Unknown Valor (MacCullum) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for UNKNOWN VALOR … then take off on your own:

1. Most of what most of us know about World War II centers on the European theater of operations, especially D-Day. How familiar were you, before reading Unknown Valor, with the brutal battles fought in the Pacific? Why is our understanding, even historical interest, centered so heavily on Europe as opposed to the Pacific?

2. What did you find most surprising about Martha MacCallum's account? What was most heart- or gut-wrenching about the island battles?

3. Discuss some of the harrowing examples of heroism on the battlefield. Is it possible for you to imagine yourself on any one of the beaches or jungles? Had you lived through it, how do you think you might have fared?

4. How does Martha MacCullum's own family history color her telling, and your reading, of Unknown Valor?

5. Which of the letters and personal recollections did you find most moving or most memorable?

6. Do you have a personal connection with the Pacific war—anyone in your family, or a friend of your family, who served? Have those marines or their family members ever opened up to you about their experiences? What about the parents, siblings, and spouses left back home—have any shared their recollections, their worries and fears about the dangers faced by the men they loived?

7. To gain an eye-opening, visual sense of the Pacific war, consider spending part of your meeting watching the Japanese episodes in Ken Burns's War, his 2007 series on World War II.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)