World War II brought many changes to American society, many positive and many negative. As white men were leaving for the war, society was forced to become more leaniant and accepting of women and blacks. Women were hired into the work place and blacks were given opportunities previously reserved for whites. Women were freed from the role of a houswife and able to challenge themselves by accepting jobs in factories or buisnesses. While blacks were still able to participate in the army, they were often segregated into all black troups. Still, they gained respect and proved their loyalty to American society. Another possitive advancment in America was the development of a middle class. During the Great Depression, Americans were either very wealthy or severely underprivleged. With new job opportunities filling the nation, people were finally able to find work and many moved up on the economic ladder. Not everything about this war worked out for the benefit of the American people, however. A new generation of Americans had lost their innocence as a result of the country's involvment in this war. Young girls stopped spending their days carelessly playing with dolls and spent their days fearing that bombs from Japan would be dropped on their hometowns. Young boys were going into battle and killing other young boys. One story in this section recalls the memery of a particular American Soldier who was fighting the Germans. He acknowledged the fact that these soldiers fighting each other to the death were nothing but young boys. They were still in their awkward, adolcent phases and now they were killing each other left and right. These boys were forced to become men and were robbed of their youthful innocence. A new grief filled the nation as these boys died over seas before they ever really had a chance to live. The war had its ups and its downs, but no matter which aspects you choose to focus on, the war had a lasting impact on American society.
The story of Robert Rasmus tells the experiences of an eighteen year old American boy who fought in World War II. Before he entered the war, he was filled with a burning desire to be one of the brave soldiers he always saw in the newspapers who were fighting for a cause bigger than themselves. He thought it was admireable and wanted so desperately to join the army. This wish was not one worth fulfilling, however, which he quickly learned once he was actually enlisted. He saw his best friends in the war die in battles that he had merely missed out on because of the flu. He received reports of his fellow soldiers dying in battle or going missing in action. What had once been a fantasy full of adventure and courageous men, was rapidly becoming a nightmare full of tragedy and dead buddies. Despite the fact that he was tought to fight and kill as if the Germans were animals and not people, Rasmus was still strongly effected by the devistating actions he was forced to take part in during battle. One story that stood out particularly, was the story he told about the day he saw a Russian soldier trying to strangle a German soldier to death with his bare hands. He had been told that the Germans were the enemies and the Russians were the allies. Nonetheless, he saw this scene as one of corruption and vengence and felt obligated to step in and stop the murder from taking place. This could not have been an easy decision. He was killing Germans and capturing German towns everyday in battle, but he was witnessing a man strangle another to death and this resinated deep inside him as a horrible sin. He forced the Russian to release the German soldier and let him live. This must have been very confussing to him at the time. The Russian was supposedly his allie and he was obligated to assist in the victory of Russia and the destruction of Germany, but he could not bare to watch this young boy strangle the life out of another young boy with his own hands. He was in the middle of a bloody and devistating battle, but he still knew where to draw the line and recognized what was beyond the actions of an honorable soldier. The experiences of Robert Rasmus clearly illustrate the confusing and misleading impressions set in the minds of the American soldiers both before and during the war. They were originally told that the war was a glorious place where a boy became a man, but when they were finally in battle, they learned that the war was a horrifying death trap that would ruin their lives for good, if they were even fortunate enough to live.
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