In Chapter 2 of "A Separate Peace", what does Gene say made it difficult for them to believe there was a war going on?

From the text:

Bombs in Central Europe were completely unreal to us here, not because we couldn’t imagine it—a thousand newspaper photographs and newsreels had given us a pretty accurate idea of such a sight—but because our place here was too fair for us to accept something like that. We spent that summer in complete selfishness, I’m happy to say.