WAR STORIES

A healthy dose of war stories from my grandfather, the fun of playing pretend soldiers during my childhood, and a thirst for information – it was a perfect recipe that slowly turned me into someone who is fascinated by World War 2. That historic war had been fought over half a century already but it continues to captivate the passion of people like Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Stephen Ambrose, and most recently, me.

To supplement the oral stories that have been passed down to me by the men of that era, I started watching movies and documentaries about the war. I started acquiring books, a soldier’s memoir if you will, that chronicle everyday life in the battlefield. One does not even have to have a vivid imagination like me to see the horrors that they had gone through in the jungles, fields, waters, and sky.

Whether you are more inclined with the Pacific or the European theater or both, the stories of heroism, courage, and brotherhood is highlighted with every anecdote of the brave soldiers who faced the terrors of war. They themselves do not consider their actions heroic, some even lament that they should had been the one killed in action, and not their buddies. Words alone bring a lot of emotion, sorrow, and anxiety. Despite these feelings, I have come to understand that they learned trust, bravery, and faith. With those as their core weapons, many had willed to survive and win the war.

It’s these stories that humble our generation. In these times, we have slowly learned to be more selfish, more egocentric, and more arrogant with little regard of the sacrifices made by our predecessors. But in these same stories, we find hope. Hope that soon enough, we will be able to patch up differences and use it to progress. Hope that maybe one day, the world will be in a communion toward a certain goal - a goal to move forward and achieve dreams beyond compare.

My personal World War 2 reads are the following: Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose (flyboys in the European theater), Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides (Cabanatuan raid, Pacific theater), Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie (US Marines in the Pacific theater; as featured in the HBO Series The Pacific), and Flags Of Our Fathers by James Bradley (flag raisers of the iconic World War 2 photo, Pacific theater; as featured in a movie of the same name).