When the war was happening in the 1940’s women often felt lonely while their husbands or boyfriends were off to the war. Often times these women would adventure away from their men and find new guys who were not serving in the military. Once they would find these other men they would send letters to the guys at war breaking things off. Eventually these letters were referred to as “Dear John” letters. These letters were and still are very sad and difficult for men and women in the military to receive, even people back home get angry over the impersonal letters received by their loved ones.
In the beginning of the 1940’s the amount of letters sent overseas to the military personnel grow abundantly, which meant that the number of breakup letter were also growing just as fast. These letters become so frequent that they were eventually named Dear John letters. The origin of the name is not certain, only that the name john was the most common name of the 1940’s. Some even say that it originated from a soap opera airing at the time named “Dear John” (Paul Par. 3).
Dear John letters are something that every military person dreads receiving, the letter signifies that their loved one back home has moved on and found someone else. The saddest part is that they do not even get the chance to fight for the person, they just get a letter that says it’s over and there really is not anything they can do, especially if they are on deployment. Receiving a Dear John letter would be one of the most devastating things to happen, some of the men even have rings picked out to propose when they get back, but they receive a Dear John letter and it tears their world apart. Even for the families back home to find out that their son or cousin or grandson received such a letter can be devastating for them too because they just want what’s best. The men across seas were so used to everyone getting these letters they started calling them “Dear Johns”, seeming as they all started in the same way (Quinion Par. 3). One of the most famous Dear John letters started plainly as “Dear John” no mushy about it and that is how the majority of these letters would be started (Quinion Par. 3).
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As the times have changed and women serve more in the military the letters name has changed for the gender. Men that are breaking things off with a woman that is in the military the letter is called a Dear Jane (Quinion Par. 1). It works the same way as it did with the men, they receive the dreaded letter in the same way but with the beginning sounding more along the lines of “Dear Jane”. It seems to be more often that men do it to women than the other way around, most of the time women are more willing to wait for men than men are willing to wait on women.
Even today these letters are received by men and women all across the world, these letters have really impacted the military personnel today. It is said to be among the saddest things to come from the 1940’s into todays culture (Paul Par. 4). Families are torn apart from these letters every day because one end of a relationship has just given up. Often times the people sending these Dear John letters are the only thing keeping those in the military going. The only thing that gives them hope and something to look forward to when they come home (Paul Par. 3).
To conclude, Dear John letters have become a major thing in the world of the military. They tear apart families and devastate those overseas who do not have any family to support them in such a tough time. They have to go through tough breakups all by themselves while their loved ones have already moved on to other people.
Works Cited
Quinion, Michael. “Dear John Letter.” World wide words, 13 Dec 2003, http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dea5.htm. Accessed 20 Nov 2016.
Paul. “Dear John: An Unwanted Letter – 1940’s WWII Soldier.” 1940s, 7 May 2012 http://1940s.org/dear-john-an-unwanted-letter-1940s-wwii-soldier. Accessed 20 Nov
2016.
Dear Jane
