“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

As shown by the use of quotation marks in the title, the first question Studs Terkel raises is whether World War II was a “good war,” as it is often presented in history textbooks. On one hand, the war was fought against fascism and Nazi Germany, a government that aggressively promoted theories of racial supremacy and anti-Semitism, and perpetrated the Holocaust. On the other hand, the war had its share of horrors and injustices, as the United States tolerated racist practices like segregation in the military, and the Allies committed arguably unnecessary atrocities like bombing of the German city of Dresden. Then there is the matter of how World War II changed history. It brought about an era of economic prosperity for Americans and was important in laying the groundwork for the civil rights and women’s rights movements of the 1960s, but it also bequeathed the specter of nuclear war on later generations and anti-communist zealotry in the United States in the form of the McCarthyism, which ruined many innocent lives.

Then, of course, there are the broader philosophical and ethical questions. Is any war truly just or good? Can a war be necessary but still not good or just? Such questions only lead to more specific issues that are still debated today, like the necessity and morality of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the fact that the Allies returned South Asian countries liberated from Japanese occupation to European colonial rule.