The best reason to turn our attention to civilians when studying World War II is that, quite frankly, they are the ones who are most like ourselves.
About Aaron William Moore
"I am the Handa Chair of Japanese-Chinese Relations at the University of Edinburgh and a modern historian of China and Japan. I also work in modern literature. I am a 2014 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winner.
I am a comparative and transnational historian working with documents in Japanese, Chinese and Russian. I predominantly teach modern history of East Asia. My work includes studies of war diaries, the history of childhood and youth and speculative science writing and science fiction."
Key Points
• Civilians were indispensable to the WWII war effort, and their experiences best reveal the true impact of modern conflict.
• Total war erased the boundary between front line and home front, making every aspect of society both essential to victory and a legitimate enemy target.
• Diaries and memoirs show a grinding daily misery, from hunger to family separation, that most people today might struggle to endure.
• Despite the vast civilian suffering recorded, present-day discourse still treats attacks on non-combatants as acceptable collateral, suggesting the war’s moral lessons remain largely unlearned.
