Dear John, The Wartime Breakup Letter

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writing letters to a spouse or sweetheart deployed overseas was portrayed as a patriotic duty, a means to boost the morale of the fighting man. But what of the letter that broke off an engagement, or announced the intention to file for divorce? During World War II, such letters became known as “Dear Johns,” and the women who sent them were denounced as traitors.

Susan L. Carruthers, Professor in U.S. and International History, has listened to hundreds of hours of oral testimony from veterans to understand the stories men told each other about these breakup notes. Susan and Dan discuss who wrote the “Dear John” letter, wartime relationships and breakdowns from multiple perspectives and the expectations placed on women across miles and years of absence, and the role of constantly changing technologies in both facilitating intimacies and undermining it in wartime.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, buddy. Welcome to Dance Nose History. On my mind at the moment, as I look out at the
0:05.0	endless ice and gray seas of the Antarctic, is what's going on with the old family?
0:10.8	What's going on with the family back home? It's the longest I've ever been away from my
0:13.5	wife and children, and that's making me very sad. It's offset by the knowledge that they're
0:18.3	having a much better time when I'm not in the house, forcing them to go and look at castles
0:21.6	and battlefields all day, and the fact that it's very exciting down here in Antarctica.
0:25.9	But, you know, I've got mixed feelings. What can I say? I'm conflicted. So what better time to talk
0:30.4	to Susan Carruthas? She is a professor in International History at the University of Warwick.
0:35.7	She's been nominated for top history awards, and she's just written a brilliant book called The Deer John.
0:41.2	Deer John was a slang word for a letter arriving during the Second World War, if you're an American,
0:46.8	from your loved one, breaking up with you. And that was something that apparently happened
0:51.3	quite a lot for men and women in uniform, serving far away from home,
0:54.9	for extended periods of time. Susan has been to the archive. She's listened to interviews.
0:59.2	She's read the letters. She has immersed herself in the world of Deer John letters. It's
1:04.2	completely extraordinary. And it's fascinating to watch. We'll bring it right to the present day,
1:08.0	talking about more recent wars when combatants have had the ability to live stream, video call,
1:13.9	their loved ones back home, some of the challenges around that. Fascinating stuff. If you wish to
1:18.6	listen to more podcasts about Dancer's History at But Without the Ants, you can do so. History
1:23.0	hit TV. It's the world's best history channel. It's available literally. All you gotta do is click
1:28.0	on the link in the description of this podcast. You click on there and then you get taken to history
1:32.1	at TV. It's like Netflix, history, videos, podcasts out. You add all sorts of stuff, very small
1:36.5	subscription. You're going to love it available anywhere in the world, except here in the Antarctic.
	...

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