Cherry Blossom Festival

[tsimmonds]

This morning while standing in line in the terminal at Baltimore Washington International, I noticed that there were dozens of posters, charming in the way that only posters made by area elementary school pupils can be, promoting the upcoming Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. This year's theme is "Celebrating 150 Years of Peace and Friendship between America and Japan". At first I was amused, then it occurred to me that it was possible that the kids who made those posters had never even heard of WWII....strange.

[Mike Scholl]

The truely sad part is, that in this era of PC thinking, you may very well be right.

[mogami]

Hi, Well Matt visted Japan in 1853. 151 years ago so I guess we now consider WWII a mere incident and not worth holding a grudge over.
But I suspect it is just because you don't teach WW2 to 1st and 2nd graders. (We can bust their bubble when they get to be teenagers)

[sven6345789]

Since you have a Homer, there was one Simpson Episode (I believe the one with camp crusty) where the summer starts, the children run out of school, and the teacher appears in the door, saying
Teacher:"Wait, you haven't heard yet how WW2 ended!!!!"
a moment of silence
Teacher:"WE WON!!!"
Children:(rioting on the street):"USA,USA,USA....
[:D]

[ruger1997]

Revisionist history occuring again.

[Damien Thorn]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, Well Matt visted Japan in 1853. 151 years ago so I guess we now consider WWII a mere incident and not worth holding a grudge over.

In the overall history of Japan and the United States, 5 years is a very small period. We tend to over-emphisize those years because it makes for great gaming but the public at large couldn't really care less. If you go to Japan today the only remaining references to the war are the atomic bomb memorial parks. If you ask most American high-schoolers about WW2 you will be extremely lucky if they can even guess correctly what decade it took place in. Some of them can't even get the century right.

[tsimmonds]

...5 years is a very small period...

Five years (four actually) fighting the war, plus twenty years of both countries believing it was inevitable and preparing themselves to fight it.....[;)]

[rogueusmc]

"Those who don't know history is doomed to repeat it"...I bebieve that was Ben Franklin

[LargeSlowTarget]

ORIGINAL: Damien Thorn
If you ask most American high-schoolers about WW2 you will be extremely lucky if they can even guess correctly what decade it took place in. Some of them can't even get the century right.

I've read that many of those kids believe that America's enemies in WWII had been Germany, Japan, and Russia... Cold War propaganda worked! [8|]

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

"Those who don't know history is doomed to repeat it"...I bebieve that was Ben Franklin

"Who ignores history is condemned to relive it" - Georges Santayana.

[tsimmonds]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

"Those who don't know history is doomed to repeat it"...I bebieve that was Ben Franklin

Actually it was George Santayana. Funny how just about anything that makes sense can sound like BF[;)]

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: Damien Thorn
If you ask most American high-schoolers about WW2 you will be extremely lucky if they can even guess correctly what decade it took place in. Some of them can't even get the century right.

Sh1t. There probably aren't seven American high school kids who could identify which decade they currently live in. Maybe three or four participants in these forums could...

[Becket]

Of course, if you live in the area you may have also heard the protests about the new Smithsonian Aviation museum (I'm forgetting the name), namely the display featuring the Enola Gay. The protesters believe that it is horrible, just horrible, that the museum has the Enola Gay on display, but doesn't have a presentation on the horrors of what America did when they dropped the Atom Bomb.

Not one of the protesters has mentioned including anything regarding Japanese atrocities in China (Nanking, vivisection of living Chinese without anesthetic to see the progress of chemical and biological weapons, and other horrors), nor anything regarding Japanese agression, nor anything regarding Japanese treatment of US P.O.W.s (where G.I.s faced a fatality rate several times higher than if captured by the Germans -- Bataan, etc.), nor the assessments that invasion of Japan would likely cost the lives of at least a million US soldiers, and several times that number of Japanese. And, since the Russians are now our best friends, no mention would be made of the need to stop a Soviet invasion of the Japanese islands.

In sum, if you live in this area, you will see that WWII in the Pacific is largely forgotten, except to the extent that the U.S. can be excoriated for something it did during the war. No one would dare suggest that a museum display of planes that carpet bombed German cities be accompanied by a presentation of the horrors doled out to the residents. If someone did say that, their voice would be quickly silenced by Holocaust survivors and their descendents (rightly so!). Not so for the Pacific War, where for whatever reason, there is so much less understanding of the nature of the human tragedy.

(BTW, I frankly would have no problem with adding a wall to the Enola Gay display that showed the horrors of the A-bomb...so long as that wall first put the entire event in context and educated visitors on the points I mention above, so that the viewer can make an educated decision regarding whether Truman made the right decision. Heck, to be complete you can even include the misgivings of Manhattan project scientists regarding the effect of the bomb if it was dropped. I also didn't mean to write anything nearly this long.)

[Brady]

Granted I left school some 15 years ago, I never once in Collage or Public school had any class that was required that even mentioned WW2. Prety sad huh.


Though in 6th Grade my Teacher was amased at my Interest in WW2, I always gave reports and oral speaches on the subject when ever we were suposed to do such things and neaded to pic the material ourselfs...She had her dad come and tell us about his time on Guadacanal..and Show us all a little souvinear he brought home in his duffel bag...a Freaking Japanese LMG! were all WIDE eyed that day:) She also schedualed a field trip to the Oregon Military Museum, and that day I held my first MP 40:)

[Philwd]

My gym teacher in high school was a Marine combat engineer. His unit was scheduled to be in the first wave if we had invaded. Of course he thinks the bomb is the best invention ever.

I will teach my son about the war. My wife hates my military collection but my collection of books will be out for him to read. And he will be highly encouraged[:D]. I have sworn he will not be one of the ignorant masses. He can right now at 5 yrs old pick Guadalcanal off the globe.[:D] Where as he put it ; the "bad enemy planes were".

Quark

[mogami]

My 8 and 9 year old nephews know a lot more about WW2 then their friends. Of course I have them playing SPWAW and they watched me test UV and WITP. They too refer to all Axis countries as "The bad guys"

[tsimmonds]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

My 8 and 9 year old nephews know a lot more about WW2 then their friends. Of course I have them playing SPWAW and they watched me test UV and WITP. They too refer to all Axis countries as "The bad guys"

THe Axis of Bad Guys.....those were the good ol'days, eh?

[CMDRMCTOAST]

My seven year old when I asked him how I can take back lunga recomends that
I should use the ION cannon from his command and conquer game to nuetralize the jap
threat.
We are spawning the future of wargamers as we speak...[:D]
He can't wait to learn Gary Grigsby's new World War Game...

[crsutton]

I was born in 1954, just nine years after the war ended and the Korean conflict was just over. Yet, as a child this was all acient history to me as it should have been. Try asking a 19 year old about the Vietnam war (something that was so important to my generation), and you will usually draw a blank or at best a slew of myth and misinformation. My nephew is showing an interest in WWII history through the games I play. Right now he does not really know or care too much about it, he just likes the games. I think I prefer it that way. There will be time for him to learn later.

[CMDRMCTOAST]

I don't shelter him from the facts he has been playing wargames since he
was a little over two and had his first computor at three, he now reads lots of books from the school library that covers the subjects.
Might be his future calling and I am OK with that...[8D]