The Affects Of PTSD On WWII Pows

He stood there, frozen, shocked, not knowing what to do when he saw a gun pointed at him. Thankfully, the trigger didn’t work, but he had to witness a scarring event, in which he had shot his enemy in the head. It is not surprising that soldiers returning from a stressful war often suffer from a psychological condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. For instance, in the book Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the principle character Perry unmistakably demonstrates how war troopers can be damaged and experience the ill effects of PTSD.

In November of 1955, the United States entered arguably one of the most horrific and violent wars in history. The Vietnam War is documented as having claimed about 58,000 American lives and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. Soldiers and innocent civilians alike were brutally slain and tortured. The atrocities of such a war are near incomprehensible to those who didn’t experience it firsthand. For this reason, Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War veteran, tries to bring to light the true horrors of war in his fiction novel The Things They Carried. The novel focuses on coping with the death and horror of war. It also speaks volumes about the true nature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the never-ending struggle of dealing with it. In the

Prisoner of war camps were common during World War II. However, the book Unbroken displays the true horrors that were in the Japanese prisoner of war camps. This book captures the life of Louis Zamperini and tells the horrendous conditions that he and other prisoners faced during their time in the prisons. The Japanese internment camps did not fulfill the purpose of the camp, the treatment of the prisoners that they deserved; also the prisoners were given meaningless jobs to fulfill.

Throughout my research and interviews for this paper I have learned so much. I never understood the history of PTSD and how it became a part of the DSM V. It scares me a bit that it wasn’t a diagnosis is written off as a norm until the 80’s. When reading about PTSD in The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford, I learned that sometimes you couldn’t trust everything being told to you from someone who just left a war zone. The novel takes place when a veteran returns home after being deployed in Iraq. We spend most of the novel following John around after returning home from combat. The reader starts to believe that John is completely fine and he is living a happy life. The novel takes a turn however, when John is asked to tell a war story. He shares with his friends about a violent act he had to perform while in the war zone. The

Surviving two plane crashes and forty-seven days on a raft helped Louis Zamperini survive being held captive for two years by the Japanese. Louis Zamperini was taken to four camps during World War II, and at each camp he was brutally treated. Zamperini and Phillips, who now weighed about one hundred pounds, were taken to Execution Island after they were "rescued" by the Japanese boat (173). Few captives lived to tell about their experience at Execution Island, which is how the island got its name. Zamperini, and the rest of the captives were treated worse than animals. They were put in cells the size of dog kennels, starved, dehydrated, used as test subjects for experiments in biological and chemical warfare, and beaten on the daily (187).

Someone’s most important traits aren’t usually seen till something brings it out. War causes many to experience traumatic mental, and physical abuse. In these dire moments what stays the same or changes is what truly defines someone. During World War II, Louie Zamperini was originally deployed as a bombardier, only to be captured as a POW to the Japanese. In the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, she explored his journey and struggle for survival, showing that war affects people in different ways.

However many soldiers who came back from the war subsequently faced post traumatic stress disorder resulting in alcoholism and death.

When one is surrounded by traumatizing encounters, one will get used to it. To illustrate in the novel Night, Elie Wiesel and millions of other Jews experiences the same ordeals while they are being forced into concentration camps and went through traumatizing ordeals. There, the prisoners are worked to oblivion, or they are incinerated upon arrival. The captives are eventually killed or liberated, however if they survive, they would be in a at a stage where they act as if dead. Like lifeless people, many prisoners forfeited their emotions over time due to the brutal scenes that that the inmates and Jews are exposed to during the Holocaust.

After World War Two only 2.5 million American soldiers came home to their families after fighting. Out of all of these men 1 in 20 suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Unbroken tells Louis Zamperini’s amazing story of the second World War and how he survived the horrible challenges he was faced with. Before joining the military Louis was a mischievous boy from a small town in California who blossomed into a track star. He competed in the olympics and became famous for breaking several records. When he went off to fight in the war he never imagined his plane would be bombed and he would be forced to live on a small raft floating through the Pacific Ocean for weeks with only two other men and limited resources. On top of that, when he finally reaches land he is thrown into a Japanese prisoner of war

Do you have any family in the military? Maybe a mom, dad, cousin, family member. Maybe you know someone that has a military based family? Every year more than 180,000 people enlist in the armed forces. Being deployed isn’t just hard on military personnel but also their surroundings including their loved ones and more. As one returns from deployment it’s a tough transition. You have to reestablish yourself and reconnect with your family. People come back changed and develop new ways and things think differently.The distance caused by the time away and the soldier 's inability to leave the trauma and mindset of combat behind them can make the return home from combat stressful and difficult for both the soldier and family. That 's why

During the turbulent times of the Vietnam War, thousands of young men entered the warzone and came face-to-face with unimaginable scenes of death, destruction, and turmoil. While some perished in the dense Asian jungles, others returned to American soil and were forced to confront their lingering combat trauma. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried provides distinct instances of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and reveals the psychological trauma felt by soldiers in the Vietnam War.

His experience at the camp had gave him post-traumatic stress disorder, which had a internal toll on himself. He could not sleep well, because he was haunted by his past. This made him want to kill Mutsuhiro for revenge. became an alcoholic and lost most of his money. Some of these conflicts were both internal and external. Post traumatic stress disorder was only internal. He slept terribly and was very afraid a lot of the time. Being an alcoholic was bad externally and internally. He hurt others while intoxicated. He was also damaging his liver. One day, his wife went to a Billy Graham meeting and converted to Christianity. She then convinced Zamperini to become a Christian also. After becoming a Christian, Zamperini quit drinking alcohol and stopped wanting to kill his tormentor. His post-traumatic stress disorder had gotten

The Holocaust was the state sponsored murder of over six million Jews. The Germans targeted multiple different groups due to their racial inferiority, such as the gypsies, the disabled, or homosexuals. The Jews were the Nazi genocides main target, however the other minority groups were treated horribly as well. All of these individuals were treated ruthlessly without mercy, and they had no way out. The prisoners of the camps were forced to complete extremely difficult labor, and on top of it they were horribly mistreated and some were eventually executed. These unbearable conditions left a lasting effect on those who survived. The conditions inside of the camps still haunt those today, and it is displayed through a condition known as Survivor Syndrome. Survivor syndrome includes a series of side effects stemming from the horrible memories of one’s past. This condition affects a multitude of survivors. There have been five

During wars, POW camps (prisoner of war camps) have been prevalent in housing soldiers from the opposing side in a general area where they can be monitored and accounted for, for years. However, many POW camps were conducted off the grid and weren’t registered with the Red Cross so many prisoners were counted as missing or dead in action. These secret camps were often execution camps or interrogation camps to gain information from captured soldiers about unknown devices, planes, and weapons. It was two of these secret camps and luckily one non-secret one that Louis Zamperini found himself in during the biography of his life in the novel Unbroken written by Laura Hillenbrand.

One such mental illness is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. PTSD is already the most common form of mental illness, affecting almost 8% of American adults (PTSD Statistics). PTSD rates are increasing dramatically, particularly among soldiers that see combat, and the use of modern, advanced weaponry (PTSD Statistics). Increases in the rate of occurrence of PTSD in these soldiers can be linked back to this weaponry. Historically, World War I was the first war to utilize the increasingly dangerous methods of warfare such as trench warfare and biological weaponry, which significantly increased the death toll of the war. Accompanying these weapons was the first emphasis on war trauma-related mental illness, with soldiers returning from battle with PTSD, misnomered and misunderstood as ‘shell-shock’. Rates of PTSD climbed steadily after World War II and the Vietnam War as weaponry became more and more advanced, reaching 12% of soldiers who saw direct combat in the Gulf War being diagnosed with PTSD afterwards (cite). Clearly, there is a strong connection between advanced weaponry and mental illness in soldiers, proving that violent weaponry negatively affects those who are forced to encounter