22 Photos of What Life Looked Like During World War II

Daniel Bonfiglio Published 04/05/2025 in wow

Depending on who you were, your life experience during World War II varied dramatically. Young men, women, Americans, British, and Japanese Americans all experienced the horrors of the global conflict differently, but all felt the strain.

From soldiers abroad to Americans back home, here are 22 photos of what life looked like during World War II.

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1. Aircraft Worker
Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California, 1942.
2. American Camp
The war effort.
3. Couple in a Garden
Wooded Island, Chicago, Illinois, Oct. 1944.
4. Friend Group
Wearing pants. (How scandalous.)
5. American Troops
Possibly in Italy.
6. Photo by the Water
An early '40s Kodachrome photo.
7. Douglas DC-3
Ready for takeoff for the RAF.
8. Three Women Pose
Queens, New York, 1940s.
9. A London Dockyard
Loading up during the Second World War.
10. Posing on a Beach Dune
Kodachrome in the mid '40s.
11. Crew of a Sherman Tank
South of Vaucelles During the battle of Normandy, June, 1944.
12. Hanging out in Yakima Washington
Lisa Warninger

Sometime in the 1940s.
13. Pearl Harbor Widows
The Assembly and Repairs Department of the Naval Air Base at Corpus Christi, Texas.
14. Cheerleaders in the 1940s
With mixed emotions.
15. British Medical Services
In the hospital.
16. The Tuskegee Airmen
Pilots photo.
17. Eastern Air Lines
Waiting with luggage, an early '40s Kodachrome photo.
18. Carrying an Injured Soldier
A makeshift medical center in an Italian prison.
19. Friends at the Beach
The early the 1940s.
20. Home Made Tents
A British camp.
21. Posing on a Bannister
Kodachrome in the early '40s.
22. Evacuating People of Japanese Ancestry
San Francisco, California, April, 1942.