1940s: V-E Day and Atom Bombs
Then, on a beautiful winter morning* the paper's blast out that at least a part of this war is over. The Nazi's has given up, and peace has found its way to Europe:
The entire town is in celebratory mode, and Anna and Thomas cannot help but to join the celebration. After dinner they go to a decked out town centre, where people are celebrating in the streets as well as in the bar.
Inside the bar is decorated with streamers and flags, there is a sense of joy in the air that has not been felt in years. The war is over, our boys are coming home. That night the bar stays open. There is line dancing, drinking more than a bit of kissing and by the time Anna and Johnny gets home it's already 3 in the morning.
But the morning after, apart from a giant hang over, Anna is riddled with guilt as she reads an article by Gordon Cobbledick from Okinawa (shortened from the actual article which you can read here):
"So this was V-E Day. It was V-E Day in the United States and Great Britain and Russia, but on Okinawa the ambulances skidded through the sticky red ud and bounced over rutted, rocky coral roads. Som of the men who rode them gritted their teeth behind bloodless lips and let no cry escape them. Some stared skyward through eyes that were dull with the look of men to whom nothing mattered greatly. Some screamed with pain that the morphine couldn't still. And some lay very quiet under ponchos that covered their faces.
It was V-E Day at home, but on Okinawa the forests of white crosses grew and boys who had hardly begun to live died miserably in the red clay of this hostile land.
It was a day of celebration, but on Okinawa the war moved on.
It was V-E Day, and on Okinawa a soldier asked, 'What are they going to do back in the States - get drunk and forget about us out here?'... "
Anna put the paper down, unable to read on, riddled with guilt. Thomas is over there somewhere, be it in Okinawa or elsewhere, and yet they had celebrated in spite of their heavy losses. In spite of the risk that was still posed to Thomas and Harold. There was no other word for it, Anna was ashamed of herself.
Leaving the house, she takes a long intense ride on Bronco, leaving her frustrations and shame behind with the speed, but her feelings are still there waiting for her when she return, especially as she learns that her old friend, Germaine Favreau, died during the war, as did her son, which explains why she suddenly weren't getting any more phone calls from him. She wonders how many more news of death she'll have to face before the scope of this war is truly over.
War or not, life goes on, and soon it is time for Hazel and Grace to come of age. Josephine, as usual, has done all she can to create the best birthday possible for her girls who both have their very own idea about what adulthood should bring.
Grace can't wait to be independent. To learn new things, to break out on her own, go to university and possibly even get a job one day. To experience life and see where it takes her. A bit like aunty Anna, but without all the climbing mountains and roughing it in the jungle. She'd happily settle for a desk job, as long as she can learn new things.
And Hazel on her end wishes for a handsome man to sweep her off her feat. For a life in a comfortable, modern house, with new modern appliances like the ones she sees in the magazines she reads. A comfortable life, without ever having to worry about money the way mom and dad had to when they were kids. Never does she want to live like that, never let her kids go hungry and wear hand-me-downs. No she wants to be the best possible mom she can be. A super mom!
In the meantime, she stays at home, and takes a part time job in a store. At least it's fashion related, and hopefully not forever.
Grace, on the other hand, haven been given her tuition by Anna and Alice, head off across the country to Britechester, staying in the same dorm her aunts did. A lot have changed, others remain the same. The study hall is almost identical, but the bathroom and dorms has changed significantly. Throwing herself into university life, Grace does her best to befriend her roommates and see what university life has to offer. So far she's enjoying herself, preparing her reading for the course during the day and going to poetry readings in the evenings.
Then one morning, black headlines meet the readers of the morning papers. An atomic bomb, equivalent to 20 000 tons of TNT or 2000 normal bombs has been dropped on a city in Japan:
The entire town is in celebratory mode, and Anna and Thomas cannot help but to join the celebration. After dinner they go to a decked out town centre, where people are celebrating in the streets as well as in the bar.
Inside the bar is decorated with streamers and flags, there is a sense of joy in the air that has not been felt in years. The war is over, our boys are coming home. That night the bar stays open. There is line dancing, drinking more than a bit of kissing and by the time Anna and Johnny gets home it's already 3 in the morning.
But the morning after, apart from a giant hang over, Anna is riddled with guilt as she reads an article by Gordon Cobbledick from Okinawa (shortened from the actual article which you can read here):
"So this was V-E Day. It was V-E Day in the United States and Great Britain and Russia, but on Okinawa the ambulances skidded through the sticky red ud and bounced over rutted, rocky coral roads. Som of the men who rode them gritted their teeth behind bloodless lips and let no cry escape them. Some stared skyward through eyes that were dull with the look of men to whom nothing mattered greatly. Some screamed with pain that the morphine couldn't still. And some lay very quiet under ponchos that covered their faces.
It was V-E Day at home, but on Okinawa the forests of white crosses grew and boys who had hardly begun to live died miserably in the red clay of this hostile land.
It was a day of celebration, but on Okinawa the war moved on.
It was V-E Day, and on Okinawa a soldier asked, 'What are they going to do back in the States - get drunk and forget about us out here?'... "
Anna put the paper down, unable to read on, riddled with guilt. Thomas is over there somewhere, be it in Okinawa or elsewhere, and yet they had celebrated in spite of their heavy losses. In spite of the risk that was still posed to Thomas and Harold. There was no other word for it, Anna was ashamed of herself.
Leaving the house, she takes a long intense ride on Bronco, leaving her frustrations and shame behind with the speed, but her feelings are still there waiting for her when she return, especially as she learns that her old friend, Germaine Favreau, died during the war, as did her son, which explains why she suddenly weren't getting any more phone calls from him. She wonders how many more news of death she'll have to face before the scope of this war is truly over.
War or not, life goes on, and soon it is time for Hazel and Grace to come of age. Josephine, as usual, has done all she can to create the best birthday possible for her girls who both have their very own idea about what adulthood should bring.
Grace can't wait to be independent. To learn new things, to break out on her own, go to university and possibly even get a job one day. To experience life and see where it takes her. A bit like aunty Anna, but without all the climbing mountains and roughing it in the jungle. She'd happily settle for a desk job, as long as she can learn new things.
And Hazel on her end wishes for a handsome man to sweep her off her feat. For a life in a comfortable, modern house, with new modern appliances like the ones she sees in the magazines she reads. A comfortable life, without ever having to worry about money the way mom and dad had to when they were kids. Never does she want to live like that, never let her kids go hungry and wear hand-me-downs. No she wants to be the best possible mom she can be. A super mom!
In the meantime, she stays at home, and takes a part time job in a store. At least it's fashion related, and hopefully not forever.
Grace, on the other hand, haven been given her tuition by Anna and Alice, head off across the country to Britechester, staying in the same dorm her aunts did. A lot have changed, others remain the same. The study hall is almost identical, but the bathroom and dorms has changed significantly. Throwing herself into university life, Grace does her best to befriend her roommates and see what university life has to offer. So far she's enjoying herself, preparing her reading for the course during the day and going to poetry readings in the evenings.
Then one morning, black headlines meet the readers of the morning papers. An atomic bomb, equivalent to 20 000 tons of TNT or 2000 normal bombs has been dropped on a city in Japan:
At this point, there are no damage reports in the papers. Instead the news talks of "Impenetrable Smoke Prevents Accurate Bomb Damage Report". The president is quoted: "We are now prepared to obliterate rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories and their communications. Let there be no mistake, we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.”
Back in Chestnut Ridge, Anna doesn't know how to feel about what she is reading. On the one hand, anything that will bring this war to an end and bring back Thomas and Harold is welcome, on the other, she remembers Mt Komorebi's beauty, its shrines, its people, that majestic view from the mountain, and she cannot but be grieved for the country and people she once knew.
Back in Chestnut Ridge, Anna doesn't know how to feel about what she is reading. On the one hand, anything that will bring this war to an end and bring back Thomas and Harold is welcome, on the other, she remembers Mt Komorebi's beauty, its shrines, its people, that majestic view from the mountain, and she cannot but be grieved for the country and people she once knew.
* In game 1945 in its entirety takes place in the winter season, even though the last parts of WWII took place in the summer half of the year (from May to August). In this case I will allow the weather in game influence my writing as a May event with snow on the ground works really bad.
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