Tom Brokaw’s book "The Greatest Generation" (Random House, 2004) details the lives of “men and women who came of age during the Great Depression and (World War II … and who) were united by common values — duty, honor, economy, courage, service, love of family and country, and, above all, responsibility for oneself.”
Brokaw wrote, “When their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love and the … workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of (Western Europe and the Pacific Islands). … They answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, … in the hands of maniacs. They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world.”
When they returned home, they simply reintegrated, “married in record numbers and gave birth to another distinctive generation,” Brokaw wrote. They attended university on the GI Bill. “They gave the world new science, literature, art, industry, and economic strength unparalleled in the long curve of history.”
While our focus when speaking about war is often on the sacrifice — frequently the ultimate sacrifice — of men, the role of women must also be weighed in the balance. World War II was the second time in history when nations engaged in total war — a war that harnessed all aspects of society, both on the battlefront and the homefront, to successfully prosecute the war. In WWII, women excelled in limited roles on the battlefront, but where their critical, overwhelming efforts made the difference was on the homefront. They took up the slack, filled private- and public-sector jobs, sacrificed and conserved, supported the troops, and carried on as wives and mothers: They held two full-time jobs and still did much more.
And as heart-wrenching as it was to receive a telegram informing them a father, son or loved one had died, they were left to regroup while mourning, rebuild their and others’ lives, manage single-parent households while working in and outside the home, and face the horrors and deprivations of war long after it ended.
Women were vital to the Allied victory in WWII.
The values embraced by “The Greatest Generation” were taught in their homes by mothers who were the day-to-day, hands-on nurturers. Through my research, I've found that most were God-fearing Christians or were imbued with Christian beliefs in a national community built on Judeo-Christian ethics. Parents did not pander to their children. Mothers taught their children to work and to love something greater than themselves — their nation and the freedoms it provided. They taught their children about God and duty.
There have been many “great generations” in history. There will yet be great generations.
Another exemplary “greatest generation” existed around 65 B.C. in the Americas, when two societies, the Lamanites and the Nephites, were at war. In that war, the death toll was so enormous the Nephites enlisted their “stripling sons” to fight.
These young men were the product of righteous parenting. Their mothers were exceptional. Consider these events, as shared in the Book of Mormon in Alma 27-30, 35, 43 and 53.
• Before converting to Christ’s gospel, these women were Lamanites, who largely didn't believe in Jesus Christ.
• Their conversion entailed making eternal covenants with God that they valued “even above life itself.”
• Their faithful steadfastness in Christ required enormous personal sacrifice: homes, family, friends, livelihoods, stability.
• Once they converted, their former compatriots hated and attacked them.
• Fearing that in again taking up their weapons they might revert to past wicked ways, they made a covenant to discard them.
• In not defending themselves, many were slaughtered by the Lamanites.
• They and their families became refugees who fled a war-torn nation to resettle in a new land.
• They had the task of nurturing children who had experienced the horrors of war.
• Some were widows, their husbands killed in war, yet they remained valiant in their faith in Christ and taught their children to have faith, be obedient to God and be courageous in righteousness.
These young men’s commander, the revered Nephite leader Helaman, loved them and called them “sons,” explaining, “Never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites” (see Alma 56:45). They assured him, “Father, … we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone” (see Alma 56:46).
Helaman describes the impact of righteous mothers:
"Now (the stripling sons) never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it" (see Alma 56:47-49).
Helaman led these young men into the heat of battle just as the Nephite army was about to fall. As Helaman testified, “They did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them” (see Alma 57:21).
The Nephites won that battle and others.
Miraculously, though all of Helaman’s “sons” were wounded, “to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish” (see Alma 57:25). They were spared while 1,000 veteran soldiers died, and they “justly ascribe(d) it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe — that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power. Now this was the faith of these (young men) … and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually” (see Alma 57:26-27).
Not every son will be spared in the battles ahead. Not all will be as valiant as these “stripling sons.” However, righteous mothers are indispensable, and desperately needed, in our day as they have always been needed in the past. Kudos to all the great and good women — those who are mothers and those with mothers' hearts — in the world today.
Kristine Frederickson writes on topics that affect members of the LDS Church worldwide in her column “LDS World." She teaches part time at BYU. Her views do not necessarily represent those of BYU.