“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

A prominent Chicago columnist, Mike recalls being a young boy during the war. His sister worked in a factory while her husband fought in the war overseas. Also, a female neighbor who was also married to a soldier stationed in another country became pregnant from an affair, which made her into a pariah. Day-to-day life included air-raid sirens, saving cooking fat, and listening to the radio for news reports every day.

When he was older, Mike fought in the Korean War, which he notes was a much less popular war than World War II. Mike describes the Korean War as “our first embarrassing war,” saying, “I didn’t know anyone in Korea who understood what the hell we were doing there” (137). He also notes, “A few years earlier, I was mad at the Japanese and I was supposed to love the Chinese. Now [during the Korean War] I love the Japanese and hate the Chinese” (138). Mike concludes that it was not until years after World War II and the Korean War that “anybody made a movie in which they showed any compassion, any understanding at all for the others—that they were human beings” (138).