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Children and World War II
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For many children,
World War II was the defining experience of their lives.
It bred a sense of patriotism and an intense consciousness
of being a member of a distinct generation, set apart from
those that came before or since. For most children, the
war years were a time of anxiety. For many, this was a period
of family separation. For some, it was a time of profound
personal loss.
War
infected children’s play and their imaginations. It
had a powerful effect on the rhymes they told, the games
they played, and the movies they watched.
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Many
children had to grow up quickly during wartime. Many teenagers
(itself a new word) left school early to take jobs. Many younger
children had to fend for themselves while their mothers worked.
Meanwhile, families migrated in record numbers away from farms
in the Midwest and big cities in the Northeast to the West and
Gulf Coasts, and children had to adjust to new schools and make
new friends.
Read
the documents in the sections above and analyze the impact of
World War II on children’s attitudes and everyday experiences.
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