Well, since a few others have weighed in on this topic, I will, too. We had history lessons (up through WW II & Korea as well), from grade school through high school. As I recall, the only part missing from the curriculum were any of the more graphic, intense images. Other than that, it was a fairly accurate historical timeline taught in our school system. (As an adult, I learned/saw a lot more of what was not included, in the student curriculum.)
Yep, we were not shown the gruesomeness, attrocities, etc., in school, but, I was able to find a lot of that on my own in book stores and our local library.
In 7th grade our history teacher (Mr. Wigglesworth - no joke regarding his last name) did a whole 2 weeks on WWII, as he had fought in the war. Learned a lot from that.
Later on in high school back here in Texas, I had a good friend who’s father used to fly missions in an A-7 Corsair off of a carrier during the Vietnam War.
Boy howdy, did he have some stories to tell, plus he had a huge book collection, including many books about WWII. He let me borrow them, as he knew my genuine interest and knew I would take good care of them.
Let’s just say there was no sugarcoating any aspects of WWII in those books.
Another memory from about 12 years ago was a visit to the WWII era aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which has been a floating museum in Corpus Christi Bay since 1992.
The kiddos and DWifey were touring a bit ahead of me through the ship, when I caught up to them in an area that had some really graphic photos of crew remains after a kamikaze attack on the ship.
A bit of an eye-opening shock, but, they really learned a lot from the whole experience, and no nightmares were had...!!!
ETA...
Images of an A-7 Corsair and the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi Bay...!!!