Summary Of Daddy's Gone To War

William M. Tuttle Jr.’s 1993 book “Daddy’s Gone to War”: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children explores the permanent mark that WWII made on the children who grew up during this traumatic period. The second world war distinctly reshaped the American family during and after the war, leaving a permanent mark on those who experienced the event. Tuttle starts the book at the very beginning of America’s involvement in the war, the moment that “…time stopped” (3): the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese army. With the onset of a major war, marriage booms are expected. However, the one that America experienced during this time was beyond what was expected. Some additional 1,185,000 marriages resulted from the wartime marriage boom (19). Consequently, following the marriage boom, the birth rate increased. A large portion of American men either enlisted or were drafted and sent overseas, leaving a whole in the workforce that women would have to fill.

Psychologically, the absence and death of a father, or brother for that matter, was great and caused quite a bit of anxiety in Homefront children. Childcare, especially for working and middle-class families, shifted as many mothers went to work, leaving children in the care of other relatives, expanded daycare services, and children to fend for themselves at home. Though childrearing took on different forms depending on class and ethnicity, permissiveness grew in childrearing practice throughout the