing duty fell to the chaplains, however; they composed the letters sent to family members when a soldier had been killed. Some on the Home Front remembered sharing news and feelings openly, wanting to keep recipients as well informed as possible; others practiced a form of self-censorship, holding back potentially disturbing news so the reader would not worry about something over which he or she had little control. There were memories of letters filled with banalities or of the post’s arrival being the highlight of the day. Some civilians described writing letters as a wartime duty, others as a welcome relief from the stresses of work and family responsibilities. Whatever the memory, rare was the man or woman for whom written contact was insignificant. R e m e m b e r i n g t h e G o o d W a r 178 ✦ ✦ ✦ Guadalupe Velasquez (b. 1923) was living with his mother and sisters and working at a slaughterhouse in South St. Paul when he was drafted into the army in January 1944. As an engine fireman with the 732nd Railway Operations Battalion, he served in Europe in 1944–45. For Guadalupe, receiving mail from his family was something to look forward to. Iused to write two of my sisters and a couple of friends that I knew here. Sometimes you wouldn’t get a letter, say, for a couple of weeks. So by the time you got your mail, you’d probably have four, five, six letters there. They were very important to me because, well, they didn’t say much. They didn’t say much of anything. Mostly hello, how are you doing? And whatever was going on [at home]. All that. But I would keep them on me as long as I could, and whenever I had a chance I would take them out and read them over and over. Just like I was talking to that person. Really, you know, you really enjoyed those letters. It was so important to get mail. Very important. Veda Ponikvar of Chisholm was...