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The Good War is sort of about one guy that is trying to say how the war actually is. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor even though peoples lives were at risk the people that lived they will never be able to get rid of that horrible day. It will stick with them until the day they die especially the children they lost friends and they even lost family.

I read the book "The Good War" by Studs Terkel. He tells the stories of people who lived through World War II and some of who even participated in it. Some of the people he interviewed were just children when the Pearl Harbor Attack happened but they can tell you exactly what they were doing or where they were when it happened. If something like that happened again it would be very hard to forget about it. There are also many different opinions that could be taken on the theme of this book. One is that this book shows that in a time of crisis people of all different kinds come together for the same cause, to serve and protect their country. Another few would be that there should be no war of any kind, no matter what you are fighting for and some of the stories in this book relate to that theme. But what jumped out at me was that no matter what these people went through or who they lost in the process; be it friends, fathers, or brothers they were proud of what they accomplished and were proud to serve their country the way that they did.

One of the stories that made me stop and think that World War II was a serious thing that was changing the youth of that time was from a Marine who fought in the war. He recalls a time when a Japanese fighter had the top of his head blown off. ''He was just sitting upright in front of the machine gun. . . . His eyes were wide open. It had rained all night and the rain had collected inside of his skull. This was just a mild-mannered kid who was now a twentieth century savage.'' This passage stuck out in my mind for one reason. We as Americans can sit and judge and say what we would do about the war or how we would do it but do we really know until we are truly put in that position? I cannot even imagine throwing coral into a dead man's skull and not even be a bit affected by that fact that this man was dead and had been sitting there. This quote kind of shows how people came together. As soon as Pearl Harbor occurred most people of any age or race wanted to "suit up", grab a gun and go defend their country. But this paragraph also shows how war is not taken as seriously as it should be. If we today saw a dead person on the street with eyes wide open and the top of his head blown off, we would scream and run. So in times like these when soldiers are going through this and just normal people are seeing things like this, it is human nature to turn for someone for help and this is what these people did.

The event that sticks out in my mind when people banded together like this in the past few years was September 11, 2001. That is a day that we all will remember. Like the people who lived during Pearl Harbor, if you asked most people today where they were when the planes struck the Twin Towers they will be able to tell you. I know I was in the 4th grade and we had just come back from lunch when our teachers had a "meeting" and then told us what had happened. I also remember that our librarian had a son that worked somewhere near the towers and she had to leave to see if he was OK. Another example of when people came together in time of trouble would be Flight 93. This was the flight that was took over by terrorists on 9/11 and 40 people most of whom didn't know each other came together and took down the plane so that no more innocent people would be killed. 40 people died on that plane when it crashed in Pennsylvania. These people are true heroes because they sacrificed their lives to try to save other people. they banded together in a time of trouble just like in this book.

All in all I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about World War II and the experiences but doesn't want to read a boring book that has just straight facts. This book will help you learn first hand what it was like to live that time and help you learn more what people went through and how they dealt with it.