During wartime, it is no surprise that visions of homecoming kept the soldiers morale higher; images of soldiers returning to their family and/or spouse was pushed by American propaganda, and reminders were given from the higher ups to remind soldiers to be brave for that their day of reunion will come soon. However, how do these imagined images come in to fruition? Are reunions as joyful as they were presented to be during times of crisis and war?
Images like the one above illustrate how veterans manage to get through the way–keeping thoughts of their tomorrow in their head. A common theme throughout wartime propaganda is reunion, getting to see your loved one again. As stated above, “The girl I love, my boy, my dog […] all the things I long for, all the things I dream of…These things will be mine again in my tomorrow.” What dangers arise from pushing this kind of image?
As Christina Jarvis in “‘If He Comes Home’: US World War II Neuropsychiatric Casualties and Postwar Masculinities” puts it, referencing William Waller’s The Veteran Comes Back (1944), a “poor marriage risk” was one of the potential hardships veterans could face. I would argue that this idea of the ‘good’ veteran, the assimilated soldier in the eyes of the society would insist that a good marriage or relationship was key. Part of the threat to the veterans’ masculinity depended on their appeal to women (why being physically deformed was a barrier to finding a woman) and their psychological state of mind (they were expected to be in good, patriotic spirits; they were, after all, a US vet!). These to traits expected of US WWII vets made their relationships’ stability a threat to their masculinity as well. I see the dangers of pushing the ‘happy couple’ during wartime because, although a good wartime effort to boost morale, it is a dangerous tactic in the context of their homecoming. If a veteran’s marriage did not look or feel like that promised during war, what did that do to his morale postwar and identity as a ‘man,’ that was so dependent on a relationship with women?
Sources:
Jarvis, Christina. “‘If He Comes Home Nervous’”: U.S. World War II Neuropsychiatric Casualties and Postwar Masculinities.” Journal of Men’s Studies [New York] 2010: 101.
Edelstein, Sally. “Victory Homes for the Vet.” Envisioning The American Dream. Nov. 2013. 12 Sept. 2016.
I certainly think it was good to remind the soldiers that they are fighting for a better tomorrow. The propaganda of reunions would not only boost the soldier’s morale, but the morale of their loved ones back home. I do think that this image can be dangerous because the soldiers returning home were not always greeted by large happy reunions by the American populace.
I really appreciate the way you addressed this topic. Veterans with both physical and mental abnormalities, as a result of the war, faced a new hardship that they may never have had to worry about before. They had to find a way to appeal to women because, as you said, the “good” veteran needed to assimilate back into society, and that required a normal relationship of some kind. I think the topic of marriages of veterans in the early postwar era is a very interesting topic and would be worth looking into further.
I can only imagine how much veterans constantly dreamed about their homecoming from war. I do it sometimes here at school, and I’m only four hours away from home. I think one of the biggest problems for veterans was how much home changed while they were gone. Depending on who went when and how old they were hen they enlisted, things could have changed drastically. Imagine a 17 year old coming out of High School going to war for 5 years and coming back. He now has to be independent in a society that he was never trained for. The dreams of homecoming were so glorified but many of them only stayed as dreams sadly. It is a shame that it had to be like that. But on a happier note, you had a great post!
I agree that while this idea of “returning home to your sweetheart”, is of course appealing, and no doubt it resonated with a good deal of soldiers in wartime, I’m sure that it was not such a sweet message for others. On the front, when a soldier feels alone, or desperate, or just plain scared, what comfort can he find in an add such as this? It may actually do more to hurt someone like him or a wounded soldier who is feeling equally alone or desperate, making them question their worth as men, or what they really had to live for in the end, as there was no loving wife or adoring sweetheart waiting for them when they got home, if they got home. The point being that while an ad like this appears to be widely applicable and excellent for raising morale on the surface, one has to question what it does to a man when he doesn’t have this perfect, picturesque life waiting for him back home.