Children and War
The image of war for children on the Canadian home front was much different than for the children of the war-torn countries. The youth of Canada had a fantasy view of World War II. The children of Summerside took part in the air raid precaution blackouts and to them it was like a game that ended when the lights came back on. Many children witnessed their older siblings going off to war. Some of them never came back and those that did were changed forever. Never before had the children of Summerside had the opportunity to meet airmen from all over the British Commonwealth who were coming to RCAF Summerside for training. Having the young officers rent rooms in their homes was like being given a view glass to exotic places of the world such as Australia and New Zealand. Handsome in uniform, these airmen were heroes to young boys who dreamed of defeating the enemy in far off places. War was a common game played on the streets and green spaces of Summerside. Boys, with their sticks for wooden rifles, pretended to be the home guard or the uniformed men they were familiar with seeing about the town. While the very word "German" scared some of them it didn't deter the games of their young imaginations. They had no mental images of the gore of war impressed upon their minds. The war movies shown at the Capitol Theatre only showed the glorious side of victory.
One thing the war did get in the way of was the enterprising nature of some youngsters. Lemonade stands were a rare sight on a hot summer day, as mother didn't have the sugar to spare. Many people recall that cookies were not in plentiful supply during the war years. It was a price to be paid.
Even after the war was over it stayed fresh in the minds of many youth and the stories of victory and war games were introduced to younger siblings. A Summerside man, just out of toddler-hood following the war, tells of his pleasure of going with his little friends to the war surplus store to look at the items for sale. There was also a closed-in yard filled with army vehicles that the boys would spend hours looking at over the fence. But even he was left with more serious impressions of conflict.
"There was one thing that really did impact on me. I got into my sister Elizabeth's love letters. She had met a young pilot from Ontario when he was training at the base. It was one of the many love affairs that developed between the local girls and the airmen. I have never forgotten the contents of the letter I read. He had written it from overseas and was telling Elizabeth 'that life is very strange and lonely flying in the skies. You have lots of time to think about it up in an airplane looking down at the lights below and realizing the insanity of it all. I hope this is over soon for I fear I will never come home.' He never did come home. He is buried on the Island of Malta. My sister kept his picture by her bedside for years."
Brennan Letter July 27th 1942 | Brennan Letter October 27th 1942
What was difficult for many children following the war was the expectation that their fathers whom they saw as heroes would come back with wonderful stories of the war. Many of the returning soldiers would not even speak about their experiences.
Children didn't just play war; they worked at it as well. They too had a duty to the war effort.
Christie's Biscuits company ran a newspaper comic strip on how young people could best serve the war effort.
School children wrote letters to soldiers and helped pack boxes for them. Rural school children were members of the Junior Red Cross
and were given productive duties. They acted in plays and performed in concerts as war effort fundraisers. The Girl
Guides and Boy Scouts took an active part in war work. They participated in the salvage drives and the girl guides were at the forefront
in sales of war stamps. Schools and
other youth groups held drives to purchase stamps and certificates.
Christie Cartoons: Collecting Bottles | Collecting Books
Youth also took over jobs in the work world. As the availability of farm help dwindled, the age to obtain a driver's license
dropped to fourteen so that harvest trucks could be driven by youth. Many young people had their days of childhood shortened,
as they had to assume more responsibility in the home and the community.
Children on the home front were also affected when their mothers went out to work for the war effort, whether in a
paid job or by volunteering. Children whose fathers joined the armed forces suddenly found themselves in single
parent families, which was a rarity for the time.
Children on the Canadian home front also started seeing new youthful faces in their towns. In the early days of the war,
British children were taken out of England to safety in Canada. However, it soon became too dangerous to transport them across
the Atlantic Ocean. There were a number of British children billeted in Summerside. There are no reports of them having
problems fitting in with the local children but that wasn't always the case in other places. There are stories of British
children being chased home from school because of their different accent or for having red hair.
Things To Do!!!
Talk to someone in your community who was a child during the war. Ask them what memories they have of this time in history. What do they feel they may have missed out on because of the war?
Children were made an active part of the war effort. In your opinion was this proper? When disaster happens in the world today are children shielded from it or do they take an active role? Give some examples.
Do you think the children growing up during World War II had an unrealistic view of war? How do you as a youth of today
perceive war?
