See You Next Year! High School Yearbooks from WWII
"Never before in history has the world experienced a state of turmoil and upheaval comparable to that through which we are now passing. The very foundation of Christian Civilization is being threatened. Consequently the need for Divine assistance was never greater."
A small parochial school in Passaic County, New Jersey with a graduating class of fifty-six, St. Joseph’s High School in their 1943 yearbook, The Josephean, unsurprisingly, interprets the ongoing conflict as an armed confrontation with divine implications. Everywhere, in the dedication, prayers and inscriptions by the yearbook staff and the diocese superintendents, WWII is viewed as a battle between good and evil. That said, the ‘Revelations’ revealed by the graduating senior class were not wholly religious in nature; two students listing ‘Sailors’ and ‘Frank Sinatra’ among their weaknesses. To what other conflicts does the Josephean yearbook compare WWII and what were their outcomes?
From the Collection of The National WWII Museum
