William Faulkner, a great American writer of the first half of the 20th Century wrote:"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
I got to thinking about this quote as we're coming up to our unit on World War II and all of the awful things that happened during that war. The death toll is staggering. An estimated 62 million people were killed, 37 million civilians and 25 millions soldiers. There were crimes against humanity - the Holocaust visited upon Europe's Jews and other outsiders; 7 million Chinese civilians killed not only by the Japanese but also in a bloody civil war; and Allied soldiers brutally kept in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in Asia.
It has been over 60 years since this war ended, yet we still see reminders of this war in many places that we go.
1. The United Nations Security Council is based upon the winners of the war and hasn't changed to reflect the world as it is today;
2. Japan has little to no armed forces;
3. Germany still pays reparations to the survivors of the Holocaust;
4. A distrust between the Soviet Union and America during the war carried over into a 46 year Cold War which we will continue to pay for until many of us are old and gray;
5. The cloud of Japanese internment camps hangs over America as a gross violation of Japanese-Americans civil liberties;
6. And we all live under the specter of a nuclear blast because of the race for the atom bomb in the 1940s that America won in July 1945 when we detonated one successfully in Trinity, New Mexico. One of the biggest threats to world peace, if not the biggest threats, is the spread of nuclear weapons today. Just look at North Korea and Iran.
So, my questions for you, as we tackle World War 2, are:
1. What should our approach to the war be? Do we look at it just as another American war which expanded our military, economic and political power across the globe? Or was there a greater purpose involved in fighting the war?
2. When do we let go of the legacy of the past? When is enough enough? Or are there some things that should never ever be forgotten? Specifics would be great for this answer.
Article on Japan's apology for its WW2 legacy - http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-08/2005-08-15-voa6.cfm
Casualties stats - http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
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"After a hard day's work diggin' up the sod, we're ready for chow."
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
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6 comments:
I think the past is always important to remember. As some people say, "the past is the key to the future." Because the past relates to the present. As we discussed the War on Terror vs. WW2. I don't think we should dwell on the past, but we should make changes so the past doesn't beocme the future. Specifics would include 9/11 because we dwell but we don't make changes. I think the media has used 9/11 as a money maker. They don't exactly over dramatize it, but they use it a lot. The media I think is at fault. But if wars continue without change. The bad part of the past will come back.
-Josh F.
1. I don't think that this was just a war for fighting, and improvements. Yes although there were many robots that fought just to fight, many soldiers believed in reaching the greater good. They were in a war of good vs. evil, and they sought to save Jews, Russians, Poles, and Gypsies from extinction. Many of the soldier's families still resided in the countries affected, and so they were not only fighting for their country, but they were fighting for their family and friends.
2. WWII will never be forgotten. It affected every person in some way. Whether you lost a family member, a friend, a neighbor, or even you just watched the war's progression- you were affected. People who witness the horrid deaths, or experienced war 1-on-1 lived/live the rest of their lives traumatized. Even though nobody in my family perished in the war, they were affected with memories of living in fright not knowing how they would be attacked next.
My point is that this war was not just a war- it was a mass killing and a dictators attempt to rule the world. This war will NEVER be forgotten, and really shouldn’t be. It is a part of our history...which as Faulkner wrote "is never dead...[or] even past."
Anna S.
Perhaps this is just me, but I've never been one to dismiss war as an option. Call me cynical, call me malevolent, call me war-mongering, I don't care; I just think that sometimes diplomacy doesn't work and you've got to bust some butts to get a point across. That's not to say that I'm someone who believes war should be the first option, I just think that its specter should be allowed to hang with the rest of the possible decisions.
Now, to be honest, I don't know much about World War II. I know about the Nazis, I know about the Jews, I know about the Internment camps, I pretty much know what everyone else knows. However, as for actual causes, I don't know anything. Pearl Harbor is the extent of my knowledge for America's involvement. So I don't know what could've been changed as far as prevention (remember I said these things before you jump down my throat, too). With that said, I feel that the war was justifiable. As far as I know, we didn't get jack crap worth mentioning out of the war. We didn't go in to dominate, conquer, etc., etc. I mean we were isolationists at the time, so we didn't care about Europe. We went in because we got bombed. We were pissed. That's a pretty good reason to get involved. We fought the war because Japan blew us up. If we wanted to blow Japan up in return (which we would still want to do unanimously if that happened today, so don't tell me that fighting them was wrong; the nukes were, true, but we were right to retaliate in some form.) then we'd have to fight everyone else to get to them first. Really, we didn't fight the war to expand our power. The "greater purpose" was covering our butts to prevent the Nazis from taking over Europe. If you're looking for an ulterior motive, it's so we wouldn't have to fight Nazi Europe in 1984.
As for your questions, I have this to respond with: I don't think the war was just something where we expanded our military and such as you say. If we take that approach, then we're going to be hating our own country until the entire world is in a Communist paradise, because when you look at our batting average in terms of fighting wars, we're pretty well in the ranks. Considering our position in the world, that's not going to change anytime soon. Even if America does go hippy, that doesn't mean the rest of the globe will follow suit. I sit and hear calls to action in things like Darfur and no matter what's done, unless America goes in and solves everything, it never seems enough. So I don't think we should view WWII as some kind of egotistical domination, really, I would prefer to learn about the war, not why people think we suck.
For your second question, I think we should never let the past go. We should remember it, think about it and try not to make the same mistakes, but that's not to say I think that we should live our lives in utter fear of goofing up again. Take Hiroshima. Think we learned from that? Heck no. It was a radical act of passion. What other perverse things have we done recently that's been executed with blind emotion? Patriot Act. So obviously we didn't learn from our previous mistake. Sorry, try again.
I know this sound hypocritical to my third paragraph, but it's not. I think we should learn the things that happened in World War II, just without political commentary. I think it should just be the meat and potatoes of history without the gravy of opinion (please don't fail me for saying that).
History is what holds this country together. I think that if we, as Americans, forgot about the events that have happened to our country throughout history then the people wouldn't know how to react to a tragedy. If there was another Saddam or Adolf, the American Government would know what to do with that person. Also, a tragedy like September 11th could be prevented, and will be prevented by being cautious with airport security and pilot background checks. Because we remember these events, America is ready for attacks and dangerous people who can take out an entire race. History means a lot to this country and I do not think that we should ever forget it.
JJ B.
I mean...after reading Night, you get a whole new perspective of WW2. Everyone should read it, from a Jewish boys point of view, its really good. I loved this book. And I did comment this before, but Anna is right. I agree with that WW2 is never going to be forgotten, even if we tried. Night was really really good though!!!!
Personally, I do think that this was just another American war. We could have gotten involved much earlier and helped much more but we didn't. We knew what was going on but we didn't care or didn't WANT to care. I don't think that we should ever forget the past. Legacy is a great word for it. You don't forget a legacy, you remember it, talk about it, and use it as a learning tool. Things like slavery, the Civil War, what we did to the native americans, the Holocaust, both WW's, Vietnam, and the Korean War, just to name a few.
Henry M.
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