Historical Fiction: 4 - World War 2

May. 4, 1939

Good morning. It is a beautiful sunny Saturday today so my mother can't believe I'm not already out with my friends, but I couldn't wait to write in this thing. She told me this journal used to belong to my grandfather during World War One, so I'm going to make an entree about, what my Dad calls, the next big war. 

I've seen many news clippings in the theater lately about what's been going on back in Europe, and many people figure these rising tensions will soon result in open conflict. Not that the conflict in the Pacific wasn't terrible enough between Japan stealing territory from China and the League of Nations stepping in to stop it in 1937, but to me Germany just seems to be more dangerous than Japan.

For one thing, Germany's new supreme dictator Adolf Hitler has changed a lot about the country. Even before he was named dictator in 1933, Hitler had gained political power by exploiting Germany's hate for the Treaty of Versalles and The League of Nations. Both were responsible for Germany's post-war debts of 33 billion dollars, extreme inflation, and crumpled economy and government. Hitler also blamed all of country's economic woes on the Jews as he joined the Nazis political party in 1919. There he gave the Nazis the swastika, and formed his own private army. 

But the most disturbing thing that's happened, is that Hitler didn't stop there when building an army. After he became the dictator he began to secretly rearm Germany and created alliances with Italy, Russia, and Japan. This allowed him to attack and conquer Rhineland. However neither Britain nor France have done anything about it. My Dad tells me they probably think Germany will stop there and not take any more territory, but we don't believe that this is the end. Now that Germany is a fascist state with full government control over the politics, economy, and culture it seems like Hitler will continue to use military force in the future. 

But all of this speculation of a new war has been years in the making. Many parents in my neighborhood have been suspicious of foreign crusades since World War One, making their kids paranoid and constantly reminding me how the war was a mistake. I also personally know three men in my neighborhood who are members of the Veterans of Future Wars, and have demanded for 1,000 dollar bonuses since 1936 thinking they will fight in a future war. My mom is  even a member of the Future Gold Star Mothers, who demand government pensions to visit their son's graves who would die in a future war. This makes me scared of what will happen to my older brother Chris if a war broke out; my mom would probably force him to go for the pensions. 

Talking about my mom, she just said my friends came over to look for me. But I'll keep this book under my bedside so I can write in it again, that is if my mother doesn't find out I stole it from her closet to make an entree. See you tomorrow!