Frying Pan to Fire: War Ending Veterans' Videos

Today is an important anniversary. Rewind 65 years from today and the war in Europe has officially ended. But for American soldiers still serving, joy that their battles are over is tinged by fear: Fear that they will be put on ships bound not for America but for the Pacific - and the war still raging there.

"The celebration went on for two days. Bus and train service in and out of London was halted, as more than a million people entered the city, jamming streets and blocking traffic…Memories of these tumultuous days will be rekindled as Britain observes the 65th anniversary of V-E Day on May 8.” LA Times: Day of Days

Not only will British memories be rekindled. According to the US Census, fighting in the Second World War were more than 16 million Americans – around 12 million of those seeing service overseas. Around a million Americans were killed or wounded. Today, there are about 2 million WWII veterans still alive – median age 87 – but they are dying at around one thousand per day.

Wisely, some veterans have preserved their stories including these three from Southern California: Veterans Video: Three Stories From This Vanishing Breed

The popular conception of the end of the war in Europe is one of wild celebration. Most of us have seen the old footage of the parades in London and New York's Times Square. And there is no denying the enormous relief on the battle fields and around the globe that followed the fall of Hitler and the Nazi regime. (Relief accompanied by horror as the news filtered through of the US liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp and the British liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.)

No soldier would say that the end of the war in Europe was any small thing. But for many of the soldiers still serving there, the formal declaration of victory had been expected. Some veterans remember the end of the war as a definite anti-climax. In the context of those times, no big thing, as this veteran's video attests:

The relief felt by soldiers at the news of the end of the war in Europe was tinged by other concerns. How soon can we go home? How will be get back? How many of us will they want to look after the millions of prisoners? What am I going to do when I get back? Will my girl still be waiting?

But pressing on the minds of many of the soldiers still in Europe was an even bigger concern: would they be needed to help defeat the Japanese? Sure, Hitler was dead but Tojo and Hirohito were not. And as bad as the war in Europe had been, by soldierly reputation, the war in the Pacific was somehow more horrific.

So the end of the war in Europe was welcome but was accompanied by a foreboding among soldiers that it might be out of the frying pan into the fire. Certainly for those soldiers in the Pacific, experience in battles like Tarawa and later Okinawa proved that such fears were justified. End would come soon to that war too, but not before both sides experienced a kind of hell - as this veteran's video suggests:

The dropping of the atomic bomb is something that most veterans have no qualms with. As terrible as its consequences were, it saved countless American lives in a war not of America's making. And stories of the manic defense by the Japanese, kamikaze attacks on ships, the specter of drowning or death by immolation onboard ship, the heat and humidity and fevers, the refusal of Japanese soldiers to surrender, the unofficial “no prisoners” policy of both sides, had all led to a feeling among soldiers - wherever stationed - that any and all means had to be used to end that war also.

So rewind 65 years today. The war in Europe has ended and the war in the Pacific has another two months to go. There are still some 2 million American veterans of the Second World War who remember those events with a frisson that we, of the next generations, can only ask about.

Many of the families of these veterans are making sure that the stories and experiences of their loved ones are being preserved. And I am often asked, “What is the best way to record the life stories of veterans?” The choice includes written memoirs, audio and video: Personal History Biography: Audio, Video or Written Memoir?

My recommendation is usually a veterans' video - for its immediacy and ability to convey the emotion as well as the facts of the story. But whatever method you choose, record your veteran's story soon.