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Is It Ok to Say Their Names?

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Are veterans allowed to share names in their books?

The pain and trauma of war live on in the minds, hearts, bodies, and souls of veterans, long after the guns fall silent. The memories, the bodies, the combat experiences, and even the good times, can blur together. Some are even blocked, forgotten. Safely behind a shield the veteran carefully constructed while overseas. At discharge, veterans returned home, started a family, went to school, got a job and tried to appear “normal,” as if nothing had changed. But nothing is normal. Nothing can ever be the same but it is safely locked away.

Have you ever noticed 40 years is the amount of time it takes before we mere mortals experience some profound change? An awakening or opening of our hearts, souls, and pain? I’ve noticed after World War II, it took about 40 years (1980s) for veterans to start opening up more about their experiences. For Korea (1990s), and Vietnam (2000s). Many women report having an awakening and an ‘I no longer give a f*&k about….’ moments after hitting the age of 40. If you start investigating, 40 years seems to be some magical marker to create openings in our souls. I can say for sure I had one at 40 that transformed my entire life.

What might 40 years mean to a veteran who has held his or her story close? It might mean his or her family has grown and left the house. Grandchildren have been born. Spouses have died. Jobs ended as retirement age approached. Old memories surface, ghosts reappear and it becomes clear it is time to tell the stories of war.

Photograph 111-SC-651408; Soldiers Carry a Wounded Comrade Through a Swampy Area; 1969; Photographs of American Military Activities, ca. 1918 – ca. 1981; Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Record Group 111; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.

Naming Names

I’ll be honest, in my 15 years as a military research expert, writer, and teacher, I’ve written books for families of veterans. I have not yet written one for a veteran or helped a veteran write his or her story. I’m not sure why that is. I only know that the universe sends me the clients at a time when we are both ready to work together to tell a story.

I have however, received emails and comments on my website from veterans asking questions about telling their stories. A common question I receive, and actually just received an email about this recently, is Am I allowed to name names, especially of the dead?

Photograph 428-N-1142176; South China Sea….A nurse tends a patient just out of surgery in the intensive care ward of the hospital ship USS Repose (AH-16). The ship is steaming off the coast of Vietnam a few miles south of the 17th parallel.; 10/1967; General Black-and-White Photographic File of the Department of Navy, 1958 – 1981; General Records of the Department of the Navy, Record Group 428; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.

They Will Not Be Forgotten

It has been said that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken, that we are only truly gone when we’ve disappeared from the memories of those who loved us, meaning a great artist never dies. As long as his books are read, his paintings admired, as long as our songs are sung, we may each of us live forever. Henry Morgan

I believe we have a duty to speak their names. Too many have been forgotten. Over the years I’ve read hundreds of World War II Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) that document the death details, recovery, and burial of our war dead. I’ve read World War I, Korea, and Vietnam files as well, but World War II has been my focus. In many of those files for young men who were not married and had no children before they were killed, their memories die with with them. I’ve heard many stories from clients and others that their families never spoke the name of the fallen again and forbid others in the family from naming children or grandchildren after the fallen.

The pain was just too great to bear. A name a constant reminder of who was lost.

Many of those IDPFs have crossed my path and I have shared their stories so their names would live on. Now as veterans ask if it is ok to share the names of those with whom they served, those who they cared for after death, my perspective is yes.

But…

Please do some research first.

If a veteran wishes to write about those with whom he served – first find out if they are still alive. This might define how and what you write about them and your experiences with them. If possible, try to contact them and let them know if you are publishing a public book or story. There may be additional steps to take legally – names to be changed or written permission to talk about certain events. Do your homework to ensure you aren’t stepping over any lines.

If the veteran is writing about someone who died in the war, try to get the death files to learn more and provide a source within your story or book. See if you are able to learn more about the fallen’s repatriation or continuing Missing In Action status. Perhaps check Ancestry or other sites to see if the family has published anything about their fallen.

There are so many families searching for information, that your book and that one source you share, may open a new research path for someone. It may also bring some answers, closure, peace, and healing to that individual who is searching or their family.

I believe all our veterans deserve to have their stories told – whether they were honorable or not. War was not all ‘good guys and bad guys.’ There were a mix of both on every side. Sometimes even those dark stories need to be told so people have answers, can process, heal, and grow. Sometimes the stories, good and bad, need to be told so we can forgive – ourselves and others. Again, do your homework to ensure you aren’t legally crossing any lines that will damage you.

I Don’t Know Their Names

There are cases where a veteran will have helped save a life or recovered remains of the fallen and they have no idea, or can’t remember, the names of those individuals. What happens then?

In cases like this where a veteran recovered remains of Marines and that experience stuck with him for decades, the story can still be told. Even without names, a description of the event, where it took place, timing (even Month/Year) can be enough information. The details a veteran provides may be enough to spark a memory of a similar/same event in a reader’s family that sparks research. It might take a while but the names may surface months or years after the book is published. Try to provide details (declassified of course) where possible. Your story may be the key to someone else’s healing.In the end, I believe our veterans have stories to tell. In those stories will be names of those who lived and those who died. Everyone deserves to be remembered.

Are you ready to write your stories of war – for your veteran or your own military experience?

Public or Private Stories and Books

What do we share and how do we share it? Will anyone read my story? Will the details be too graphic? What if someone asks me to give a book talk and share my book in public? These are additional concerns for veterans.

I believe there are many people waiting for our veterans, especially Korea and Vietnam, to start telling their stories. Will they be easy to read on an emotional level? Probably not – the graphic details of those wars may exceed what we’ve learned about the brutality of World War I and World War II. This doesn’t mean it should be hidden – humanity needs to know so we can process and heal this energy of war.

If a book is too graphic, this doesn’t mean you have to read it in one sitting. Honest stories of war are something to take slowly. Allow your mind and heart to process the information. The stories might trigger you to start digging into your own family’s past.

Book talks and sharing of the new book in podcasts, libraries, and other venues is not something an author is required to do. Many veterans quietly publish their stories without a lot of fanfare and people find them. Others publish more loudly to allow for their stories to be found quickly. It’s all a matter of personal choice.

Writing the story is a personal act of processing and healing. The writing is all a veteran may need to heal. Public speaking and sharing may not be needed. Again, it’s all a choice based on a veteran’s journey.

Want to go further? Read my article When One Voice Breaks the Silence.

Are You Ready to Bring Your Veteran’s Story to Life?

Whether you’re just starting to research or write and need guidance and a plan to draft your book or you have been writing for a while, I can help. I can help you move through the overwhelm, uncertainty, stuckness, and emotions that rise as you craft your story. I offer personalized research and developmental editing to all clients. All it takes is a free phone call to discuss your specific project.

Your story or your veteran’s story isn’t just a research project. It’s a healing tool, a legacy for the veteran, and a gift to your family, or perhaps the world. Who needs to hear YOUR family’s story? I can help you make it one that lasts.

To learn more, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to schedule a free phone consult to discuss your project and how I may be able to help now or in the future.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

When One Voice Breaks the Silence

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Veteran Stories Can Be Someone’s Healing Medicine

I wish I would have known when I started having children that they don’t only inherit eye color, body shape, gifts, or jawlines. They also inherit pain, trauma, resilience, silence, and the many untold and unhealed stories of their parents and ancestors.

I wish I would have known that my ancestral stories of war permeate much of our family history. They shaped who we became, both consciously and unconsciously. You see, war doesn’t end when the guns fall silent. War has aftershocks that continue to ripple through peacetime, families, and communities. Often these ripples create enough shame, grief, anger, and fear that we remain silent, feeling alone. The truth is, most families feel and carry the impacts of trauma, war, and survival. What if you writing your veteran’s story is exactly the medicine someone else needs to heal themselves and their ancestors?

Our stories hold immense power. Power we are often afraid to wield or we’ll be seen as the the crazy one who may be tossed out of our families. But what if the power we hold and the ancestral knowledge we carry can recount acts of sacrifice, courage, and resilience? What if this invites us into more truth?

The stories we tell, the medicine it creates can break silences in the family. It can heal what was passed down and remove the fear, emotional beliefs, behaviors, and patterns we all carry about self-worth and safety. In naming these things through our stories, we unbind them and can weave something new, safe, full of love and truth. This is the medicine we can create by writing our veteran stories.

This is the medicine that someone out there is looking for that only YOU can provide. Are you ready to share your stories?

The Unspoken Legacy of War

Trauma is the result of what happened to you. It is not the action itself, but how our nervous systems, bodies, and energy fields trapped the experience and kept us safe until we had time to process the experience. However, most veterans never got the opportunity to process anything because they were constantly living trauma. Once home, unless they had severe mental issues, resources and help were limited. Therefore, they struggled in silence, nightmares, alcohol, anger, and emotional withdrawal.

You can’t heal in the same environment that created the trauma, pain and silence. Without the ability or knowledge that they needed to process and heal, veterans had children that grew up sensing something was wrong, even when they couldn’t name it. They FELT it. Emotional patterns of hypervigilance, shame, grief, dissociation or detachment – emotions that didn’t belong to them, yet did. This is inherited trauma. We forget that the stories and pain that left untold, unhealed, are the most potent in shaping how we see and live in this world.

Korean-War era photo of a soldier comforting a buddy. National Archives.

Telling the Story Changes Everything

Whether we are the veteran, a child, or descendant – when we crack open the door and tell the story, we begin to heal. Our words give voice to the pain that was unable to be acknowledged. The words allow the soul of the veteran to be witnessed in their full humanity rather than just a survivor or war. The veteran can be seen as a person with dreams, wounds, complexity, and great love.

For many of us who research our family history, this is a sacred act. It is soul work. For us it becomes more than just the bare facts of names, dates, and place. Our research turns into writing that quickly become more about emotions, context of the experience, awareness of the war’s impact on us, and healing. The process may begin with military research but ends with the story that changes lives. The records help us see how the war didn’t only shape our veteran but our family as well.

When we are brave enough to share our stories, others see themselves reflected in the words, photos, pain, resilience, and healing. Your words may create a medicine that a stranger required to keep going through their own struggles. Weights may be lifted in some lives as the individuals realize they aren’t alone in their feelings and what their family endured. This is how your story can become medicine.

37th Field Hospital performance by USO, Panay, Philippine Islands 31 July 1945. NARA Photo.

The Medicine is in the Witnessing

Song, storytelling, speeches, films, are all ways we can witness our ancestors with new eyes. As we do so, we are also witnessing ourselves. As we dissect the military records, family stories, and pain, we can begin to see a grandfather as not only “emotionally distant” or a “raging alcoholic”, but begin to understand his scars of battle that manifested in these ways so he could cope. Not all coping mechanisms are healthy but we are human and do the best we can. A little empathy for others can go a long way to better seeing who they were at the core of their soul. Witnessing may help us stop blaming our parents and ourselves for the family dysfunction that has seemed so “normal”. We are able to trace the dysfunction to it’s original generational wound.

Some may believe that witnessing excuses harm done. In reality it doesn’t. It brings context to what created the harm. Through context we can find compassion. Through compassion and choosing a new belief, behavior, or pattern, we break old toxic cycles. This ripples out not only to our ancestors and descendants but all of humanity.

One story, honestly told, can help an entire family shift and feel safer, whole, and full of love. Whether this story is told through fiction or non-fiction, it may be the medicine someone needs to release lifetimes of pain. Remember, you and your words are more powerful than you’ve been led to believe.

From Silence to Soul Legacy

Anyone can tell a veteran’s story. You don’t need to be a professional writer, only the willingness to listen and be open to the context that arrives. Your ability to piece together the fragments of family story with military fact can open space in your heart and expand your intuition. Your intuition may lead you to things unspoken and this is ok. Simply naming the silence you feel can shift powerful forces.

Your words have the power to transform a veteran’s story from a source of pain into a legacy of light. Their story and yours, do not have to end in trauma and heartbreak. As we reflect, remember and create ritual around this work, it evolves into strength for us, them, and the world. Your act of remembrance matters. Your words can be the medicine someone didn’t know they needed. Are you ready to break your silence today and create your veteran’s story?

Are You Ready to Bring Your Veteran’s Story to Life?

Whether you’re just starting to research or write and need guidance and a plan to draft your book or you have been writing for a while, I can help. I can help you move through the overwhelm, uncertainty, stuckness, and emotions that rise as you craft your story. I offer personalized research and developmental editing to all clients. All it takes is a free phone call to discuss your specific project.

Your veteran’s story isn’t just a research project. It’s a healing tool, a legacy for the veteran, and a gift to your family, or perhaps the world. Who needs to hear YOUR family’s story? I can help you make it one that lasts.

To learn more, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to schedule a free phone consult to discuss your project and how I may be able to help now or in the future.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Bringing Veteran Stories to Life with Expert Editing

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Writing a book about a World War I or World War II veteran family member or a client’s family member is an incredible act of remembrance. It requires patience, love, and a knowledge of military research and records. Transforming your research, family lore, and historical records into a compelling book is no small feat. This is where I come in.

As a developmental editor, who created the process to research any veteran from World War I to Vietnam, even if the records burned, and has written more than 20 books and countless others for clients, I can help you transform your work. I specialize in helping you shape the raw records and facts into a meaningful narrative. I help you preserve the legacy of your veteran which invites healing for generations to come. Are you curious about how a developmental editor can help you craft your best veteran book? Let me show you how I can help.

777th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion & 101AB Troopers. NARA Photo.

The Researcher Turned Writer. A Book Requires Not Just Stories, but Structure.

Most researchers who turn into writers begin with piles of records, letters, photos, and family stories. Without structure and a plan for the research, this pile of information can be overwhelming. I help researchers turn their information into a foundation for their book. Working with my client, we create a flow that honors the timeline of service and the emotional journey of the veteran and family.

The Writer Who is too Close to the Story.

Writers dive deep into every story they create. While this is a beautiful thing and we know our material incredibly well, it can be a detriment to the overall book. Why? Because we are so close to the knowledge, person, and writing, we become “blind” to what’s missing or incorrect.

Are there holes in the timeline? Missing information? Is the emotional impact clear? Did you capture the trauma the veteran endured in a way that honors their experience without throwing the reader off? Did you realize you repeated a story or short set of facts more than once?

As a developmental editor, I bring fresh eyes to your writing. I can more clearly see where the holes and errors are; where you have duplicated information; and where things can be tightened up. I can also provide ideas on where to find records that you may not have known about when you conducted your research.

71st Infantry Division. NARA Photo.

I Translate Military Lingo for Civilian Readers

Military records contain a lot of abbreviations and acronyms that most civilians do not understand. Additionally, when we look at Navy and Marine Corps records, the acronyms are taken to a whole new confusing level. It’s a little like learning a new language.

As a developmental editor with 15 years experience researching military records, I’m familiar with the terminology and know where to look when I’m not. I can help you explain things to your civilian audience with greater ease.

I Help You Bring the Story To Life

Coming from a genealogical background, I realize how easy it can be to start listing names, dates, and places with little extra detail. We fall into the trap of facts without humanity. My editing approach blends historical accuracy with your family stories, and heart. This is especially important when we have your veteran’s voice, through oral histories, diaries, or letters, within the narrative. I can help make sure the veteran’s voice is not lost but portrays his human experience.

St Mere Eglise, France Cemetery no 2. John G. Wells private collection.

I Help You Carry and Describe the Emotional Weight

Military stories often carry unspoken or hidden grief, trauma, and moral complexity. These are reasons why our veterans remained silent about what they did in combat, for most of their lives. While their voices were silent in life, the records can writing can help them speak loudly after death.

My background in ancestral healing and living out my World War II Navy grandparent’s war trauma means I walk with you through the fragile emotions and difficult material. I hold space for you to ask questions, process the emotions that rise, and help you craft a narrative that respects the veteran, the family, and the generational trauma and gifts. To me, this isn’t just editing or assisting in writing – it’s sacred witnessing to your transformation and healing.

Are You Ready to Bring Your Veteran’s Story to Life?

Whether you’re just starting to write and need guidance and a plan to draft your book or you have been writing for a while, I can help. I can help you move through the overwhelm, uncertainty, stuckness, and emotions that rise as you craft your story. I offer personalized research and developmental editing to all clients. All it takes is a free phone call to discuss your specific project.

Your veteran’s story isn’t just a history project. It’s a healing tool, a legacy for the veteran, and a gift to your family, or perhaps the world. Who needs to hear YOUR family’s story? I can help you make it one that lasts.

To learn more, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to schedule a free phone consult to discuss your project and how I may be able to help now or in the future.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Book Release! Legacy of the Skies

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A Grandson’s Tribute to a Legendary Aviator by Doug Hall

I am so excited to announce the official release of my client Doug Hall’s first book, now available on Amazon! Legacy of the Skies. A Grandson’s Tribute to a Legendary Aviator.

Doug will also be interviewed on the WW2TV show on YouTube, today, May 6, 2025. If you are unable to watch live, please be sure to visit WW2TV and watch the show later.

Description

Step into the incredible world of Colonel James Goodwin Hall (1896–1952), a decorated World War I and World War II pilot, trailblazing aviation pioneer, and one of the strategists behind the D-Day invasion as Director of Reconnaissance for the Eighth Air Force in World War II. From flying dangerous missions during World War I to earning accolades from President Roosevelt during World War II, Colonel Hall’s life and military service is the stuff of legend.

A renaissance man of many talents, curiosity and drive, his adventures didn’t end after the World Wars. He also left his mark as a Wall Street broker, auto and airplane industry executive, and co-partner in the establishment of the American Quarter Horse in racing. Whether racing airplanes, motorboats or his bay gelding named “Golden Eagle”, piloting cutting-edge seaplanes, or exploring the far reaches of the world, Hall lived life on his own terms—always chasing new horizons and pushing boundaries.

With vivid storytelling and previously unpublished documents and photos, author Doug Hall brings his grandfather’s vibrant legacy to life in a captivating biography that reveals a man who didn’t wait for history to call—he made it. Legacy of the Skies is an unforgettable portrait of a true American original who seized every moment of his astonishing life’s journey.

About Doug Hall

Doug Hall is a freelance writer and holds an M.A. in Museum Studies from the University of Lon­don. His writing credits include extensive publications on music web sites (primarily jazz music reviews and artist profiles) and the production of a monthly podcast, “Talk About Jazz”, interviewing jazz musicians. He is an avid traveler, having lived abroad in London for five years and also extensively explored Europe and Asia, with some extended residences. Back home in New England, Doug’s outdoor pursuits include biking, hiking and skiing in the New England area.

Would you like help with your WWI or WWII Research?

I am taking new clients and have space for one or two new book clients. To learn more about a possible research or book project, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free consultation to discuss your needs.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Stories from the Battlefield. Writing Your Stories of War.

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This month we commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, V-E Day. Are you researching and writing your stories of war? If not, I can help.

I have two writing books to help you get started.

In Stories from the World War II Battlefield, Vol. 3 Writing the Stories of War, you will discover…

Stories can save us. Stories have the power to heal.

Stories help us preserve the past and provide hope that history will not repeat itself. For some cultures, storytelling is the primary method for transmitting a family or group’s collective history. For others, writing the stories to share with family or the world, is the method.

When we write, we must ask ourselves, what writing really matters? Consider the words you write as your legacy. Find ways to share your writing to document your life, to remember those who are no longer here, and to honor those who survived a time when the world was collapsing in chaos.

All the tools researchers need to start writing the stories of World War II from a U.S. perspective or overseas theater of war perspective, to honor those who lived in those chaotic years, are included in this volume.

The tools include:

  • Reasons to write the stories of war.
  • Tips to help you organize your thoughts and sources before you write.
  • Writing formulas to help you organize your stories.
  • More than 500 writing prompts covering multiple themes for writers in the U.S. and overseas.
  • Suggestions on how to share your stories on memorial websites and through books.
  • Additional resources for writing the stories of war.

This is the most important reference guide researchers need to begin writing the stories of World War II.

In Finding the Answers Through WWII Writing, you will discover…

Stories have the power to transform us. Throughout our lives, the stories we have heard may shape our identity. They may shape the perspective we have on life, the past, present, and future, ourselves, and those we love. Stories may raise questions about the war, family secrets, those who were lost, and things we discover through our research.

Take a walk with me for five weeks, through a WWII family story. Each week you will receive access to a new module to help you explore your family & military stories. The target of this course is help you put a story on paper and view it from multiple perspectives to see how you, your family, and the story have grown, found answers, peace, and closure. Finally, you will have the opportunity to witness the changes in one of my stories as I vulnerably talk about moments in my life.

Are you ready to start writing? Those books will provide what you need to begin. Be sure to explore all my books at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School and the WWII Research & Writing Center website for articles, records, videos, tips, and more.

Would you like help with your WWI or WWII Research?

I am taking new research clients and have space for one or two new book clients. To learn more about a possible research or book project, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free consultation to discuss your needs.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Returning War Heroes

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Exploring Life after the WWII Ticker Tape Parades, Funerals, and Hospital Releases

Part 1: Have We Over Glorified the War?

Part 2: The Romantic World War II Home Front

Victory! Excitement! Get married, have babies, go to school, live the American dream!

And never utter a word about your experience.

Thousands of civilian and military personnel around the world celebrated May 8, 1945 (V-E Day) and August 14, 1945 (V-J Day). World War II was finally over and the men and women of the Armed Forces would soon be coming home! These were days to celebrate and begin to plan the future! What a bright, exciting, amazing future it would be!

Would the future be what everyone had been envisioning since the war began? Probably not. Many civilians and veterans alike were in for a rude awakening.

Men and women in Paris celebrate VJ Day and the complete end of World War II. (111-SC-210241)

The Veteran Returns

Apprehension. Fear. Uncertainty. Excitement.

As World War II continued on from 1941 to 1942, ‘43, ‘44, and finally ended in 1945, everyone’s lives had changed, whether they realized it or not. All the ticker tape parades in the U.S. and military parades in Europe to celebrate liberation, the end of the war, or going home, wouldn’t change the fact that our veterans had been transformed in ways those at home could not imagine. It also didn’t change the fact that thousands would never come home.

New Yorkers celebrating the end of the war. (208-N-43468; National Archives Identifier 535794)

The civilians and veterans on the home front had been prepared for the coming end of the war since D-Day 1944. To prepare the public for the returning veterans, articles appeared in newspapers, Reader’s Digest, Ladies Home Journal, and other magazines, bulletins. Radio shows gave advice about a variety of topics as well.

  • Information about the thousands of veterans discharged early from service due to psychoneurosis. Would they become a burden to their families or society? How do we help a psychoneurotic family member?
  • Articles appeared for parents and wives about how to treat and care for their returning husband.
  • There were articles for veterans about straying wives and veterans returning home to find his wife with a child from another man.
  • Questions and fears were raised about infidelity of the men overseas and whether or not they fathered children while at war. This led to other articles about how women should overlook this as men will behave this way during war.
  • Some articles discussed the combat veteran and the worry as to whether or not he will become a menace to society or if he will reintegrate easily. These articles put the fear into the civilians who wondered if veterans would be running around with guns and killing people.
  • Articles about the G.I. Bill, forgetting the war, starting a family, getting a job, going to school. Living the American dream – which did not include talking about or processing the war.

There were so many other related topics as well to both prepare the public and create mass amounts of fear and worry. Internet Archive (https://archive.org) has issues of Reader’s Digest and Ladies Home Journal from the 1940s if you are interested in reading some of the articles on marriage, veterans, mental health, and more to learn how the public was prepared. You can also search the newspapers for keywords related to this topic to see what articles appear for that time period.

Additionally, many books were written and made available to the public like Psychology for the Returning Serviceman. Soldier to Civilian. Problems of Readjustment. And, The Veteran Comes Back. I wonder if my grandma Libbie read any of those books or magazine articles as she waited for my grandpa to be discharged.

Regardless of what civilians read, there was a sense of apprehension about who the veteran would be upon his return. Veterans also wondered who they had become and also how the family would receive them.

POWs near Yokohama, Japan celebrate liberation and the end of the war. (80-G-490444; National Archives Identifier 520992)

Discharge

For some veterans who required no hospitalization and had enough points for discharge, it didn’t take long upon return to the U.S. for them to be released from duty. Although there was some initial turbulence for employment and college for a short period after the war ended, things balanced out. Most veterans were more easily able to find a job and even higher income than they were prior to the war. Others did not fare as well in smaller towns where people worried about the veterans’ mental and physical states.

Additionally, many veterans chose not to remain at home where they lived at the start of the war. The war forced these young men, who were 18, 19, 20, upon entry into the service, to grow up quickly and in ways civilians were not required. To go back to what was, no longer appealed to many returning veterans. They wanted a new start, a new city, a new life. Maybe it would be easier to forget the trauma they’d endured while at war if they weren’t constantly reminded of it by family and friends.

Still others married, settled down, began to work or go to school, and start families. Many other veterans were not so lucky.

Military Hospitals

Many men and some women, were wounded while in service and required a little or a lot of medical services at the end of the war. Others lived in a POW camp for a period of time and required medical attention upon liberation due to starvation and disease. Most were sent through a system of military hospitals while overseas and then back in the U.S. Within these hospitals veterans received care for burns, loss of limbs, wounds that required more care than a field hospital could provide, disease, weight loss, and mental health.

Hospital stays for some meant better health, a new way forward and time to process their experience as they recovered. For others it was a nightmarish hell full of painful surgeries, procedures, and recovery. This hell was something many veterans dreaded sharing with wives and family members. How might a wife respond to knowing her husband lost both legs in an artillery attack?

How might parents respond knowing their son has been diagnosed with psychoneurosis because of the hundreds of days on the front line listening to artillery, watching his friends die, being cold, hot, hungry, and sick? Who would take care of him?

What about the veterans with burns that caused disfiguration? How would they fit back into their old lives and society? Would anyone hire them? Would children be afraid of them? What kind of life was left to create?

Civilians had their own worries about veterans who required hospital stays. In the book, Soldier from the War Returning, Childers gives an example of Grace, the wife of Willis, who lost his legs during the war.

Grace had prepared herself as best she knew how. She had read the burgeoning advice literature and uplifting magazine stories about teh blind, the disabled, the disfigured, and the wives who stood beside them. Still…she was terrified. What would he be like? What would he look like? What could he do? Would she recoil when she saw him? Would she be able to embrace him? Was he angry, resentful? Would he still want her?1

For wives there was also the question of sex. Would her husband be able to perform, would he want sex and intimacy, or would his wounds or mental issues put an end to that part of their marriage? Again, the literature of the time had plenty of advice for wives.

Finally, it’s worth considering that for veterans who spent months or years in a hospital undergoing procedures, surgeries, and recovering, the idea of going home may have created a lot of apprehension and fear. Hospital life had become comfortable, safe, and the veterans were among others just like them. The outside world could be cruel – were they ready for that?

Funerals

Not every veteran returned walking off the train. Some returned in flag draped caskets beginning a few years after the war ended. Families had to deal with the loss of a son, brother, sister, husband, father and figure out how to grieve and move on with life.

Grief was present in every community and most families, even when their veteran returned alive. Grief was a pervasive energy that aged parents, made their illnesses worse, and for some who couldn’t cope – it meant a life in a mental institution. You would be surprised how many IDPFs I’ve read that have mental hospital commitment papers for one of the parents which left the other parent or sibling as the new legal next of kin.

Widows of the war dead had decisions to make. Some with children chose to marry someone else before the remains of their husband were returned. Others waited years. The marriage of a widow, with a child to a new man often meant a great change for the child(ren). I’ve had many children in this case tell me their stepfather refused to allow anyone to talk about the dead war hero. In some families the wife never uttered a word about the child(ren)’s biological father until the stepfather had died or they divorced. Many a death bed confession to a son or daughter were made stating the mother had kept a box of their dead father’s things in the back of the closet.

These death bed confessions led to a variety of emotions in the child(ren) and many unanswered questions. This is often when a child of a father who died in war will seek out help to find the military records and answers. They need to know.

Veterans Hospitals

Joseph Holik, 1945. You can see the lack of light in his eyes. The exhaustion. He was not the same man who entered the Navy in 1943.

Finally we have the topic of discharged veterans living out months, years, or the rest of their lives in Veteran Administration Hospitals. One of those veterans was my grandpa Joseph Holik. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in July 1945 after being removed from his third ship. After a stint in a few Naval hospitals, an Honorable Discharge, he was sent home. Upon his return, my dad was conceived and shortly after, grandpa was confined to the Downey Veterans Hospital in North Chicago for the last 17 years of his life. In a sense, my dad grew up a war orphan, never having known his dad prior to the war, like his brothers. I can only imagine all the chaos this caused.

Many veterans spent a great deal of time in treatment for physical, mental, and emotional issues due to the war. This would have impacted families in different ways. Have you asked your family about the impact of war and VA Hospital treatment for your veterans? This question and the resulting information isn’t just for World War II. Our veterans and the generations that followed have been impacted by every war.

Impacts of War

There are so many impacts of war that I could probably write a book about it, but I won’t. Below are several impacts that you might consider in the context of your family history. These impacts don’t just apply to World War II, they can apply to any war. I invite you to journal about these impacts and talk to your family to see what more you can learn. You might do some healing along the way.

The boys are gone. The men are home. For families that sent young men, fresh out of high school or barely in college to war, saw aged men return home. Gone are the happy go lucky days of youth. The hardened veteran was here with all of his experience he couldn’t share with his family. For some families, this foreign man who showed up may have disrupted the calm and overturned the family structure.

The war hero, the glory and celebration come to an end. Many cities and towns had parades welcoming home the veterans. However, those same celebrations weren’t held for veterans who were not discharged until months or a year after the war’s end. This may have led to some disgruntled veterans who felt society had turned their back on them. Additionally, after the initial “shock” of being home subsides and life settles down, families may have seen the change.

Coping with the Experience of War. Once home and relatively settled, some veterans from World War II reported feeling anxious, nervous, like they needed to be somewhere quiet, they needed to walk and clear their heads. They needed to blow off steam (alcohol, fighting, drugs, running away). This may have been challenging for family members who expected the veteran to return and slide right back into their place in the family, as if the war never happened.

Without proper mental health support in place, which there was little to none back then, civilians and veterans may have had some situations occur that were hard to deal with. Emotional withdrawl of a veteran because no one will understand their story. Survivor’s guilt because they survived when their foxhole buddy died. Angry outbursts were common when the pressure to fit in, conform, get a job, or even get out of bed were expected. Veterans were told to get on with life instead of talking about the war.

Anger over life continuing during the war. Veterans reported they held an image of life at home, family, friends, activities, maybe a special girl, throughout much of their service. As they began to change due to their experiences, little thought was given to how life was changing at home. The veteran was suffering to make a safer world for his family.

However, upon returning and seeing how life in America just went on while they were living in frozen foxholes while being shot at, may have led to a deeper disconnect between the veteran and his family. It was difficult for some veterans to move through their experience of combat versus peace at home. Families at home didn’t suffer, didn’t seem to have gone without much while he lived an agonizing life overseas. Anger. Resentment. Hate. These emotions and more may have risen which created more problems of readjustment for the veteran and his family.

Coping mechanisms may have become drinking at the local bar with other veterans. Using drugs, maybe something they used while in combat. Withdrawal, leaving the family home or town. Various forms of abuse and possibly, violence. All of this would have impacted the entire family. What couldn’t be spoken, healed, or processed was then passed down through beliefs, behaviors, patterns and possibly PTSD.

War Orphans. Kind of War Orphans. Children who lost a father during the war were given the title of War Orphan. Yet I think we can take that a step further. Consider the kids like my dad and his brothers, who didn’t lose their father to death but because he was living in a Veterans Hospital, never to return. Some might take offense to this suggestion but I see my dad in a way, as an orphan of war. His dad mentally never returned. His dad physically never lived with him. Think of the impact. I’m writing about this as part of the story of inherited trauma I was living out from my grandparent’s war experience in my upcoming book.

Moving Forward

The war impacted veterans and civilians alike, just in different ways. If we as a society would like to move forward, we need to look at the dark, unspoken things in our past. We need to dig deep and find answers to the family secrets, the whispers, and the intuitive knowings we carry. The burdens, shame, guilt, anger, grief we carry sometimes belong to an ancestor.

Those reading this article are likely the family cycle breakers. The ones who chose to stand up in this life and heal the lineage. To heal the collective. To help us create a new world and reality in which peace exists and war is only a memory.

I invite you to sit with these three articles on the war and look at your own family beliefs, behaviors, traumas, and patterns. What are you here to identify and heal? Who might it impact? How might it help you create a greater, more abundant life filled with love?

Would you like help with your WWI or WWII Research?

I am taking new clients and have space for one or two new book clients. To learn more about a possible research or book project, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free consultation to discuss your needs.

Additional Resources

Psychology for the Fighting Man. https://archive.org/details/psychology-for-the-fighting-man

Psychology for the Returning Serviceman. https://archive.org/details/psychologyforthereturningsoldier

Red Cross Prisoner of War Bulletins. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=arcprisoners

Soldier to Civilian. Problems of Readjustment. https://archive.org/details/soldiertocivilia00prat

The Veteran Comes Back. https://archive.org/details/veterancomesback00wallrich

Childers, Thomas. Soldier from the War Returning. NY: Houghton Mifflin Press, 2009.

Dumas, Alexander G. and Keen, Grace Graham. A Psychiatric Primer for the Veteran’s Family and Friends. MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1945.

Shephard, Ben. A War of Nerves. Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century. MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Van Ells, Mark D. To Hear Only Thunder Again. NY: Lexington Books, 2001.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

The Romantic World War II Home Front

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Exploring what it was like for civilians at home. Those who loved. Those who waited.

Excitement. Fear. Romance. Adventure. Patriotism.

These are a few words which describe the emotional landscape of Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor as men raced to enlist to serve their country. Or at least these are words we have been programmed to recite when talking about life on the home front during World War II. But was life at home really what the TV and movies have us believe? I don’t think so. I believe there is a dark side that most people choose to ignore. It’s too painful to think about, research, or write about, but it’s something we need to discuss. If we want to help heal ourselves, our lineage and the world, we need to stop romanticizing war and glorifying everything about it and do the deeper work to heal. I talked about the veteran’s perspectve in my last article, Have We Over Glorified War?

Keep Them In Fear, Survival Mode, and Scarcity

One thing I have personally noticed is that every generation has at least one, sometimes two, huge collective events that shattered reality and kept people in fear and survival mode. People who live in fear are easily controlled.

When I look at the lifetime of my World War II grandparents, Joseph and Libbie Holik, I know they both lived to see World War I erupt overseas and while neither had family serve in that war, the impact was felt on the home front. Event #1.

Fast forward to the end of October 1929. The stock market crashed and America plunged into financial darkness. We entered the phase of life known as The Great Depression. My grandparents lived through this as well. How it exactly impacted them I’m not quite sure other than I know they married April 19, 1930 in Chicago (by choice or necessity I’m still not sure but that’s a story for my next book). Together, they raised three boys during the Depression but based on family photos, they had a good life. They travelled locally during the summer to Fox Lake and surrounding areas to camp, fish, and swim. They took a few out of state vacations. Perhaps life wasn’t so bad for them as it was for others, even if they didn’t have much, they appear happy.

Then we reach 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbor. My grandpa was 35 at the time with three boys at home. He worked for the Railroad in Chicago. In 1943, he chose to enlist in the U.S. Navy and became a USNR Armed Guard sailor. He left grandma at home with three young boys, who were roughly 12, 10, and 8. My dad was the bonus baby after grandpa was discharged.

Whether he enlisted out of duty like his partially blind brother who served in the Army MPs in Chicago, or knew he would be drafted so chose his path, I will never know. What I do know is that the family had been through a lot and with little time to truly process these large collective events. Which means, all that energy and unprocessed emotions were passed down through the generations and I was the “lucky” soul who chose to step up and heal the lineage. To do the deep work and find answers through the family secrets.

Life on the Home Front

Life on the home front during World War II was not all romance, and young love and marriage. It was rationing, hard work, changing of roles when the father, uncle, husband, son went to war. Families saved every penny they could to keep things going while the breadwinner was away.

Victory gardens were grown. Children participated in aluminum, steel, and rubber drives to support the war effort. Women helped in USO Clubs, joined the military, took up factory jobs and other positions men had to vacate. They built stronger communities as they banded together to help watch and raise children, work, feed each other, and emotionally support each other when those telegrams arrived.

Woman 3rd from left – my grandma Libbie Holik. Robert Holik, LeRoy Privoznik, (children) Patricia Rendak, Richard Holik, Mae Privoznik, Anna Rendak, Joseph Holik Jr., Chicago 1944.

The movies have us believe life was incredible on the home front and everyone was in love. But in reality, that’s really not what was taking place. Yes, there were numerous wartime quickie marriages. Some of these and one night stands resulted in babies. Wives worried about husbands. Parents worried about sons. Siblings tried to fill some of the gaps of those who were in the military. Fear invaded the radio programs, newspapers, and letters.

We must consider how many of our civilians suffered from PTSD as a result of the waiting, worry, incredible life changes, and in many cases, the loss of their loved one due to war. Whatever that looked like – physical death or a change mentally, physically, or emotionally. We must also consider the children who already existed or were born into this time, who never got to know their father as who he was prior to his wartime experience. In some cases, never got to know their father at all because he was killed.

After all my research, communicating with my grandparents on the other side, exploring our family history and the inherited trauma, I believe without a doubt my grandma Libbie suffered from PTSD. I also believe I inherited some of that.

Waiting….Waiting…Waiting….

Parents.

I’m sure it wasn’t easy for parents to send a son or daughter off to war, especially if the father had served oversease in World War I. He would have known the reality of war. After tearful goodbyes when their son left for basic training or returned home for a brief furlough prior to shipping overseas, the worry of the parents must have been intense. Parents usually prefer to outlive their children and the thought of losing one is devastating.

Communication during the war was not quick like it is today. This is something researchers either don’t consider or just forget. Those were not the days of email, texting, and social media. They were the days of Telegrams that arrived by Western Union, often with bad news. They were the days of V-Mail and letters being sent in an unreliable system. A system in which letters could simply vanish if the ship on which they were being transported sank. Or the truck on which they were being moved was hit by artillery or a mine and blew up, burned up. Parents, siblings, and wives, would have waited for word from their service member.

Children and Siblings.

Depending on how old a child or sibling was when the father or brother shipped out, determined how they handled the loss. For some siblings, they created vivid imaginative stories about their brother as a Fighter Pilot Ace or a ship’s commander, when in reality their brother may have worked as ground crew for a bomb crew or served as a fireman on a Navy vessel.

Children of service members, depending on age, may not remember their father, or have glimpses of memory. The war was all the rage and children dressed in sailor uniforms, participate in war drives, and played soldier. To them it was usually a game. At least until the war ended and their father returned – in a casket or as someone else.

Each child processed the war differently. They were influenced by how their family, church, and community helped them process. There were also the radio broadcasts and newspaper articles promoting victory and positive news and propaganda to help keep spirits up. How much this helped or hurt, I do not know.

Wives.

The wives left at home fell into two categories. Those in established marriages, with or without children and those who married as a wartime romance. Women who had been married for some length of time, were able to get to know their husband in various ways. They may have been married long enough to establish a rhythm together of life, work, and downtime. Their marriage may survive a year or more apart and not result in divorce.

On the other side of the marriage coin, I’ve read many IDPFs (Individual Deceased Personnel Files) in which quickie marriages were had, perhaps a child conceived right before a Marine boarded a ship to die in the next campaign, that resulted in massive family trauma and drama when the service member died. If the widow had not remarried by the time the military gave her the option about her husband’s remains, she had the legal final say about whether he should remain overseas or be returned home for burial. She received his personal effects and monies.

This angered many families who may not have known the woman their son married, or not known her long. Many of the IDPFs have scathing letters about these quickie brides and how they shouldn’t have a right to decide what happens. In some cases when the widow did remarry, she legally lost her right but didn’t always report this. In those cases, I’ve seen death files with letters from mothers providing a marriage license proving the widow remarried and that the legal next of kin should be changed.

Then we have a case in my own family. Virginia Scharer married my cousin Robert Brouk. Robert was an AVG Flying Tiger who survived being shot by the Japanese. He returned to Chicago in July 1942, met Virginia at the end of the month and they fell in love. He was stationed next in Orlando to train pilots and had to leave Chicago by October to begin work. The two didn’t want to be apart so they married late November 1942. Three weeks later, Virginia watched Robert die in a plane crash at the Orlando airfield as he was training pilots. A widow after three weeks of marriage and only 20 years old. Robert’s parents sued Virginia over his effects, war diary, and money. Then the family lost track of her…until I wrote Robert’s book and we connected. After Robert’s death she joined the Women’s Army Corps and took up his fight. Today Virginia is 103. You can read his story and war diary in my book, Stories of the Lost. Virginia’s story is in The Tiger’s Widow.

How did my grandma feel about her husband being at war? She never told me while she was alive. I only have whispers about it from the other side.

Joseph Jr., Libbie, Joseph, Robert, and Richard Holik, Chicago, 1944.

The Change in Communication and the Service Member

Finally, regardless of who was waiting at home, many parents, wives, and siblings noticed changes in their service member through the letters they sent (or didn’t) home. Frequency of letters changed. Tone changed. Perhaps there was no communication of any kind.

The Silence and Change. In Thomas Childers’ book Soldier from the War Returning, the wife of an Army Air Force ground crew member noticed her husband’s tone had changed in his letters home. He was no longer so upbeat. He didn’t write as frequently. She couldn’t put her finger on it but something had changed.

He complained about the weather, the mud, the food. He wrote about London, but only vaguely – no more personal than a prewar guidebook, all surface. With an almost tactile certainty, she [Mildred] could feel a growing detatchment in the familiar handwriting.

Some days she dismissed her misgivings as the products of an overheated imagination, her own form of combat fatigue. She was reading too much into the sparse letters, wanting more when circumstances dictated that there would always be less.1

How many parents or wives felt something similar in the letters they received from their service members? Communication began one way and slowly changed, with both the service member and woman left to wonder what changed. How can they go back to the way they were? How can the service member discuss what his experience was or how he finally felt he couldn’t get close to anyone because they all kept dying?

The Prisoner of War. In Childers’ book, he includes a story about Mert (Michael) whose bomber went down and he was a German POW for more than a year. For much of that time his parents had no idea what happened to him. A telegram was received stating Mert was Missing In Action. Later that he was a German POW. Then the Red Cross sent information until Mert was finally able to send a letter home.

Mert’s parents waited for word, prayed their son would make it through the war. The propaganda at the time likely didn’t ease their fears as they heard how horrible the Germans were. The Red Cross may have provided some support through their Prisoner of War Bulletins. How much relief did this actually provide the families at home? The relief may only have come when the family received a telegram that their son was liberated and on his way home. For families who received word their son had died, the waiting was over, except for the return of remains, if that was even possible.

Regardless of the circumstances of war, families and service members had limited contact with each other for a year or more. This would have impacted both sides and left them feeling anything from fear, worry, anticipation, anxiety, nervousness, grief, and loss of the life they could have had if the war had not occurred.

Where Do We Go Next?

War provided a complicated set of questions, emotions, and a lot of secrets and silence. If these secrets and silences weren’t brought into the open after the war, what was the impact on the veteran, his family, and future generations?

Stay tuned because I have one more article to wrap up this short series coming where I’ll talk about the veteran returning.

Would you like help with your WWI or WWII Research?

I am taking new clients and have space for one or two new book clients. To learn more about a possible research or book project, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free consultation to discuss your needs.

Additional Resources

Psychology for the Fighting Man. https://archive.org/details/psychology-for-the-fighting-man

Psychology for the Returning Serviceman. https://archive.org/details/psychologyforthereturningsoldier

Soldier to Civilian. Problems of Readjustment. https://archive.org/details/soldiertocivilia00prat

The Veteran Comes Back. https://archive.org/details/veterancomesback00wallrich

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Have We Over Glorified War?

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Books and movies, our own imaginations….but was that really the war?

Shock. Awe. Romance. Adventure. Glory. Tearful send offs. Heroes. Joyful homecomings.

These are things that most historical fiction books, war movies, news reels and articles, and our own imaginations have put forth as how World War II was to be remembered. Not to mention the propaganda that’s been put out for decades about how we should remember the war and honor the veterans.

For some, especially in Europe, this has become a sense of duty, to remember and honor. Almost to the point it means nothing because people are just repeating the same commemoration and the same cemetery visit year after year. They post the same RIP comment on social media every day for certain sites. In a way it’s like they are on autopilot and doing what’s “expected” to honor a veteran or someone who died during the war. It’s a badge of honor to say you attended yet another commemoration or laid flowers or did whatever. But what does it really mean…to the individual and society? Are we consciously honoring or doing what we’ve been told?

Patriots across the country rose up after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Men raced to enlist out of a sense of duty, adventure, or to gain a better life than the one they had. Couples fell in love quickly and often married because you never knew what would happen next. Service members went to war for months or years leaving behind everything they knew and perhaps a child they might never meet. Civilians at home waited, changed their entire lives to support their service members and the war effort. Yet when the guns went silent…nothing would ever be the same. We have been led to view World War II as a sanitized romantic event in which all Americans were heroes and had no issues as a result of their experiences. In reality this is far from the truth.

When people research the war, they usually stop when it comes time to think about what the veterans and their families experienced when the war ended and veterans returned. The story ends upon discharge. People don’t explore the aftermath. The war and the homecoming wasn’t glamorous like we see in the newspapers, film reels, and movies. It was filled with anticipation, anxiety, fear, heartbreak and also hope and love. Yet we normally only focus on the hope and love.

Thomas Childers, in his book Soldier From the War Returning, talks about the sanitization and romanticization of the war when in reality, it was a conflict that killed millions around the world and left millions more broken on a physical, emotional, or mental level. He goes on to say:

It is largely forgotten today, but the public euphoria at war’s end, captured so vividly in photographs of ticker tape canyons and jubilant crowds, was tempered by an uneasiness that bordered on anxiety about what to expect when a flood tide of demobilized GIs began sweeping across America’s homefront.

We have lost touch with the immense pain and suffering caused by the war and the ripples and sorrow that still flow across America from that devastating conflict.1

In my mind, he is speaking to the issue of generational or inherited trauma, not to mention the PTSD or combat fatigue or shell shock, whatever term you prefer to use today, about the mental state of our veterans. Let us not forget the PTSD and other mental and physical health issues that developed within the civilians on the home front.

Is the War Sanitized for Public Consumption?

As I read more of Childers’ book, I began to realize that as a family historian or military researcher, who has read military battle reports for 15 years, I have no idea what it was like to go to war. I research, write reports for clients, teach, and write books on what took place, but the reality is, unless we were there, we really have no idea. Researchers can write and talk all they want about the experience, but unless you hear it from a veteran or read it in a book (fiction of non-fiction) from a veteran’s experience, you will not understand. Add to this the veterans themselves rarely shared the really graphic, gory and taboo parts of their experiences, so how are we to know?

This thought was confirmed by James Jones’ The Thin Red Line book. While fiction, it is based on his experience in Guadalcanal. Usually, people receive the truth better when it’s written as fiction, historical fiction, or science fiction because many believe what’s on the page couldn’t have possibly happened. They retreat to their safe space of war propaganda as to how it “really was.” When we retreat, we don’t feel pain and we don’t have to face the trauma that exists within our families and society.

Why do I believe I only know a sanitized version of the war?

Army units moving toward the front on Guadalcanal, 30 January 1943. NARA Catalog #80-G-39209.

Military Records, Oral Histories, & Family Stories

Pick up any military unit history or battle report and what will you discover?

  • A record of events of what took place.
  • A list of people who contributed in big ways to the battle or campaign. Those who stood out.
  • The aftermath summarized nicely.
  • Hospital reports that give a basic narrative on psych cases and treatment.
  • A list of dead, wounded, those who received awards, unit commendations.
  • Staged Signal Corps photos of men in the field, on a ship, receiving an award, doing their job.

What will you not discover?

  • The graphic gore of a battle described. What was it like to flamethrow a Japanese soldier and watch him melt into ash? What was it like to watch your friend be hit by an artillery shell and blow half his body away?
  • How the men felt as they began the battle or campaign. How they felt as they had to kill another human or watch their best friend die.
  • The survivor’s guilt that was felt and possibly passed down through generations.
  • Stories of mental anguish over what they saw, did, experienced.
Wounded on the beach of Tarawa, 1943. USMC Photo 63498.

Jump into the Deep End

Childers’ book provides an eye-opening look at what we have not been taught about the war. It allows us to sit with the family stories we’ve heard about our returning veterans. Perhaps even compare the experiences and homecomings from family veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. How were they similar, how were they different? Who was impacted besides the veteran?

In this book, Childers takes you on a journey with three service members, all of whom he knew and interviewed, who had different war experiences. Each chapter begins with a narrative about the veteran and ends with the civilian story. In one chapter we hear the story of an Army Air Forces navigator who was shot down, taken prisoner by the Germans and lives the rest of the war in a POW camp. At the same time, later in the chapter, I learn what life was like for his family.

As this style of storytelling happens in every chapter, we get a sense of what everyone was feeling and experiencing. We also learn about the things we never talk about like fear of who the veteran or family member will be when reunited. How if a soldier’s legs were blown off will he ever have sex with his wife again? Will his body even work or cooperate to attempt sex or father a child? What will his wife think of him with stumps rather than legs? What about the wife who knows her husband is mentally and emotionally different due to his experience but the two can’t discuss it? The fear, worry, mourning of the life they were supposed to have exists in all the layers of each story.

How Do We, as Researchers, Change the Perspective?

War was not a romantic endeavor that ended with everyone living happily ever after. As the planet shifts and humanity’s consciousness rises with more people waking up and asking questions as they see the issues within their families, people want to know what really happened. How did dad or grandpa’s experience shape our family? How can we change this?

For many years, I have worked with the clients and people who are ready to receive it, explain what happened after the guns went silent. I share the reports, ask questions about how the veteran was (usually based on family stories) after the war. I ask how the family responded, behaved and what happened through the generations. We look at the battle reports, medical records, and other documents to try to understand the experience and impact it potentially had on the veteran. We do a little energetic processing whether they realize it or not. In the end, clients and others tell me this perspective of how we do the work, learn the story, and sometimes write it in a book, help them heal.

If you are researching your family’s war history, of any war, I invite you to read authors who will provide you with additional details about a battle. To learn more about the experience veterans had upon homecoming. To dive into the family history of what the civilians experienced and how they responded and changed when their veteran returned (or didn’t). What else do you learn? What memories are sparked of whispers or stories you heard? How does this change how you research and how you tell the story? Most importantly, how does it help you heal?

How Much Truth Do We Tell?

One thing I am certain all researchers struggle with is the question, How much of the truth do I share with my family, readers, the world? This is a question we each must sit with and decide for ourselves.

I’m currently writing a book for a client whose father was a prisoner of the Japanese for more than three years during World War II. It’s been a balancing act to convey in the story what POWs experienced in the raw, graphic, gory detail versus not sharing so much. The client and I want her family to read the book and understand, not put it down because of oversharing of the trauma.

In my own book which tells the story of my World War II Navy Grandpa, his schizophrenia, his wife and family and the generational trauma I was living out, there isn’t much graphic or gore to tell. There is a lot of pain, shame, anger and guilt, to describe though from the past. For the present, I talk about how I identified the trauma, was living it, how it impacted me and how I healed the lineage and moved forward. In this book I’m choosing to lay out a lot of my personal experiences so others can remember they are not alone in their trauma and healing.

What you share is based on many factors that only you can explore.

My Current Perspective on Over Glorification

Having lived in Europe for several years and attended the same commemorations and listened to school children read the same poems at each event, year after year, my thoughts changed often. I have witnessed people both remembering and honoring on an unconscious, almost “expected” level. The country leaders say you should remember this way at this time, so citizens do. The energy I pick up is over glorification. I have also witnessed those consciously remembering what happened and learning the stories of those service members. This energy is different, a reverent and conscious energy.

I do feel the majority of books and movie tend to glorify and provide a more unrealistic view of war, love and life. But what else do we expect from this? We often read and watch movies for entertainment. There are individuals, like myself, who will pick up on certain themes, events, and topics and explore further. We question what we have heard or seen within our own families based on something that triggered us from the book or movie. How often have you read historical fiction only to find it mirrored or triggered something in your family or life? Then what did you do with that triggering knowledge?

In general though, I do feel as a whole, we are not digging deep and really trying to understand what happened to our veterans and war dead. We are not trying to understand how that impacted us for generations. We have mostly bought into the romance and sanitized version of war. Until we don’t. We all have a lot to learn. We all have a lot to heal.

What do you think? Have we over glorified war? Have we only looked for sanitized versions of history? Are we willing as individuals and society to dig deeper and heal the past so we can create a different future?

Would you like help with your WWI or WWII Research?

I am taking new clients and have space for one or two new book clients. To learn more about a possible research or book project, email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free consultation to discuss your needs.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Japanese POW Book Recommendations

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If you have followed along for the last few months, you know I’m writing a book for a client about her father’s life and experience as a Japanese POW. I’m now writing the chapters about his captivity experience as he moved from camps to hell ships to camps. It’s emotionally difficult research and writing.

Two resources I’m using to aid in the context of his story are the books “Prisoners of the Japanese” by Gavan Daws and “Captive Fathers, Captive Children” by Terry Smyth. “Prisoners” is an almost 500-page book about the experiences of Japanese POWs. It is somewhat graphic and emotional to read.

“Captive Fathers, Captive Children” is more a scholarly study of the effects of the POW experience on the veteran and his descendants. Think generational or inherited trauma.

The things our family refused to talk about, kept secret, whispered about, do impact us on so many levels and in so many ways. As adults we often make decisions based on the pain or trauma experienced as a child. This book helps children of POWs and ancestral healers like me, heal the past.

I highly recommend both of these books if you are researching your family’s Japanese POW and considering how you were impacted by it, even if you are a grandchild.

Are You Ready To Start Your Book Project

Are you ready to write your book or have one written? Email me at info@wwiirwc.com to set up a free consult to discuss your project. I have space for a couple of new clients as I prepare to launch other client books.

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center

Childhood War Trauma

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Finding evidence of the start of generational trauma in military records

Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it is the truth. They will fight to defend this “truth”. It’s as if logical thinking has gone out the window. Society has been so programmed for generations to believe the only people impacted by war are those who fought. We have been told only veterans can have PTSD. Only veterans can suffer from anxiety due to combat or war. And for generations, people were told little to nothing could be done to help the veterans.

Well, this is a lie. It isn’t only veterans who suffered as a result of war, but also children, wives, parents, and others left at home. Civilians experienced their own sort of trauma when a father, husband, uncle, grandfather, brother, or nephew left to fight. They experienced trauma when those men and women, who served, never came home. Or came home mentally, emotionally, or physically changed. But no one wanted to talk about this then and family historians today prefer to ignore it because it’s too triggering and hurtful.

I think at this time of great transformation on the planet with the great shifts in concsicousness, we must talk about these issues within our families. It is time to face the darkness, the triggers, the shameful, the embarrassing, and bring it to the light to heal. As long as we continue to ignore these things, our family’s war trauma, we cannot become as great as we are here to become. We cannot end old negative and toxic cycles. All of life is a choice – so do you choose to continue the energies of war, hate, anger, shame, and grief, or do you choose to stand in the light and heal – even when it is uncomfortable?

The Children Suffered

I am reading an IDPF for a WWII soldier who was Killed 8 December 1944, just a few months after he was sent overseas. He left behind a wife and three young boys. This man was about 30 years old when he was drafted.

In his IDPF there is a letter from his wife, who was at that time still legal next-of-kin. She asked if her husband’s remains could stay overseas even though his mother wished for them to be returned to the U.S. In her letter she explains how the death of her husband impacted her boys, the oldest in particular.

This is a clear sign of childhood trauma related to war, that may have gone untreated due to the lack of mental health services back then. It is possible because there was no treatment, that this anxiety, grief, and other emotions were tucked away and passed down through the generations.

How Do We Heal?

Not everyone is given to explicity, the origin of family trauma like we see in the letter above. For most of us, myself included, we had experiences and relationships that triggered deep unresolved beliefs, behaviors, and patterns that needed to be examined. This work is not for the faint of heart and those unwilling to take accountability and responsbility for their lives and make the changes.

Change comes slowly as healing is like peeling an onion – one layer at a time. Patience is required as you dive through each belief, experience, family pattern, perspective, and have to readjust who you think you are and who you believe others are. In the end, you may discover all you thought you knew, was actually a lie and the truth lies within the healing. As we heal, we will be tested to ensure we have done the inner work required to not have to repeat an experience or relationship again.

In some ways I wish I had been given a letter like this at the start of my genealogical journey. It would have explained many things about my grandparent’s lives. But that “letter” or medical document came over a decade after I began my journey. Even with the documentation that explained war trauma, it was still up to me to explore how it impacted the family. Even then, it took a relationship with someone very ill overseas to fully show me my family’s trauma and the inherited trauma i was living out.

No matter where you begin your family trauma journey, I can say with certainty that there is great peace at the end of each cycle of healing. I can say with certainty that your entire life, relationships, and existence will change with each layer you heal. You only have to choose to start the inner work.

Has your family ever been so plainly given information about a family trauma? How did you deal with that information? How did it help you start doing your own inner work and heal?

© 2025 WWII Research & Writing Center