My grandfather was able to buy a house for the first time. After the hard times of the Great Depression, suddenly all the adults in the family-except for the mothers with small children-were fully employed and saving money for that proverbial rainy day. In the case of my family-and for many other white working-class families as well-the war was also remembered for the benefits it provided at home. And so, despite its toll in human life, they could talk about the war in terms of American heroism and success. Fortunately, none of the men in my family were casualties of the war none experienced serious injury. Everyone knew where they were when they learned about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and when they first heard about the dropping of an atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
But for the adults around me, the war was very much a living memory. John D’Emilio: As a baby boom child in the 1950s, World War II was always a part of history. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History
