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| AP Photo/ Amy Sancetta |
HOW
J.D SALINGER
SAID GOODBYE
TO WORLD WAR II
Seventy years ago, on September 2, 1945, World War II
came to an official end in a surrender ceremony
between the Allied powers and Japan aboard
the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
The entire world is quietly at peace.
The holy mission has been completed,
declared General Douglas MacArthur,
who presided over the signing
of the surrender documents.
But for many who fought in World War II,
there would be no peace when they returned home.
Few writers understood this phenomenon as well as
J.D. Salinger, himself a veteran, and as we mark
the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II,
it’s a good time to take a close look at Salinger’s
little-known short story about a World War II
homecoming, The Stranger, which also
marks its 70th anniversary this year.
The story appeared in the December 1, 1945,
issue of Collier’s magazine.
Salinger never included it in his 1953 collection,
Nine Stories, and so “The Stranger” remains
largely unread today, even by Salinger diehards.
The passage of time has not dimmed the story’s
prescient depiction of what we now call
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...
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| Descended from the late, lamented NEWSWEEK Magazine |
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Footnote
The other "prescient author" page, regarding World War II, is here.
It is deservedly separated from this page by a mock news report
and a cute New Yorker cartoon.
The next Salinger page is here.
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