A good friend told me today that she didn't see the purpose of the WWII entries in my blog and didn't understand that anyone would be interested except members of my family, because they would know personally the characters in the letters. That comment made me wonder if history books on shelves all over the country might be of little or no interest or value, since people don't know the characters "personally." The more I thought about it, the more I decided that personalizing the wider drama of war time only intensifies the background of world conflict when it is funneled down to a family and the smaller parts they play on the wider stage of world events.
My motive was to personalize that era of WWII through the eyes of a particular but not extraordinary family. Anyone who wants to know the facts of that time can get a history book or find data on line....but to read actual letters by two young people whose lives have been swallowed up by those world events in sequence through the frightening and perilous period of 1941-1945 provides a sense of drama that can be touching but not found in any American history book. I have not been able to find any other source of 127 actual letters through that time in any other place. I believe that's what makes the project special. The daily thoughts of ordinary people swept up by the war are as interesting as any battle facts. Such things, at least for me, bring history to life and give it a human face. THAT is my purpose. Of course, I won't use all 127 letters, but the flavor of the ones I am using seems to be reaching people's interest and experience of war in the most universal sense. The entries also speak of communication itself and the importance of personal letters, those relics of another time that have now all but been replaced by gang-mail, e-mail, texting, cell phone drivel, and anonymous greeting cards. All communication has value, especially when it represents some thread in the wider tapestry that connects us all in time of crisis or celebration.
