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WARS in our century have taken about a hundred million lives. The pain, sorrow, and anguish this has caused is incalculable. How have survivors, both military and civilian, been able to cope? What hope is there for a world without war, a world that will never again experience such trauma?

[Picture on page 2]

Survivors from the assault on Eniwetok Island in the Marshalls, 1944

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Official U.S. Coast Guard Photo

War​—The Shock and the Trauma

“WE HAD been on a patrol that had proved uneventful. Our officer, a mild, kindly man, not a professional soldier, was leading us back to our own lines. A sentry challenged us. Before our officer could reply, a nervous soldier behind our lines fired, hitting the officer in the face. The poor man died, choking in his own blood.” For Edward B​——, a British soldier, that summed up the trauma of World War II.

Some try to hide the real face of war. World War I, for example, was portrayed by some propagandists as “part-Armageddon​—the final battle of Good against Evil . . . and part mediaeval joust, with a touch of cricket thrown in.” (The Faces of Power) It was neither. It was better described by news correspondent and author Ernest Hemingway when he wrote that it was “the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth”​—up to World War II.

Such butchery has marked all the wars of this century and before. “Every war in history,” wrote Malcolm Browne, “whatever its cause or justification, has been filthy, agonizing and degrading to all concerned.” In Vietnam, he saw firsthand much of the well-documented slaughter and agony of war, but he still felt that “the spectrum of horrors perpetrated in Viet Nam represents nothing new in human experience.”​—The New Face of War.

Similar horrors were certainly experienced during World War II. Germany and Japan were laid waste and totaled their military and civilian war dead in the millions. The United States lost about 400,000, Britain 450,000, and France over half a million. The Soviet Union lost an estimated 20 million. Listing what it described as “this toll of human suffering,” the book World War II stated: “Overall casualties in the war, including civilians, numbered at least 50 million.”

The civilian casualties were part of what Gerald Priestland in his book Priestland​—Right and Wrong described as “total warfare: war for men, women and children, regardless of where they are or what they are doing, how old or helpless they may be.” It was typified, he said, when “the allies incinerat[ed] Hamburg and Dresden, and the Germans wreck[ed] Liverpool and Coventry.”

The annihilation of tens of millions in war has been obscene. But what about those who survive the “filthy, agonizing and degrading” trauma of war? How are they affected? And how can they cope with the aftereffects? The following articles will examine these questions.

War​—The Bitter Aftermath

THE juggernaut of war has crushed millions of men, women, and children, combatants and noncombatants alike. It has left many physically, emotionally, and psychologically scarred.

The Soldiers

Many soldiers who survive the carnage of conflict do so maimed and mutilated, with their future life prospects blighted. Typical is one old soldier who survived the first world war​—only to spend the next 30 years of his life in continual suffering due to the aftereffects of the mustard gas used in that war.

It is often the emotional and psychological wounds, however, that are the hardest to cope with. “No man who took part in the First World War ever completely shook off the experience,” wrote Keith Robbins in The First World War. “Men who appeared to retain their poise and composure were secretly scarred,” he continued. “Many years later they would wake up in the night, still unable to shake off some lingering horror.”

Think of the horror, for example, of just one day in 1916 during the first battle of the Somme​—21,000 killed and 36,000 wounded among British troops alone! “The men who came back from the Somme rarely spoke of their horrific experiences. A shocked numbness set in . . . One man was haunted all his life by the thought that he’d been unable to help another wounded comrade who called out to him as he crawled back across No Man’s Land.”​—The Sunday Times Magazine, October 30, 1988.

“You are afraid that you will hurt those you love,” said Norman J​——, explaining the consequences of his intensive battle training and combat. “If you are awakened suddenly, the instinctive reaction is to attack.” Men in prolonged traumatic situations find their emotions deadened. “It becomes difficult to show any emotion at all,” he continued. “I have also seen men severely disturbed by the strain. I saw men break beer glasses and chew the glass.”

Norman’s reactions are not uncommon. “One in seven Vietnam veterans suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder,” said one report. Another carried the headline: “For many, the war lives on.” It continued: “As many as 1 million Vietnam veterans have yet to leave behind a war that still terrorizes them every day . . . Some have committed suicide and abused their families. Others suffer flashbacks, nightmares and withdrawal . . . They suffered a psychological wound that is deep and abiding.”

At times this results in criminal behavior. How much value can men put on life and high moral principles when, as Gerald Priestland put it, “an act of killing which could have me convicted of murder in one set of circumstances, could win me a medal in another.” (Priestland​—Right and Wrong) “We were hired assassins out there,” said one Vietnam veteran. “Then the next day we’re supposed to go home to the Ford [automobile] plant and forget everything. Yeah, right.”​—Newsweek, July 4, 1988.

The Civilians

The two world wars, said Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “had an effect on the psyche of a whole generation . . . Having lived through such events, people were left with scars, these being handed down to grandchildren and great-grandchildren . . . Four decades later the symptoms of delayed injuries are becoming visible.” Such injuries have been felt worldwide.

Mary C​——, for example, lived in England near a target for German bombing missions during World War II. “Keeping my emotions to myself so as not to produce fear in my children resulted in my smoking heavily,” she said, “and I eventually ended up with a nervous breakdown leading to claustrophobia.”

On the other side of the battle lines was Cilly P​——, in Germany. “As refugees,” she said, “we learned the meaning of hunger.” She also learned the meaning of grief. “Whenever there was talk of those killed or missing,” she continued, “we thought of our men. Anni, my fiancé’s sister, got news of her husband’s death in the war just before she gave birth to their twins. The war robbed many families of their men, their homes, and their possessions.”

Anna V​——​ from Italy was another one stung by war. “I was embittered by the horror of war and the sufferings of my family,” she said. “A year after World War II ended, my mother died, without ever seeing her son return from a prisoner-of-war camp in Australia. My sister died from malnutrition and lack of medical care. I lost my faith in God because he allowed the suffering and the atrocities.”

The shock of such displacement, separation, and bereavement is difficult to bear. The cost in human terms is usually too high. One young woman, widowed during the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982, expressed the feeling of millions of bereaved and widowed people when she said: “It wasn’t worth it for me, losing my husband for a little place in the middle of nowhere . . . It is coping with the emotional shock that is the big problem.”​—Sunday Telegraph, October 3, 1982.

Think, too, of the physical and emotional wounds inflicted on the survivors of nuclear war. A report written in 1945, Shadows of Hiroshima, gives a shocking reminder of the terrible aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima:

“In Hiroshima, thirty days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world, people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly​—people who were uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague. Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller has passed over it and squashed it out of existence.” Over 40 years later, people are still suffering and dying from that explosion.

The Children

Some of the most tragic victims in the war zones of the world have been the children, many of whom have been drafted into armies in places such as Ethiopia, Lebanon, Nicaragua, and Kampuchea.

“What is clear, from Iran, when young boys were sent across the minefields is that boys are more malleable, cheaper and can be wound up to pitches of emotional fervour for long periods in the way no adult soldiers can be,” said The Times of London. Commenting on the brutalizing effect this must have on such children, the chairman of a human rights organization asked, “How can they ever grow up as sane and balanced adults?”

That question is echoed in Roger Rosenblatt’s book Children of War. He interviewed children who had grown up in areas where they had known nothing except war. Many showed remarkable resilience in the face of their horrific experiences. But others, like “a great many boat children, especially those whose parents were left behind in Viet Nam, seem deeply troubled and disturbed.”

How can the surviving victims of war​—men, women, and children—​cope with the problems this has produced in their lives? How might other family members help? And will there ever be an end to such tragedies?

[Blurb on page 6]

‘We were hired assassins out there. Then the next day we’re supposed to go home and forget everything!’

War​—Coping With the Aftermath

HOW do people traumatized by war manage to cope? To get insight into this subject, Awake! interviewed some victims of war.

Bob Honis was among the tens of thousands of U.S. Marines who fought in the second world war in the battle of Iwo Jima in the western Pacific. His story is printed not to shock but to show that it is possible for some to recover from even the most traumatic experiences.

The Trauma

“We began our approach to Iwo Jima at 8:30 a.m. on February 19, 1945. The big guns of the battleship Tennessee fell silent behind us, and then our landing craft were rocked by bombardments from the enemy shore batteries. Emotions at fever pitch, keyed up for the action ahead, I shouted amid all the noise and din, ‘Save some for us!’ as we followed the first assault troops in.

“Once on the beach, all I could smell was the sickening odor of gunpowder, volcanic ash, and burning equipment. Our landing craft was hit. The driver was killed instantly, and all our equipment was destroyed.

“I will never forget the sight of other dead marines. One was facedown in the sand. His combat boots, without bottoms, were fully laced up to his knees, on stumps that were once young, sturdy legs. Looking to my right as I crouched in a hastily dug foxhole, I saw another marine leaning forward with his rifle clutched to his chest, headless to the shoulders. The beach became littered with dead marines, many mutilated beyond description. This was just the beginning.

“On day two I was sent to check out one of our positions. What a grisly sight confronted me! An exploding shell had blown the legs and arms off the first marine I saw. His helmet and chin strap were still in position. His eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead as though he were in deep meditation. Strewed around like broken stuffed toys, the other members of the gun crew were nothing but pieces of torn flesh scattered in the soft, black volcanic ash.

“The slaughter continued throughout day three. Then the dead began to decompose rapidly. The stench became overpowering. It was everywhere. There was no escaping it.

“After four days of fierce fighting, on February 23 there was the now famous raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi. Instead of elation, all I felt was despair. The dead were everywhere. Life seemed so cheap. The savage battle continued until March 26, when finally Iwo Jima was taken, after weeks of ceaseless slaughter. What a bloodbath​—a total of 26,000 Americans and Japanese killed on an island only eight square miles [20 sq km] in size!

The Aftermath

“It should have been a time of great happiness when I was discharged from the Marines and reunited with my family. Instead, however, what had been building up inside me now surfaced​—a dreadful emptiness and sense of futility.

“Questions kept tormenting me. If life is so cheap, what is the point of living? Can there really be a caring God? Will I be haunted by my experiences for the rest of my life? Even after I married my wife, Mary, the torment continued. I could see no prospect of a lasting, happy future, only war and more senseless slaughter till, finally, the destruction of the earth and all life on it.

Finding the Solution

“Shortly after we married, my wife and I were visited by two of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This gave me a chance to ask some searching questions about war, suffering, and the purpose of life. The answers to my questions came quickly from the Bible.

“Yes, there is a loving God who cares and who will soon remedy all our pain and sorrow. (Psalm 83:18; Revelation 21:1-4) No, God does not sanction wars in pursuit of human political goals. (Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4; John 18:36) No, the earth will not be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. It will remain forever, as a paradise home for all who meet God’s requirements.​—Psalm 37:29; Isaiah 45:18; Revelation 11:17, 18.

“As my study of the heartwarming promises in the Bible continued, the void within me was gradually filled. I grew confident that God’s Kingdom is the only realistic means for bringing peace and security to the earth. God’s war of Armageddon will finally rid the earth of all evil.​—Daniel 2:21, 22; Matthew 6:10; Revelation 16:14-16.”

Build Hope in God’s Promises

Others confirm that learning the truth about God’s purpose for the earth and His reasons for the temporary permission of wickedness has been the most powerful factor in helping them to cope with the leftover traumas of war.

This is not to suggest that professional medical help may not at times be needed. But a genuine hope, based on the dependable promises of God in the Bible, does give inner strength to endure serious problems.

However, you may not personally be affected by the trauma of war. But you may know someone who is. What can you do to help? “Be understanding and encouraging to those who have suffered in this way,” says one victim of war trauma, Mary C​——. “Help such ones to look to the future, to dwell on the promises of God, not the tragedies of the past,” she advises. Yes, be patient and compassionate. Make allowances. And try to help them to build hope for the future.

‘But,’ you might say, ‘how can it be that for those who have suffered through the trauma of war, another war, Armageddon, is going to be the solution?’ Armageddon, God’s war against all evil, will be a war without innocent victims. It will not violate principles of justice and goodness. It will be ‘carried on in righteousness,’ in which only the wicked will die.​—Revelation 19:11; Proverbs 2:20-22.

Armageddon will have no horrible aftereffects, no recurring nightmares or other psychological wounds. God’s new world will fulfill the prophetic picture painted at Isaiah 65:17-19: “The former things will not be called to mind, . . . and no more will there be heard . . . the sound of weeping or the sound of a plaintive cry.”

All past victims of murderous war and violence, even the dead, will benefit from this war. (Psalm 72:4, 12-14; John 5:28, 29) Think of it​—a restoration of the Paradise of peace that God originally purposed.

“This hope that the Bible gives,” said Bob Honis, “is the key to coping with the aftermath of war. All who have been damaged by the trauma of war can benefit from such a hope. This kind of hope is, as the Bible says, ‘an anchor for the soul.’”​—Hebrews 6:19.

[Blurb on page 8]

“What had been building up inside me now surfaced​—a dreadful emptiness and sense of futility”

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On the way to Iwo Jima, we studied models of the island

Honis appears at top right

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U.S. Marine Corps

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Bob and Mary Honis today