Be Good: Hatred and Hope in the Letters of Gerald Koster

Authors

Steven M. Landry, Gettysburg CollegeFollow

Class Year

2022

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Spring 2020

Department 1

History

Abstract

To tell an informative story about someone’s life is difficult at the best of times. Gerald “Gerry” Koster’s correspondence during his last year of service in the US Navy towards the end of the Pacific War can thus only paint an incomplete portrait of who he was and what exactly the war meant to him. Nevertheless, there are things that his letters can teach readers, not only about Koster’s role and daily activities in the military, but about his personal character and how that manifested in his interactions with the defeated Japanese and his family. And perhaps, through his personal character, it is possible to discern something larger about the culture of his specific time and place in history.

Comments

Written for HIST 300: Historical Methods.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Landry, Steven M., "Be Good: Hatred and Hope in the Letters of Gerald Koster" (2020). Student Publications. 788.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/788