I was born in 1976 in the Netherlands, so well after the events of both sides of the war. However, they still had noticable effects on my early life. The pacific more than the european.
My dad was born halve a year after the Dutch East-Indies surrendered to the Japanese invasion. Shortly thereafter he and his mother and older brother (and more distant relatives) were put into concentration camps by the Japs ('Tjihapit' Bandung and later prison facility 'Struiswijk' in Batavia/Jakarta). Before that my granddad was already at sea fighting the Japs in the Java Sea, where I understand he got shipwrecked. I don't know which ship he was on, just that it was a dutch navy vessel. I only know he later had to work at the Burma railroad (so must have been taken captive as POW at some point) but managed to escape there eventually. Then enlisted himself in the Chinese Army to fight the Japs there, as he couldn't return to Java yet. And eventually also was assigned with Australian forces until the war was over and he returned to Holland. It's mindblowing considering what this man must have gone through and still survive. My dad, grandmother and his brother where the first to be repatriated to Holland, skin and bones. My granddad was later joined with them again there, skin and bones aswell but held together with metal plates. They returned back to Jakarta not long after, but then had to endure the following years as Indonesia fought for their own independance from the Dutch. Pretty scarry events aswel for a small kid of 5-10 years old.
I am slowly getting the desire to do some research into war-records of what happend to my paternal granddad. Very much a mistery-man to me. I only know him as a man on a photo. And stories from my dad and uncle's are sketchy at best as they were only a kid, atleast in those early days. And grandma didn't want to talk about that time later on because of the pain it caused. Well, granddad too no doubt considering. Unfortuneatly I never got to know the man as he died a year before my parents maried and a couple more before I was born.
On the european side my maternal grandmother lived in Arnhem (as in 'Market Garden') and was a nurse. She never talked about her experiences either. My somewhat younger maternal granddad (they hadn't met yet) was old enough to be put to forced labour in Germany so he went into hiding. As the Netherlands was liberated from Germany and the Indonesian indepence war started he was sent there as enlisted soldier to keep order. I don't remember what he may have told about what he experienced there, but I remember seeing the pain in his eyes when he tried to talk about it. My mother was born after the war so she didn't have any direct experiences from it.
For me this didn't create a desire for me to take history classes or anything (.. yet anyway). There wasn't given much attention to the pacific events during my school years (as far as Dutch East-Indies were concerned) anyway. Mostly the focus was on the european theater, and holocaust events. Ofcourse Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of the A-bomb, maybe Pearl Harbor to proof it had become a 'world war', ... but the rest mostly ignored. I just tried to pay as much attention as I could when those old stories were talked about in my (dad's) family. Asking about those experiences was like walking a minefield. Never sure how they would react. And the last thing a kid wants is to make his parent(s) cry, so better not bring it up anyway. Besides, all my dad had was vague images and erratic feelings he couldn't handle so cropped up inside. (triggered by things like Gulfwar '91/violence on the news, and glorification of Japanese culture like that 'ninja'-hype late 80s) He couldn't explain what he felt even if he wanted to. And I know he did.
So my experience of the war(s) was more like a funny (not so funny!!!) unexplainable tension in the family. Ofwhich I never thought that it had any real effect on me, ... until recent years. Realising much of how I behaved as a child was based on my dad's emotions. And indirectly mom's too. Those were more important than what I felt or needed. So these are the things that run through the back of my mind whenever I watch a war-movie, play a wargame or subsim.
Getting SH1 was I guess my (feeble) way to deal with this herritage. Sinking digital Japs. (seeking revenge, yet abstaining from violence --> no harm done to your karma
) I wish I understood more of the navigation and tracking techniques at that time to really enjoy the 'payback'. All I did was mostly portraiding, never convoys. Pretty much skipped Sh2 and was a late Sh3-er because I didn't have a good pc. And also I felt weird placing myself in German shoes/raincoat. Only last year did I have a good gfx card to play Sh3. Ofcourse, I would rather play Sh4 and 'do it right' this time. But again my pc is not up to specs for that.
I'm sorry if this message sounds more like a therapy session than a discussion on education. I guess I needed to get that of my chest.