Topic > Terkel's The Good War: How World War II Influenced Participants

Studs Terkel “The Good War” New York; Pantheon Books 1984 EB (Sledgehammer) Sledge was a United States Marine and professor at the University of Montevallo. Sledge fought in World War II for the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Growing up in Mobile, Alabama Sledge loved bird watching and went to Georgia Tech where he failed to serve in the war. Sledge described two different wars, the war of the man on the front line and that of the support staff. He described the Japanese as relentless. The Japanese fought the war according to the code of Bushido which was the code of warrior or non-surrender. Sledge also mentions that Japanese fighting made American soldiers savage or merciless. The soldiers developed a hatred towards them that caused them to do things they normally wouldn't do. Sledge tells of a time when he dropped the gold teeth of dead or wounded Japanese soldiers for fun or collective purposes. When a doctor asks him why he would do this, Sledge thinks it would impress his father. When the doctor says he might contract germs, Sledge realizes that what he did was out of character. He realizes that the war has turned him into a savage. Sledge also mentions an old Okinawan woman with a terrible wound who was put out of her suffering by another soldier. Sledge talks about other hardships and how the war changed him and others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Jean Bartlett was a teenager during the war. He talks about a time when he was going to see a movie with his family and Pearl Harbor was attacked. She grew up in Berkeley, California, near many military bases. His family was not rich but not poor either because his father worked long hours at various jobs. At the age of fourteen he began inviting soldiers to eat and keep them company before they went abroad. She soon developed relationships with these men by lying about her age. She had many boyfriends during this period and sometimes managed five at a time. During this time he developed a strong ego. Once the war was over, the ego Jean developed proved to ruin her future relationships with men. Akira Miura was in Japan while the United States bombed the Japanese. Akira is now a professor at the University of Wisconsin. Akira came from a family of scholars. He never fought in the war, but many of his relatives and friends fought. Describes how Japan's overall morale declined during the war. Eventually all high school students in Japan were forced to work in factories to aid in the war effort. It tells how the Japanese emperor did not fully admit Japan's surrender after the atomic bomb. He also jokes about American soldiers after the war and how strong they seemed. John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist and former ambassador to India. Galbraith discusses how strategically placed airstrikes controlled much of the war. Most of the air strikes were carried out against Axis power plants and aircraft facilities. In Hamburg, German bombs destroyed the interior of the city, but this allowed workers from other professions to add to the German industrial workforce. In 1945 the United States launched air strikes on German farms and plants producing synthetic fuels. Galbraith also stated that the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima did not immediately end the war. Please note: this is just one.