Changes

|summary=The full story of the people in images of WWII that Americans will recognise, if nobody else. Many are definitely intriguing, and this book provides many inspiring mini-biographies.

As anybody could tell, a still photograph is only part of the truth, if that. There is a beforehand we don't see, and an after we can only fantasise about unless we know otherwise. Take the famous image of wartime grunts pushing the flag pole upright – an icon of the War in the Pacific for the US soldiers, and the films made about Iwo Jima since. But other images of the war have been just as long-lasting, and the people in the photos don't always have movies made of their full story arc. This book is a collection of the images, and a corrective to that narrative lack, giving much more of a full biography with which to pay tribute.

But let the title stand corrected. This is seeing the ''American'' war. Everything seems to come from one of three sources – the [[World War Two: Against the Rising Sun (Campfire Graphic Novels) by Jason Quinn and Naresh Kumar|Pacific war]], the Battle of the Bulge or random details of what went on ''as millions of men went to war between 1941 and 1945''. When the 'Memphis Belle' bomber turns up it's with an image of her and mention of the wartime documentary about her, not the 1990 movie, which left me with the impression that was dismissed for being too British. It took me ages until I saw an image I recognised – sure, I had heard of Rosie the Riveter, but didn't know what she looked like, whether you mean the bullish worker with ''Mein Kampf'' squashed under her factory footwear, or the very different-looking real -world model for her.

Still, just because I don't recognise it, doesn't mean it isn't well worth learning about. There are some sterling images here. The bomber's sight revealing his craft's sister ship breaking up, one wing spiralling away from the fuselage. Another plane, with a huge gash almost separating the tail from the rest due to a dogfight collision. Another plane with a man peeping out, above the name of his mother, as he sets off to drop a nuclear bomb (well, I would just have to get the ''Enola Gay'' in somewhere). Here is a man bailing out of his plane, having thought he had successfully returned to his aircraft carrier, before it became a ball of flame.

[[Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany by Richard Lucas]] proves there are many stories from the War that can still fascinate with their freshness. You might also enjoy [[When the War is Over by Barbara Fox]].