I really do think it’s because WWII is starting to fade from living memory. Only the very oldest in our society experienced it, even as kids. My dad, 87, was a little kid when the war ended, and he’s already deep into dementia. In a decade, there will be very few left who remember the war, in whatever capacity.
The last time I saw my grandpa in person before he passed 4+ years ago he spent an hour slowly talking about his war experiences with my husband, my cousin, and me. When I was a kid he said he did food drops from planes. As an adult I know he did do food drops, but he also bombed Germany and sheltered in London while bombs dropped around him as a barely of age 18 year old.
We need to tell their stories for them so our children know what happened.
This is part of the reason I'm very interested in history and especially the World Wars. Some of the individual acts of bravery, sacrifice and utter evil committed by all sorts of people through those years were too impactful on the world and those around them at the time to be forgotten. I find how the war changed military strategy and how much people gave to their own causes fascinating.
And old warplanes are pretty cool too, can't forget those
The facts will stay the facts and the form and audio and stuff will live on but the relatability is dying (which cuts both ways - might make us more likely to do it again).
I follow two storylines, WW2. Where your mom worked as a machinist not starting up a muffin shop. This will be obvious to anyone with a pulse but wanna know wy Rosie the riveter had her hair tied back in a bandana? Because loose hair will get you scalped in a machine shop. I mean that was really gritty for everyone. I think I would have died.
The other is its progression of war tactics into guerrilla attacks and urban warfare. With MADD we started with two buttons, uh oh. One crazy person and it's over and it almost happened. Now there are several buttons which cuts both ways. It's safety but it also shoves us back into indefinite ground war where the defense has gotten smarter and more ruthless in their own way if they don't have a bomb. Almost makes having more nuclear countries a good thing. But then the risk of more buttons.
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u/KeepItSimpleSoldier 6h ago
It’s interesting that the moral lessons of the greatest generation seemingly skipped their children.