War and Peace: World War II Trauma 70-Years Later

• In Event: Military Stories: Battlefield, Trauma, Service & Healing

Abstract

“War and Peace: World War II Trauma 70-Years Later” discusses some preliminary results from an oral history project designed to answer in part the question whether and to what extent World War II Veterans experienced combat related trauma.

Given current studies and publicity directed towards Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder involving Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, this oral history project re-examines the popular perception of a World War II Veteran as being strong, silent and unflappable. Pop culture reinforces this image over and over with Hollywood classics such as Saving Private Ryan and The Longest Day. In the seminal book “The Greatest Generation”, Tom Brokaw describes the World War II Veteran as someone who was just doing his job.

In the end, the oral history project aims to discover if there are any differences between the Veterans of different generations as it relates to combat related trauma. Starting with the World War II Veteran, the oral history interviews first seek to learn if those Veterans suffered a silent injury, a combat related trauma, but just never spoke about it. If so, the goal is to learn why the World War II Veteran never spoke about the trauma, how the Veteran coped with the trauma, and what residual effects, if any, does the Veteran have to this day from the trauma.

Author

• Patrick Russell, Making History Project