In Her Blood and Brain: Wartime Trauma, Memory, and Intergenerational Resilience from WWII’s Pacific Front to the Present
Ylaysha Gosiaco
Research across neuroscience, psychology, and cultural studies has transformed our understanding of how trauma is encoded, transmitted, and transformed across generations. For me, this science became personal when I learned about the life of my grandmother, 1st Lieutenant. Dr. Mercedes Cuello Lazaro Musngi—a Filipino American veteran, guerrilla fighter, sharpshooter, combat medic, and survivor of the Pacific Theater during World War II. Her survival and resilience after narrowly escaping forced wartime sexual enslavement, massacres, battlefield trauma, violent occupation, and performing amputations without anesthesia, shaped not only her own life but mine as well. As I studied psychology, I began to see that the stories passed down through families are not merely historical; they become psychological inheritances that influence how we respond to adversity, regulate emotion, and understand resilience.
The neuroscience of traumatic memory offers one lens into how such legacies form. Extreme stress heightens amygdala reactivity, disrupts hippocampal encoding, and alters fear circuitry pathways that govern memory formation and retrieval (McLaughlin et al., 2019). Emerging research on intergenerational trauma suggests that such stress responses may influence descendants through both behavioral pathways such as emotional modeling (Cowan et al., 2016) and family communication (Afifi et al., 2015). Epigenetic studies have identified methylation changes in stress-related genes (Miller et al., 2020), including FKBP5 and NR3C1, among children of trauma survivors (Lehrner & Yehuda, 2016). Although debated and not fully understood, these findings indicate that severe stress (Liu, 2013) may alter how future generations biologically manage fear and recovery (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018).
My grandmother like many war veterans developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the war. For survivors like my grandmother, repeated exposure to life-threatening situations especially during World War II likely shaped these systems. Chronic activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis can shift cortisol regulation in enduring ways (Lehrner & Yehuda, 2016), suggesting that trauma leaves measurable physiological imprints (Van der Kolk, 1994).
Yet biology alone cannot explain how families live with and transform these legacies. Developmental and cross-cultural studies show that trauma outcomes vary widely depending on social and cultural context. Survivors of war, genocide, and colonial violence including populations affected by the Pacific Theater of World War II often experience elevated rates of posttraumatic stress, depression, and somatic symptoms (Bramsen & van der Ploeg, 1999). At the same time, they often draw upon distinctive cultural coping patterns. Research on Filipino and Asian-Pacific communities highlight the roles of family interdependence, communal support, spirituality (Yee et al., 2007), and shared memory in moderating distress (Proietti, 2025).
These cultural practices shape how individuals integrate traumatic memories and how those memories are reframed and transmitted to descendants. Cultural psychology offers insight into why meaning-making and narrative matter in trauma recovery (Hammack, 2008). Autobiographical memory research shows that the stories families tell about hardship significantly influence identity, emotional regulation, and psychological well-being (Fivush, 2011). Rituals, collective remembrance, and faith traditions help communities transform suffering into shared meaning. Kleinman (2006) argues that narratives of moral experience allow individuals to interpret uncertainty, danger, and loss, providing psychological continuity amid disruption.
My grandmother embodied these principles long before I understood the science behind them. After surviving the war, she devoted her life to medical missions as a missionary doctor and humanitarian outreaches until the age of 100. The values she carried—courage, honor, dignity, integrity and a profound faith were not passed down through genes alone, but through her lived spiritual life, daily interactions, close familial relationships, and the stories she shared about standing up to injustice and choosing to forgive and heal others. She healed from her trauma through her faith in God and through mental health education in her later years.
These protective factors echo research on intergenerational resilience, which shows that strengths such as coping strategies, hope, and culturally rooted frameworks for meaning-making (Park, 2008) are transmitted across generations (Masten, 2014). Posttraumatic growth research further suggests that individuals can experience increased purpose, empathy, and connection following adversity, challenging assumptions that trauma is inevitably debilitating (Bonanno, 2004).
Today, in my work through The Mind Warriors Project Kalasag, named after the Filipino word “kalasag”, a wooden shield symbolizing protection and resilience, I see how my grandmother’s story shaped my path. When I teach young people and communities about trauma and healing, I draw from both scientific literature and ancestral memory. This integration reflects a broader truth emerging across fields: trauma is not solely a neurological disruption or psychological burden. It is also a cultural and relational phenomenon, shaped by how families and communities remember, reinterpret, and transmit their pasts. Narratives, whether carried through blood, belief, or the stories we inherit, become frameworks for resilience.
Spirituality, cultural identity, and narrative reconstruction all influence recovery trajectories. Faith can provide a stabilizing frame for understanding suffering (Park, 2008), particularly in collectivist contexts where trauma is shared across family and community (Yee et al, 2007). Traditions, storytelling, and ancestral narratives help weave traumatic experiences into a coherent sense of self and lineage (Fivush, 2011). This is a process central to healing in many cultural traditions around the world (Van der Kolk, 2014, Kleinman, 2006).
Taken together, interdisciplinary research reveals that trauma and resilience travel through both biological systems and the stories we carry. Debates remain particularly around the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance and the applicability of Western trauma frameworks across different cultures. But the convergence of evidence suggests a more nuanced truth: individuals and communities inherit not only wounds, but also profound strengths. My grandmother’s journey, like that of many veterans who fought during World War II’s Pacific and European theatre and wartime survivors, shows that memory is both biological and cultural, both burden and a pathway of hope. Understanding these intersections reveals that trauma is not only a scar of the past, but also a doorway into intergenerational meaning, identity, healing, and a renewed sense of purpose for generations to come.
About the Author
Ylaysha Gosiaco ('28) is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in psychology.
References
The neuroscience of traumatic memory offers one lens into how such legacies form. Extreme stress heightens amygdala reactivity, disrupts hippocampal encoding, and alters fear circuitry pathways that govern memory formation and retrieval (McLaughlin et al., 2019). Emerging research on intergenerational trauma suggests that such stress responses may influence descendants through both behavioral pathways such as emotional modeling (Cowan et al., 2016) and family communication (Afifi et al., 2015). Epigenetic studies have identified methylation changes in stress-related genes (Miller et al., 2020), including FKBP5 and NR3C1, among children of trauma survivors (Lehrner & Yehuda, 2016). Although debated and not fully understood, these findings indicate that severe stress (Liu, 2013) may alter how future generations biologically manage fear and recovery (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018).
My grandmother like many war veterans developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the war. For survivors like my grandmother, repeated exposure to life-threatening situations especially during World War II likely shaped these systems. Chronic activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis can shift cortisol regulation in enduring ways (Lehrner & Yehuda, 2016), suggesting that trauma leaves measurable physiological imprints (Van der Kolk, 1994).
Yet biology alone cannot explain how families live with and transform these legacies. Developmental and cross-cultural studies show that trauma outcomes vary widely depending on social and cultural context. Survivors of war, genocide, and colonial violence including populations affected by the Pacific Theater of World War II often experience elevated rates of posttraumatic stress, depression, and somatic symptoms (Bramsen & van der Ploeg, 1999). At the same time, they often draw upon distinctive cultural coping patterns. Research on Filipino and Asian-Pacific communities highlight the roles of family interdependence, communal support, spirituality (Yee et al., 2007), and shared memory in moderating distress (Proietti, 2025).
These cultural practices shape how individuals integrate traumatic memories and how those memories are reframed and transmitted to descendants. Cultural psychology offers insight into why meaning-making and narrative matter in trauma recovery (Hammack, 2008). Autobiographical memory research shows that the stories families tell about hardship significantly influence identity, emotional regulation, and psychological well-being (Fivush, 2011). Rituals, collective remembrance, and faith traditions help communities transform suffering into shared meaning. Kleinman (2006) argues that narratives of moral experience allow individuals to interpret uncertainty, danger, and loss, providing psychological continuity amid disruption.
My grandmother embodied these principles long before I understood the science behind them. After surviving the war, she devoted her life to medical missions as a missionary doctor and humanitarian outreaches until the age of 100. The values she carried—courage, honor, dignity, integrity and a profound faith were not passed down through genes alone, but through her lived spiritual life, daily interactions, close familial relationships, and the stories she shared about standing up to injustice and choosing to forgive and heal others. She healed from her trauma through her faith in God and through mental health education in her later years.
These protective factors echo research on intergenerational resilience, which shows that strengths such as coping strategies, hope, and culturally rooted frameworks for meaning-making (Park, 2008) are transmitted across generations (Masten, 2014). Posttraumatic growth research further suggests that individuals can experience increased purpose, empathy, and connection following adversity, challenging assumptions that trauma is inevitably debilitating (Bonanno, 2004).
Today, in my work through The Mind Warriors Project Kalasag, named after the Filipino word “kalasag”, a wooden shield symbolizing protection and resilience, I see how my grandmother’s story shaped my path. When I teach young people and communities about trauma and healing, I draw from both scientific literature and ancestral memory. This integration reflects a broader truth emerging across fields: trauma is not solely a neurological disruption or psychological burden. It is also a cultural and relational phenomenon, shaped by how families and communities remember, reinterpret, and transmit their pasts. Narratives, whether carried through blood, belief, or the stories we inherit, become frameworks for resilience.
Spirituality, cultural identity, and narrative reconstruction all influence recovery trajectories. Faith can provide a stabilizing frame for understanding suffering (Park, 2008), particularly in collectivist contexts where trauma is shared across family and community (Yee et al, 2007). Traditions, storytelling, and ancestral narratives help weave traumatic experiences into a coherent sense of self and lineage (Fivush, 2011). This is a process central to healing in many cultural traditions around the world (Van der Kolk, 2014, Kleinman, 2006).
Taken together, interdisciplinary research reveals that trauma and resilience travel through both biological systems and the stories we carry. Debates remain particularly around the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance and the applicability of Western trauma frameworks across different cultures. But the convergence of evidence suggests a more nuanced truth: individuals and communities inherit not only wounds, but also profound strengths. My grandmother’s journey, like that of many veterans who fought during World War II’s Pacific and European theatre and wartime survivors, shows that memory is both biological and cultural, both burden and a pathway of hope. Understanding these intersections reveals that trauma is not only a scar of the past, but also a doorway into intergenerational meaning, identity, healing, and a renewed sense of purpose for generations to come.
About the Author
Ylaysha Gosiaco ('28) is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in psychology.
References
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- Bramsen, Inge, and Henk M. van der Ploeg. "Fifty years later: the long‐term psychological adjustment of ageing World War II survivors." Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 100.5 (1999): 350-358.
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- Van der Kolk, B. A. (1994). The body keeps the score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress. Harvard review of psychiatry, 1(5), 253-265.
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- Yee, B. W., DeBaryshe, B. D., Yuen, S., Kim, S. Y., & McCubbin, H. I. (2007). Asian American and Pacific Islander families: Resiliency and life-span socialization in a cultural context. Handbook of Asian American psychology, 2, 69-86.
- Yehuda, R., Daskalakis, N. P., Lehrner, A., et al. (2016). Holocaust exposure induced intergenerational effects on FKBP5 methylation. Biological Psychiatry, 80(5), 372–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.08.005
- Yehuda, R., & Lehrner, A. (2018). Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: Putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. World Psychiatry, 17(3), 243–257.
https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20568