My husband’s grandmother, known as his Obachon, grew up in Japan where she experienced many wars as a child. She was a teenager when World War II began. During this time she didn’t have access to much and had very little food. She had to leave behind many of her possessions. Obachon is 91 years old now and lives in a retirement home. She has dementia and she is constantly hoarding everything she sees, afraid that it will be taken away from her. Her nurses are always finding tons of items packed away under her bed and hidden around her room. They find food, toothbrushes, toilet paper, toothpaste, and much more.  It’s apparent that what she experienced definitely affected her body and soul. Seeing my husband’s grandmother act in this manner and hearing my mother-in-law talk about it, makes me think about all the stressors that children of war encounter. It makes me think of the war in Afghanistan and the many stressors that the children endure each day in those areas. Children there witness death regularly and often see loved ones die. This definitely has psychological effects on a child and such violence could also lead to violent behavior by the children as well. “The average Taliban and Northern Alliance soldiers are a product of the same cycle of violence and social upheaval experienced from early childhood” (2011).

Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta. Children of war: the real casualties of the Afghan conflict. Retrieved on November 25, 2011 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122273/