Letters from the Good War,
A Young Man's Discovery of
the World
by Hugh Aaron
ISBN 1-882521-04-8, 712 pages Softcover List price $20.00
Read an Excerpt
Comments From Readers:
This book is a remarkable history of...a young man's journey
during WWII from a loving, sheltering home to the world of the
serviceman, first in the U.S. and then in the Southwest Pacific.
It's also a poignant, palpably real (partial) coming of age of a
uniquely sensitive, ever-curious, introspective human being...Now
then, if you lived through this period yourself, you'll thank the
author (just as I did) for capturing it so well. However, if you
missed out, you now have a second chance to experience -- really
experience -- what your father, or his father, lived through some
50 years ago, thanks to Hugh Aaron of a half century ago...and
now.
George M. Naimark Ph.D., Age 71
Management Consultant, Florham Park, NJ
ETM 3/c U.S.N. during WWII. Served in the U.S. and the
Philippines.
These letters are unique! I found it fascinating to witness an
adolescent consciously, yet innocently, engaged in the process of
assessing and documenting his own development into manhood. His
introspection was obviously subjective in its execution, but he
understood himself and his world with staggering clarity. Such
depth of character, such an exquisite eye for detail! All this
makes the Letters an enlightening read.
This book is a commitment. It is an honest glimpse into the
past, and in that way it is a gift to all of us in the present.
Suzanne A. Holmes, Ed.D., Age 38
Counseling Psychologist; Boulder Colorado
I gave [my husband] Letters from the Good War for
Christmas but have not found time to read it myself until a few
days ago. You've got me hooked. Your descriptions of the train
ride, the Hollywood sights, the people...all captivating. I've
gotten to the part where you are learning about communications in
your early days at Fischhafen. But what hit me most was that I am
so envious of your daughter having this wonderful record of her
father as a young man. I am sure I am not alone in wishing I had
even a fraction of this much insight into my dad.
Alice Dashiell,
Teacher of Management in Government, Clinton, MD
In the spirit of Paul Baumer, the young narrator in Remarque's
All Quiet on the Western Front, Hugh Aaron's letters,
written with incredible precision, provide a portrait of a
complex and amazing young man during a very complex and amazing
period of history. Most striking is his emotional outpouring
toward his mother and father. If his love for his family does not
show while he is away, his awareness of it certainly does, and
his ability to express it is what makes this an invaluable
collection.
Christopher Bland, age 24
Recent college graduate; Portland, Maine
Read about:
- Life in the wartime U.S., its unity of purpose and
generosity of spirit
- The day-to-day experience of serving in the war-torn
Southwest Pacific
- The families that gave servicemen a home away from home
- Hollywood during the golden years, its movie stars and
directors
- Love for family, personal ambition, coming of age, making
choices
- The dreams and fears that men have when fighting away
from home
- The efficiency of the U.S. war machine
- Male bonding, love between American men and Filipino
women
- The clash of the American and Filipino cultures
- The enchantment of a Filipino village and its grateful
people
- The horrendous destruction wrought by war
- And Much More - including 16 pages of
photographs and 59 pages of notes on the personalities
and events of the times.
From the Publisher:
War veterans can reminisce about their war experience. And their
spouses, children and grandchildren can learn through these
letters what it was like to serve in the war.
From the Author:
As the reader observes the writer developing into early manhood,
he or she will gain from these letters a feel for the times that
were so different from the way things are today, through the eyes
of an adolescent who misses no detail, no nuance, in his
observation of the world around him.
Excerpts from two letters:
8/1/45
Dear Mom: I hoped that this weekend would see the war end. It
wasn't an altogether absurd possibility. Damn them to hell.
Unfortunately the [Japanese] leaders, driven by a frantic and
futile determination, are willing to let their own people be
massacred and their cities laid waste. They are guided by a bent
and twisted logic. To ignore our ultimatum means sheer disaster;
yet they persist. Apparently they cling to a flimsy hope for
negotiations. They remind me of the stubborn fellow, who in the
throes of losing an argument, can't bring himself to back down.
Or as with Germany, they need more proof of our might. Whatever
their reason, their decision makes me angry, and, for the first
time, I wish that none of them will be spared. I can't help
believing that wars, like people, die when the forces of nature
and chance are good and ready to let them die.
8/9/45
Dear Mom: Over the radio and from everyone's lips is excited
talk of the new atomic bomb. Appalling and fantastic as it
sounds, its grim and optimistic truth cause a sinking sensation
within me. When man can cause such immense devastation with such
a small mass in such a short time, surely anyone can realize with
half a thought its significance for the future, the untold
horrors of another war.
More about the letters
Letters were crucial during World War II; they were the only
communication between men and women participating in the war and
their loved ones. Reading a letter just received from a son, a
girlfriend, a wife, a mother or father, or just a friend, was
always the high point of the day. The very act of writing implied
love and caring; feelings were expressed that rarely, if ever,
would have been before the war, when life was ordinary.
The letters herein, some one thousand of them, are a day to
day account of what happened in the life of a young enlisted man
serving in the Naval Construction Battalions - the Seabees. They
take the reader from the first day of boot camp, to various
training camps around the U.S., to the Southwest Pacific and back
home.
This collection reveals the spirit of the times and the
American culture - quite different from today. One gains an
intimate view of the writer's family, relatives and friends, and
the families who invited him into their homes. The letters show
the development of a philosophical view of the world, and a
maturing. Together they are a character study of a young man
coming of age, a life on hold until the war is over,
contemplating a future that, with all it's options, tears at him.
Each letter dwells on a new subject, propelling the reader to
the next. Fifty years ago the writer's parents passed these
letters on to friends and relatives, read them before gatherings,
and urged that they be published. Today their wish is realized.
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