Save Our History

Save Our History® is The History Channel’s award-winning national campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. As part of this initiative, The History Channel produces documentaries and corresponding teaching materials for educators free of charge. In addition to the featured program, “Dear Home,” The History Channel will be initiating a major Save Our History campaign to celebrate the construction of a national WWII Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Information about this initiative and other Save Our History campaigns are accessible on the World Wide Web at www.HistoryChannel.com. Educators can also order materials by calling toll-free 1-877-87 LEARN or by faxing the Educational Department at 212-551-1540.

Dear Home: Letters from World War II

This one-hour documentary looks at actual letters exchanged between enlisted men overseas and their loved ones on the home front, allowing students to explore the meaning and impact of wartime experiences on American men and women. In addition to showing students how those on the home front coped with war, Dear Home: Letters from World War II conveys the full complexity of soldiers’ wartime experiences, from the weariness and loneliness of daily training to the danger and fear of battle zones. The following exercises help students to understand how letters, as a primary source, provide a unique perspective on the past. Dear Home: Letters from World War II fulfills the following National Standards for History for grades 5-12: Chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research capabilities, historical issue-analysis and decision-making for Era 8.

Discussion Questions

  1. When was the first peacetime draft initiated in the United States? Why did President Roosevelt feel that this was necessary, even though the U.S. had not entered the war?

  2. What does it mean when the narrator states that letters are like “lifelines” for soldiers at war?

  3. Do you think that letters offer a clear or a distorted view of the experiences of war? Why? Can letters offer both clear and distorted views at the same time? How?

  4. What happened on December 7, 1941 to make the war seem much closer to U.S. troops and Americans in general?

  5. In the documentary, what did the GI mean when he said that the battlefield was the “saddest place” that he had ever seen? How did the expectations of war differ from the reality of it for American soldiers?

  6. Discuss the difficulty for soldiers of not being able to tell their friends and families back home all the details of their wartime experiences (secret missions, etc). How do you think this felt for people on the home front, not knowing for certain the fate of their loved ones?

  7. How did servicemen deal with the weeks and often months that they had between frontline assignments?

  8. Why was “mail call” such an important event for servicemen and women overseas?

  9. How did U.S. authorities deal with all of the mail that they handled during the war? Where did the idea of “V-Mail” come from? What were some of the problems with this method of handling mail?

  10. How did American soldiers feel when they defeated Hitler? And liberated the concentration camps? Discuss the lasting impact that viewing the death and destruction of war had upon soldiers.
Extended Activities

  1. Imagine that you are an American soldier during World War II and write a letter home telling of your experiences. OR Imagine that you are writing from the homefront to a family member or close friend who is overseas fighting in the war.

  2. Research the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What were Japan’s reasons for attacking the U.S. at this point? How did this event shape Americans’ attitudes toward the war?

  3. Interview someone in your family or community about their involvement in the war effort. If they were stationed overseas, what role did letters from home play in their experiences? If they were on the home front, did they correspond with someone overseas? What impact or effect did letters have on their lives?
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