Review

General Books

The author of this study was, herself, one of the child witnesses of World War II, one of the kinder who somehow survived the saturation bombing of German cities which, eventually, forced the Germans to surrender. That fact and her own experience surely adds an intensity to this study and makes it better. She is also the author of several other books on the general subject of children and war. In Through the Eyes of Innocents, Werner weaves together the personal reminiscences she had located, which are, largely, although not exclusively, letters, interviews of survivors, memoirs of those who lived to record their (by then quite distant) memories, and insights provided by a large number of books on her theme. (These latter are all cited in an extensive bibliography.)	1
Her approach is, I believe, more eclectic in this work than in her earlier treatments of war and children. Perhaps this is only the consequence of the widely spread reality of World War II; children throughout the world were victimized by that war and many of them find voices in this collection: German kinder, Japanese-American child internees, British children sent overseas by a worried government, Dutch children held in abysmal camps in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and somewhat oddly (to my thinking) one youngster who corresponded with Eisenhower. Together with these children's reflections are hundreds of photos of children who are obvious victims of the war. She has culled photo archives of all kinds and found pictures of children with eyes too wide with fear and altogether too much solemnity and sadness in their demeanor. No children laugh here; the children at play in rare photos are maimed and disabled by the warfare around them. Needless to say, these letters and photos are all primary sources—evidence suitable for study by college students interested in this unusual perspective on twentieth century warfare. They are not unique; indeed, it may be argued that there are better, more compelling photos in many other accounts of children and war—but the photos are, like the book, eclectic and compelling.	2
Even so, this is a work that raises problems. The author/compiler is not an historian; she teaches Developmental Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Throughout the study she uncritically accepts as truth the observations of adults who were, once, similar to those who have had their letters quoted in her study. This faith in the surely traumatic memories reported after more than fifty years is seriously alarming from time to time; all readers will be amazed at the prescience of erstwhile five year olds who, as elders, look back to that constraining time. Then, too, Werner seems to have gathered together materials that, as it turned out, found no place in her earlier publications—not all of which can be said to properly belong in this study either. It may seem appropriate that all/most of the letters, etc. are by the children who happened to live during World War II, but the contrasts between such groups as the British children (sad, but very plump) and the Dutch kids starving in Dutch East Indies is apples and oranges. Contrast Japanese-American kids playing baseball in Poston with Japanese children walking in the ruins of Nagasaki and imagine, if you can, that such experiences are somehow comparable. These implicit comparisons may work if the subject is the situational trauma of living through a war, but historians dare not work like this. None of which can deny the compelling quality of this material. Werner has a fine eye, a perspicacious ear, memories of her own of sad and frightened children, and all this leads to a presentation of sorrow and loss. That isn't the way it was entirely, and that lack of balance is a consideration in using this material—especially among high school students.	3
Donna L. Boutelle California State University, Long Beach

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