Mementos, 1

In the poem’s third stanza, the speaker mentions “the war and those two long years / Overseas” (Lines 13-14) in which he saw “the Japanese dead in their shacks” (Line 14). The conflict mentioned is World War II, and the specific front he describes is that between the United States and Japan.

World War II began on September 1, 1939, and lasted in Europe until the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945, although the Japanese surrender did not take place until a few weeks later on September 2. There were a few shifting alliances during the years of the conflict, but the two main camps were those of the Allied powers (the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, United States, China, and their allies) and those of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies). Up until the end of 1941, the United States remained out of the conflict, engaging in some wartime manufacturing as a business venture but without launching any military involvement of its own on either the Allied or Axis side. Things changed on December 7, 1941, when Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.