As the most destructive war in human history came to a close, those most intimately involved in the death and destruction, the soldiers, were able to begin to return to “normal” life again. Both veterans of WWII and civilians of the countries who fought in the war had varying expectations of how the veterans would be treated, but the sentiment that the soldiers would be taken care of in some way by their governments was almost universal. However, in many cases postwar governments were either unable or unwilling to provide what many veterans felt was their due reward for putting their lives on the line for their country.
I chose “The Kiss,” seen above, to show the immediate postwar feelings that societies had about their veterans. Their men were coming home, and they no longer had to face the perils of warfare. The man in this photograph was enjoying romance in his home nation (Times Square, New York), a symbol of peaceful and domestic life that WWII had interrupted for millions. Robert Dale points out in “Rats and Resentment: The Demobilization of the Red Army in Postwar Leningrad, 1945-50,” how this kind of celebration was played out in the Soviet Union and other European nations as well following the war, but only for a short period of time.
After the honeymoon period of postwar faded for veterans, the warm welcome in to and rehabilitation for peaceful postwar existence did not come from governments as veterans had expected. Martin Crotty and Mark Edele show in “Total War and Entitlement: Towards a Global History of Veteran Privilege” how Australian veterans formed social networks in order to assist each other after the war and also to lobby their government for what they felt was the assistance that they deserved after fighting for their country during the war. Crotty and Edele describe veterans as an “entitlement group” as they were viewed as a special group of citizens deserving of more than other citizens, but again the soldiers fought politically to get more from the government than they were originally given. Crotty and Edele compare the Australians with the Soviet Union to show that governments providing veterans with the benefits that they felt deserved was an issue across cultures and states in the postwar period
Fortunately for the world at large WWII was the last total war to date. But despite WWI a few years earlier some lessons were not learned. It is disappointing that groups like the one you mention from Australia needed to exist. Still do you think the Australians or Soviets had such a responsibility for the veterans?
The kiss is a very American picture, do you think wives in other countries such as the Soviet Union or Australia greeted their husbands in the same manner? Is this just a western common practice ? I know in “Rats and Resentment: The Demobilization of the Red Army in Postwar Leningrad, 1945-50″ they had parades for the soldiers but many were returning to “nothing” (no house or family).
The post war mentality may have been happy for those at home but what about the soldiers who were returning? You discuss the basic arguments of these articles but don’t seem to go very in depth. I would be more interested in the way that these articles talked about how the veterans were treated by their homelands.