West High School

“Preparing for the new technology. Educating all of the people. Building worldwide brotherhood. Bettering community life.”

These lofty sentiments represent what the 1945 West High School Annual from Rockford, IL describe as the four roadways to peace. Even though the war was not won in the Spring of 1945, students at West High were already well underway making preparations for life after WWII and what they hoped would be a lasting peace. What are some of the challenges that West High School teachers and students felt stood in the way of a peaceful post-war world? Also, did the usual social lives of West High teenagers come to a stop or continue throughout the war? In what year did some teachers think the war against Japan would end?