I do think that the time period and what the kids were doing were an important part of it. Being at the late stage of the industrial age and early stage of the machine age made them familiar with exactly what the US would need and used to the sacrifices and hard work it would require. I don’t think you could in good faith compare it to modern day meat packing or farm labor though I agree many would like to make them the same.
How did my grandfather bringing in the harvest, bailing hay, maintaining the farm machines translate into skills of storming the beaches in the Pacific, calling in the flamethrower to burn soldiers out, and finally MP work making sure US Marines used the correct sex workers in occupied Japan?
Ocean experience = 0
Having to initiate burning other humans alive experience = 0
Finally, keeping occupier Marines inline and only going to the 'approved' comfort houses (this really made my devout Catholic grandfather who enlisted to 'fight the good fight' sick to see which is ironically why he got stuck in the position) and arresting them when they didn't experience = 0
Maybe world travel, visits to the ocean, mandatory brothel visits, and boating would have helped him do better. Maybe we should send all children on foreign exchange years to seaside towns with brothels, and create mandatory local youth yacht clubs on the off chance they need to be shipped out interact with foreigners versus make them work in factories. About as strong as argument as kids working enabled victory.
This argument would have pissed my grandfather off to no end. Don't justify child labor in their name or off the back of their deeds.
