6 June 1944

[Mr. Scot]

One thing I hear a lot of people say about World War II vets - and it's represented in this thread - is "they never talked about it".

I wonder if that's a generational thing or a cultural thing from that time in history.

[thefuzz]

47 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

One thing I hear a lot of people say about World War II vets - and it's represented in this thread - is "they never talked about it".

I wonder if that's a generational thing or a cultural thing from that time in history.

Guessing they were told, like many men of that time, to bury it, don't talk about it, and it will go away.  At least that's what it sounded like when I talked to the few that I know\knew.

[Zaximus]

2 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

One thing I hear a lot of people say about World War II vets - and it's represented in this thread - is "they never talked about it".

I wonder if that's a generational thing or a cultural thing from that time in history.

I think it's because of all the stuff they seen, and the friends they lost.  Lots of just senseless death.  Also, those guys went to war because they knew it was something that just had to be done, and that's that.    They seem to have remorse for things as well, because a lot of the folks they had to fight (Germans especially) didn't even really want to be fighting.   The Japanese didn't but did because of honor, and most say they were fierce in the Pacific and fearless.

[imminent rogaine]

My Grandfather was in the pacific. One of the jobs he had was going in after they dropped the bomb. I think they held the soldiers back like a week and then were like "yea, you're totally fine to go rummage through the radiation now..." Unfortunately he died before I realized I had access to his stories and experiences.

My mother had a friend that was in the Bataan death march. I'd imagine trying to relive or remember any of that experience would be last on my list of things to do ever.

I'm sure people that go through this stuff would talk about it with their peers. What is the point of even trying to talk about it to civilians? There is no way they would be able to articulate the experiences that they had in any way that was truly meaningful and representative of what they went through and saw.

I just finished Dan Carlin's podcast series:" Blueprint for Armageddon" about WWI.(Its pretty great for tedious desk work or travel).  He includes plenty of journal entries and quotes first hand accounts. This one really stuck out to me about the utter hell that soldiers go through in battle, even if they come out physically unscathed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dancarlin/comments/364wnl/definitely_the_most_heart_breaking_passage_ive/

[SmokinwithWilly]

8 hours ago, thefuzz said:

Guessing they were told, like many men of that time, to bury it, don't talk about it, and it will go away.  At least that's what it sounded like when I talked to the few that I know\knew.

I'm sure that's part of it as well as they just didn't know how to talk about it. I don't know how I would deal with facing death like that every day. It was a war that threw men into a meat grinder and what was left came home. I can't imagine trying to relive that horror just so someone else could hear it, even though all generations need to know the true horrors of war. I have spent the past couple of days thinking about some of the things I was told and I know there is no way I could deal with most of what he told me. I know peace can sometimes only be found on the other side of war, but no one really wins in the end. We should just let the assholes that start wars send their own children to fight instead of someone else's. Maybe then they wouldn't be so willing to let so much blood be shed for a patch of dirt.