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Lost in the Victory Reflections of American War Orphans of World War II Collected by Ann Bennett Mix and Susan Johnson Hadler Edited by Calvin L. Christman |
"For most Americans, the postwar era was a time of prosperity. Houses were built with government loans, and veterans were educated on the GI Bill. The era introduced the age of television, automatic dishwashers, and electronic gadgets. Butter, sugar, meat, and shoes were readily available. . . . However, sprinkled throughout America were those who had lost a son, a brother, an uncle or a friend. There were women who had lost husbands and children who had lost fathers. Among the thousands who died in the last months of the war, many were fathers, leaving their families in grief just as the nation celebrated victory."—Introduction
In 1990, Ann Mix began her search to find out about her father who had been killed in World War II. She discovered that, of the servicemen who died in that war, 183,000 were fathers. During her search, Mix met others whose fathers had been killed and few of them had much information about their fathers. As a result, Ann founded the American WWII Orphans Network to locate war orphans and become a depository for sources of information about WWII servicemen who were fathers. Senator Robert Dole, who had fought in the 10th Mountain Division with Mix's father, assisted the network as a National Advisor until 1995, helping it to become a true humanitarian organization.
War orphan Susan Johnson Hadler, a psychologist, began a collaboration with Ann to collect the stories of the orphans when she discovered there were no statistics on the number of children and no studies on the effects of their fathers' deaths on their lives. Records which could have helped sociologists, psychologists, and historians were simply non-existent.
Mix and Hadler began to interview war orphans, who nearly all reported having felt the awkwardness with which America treated the subject of their fathers. At a young age, they had learned to keep quiet, and only with great reticence were they able now to discuss their loss and its impact on their lives. Publication of these stories breaks a longstanding silence.
The voices in this book belong to sons and daughters who for half a century have seldom spoken of their fathers or of their own lives after the deaths of their fathers. The memories revealed through interviews, letters, family histories and remembrances of their fathers' war buddies are remarkable for their honesty and their quiet courage.
ANN BENNETT MIX, founder and director of the American WWII Orphans Network in Bellingham, Washington, has a background in historical research and writing. SUSAN JOHNSON HADLER, Ph.D., is president of the Washington Society of Psychoanalytic Psychology, and co-edits the journal Analytic Reflections while maintaining a private practice in Washington, D.C. CALVIN L. CHRISTMAN, professor of history at Cedar Valley College, Lancaster, Texas, edited America at War and has authored numerous articles and essays on military history.
Lost in the Victory
1-57441-033-4
$32.50
6x9. 241 pp. 60 b&w photos. Index.
American History. Military History. Psychology.
Publication Date: January 1998.
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