Meanwhile Back Home (ePub)

Despite being safe at home as war raged over much of the world during World War II, American children experienced life-changing events that elicited both specific and various responses. Children, having parents involved in the war campaign, had to deal with new family dynamics and new responsibilities, even though the war was fought on foreign ground. Certainly, the impact of World War II on children in the United States deserves recognition. This oral history project seeks to retrieve information concerning the experiences of children in the Second World War, whose impressions were strong enough to be seared in their memories, even at very young ages. With few exceptions, children were aware of the threat that faced the country and responded to the call. They played their part in winning the war. They walked to school listening for air raid sirens, carried scrap metal to school for collection, offered their dimes to buy War Bonds, and sent caring packages to children in Europe. Some children missed one or both parents, who were either away at war or in factories making war materiel or transporting equipment. The mechanics of life changed. Each family had ration books assigned to them, one for each member of the household, including infants. Butter, sugar, tires, gasoline, and other materials were rationed. No cars, bicycles, tractors or other domestic products were built. Factories were converted to war-time needs: planes, ships, tanks, ballistics. Life, as the children knew it, had changed. Fifty interviewees answered ten questions that were designed to focus their memories of the war and provide a uniform basis for the study. Some recollections were common, others quite unique. Very few children were so protected by their families that they had no idea a war was raging. Fifty elders of various backgrounds and locations were interviewed. The goal was finding how children reacted to the events that changed their lives. It was an era of unity and patriotism.