Human Cost of War

Listen to Daniel Inouye, former U.S. Senator from Hawaii, talk about his experiences as a young soldier, coming face-to-face with the enemy. Learning Objective: Students will analyze how the concept of "war" emotionally affected soldiers.

Hear the first-person account of fighter pilot Quentin Aanenson as he recalls the first time he knew he had killed men in war.

Marines Pete Arias and Bill Lansford discuss their experiences landing on Iwo Jima. More than 16 million American men and women served in uniform during the War. For those who came home, a sense of kinship formed around the experiences they shared.  Learning Objective: Students will analyze the experiences of two soldiers on Iwo Jima.

The experience of combat is perhaps the ultimate test for human beings. No other human activity creates such heightened emotions. No other human activity is so potentially final in its results. Humans often have a paradoxical relationship with combat and war; sometimes it is revered and other times despised. We use its euphemisms in describing athletic events (check out the headlines on any sports page). We see it glorified in our literature and condemned in our political speeches. The sheer terror of knowing that the next one is going to have your name on it, when that goes on and on and on...you get a strange feeling in which you seem to become detached and you just think, well maybe this will end and maybe it won’t and maybe we’ll all be blown up and maybe we won’t... but who cares. And you learn to sort of live with it. It is just a matter of fate. You will either survive if the Lord is willing or you will not. So there’s really nothing you can do. And you just take it. — Sidney Phillips, The War Learning Objectives Students will: Analyze combat testimonials from World War II. Identify the physical and psychological injuries that soldiers experience.

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the war department to designate military areas and exclude anyone it felt was a danger. More than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast were forced from their homes and moved inland to camps. Learning Objectives: Students will: Analyze Executive Order 9066 and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II; Research and identify potential legal conflicts with Executive Order 9066, including the government’s role in national security, the writ of habeas corpus, citizens and civil rights, and the role of presidential powers.

In the Anzio Campaign, some 7,000 Allied personnel were killed, while 36,000 were wounded or missing. Another 44,000 soldiers suffered from "non-battle casualties," victims of frost bite, trench foot, shell shock, and madness. Babe Ciarlo's letters home never revealed what he experienced in war. Learning Objective: Students will understand how important letters to-and-from home for American service people and their families.

In the September 20, 1943 issue of LIFE magazine, the editors published the first image of dead American servicemen that American civilians had been allowed to see in the twenty-one months since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Learning Objectives: Students will discuss to what extent should the media publish images of war for public consumption.  Students will discuss the validity that sacrificing American lives for a just cause is a "fine thing."

Veterans of World War II Ray Leopold, Burnett Miller, and Dwain Luce discuss the horror of the Holocaust, liberating the camps, and witnessing the horrors that still haunt them. Learning Objective: Students will understand the impact the Holocaust had on the liberating American troops.