POSTWAR: A Global History of the Second World War's Legacy

The narrative that the American media and government tried to concoct following the war was threatened by the Hiroshima maidens’ voyage to America. David Serlin, author of Reconstructing the Hiroshima Maidens, argues that reconstruction of the Hiroshima maidens was a nuanced event. There was both true altruism and a ploy to uphold western values. Kiyoshi …

Continue reading “The Hiroshima Maidens Continued Impact”

Some may be familiar with the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, which is a story about a young girl who falls ill to atom bomb disease (leukemia). According to Japanese legend whoever folding 1000 paper cranes receives a wish from … Continue reading →

In 1945, World War II ended with Japan’s surrender to the United States, as announced over the radio by Emperor Hirohito to his country on August 15th of that year.  The events of the preceding week, on the 6th and 9th of August, forced Japan’s hand.  After making the calculation that it was in the …

Continue reading “The Atomic Bomb’s Legacy”

World War II set the stage for a brand new view on technology and the methods of warfare.  As the war waged on the United States developed nuclear technology which caused catastrophic destruction.  The U.S. caused waves of destruction across Japan by dropping two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  This propelled the power of …

Continue reading “MORE THAN AESTHETICS”

World War II was the first war to showcase the United States new war weaponry, the atomic bomb. They  first  tested the nuclear weapon in July 1945,  called the Trinity test,  and only a month later, a desperate Harry S. Truman would authorize the  atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brining the war to an …

Continue reading “People are Still the Scars of History”

Demobilization and returning to normal civil society was a challenge for all nations that took part in World War II. All disabled soldiers had to face differing interpersonal conflicts, as they suffered from societal prejudice on returning to their homes. The Soviet Union used extensive propaganda to depict a glorious return of its soldiers to work inContinue reading “Veterans of The Second World War”

After the end of World War II, it seemed that the German people would wake up to the atrocities committed by their Nazi government and would have been shocked by the war crimes that came to surface. However, the collapse of German society left many of the German people with a collective trauma and aContinue reading “Displaced Persons”

The state of mind and body in which veterans were left after WWII was intense for all involved.  The duty of the state to rehabilitate these individuals and integrate them back into a normal way of living was great.   The themes between these readings stand clear with a sense of disability as well as stigmatization …

Continue reading “PSYCHIATRIC CASUALTIES”

This work was painted in 1957 by French painter Guy de Montlaur. He was a resistance fighter and was at Normandy in 1944. He was also wounded in combat at Walcheren. This painting’s title, Fue (Fire), references his wartime experiences. Montlaur’s paintings after the war offered an outlet to express the trauma of war and …

Continue reading “Troubled Homecoming”

After suffering through the devastating and destructive horror that was the Second World War, those men who had been fighting were shipped back to their home countries, where there were a variety of different outcomes for those veterans. Depending on several factors, unfortunately the main ones being race and disability. The readings from Robert Jefferson,Continue reading “What Comes Next?”