War from a Different Point of View
Times are changing….. In the last century many large, dynamic events have helped shape the world into a more tolerant, diverse and equal society. At least in the United States we have seen the introduction of equality, the banning and equalization of alcohol, the two largest wars in human history, advancements and major leaps in technology, the list keeps going on and on. However, one truly sticks out rest, the improvement of women’s rights and their gender role in society. They began the century as basically baby making house wives controlled my men, to being on almost equal footing with men, although we are unfortunately not quite there yet.
In class we are currently reading Since You Went Away by Judy Litoff and David Smith, which is a very interesting book that has compiled many letters from WWII, written by the wives and girlfriends of the soldiers that fought overseas. It presents the world with a view of the war that not many people ever hear about, everyone knows about McArthur and his raids over Japan, or Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb, but how many stories have been told about those left behind. The truth is that not many women left at home to take care of the house and family, have ever had their story told, but if it weren’t for them, the war could never have been won. The United States had to quickly adapt as women began replacing me at almost every job, ship building, ammunition production, tank manufacturing, all of these helped to drastically and rapidly earn women respect and a more prominent place in society.
However, there was still a lot of backlash by society with these changes, women still had to support the men, and anything they didn’t like had to be kept to themselves. In the book one women, Anne Gudis, displayed her anger toward a soldier by writing him four very blunt and to the point lines,
Mr. Kramer:
Go To Hell!
With Love,
Anne Gunis
Somehow this letter got published in a magazine and society reacted in an outrage, writing to her and reprimanding her for lowering moral of the soldiers, and being unpatriotic.
Today women are still left at home while men go off to fight, but things are changing… Women can now go along with the men and fight alongside them, as well as wives and families can travel with their solders and live relatively close to where they are fighting. There are still many limits on what they can do while overseas, mainly because they are so near the fighting. Many of the same feelings felt by those left at home during WWII are still being felt by those that are left at home today, and even those that travel with their soldiers, feelings of monotony, loneness and an empty void where someone special is missing in your life. While reading blogs I found one written by Tracy Moulton Peterson, a Marine wife who is living with her husband and children in Germany. I am going to end this post with something that she wrote in one of her recent blogs really drives home how this affects those not fighting.
When we first arrived here and still lived in the hotel on base, it immediately struck me that every woman I saw appeared to have given up. Now I get it. Without someone to notice the effort, why bother? There’s not a lot of personal satisfaction gained from the repetitive chores of domestic life. I was so happy this weekend to finish bringing up a cord of wood from the driveway to the basement, because the cord of wood isn’t going to reappear in the driveway tomorrow, strewn about. I can’t say the same, metaphorically, about the laundry and the dishes. Those things always reappear, strewn about.
Having a life outside the house is, in my opinion, the most important thing a military spouse can do for him- or herself. When the service member is gone, there has to be something to fill the space.
By: Judy Barrett Litoff and David Smith
by Tracy Moulton Peterson
