I'm an older Mahaloian here, but I can't say that the War affected me directly, but it did affect me emotionally.

My mother and I fought over which language class I should take in High School. I wanted to take German, but she wanted me to take French or Spanish... anything but German. She thought the German language sounded 'ugly'. Those were her words. She was only a child when the war was on, but it left a huge impression upon her.

Her father (my grandfather) is still alive today. He recently talked to me when I last visited and spoke of not being able to enlist when the war broke out. He was medically rejected and it broke his heart.

When I was still a teenager myself, I worked retail at Macy's Department store and worked the Accessory Dept. We sold silk scarves that were made in Japan.
An elderly man came in the store to buy a scarf for his wife, and after we unfolded them all, he apologized but said he could not buy anything that was 'Made in Japan' and walked away.
I knew it couldn't be anything but his relation to the war.

I did watch 'The Best Years of our Lives' with my mother one afternoon.
We both cried and she talked a bit more about her experiences during WWII.
(This is a must-see movie about the emotional aftermath of the war)

All I have are indirect experiences in regards to the war, and it's still enough to stir emotions that I thought were long gone.

My father fought in WWII. Yes, he was quite a bit older than the average 35-year-old's father. He told me many stories. He told me a story about being hit with a grenade and being in the hospital. Then, while in the hospital, he saw a higher up officer come in and demand that the soldier in the bed next to my father salute the office, even though the poor kid was so banged up he could hardly move. My dad told him (the office) to leave the poor guy alone. The officer then asked for my dad's name, rank, and serial number. My dad said, "I got it right here," and decked the officer, knocking him out. Thankfully,his injuries ended up being serious enough from the grenade that he was sent home in the next day or two and nothing ever came of it. I've always been very proud of this particular story because my dad stood up for what was right, even in the face of possible courtmarshal and endless other consequences. My dad was awesome! To me, standing up for what you believe in, for what is truly right and just, even in the face of extensive consequences is a soldier's true job, his true calling. That is just what they do, even if it means decking a captain! I guess this is where I get my rebellious nature from. I don't take things at face value. Just because a particular idea is really popular, doesn't make it right and I always decide if something is right or not in my heart, not based on what other people say.

My dad was a paratrooper dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy at night. He was in the 82nd airborne. He told me about the "crickets" they used. All these guys who were dropped were spread out, so they needed a way to find each other, rather than walking around in the darkness, unable to see who is an enemy and who is not. So, to communicate with each other without drawing attention to themselves, they were given "crickets." These "crickets" were little metal clicker contraptions. If you heard a noise or movement, you were to click once. If the guy was a friendly, he was to click back twice in response. Unfortunately, the double-click sound was very similar to the sound of the enemy's guns being c**ked. So, what happened in many cases was the guy would click once, the enemy would hear the click and c**k his gun, and the US soldier would come out of hiding thinking he was hearing a double-click from one of his comrade's crickets.

He had also been on some kind of a mission that he never spoke of. My mom doesn't even know the whole story. Essentially, it was a secret mission. Dad was always competitive and boisterous and signed up right away. He then convinced his friends to sign up. They all went together, but my dad was the only one to live through the ordeal. He lived with that guilt the rest of his life. The only time I ever saw my dad cry was when something said in a conversation triggered that memory and he burst into tears. My dad was tough as nails, but the guilt over that one ordeal haunted him continuously.

My dad signed up at age 18 and fought for four years. He has a picture of himself upon signing up with the Army and upon coming home and I'm telling you, for four years difference, it looks like he aged 20 years in that time. Due to the nightmares from having fought in the war, he would grind his teeth at night. By the time he reached age 50, he had almost no teeth left, literally. They were ground halfway down to the gumline and he had to get false teeth at that point.

War may seem glamorous to some, but it isn't. It's a horrible thing and I look forward to the time when humans wise up and decide it's in everyone's best interest if we just practice a little patience and tolerance with each other, rather than wasting our youth, sending them into a hell-on-earth scenario to settle old scores.

I was not directly affected by the war, my Grandad was in the war who has since passed away, I was always too young to ask about the war when he was around.
It does mean a lot to me, all of the soldiers who risked their lives so we could have a great future, it really is sad. Imagine being forced to go into combat, always scared, having to risk your life, losing your fellow soldiers, that would be terrible.

To me World War II meant the ushering in of the Atomic Age and the Cold War, as well as USSR (Russia) being the arch enemy of the United States for several years. It also marked the first and only use of atomic weapons against another country during a time of war, when The United States dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan.

I was not alive during World War II so it does seem like a distant historical event to me. However, I think about the nuclear capability that the US military had then and wonder what kind of capabilities we have 65 years later.

I think using Alvin Toffler's ideas in his book "The Third Wave" that a strong case could be made that the height of Industrialism was taking place during and after WWII, but then gave way to the rise of the Electronic Age. So perhaps WWII was actually the beginning of the end of Industrialism.

I'm not yet around during those time. But my grandmother always tell stories of how hard life it was then. Some school even stopped going on in our country.

But behind those hardships people have experienced before, there are some important lessons in life that became evident. One, they became strong spiritually. During times like that, when everything seems dark, people shouldn't give up and just keep going on with their life.

Second will be like how my grandmother related it, people in our country during those times helped each other. People unites in times of crisis which is good of course.

I just hope war isn't needed anymore to remind us to care for each other and to be united. :( Many lives go to waste just because of useless, stupid and senseless wars. :(

I do not remember the war but I remember my grandfather had a uniform in his closet that I saw and was in awe of. I was small at the time but I know one thing, you did not touch gram pa's uniform. I remember going to my grandpa's house and listening to the stories about the hard times and seeing ration stamps, ( which I still have ) and being told to eat what you have and be thankful for it. The only thing my gram pa would say about it was it was a very sad time. My father was a veteran as I am a veteran and I have to say
Yes it does mean a lot to me because of all the people that gave there lives for this country. Remembering our veterans is very important to me especially those veterans, they did a job with no modern help. They didn't even know what PTSD was. They came home and went back to what was left of there lives. When I go to the VFW or American Legion and see some of these men I hold them in high respect. They deserve it along with all the women that sacrificed too. I feel bad when we lose one. It seems to me that we are putting them on a shelf and I think we are shelving the most knowledgeable people we have.

For me personally, World War II means the Holocaust. Although I was not alive at the time to experience it directly, my Jewish mother's side of the family lost cousins in the Holocaust. They were murdered in their homes by their neighbors of another religion - or killed in Nazi concentration or death camps. I found out a few years ago when my mother and I found an old postcard and a photograph hidden in a box in our garage.

This war means to me that such or similar thing can happen again. Also it means that majority of people in the world were not ok mentally/physically or too weak to resist the powerful, but mentally/spiritually poor. I am 25 and WW II is something I feel close to. All wars are bad, doesn't matter how big or small it is. We are meant to be joyfull and blissful. And I am happy to live in quite peaceful times compared.
What do I know about WW II? Lately I was interested in U-boats, german military submarines and wanted to watch some good movies related to these boats. They were used to destroy non military ships of the enemies to achieve economical goals.

My father served in WWII, and fortunately survived else I would not be here writing this :-)

My father spoke of the war matter of factly, not emotionally. There was a job to be done and he was glad to do it. Personal losses were a matter of sadness, but not regret.

To me, WWII represents the last time that most of the world's power could truly be found united around a great threat (regardless which side you were on, you were united against what you perceived as a threat). In the time that has passed since, and the conflicts that have come and gone, there has been too much posturing, too much politicking, and too much pandering.

From a UK perspective WWII meant the loss of empire due to cost agreements with the US only repaid finally last year.

It also is now a fading memory of the living (the last serving British soldier died last week) and the vowed commitment to never see its events repeated may be fading as generations that only relate to those events through film and media, but did not thankfully experience it, fail to prevent re-occurence.

Finally, if a little sadly, it was a correction to population growth which has not been seen since. We may be living in an unprecedented era of relative peace but the price is paid in our inability to feed and look after the growing population which was temporarily stemmed by the massive loses of WWII.

It means a lot to me. It taught me the consequences of war. Lot of people died. handicapped and became homeless in the war. So instead of being war there should be peace.

I feel close to World War ll because my grandfather fought in the war and spoke of it sometimes. I know that Hitler was determined to take over at least Europe but probably the whole world if left unchecked. Japan felt they had to do the same thing but more in the Pacific at first. I don't think we will ever really know how many people died in World War ll.

The modern world is still living with the consequences of World War 2, the most titanic conflict in history. Just under 69 years ago on September 1st 1939, Germany invaded Poland without warning sparking the start of World War Two. By the evening of September 3rd, Britain and France were at war with Germany and within a week, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa had also joined the war. The world had been plunged into its second world war in 25 years. Six long and bloody years of total war, fought over many thousand of square kilometres followed. From the Hedgerows of Normandy to the streets of Stalingrad, the icy mountains of Norway to the sweltering deserts of Libya, the insect infested jungles of Burma to the coral reefed islands of the pacific. On land, sea and in the air, Poles fought Germans, Italians fought Americans and Japanese fought Australians in a conflict which was finally settled with the use of nuclear weapons. World War 2 involved every major world power in a war for global domination and at its end, more than 60 million people had lost their lives and most of Europe and large parts of Asia lay in ruins.