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, Christina Jarvis, and Robert Dale all provide a similar context, yet different focuses of perspective on these issues. Therefore, this article will be further analyzing these issues of veterans struggling while returning home, and the difficulties faced by these men. However the question still remains; for these men who just spent years fighting for their lives and for their country, what happens after the war is over? What comes next?
In my last post, I spent some time speaking on the reunions of displaced persons, and the positive associations relating to them. However, as consistent with much of the evidence and reports relating to WWII, the consistency of struggle is one that is clear throughout all three of these readings. All of the veterans that were returning were not able to fit the mold of the expectations that society had set for them.
New York City~ WWII ~Victory Parade
As seen in this Youtube video above, the video is showing the 82nd division and the Airborne division. The precedent that these men were setting for their fellow soldiers, who maybe were not as lucky and were wounded, or simply were not white, was exponentially detrimental to the treatment of these veterans who did not fit the societal expectations laid out before them. This is outlined incredibly in the reading by Jefferson which states, “The return home not only meant coming to terms with permanent injuries and transcending the stigmatizing gaze of civil society, but also shouldering the overwhelming burden of reentering public life and continuing the fight for equality” (Jefferson, pp. 1103). In that video, where were the veterans who were wounded defending the freedom of their country? Where were the veterans who served overseas fighting for their lives, despite being discriminated against, and not being able to reap all of the benefits of the freedom in their country? This underrepresentation in history is isolating the stories of millions of Americans who served, putting their lives on the line just the same as those white, able bodied men who were welcomed home with open arms and paraded around for everyone to see. Therefore, this sheds light on an area in our history that is often overlooked. This perspective is able to accurately portray the events of those veterans who served, contrary to the societal norms back in those times, and the fallacies and fantasies from today’s society.
Additionally, a major issue that is outlined in these readings is the struggles that a large number of veterans felt, regarding their mental health. This issue is one that created an abundance of problems for those men returning home, and is one that is still plaguing this country to this day. The issue of mental health had extremely negative impacts, largely due to the stigma surrounding masculinity, and inability for these veterans to know how to get help. In the reading from Jarvis it speaks to this by saying, “Given the military’s initial assumptions that only servicemen with ‘weak,’ underdeveloped egos broke down, it is not surprising that early psychiatric casualties were stigmatized—especially when labeled ‘psychoneurotic,’ a term that included associations with both the ‘feminine’ (neurosis) and the insane (psycho)” (Jarvis, pp. 100). This quote is very clearly able to speak to the fact that there were foundational issues with the system that the military had instituted to help these soldiers and veterans receive the help they needed. What seems especially interesting to me, is that while this issue has obviously improved since the postwar era, mental health is still an issue that is extremely underpublicized. The term used in today’s society of ‘toxic masculinity’, is very applicable to the circumstances and expectations of the members of the military, which forced what is probably an insane amount of men to suffer in silence. Additionally while continuing to suffer, these men then were forced to attempt to reintegrate into society. Given the issues they were facing internally, this was oftentimes a struggle. In the reading from Dale, this is outlined by saying, “Finding work, somewhere to live and readjusting created difficulties in all combatant nations. Many came to resent a perceived lack of support, recognition and understanding from wider society” (Dale, pp. 117). With this quote, the reader is ultimately left to gain a better and clearer understanding of what these veterans were forced to reconcile with; a continuation of struggle.
Overall, these readings are able to further identify more accurate accounts of what life was truly like for these veterans returning home. The perspective offered in today’s society often leaves out the importance of the entirety of all the men who served, as this article hopefully helped to address these issues, and help to better appreciate the struggles these men endured for our freedom.
Bibliography:
Dale, Robert. “The Demobilization of the Red Army in Postwar Leningrad, 1945-50.” Journal of Contemporary History 45, no. 1 (January 2010): http://www.jstor.org/stable/40542908.
Jarvis, Christina. “‘If He Comes Home Nervous’: U.S. World War II Neuropsychiatric Casualties and Postwar Masculinities.” The Journal of Men’s Studies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2009): http://dx.doi.org/10.3149/jms.1702.97.
Jefferson, Robert F. “‘Enabled Courage’: Race, Disability, and Black World War II Veterans in Postwar America.” The Historian 65, no. 5 (Fall 2003): 1https://www.jstor.org/stable/24452485.
