In his 14-hour World War II film, “The War,” Burns completely ignored contributions of Hispanic veterans, who have won more Medals of Honor than any other ethnic group in proportion to their numbers involved. When outraged Hispanic groups asked private donors Anheuser-Busch and General Motors Corp. to end their sponsorship of the film, Burns insisted that re-editing the film was out of the question, with PBS defending him in the name of artistic freedom. Eventually some mention of Hispanic soldiers was added.
Author and journalist Raoul Lowery Contreras points out that Burns also ignored Hispanics in his special PBS series, “The Civil War,” although two of the very first Civil War Medal of Honor recipients were Hispanic. He similarly ignored Hispanics in “The Roosevelts,” even though Teddy Roosevelt’s favorite company commander, Maximiliano Luna, led the charge of Company A up San Juan Hill.
https://www.aim.org/special-report/ken-burns-student-of-history-or-left-wing-gasbag/
Yeah— he ignored the very many Spanish heritage brave men who knew how to fight and volunteered as a way to citizenship. Incredible true stories, never discussed. The Marine Corps knows, of course. Burns has his own little bigotry on display, when he could have “dug a little deeper” to show how this was ALL Americans involved. Navy submarine veterans (those few still alive from WWII) will tell of the incredible bravery of the Filipino people, who worked closely with our UDT (SEAL predecessors) in aiding Australian and other nationality coastwatchers being inserted on enemy held islands— to radio in ship and troop movements.
My father had 2 good friends... Aussies, captured and beheaded by Japanese. He had a special affection for the Filipinos who saved his life several times— and appalled at the bigotry exhibited by REMFs who knew nothing of combat besides their own little worlds.
Do wish that Hanks in “The Pacific” had a longer series— to delve into more of the reality of the Pacific theater, and its definite Non-Western/Non-European reality of warfare— jungle. The British ought to do their own “The Pacific” for they indeed experienced the “peculiar” asian approach to combat and many other horrors. The Brits, especially agreed to the use of atomic weapons— because they knew the fanaticism of the bushido driven leadership.