Jake L

Before we started studying the World War I didn’t know much about it. I knew about the Holocaust and the atomic bomb, but I just knew a little basic information. When I think about it now I was pretty naïve about the facts of war. Now I understand that war is bad but it can also good enhance our lives in some ways.

War kills lots of people both soldiers and civilians. War uses money when it could be used for better things; it demolishes cities and countryside. War can do good things too; it can make people invent new things that wouldn’t have been invented by themselves. Without war we wouldn’t have microwaves, Jeeps, synthetic rubber, and RADAR. World War II also ended the Great Depression and made the US a very strong country, both economically and militarily. Even though these things are good there are far more bad things that happen because of war. The immense destruction of war is almost beyond comprehension. I now know that my studies of World War have just touched the surface of understanding of this period of time.

I really liked interviewing the veterans. I think that it was the best part of our study. I really learned a lot from our veterans. They told us about all of the feelings of war, from being drafted to being trained to going to war. I think that it was important for us to do our interviews to preserve the veterans stories. The one thing that sticks in my mind is this-- the veterans thought that it wasn’t worth it but it had to be done.

The study has changed my view of the world in that I now think that people should stop racial tension before it comes to something like the Holocaust. I also think that a country should not be able to take over a lot of land, or have an extremely large military force. Countries should take part in organizations like the United Nations to help keep the peace. When a country gets too greedy other countries should take their part to help defend the little guy. If countries would do this, the world would be a better place. I hope that in the future countries would just listen to reason and settle things in a civilized manner.

Most of all we learned about the crisis of war and how terrible that it is. I hope that the world war will be remembered and not repeated. I hope that people will not have to experience that sort of suffering again. I hope that the stories of the veterans that we have interviewed will not be forgotten, I know that I will not soon forget them.