Characteristics Of The Greatest Generation

1) Common characteristics of “The Greatest Generation” that Brokaw mentioned were a sense of personal responsibility and a commitment to honesty. Among them, personal responsibility was the defining characteristic of the WWII generation. It is like endeavoring to get what a person wants or has to do, preserving what the person gets, and overcoming hardships if there’s any in the process. I think current generation has less personal responsibility than the WWII generation. People tend to depend on their parents, other family members, or guardians, and easily give up; increasing suicide rate is an extreme example for giving up a life. 2) Wesley Ko was a Chinese-American whose father immigrated into the states as a missionary. He lived

The reality of a Chinese immigrant’ life was not optimistic although many Asians came across the Pacific Ocean longing for the American dream. Like his father, Wesley wanted to go to college, but had to compromise with reality. Thus, he started to work in a painting company. At that time, Chinese-Americans usually worked on railroad industry, or opened small family business such as hand laundries. While the World War II, they played a big role as part of American citizen. They served in the American military against the Japanese, and funded the war. For instance, 22% of all Chinese men in America were in the U.S. Army. During the World War II, Wesley Ko also participated in many heavy combats as a leader, after experiencing apprehensive period as an Oriental. He was in six campaigns for two and a half years such as the Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle for Cologne, etc. Of

At the age of six months, James Dowling was informally adopted by the Conklins with his two brothers, because his father could not take care of him and his siblings after his mother died. During the Depression, the Conkilns was financially deprived, but did not feel deprived because other families were in the similar situation. His hometown was not far from airplane plants, and the sky over there was filled with airplanes. So he got interested in aviation industry, and signed up for the U.S. Army Air Corps when drafted. In September 1944, while conducting a bombing attack action, his aircraft crashed, and he got caught by German troops. With strafing attacks from American troops that did not know the train was transporting Americans as well as Germans, he was sent to a German POW camp, and spent eight months there. When his family and fiancé, Dorothy, in his hometown heard that he was missing in action, they did not lose their hope. Dowling tried to send messages to Dorothy that he was alive and fine several times, and he finally came back to home. He quitted serving in the military two year later, when Dorothy was pregnant, and started a seafood trucking business. His work started in late afternoon, and ended at 9 A.M. in the next morning. He organized kids’ baseball team, and it grew to an official Little League with 600 boys. Dowling also