Sept. 2 is the 80th anniversary of the official end to World War II, weeks after fighting ended. It's the day when Japanese envoys formally signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
And on this important anniversary, we wanted to talk about how this war completely changed the world order, transforming the U.S. to the leader of the free world. We'll discuss Ohio's role in the fight against fascism, and how locals are helping to preserve these experiences.
Our collective memories of this war are fading, as each year, fewer and fewer people are alive to tell the stories of the men and women involved.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, only about 45,000 of the 16 million Americans who served are still alive, and most are in their 90s or older.
We will begin Tuesday’s “Sound of Ideas” looking back on this milestone anniversary and how the echoes of World War II and the world order it created continue to influence policy and culture today.
Later, we will discuss post-traumatic stress syndrome or PTSD and its impacts on the brain and body. We will touch on its origins when it was first characterized as “shell shock” as a description for World War I veterans. Later, the term evolved to "combat fatigue" due to its prevalence in returning war veterans.
We'll look at treatment options, including therapy approaches like cognitive processing and prolonged exposure, alongside medications and emerging interventions. We'll also discuss how our understanding of PTSD has grown over the decades to the trauma-informed care model that is followed today.
Guests:
-Eric Rivet, Chief Curator, Western Reserve Historical Society
-Paul Farace, President, U.S.S. Cod Submarine Memorial
-Betsy Bashore, Chief Executive Officer & Vendor Coordinator, D-Day Ohio
