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Posted on 08/18/2025 6:24:47 AM PDT by RandFan
Silence on the official history of 1939 to 1945 has led to a flowering of creative interpretations.
When did World War II end? Or, when will World War II end? This may seem a rhetorical question to most, with Aug. 15 marking the 80th anniversary of V-J Day (Victory Over Japan Day).
On that date, Japan supposedly surrendered unconditionally. Few realize, however, that the state of war between the Allies and Japan did not legally end until years later with the Treaty of San Francisco, which was signed in September 1951 and took effect in 1952. That treaty did not include the Soviet Union, which attended but did not sign the agreement. The Soviets and Japan, through a joint declaration in 1956, reestablished diplomatic relations and ended hostilities, but to this date (and with Russia in the place of the Soviet Union) have never signed a peace treaty. Ongoing disputes, such as over the Kuril Islands, remain.
“Unconditional surrender” may have a ring of finality and totality to it, but in Japan it was never so. When Japan assented to the Potsdam Declaration, issued by the United States, United Kingdom, and China in July 1945, the terms called only for the surrender of the armed forces, and for some parts of the country to be occupied. As Richard Overy describes in his new book, Rain of Ruin, the Japanese emperor’s address on Aug. 15, 1945, did not even include the word “surrender.” Two days after V-J Day, when the Japanese were still lobbying to avoid having mainland Japan occupied in its entirety and protesting having to turn over their overseas embassies to the United States, it was clear their interpretation of Potsdam differed from that of the Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
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My interest was in TV, but those movies you listed aren’t even about civilian characters whose character is labeled as a distant Vietnam War veteran. they are war movies.
Archie Bunker was identified as a WWII veteran, a lovable character, Ward Cleaver, Beaver’s dad was a WWII vet, Andy Griffith’s Andy Taylor, was a WWII vet, The Skipper on Gilligan’s island WWII, and in modern shows I have seen lovable sit-com characters who could be Korean War vets such as Frasier’s dad.
They even make comedies of the other wars, McHale’s navy, MASH.
Hippy types can never be confused with deep thinkers.
Aside from how you misuse the word hippie, the Vietnam vets were treated much, much worse by the old writers and TV executives of the late 60s and 1970s, when they were almost always portrayed as mentally unstable and sniper killers.
Did you know that the strongest support for the Vietnam War was from the under 30 age group, an age group that voted 52% for Nixon in 1972?
Regarding peace with the Soviet Union, whatever, that doesnt exist and Russia is not equal to them. It would be like if we had a treaty with East Germany, oh well, that's over by default isn't it?
I don't think I an misusing that tag. They are leftist flower-children.
The ill feelings from that period will probably never be forgotten. They see us as "Lt. Calley", and I see them as "Jane Fonda".
Sure, some vague “they” which you think were hippies who dropped out of society yet became television executives and presidents.
You are confusing democratic party people with hippies.
No, old hippies are a subset of Democratic party people who were the demonstrating leftist rabble rousers of the 1960s. Most of them settled down to become school teachers and other government employees. Some went into media. Their children, not hippies, became the balance of the Democratic party. So did some of our children, those who swallowed the hubris of leftist teachers.
I know this to be true. My younger brother was a flower-child in the 1960s; and, he recently retired from education. He can't talk to me without lapsing into vulgarity and profanity and pulling the race card. His children are just like him.
They hate their conservative counterparts with a passion.
You don’t know it to be true, because your simple and incorrect view of the 60s is shallow.
By the way, what years was your brother getting his degrees?
That is pretty funny! I was born in 1949. When 1970 hit I was 21. I lived through the 1960.
How about you tell me what you think is a correct view of the 1960s.
A couple of years after I got mine.
His was in Education. Mine was Computer Science with Physics and Math minors.
I was kind of hoping you’d get back to me for that 1960s schooling.
You didn’t want to say what years your brother was attending college?
I was commissioned in the Army upon graduating, and they moved me from Infantry to Adjutant General Corps because of my degree. Because of the way Nixon performed force reduction, I was swept out of active duty right after OBC. I think that was actually earmarked before I was commissioned. Branch changes for retention were prohibited for some reason. Eight years in Reserves.
My brother and his first wife were both flower-wearing, tie-dyed people who attended numerous demonstrations. That was winding down in that time frame. He is a heavy pot smoker to this day. He is a mess. But, he started his career as an English teacher and later became the principle of a high school. He retired from a position as an assistant superintendent of schools.
His son is as nasty as he, a chip off the old block.
When are you going to explain the 1960s to me?
Explaining all that is too complex and would take days and you wouldn’t understand anyway, because you didn’t experience them much or learn about them while you were in that era, you said your brother was a flower child, was that before or after college, and why is it a secret when he attended college?
What areas was he living in during his hippie days?
Sorry, I was responding to your post 35, I didn’t scroll down far enough to see that you made another post.
Your brother sounds like he missed the hippie days, or else started college very, very late, anyway, he is just a liberal, he was not a flower child.
I remember those force reduction days, I felt bad for the guys, especially the battlefield promotion guys.
But they ARE Jane Fonda.
We might not be working with the same definition of hippies. You might provide that viewpoint rather than just always dismissing mine. We lived in Kentucky rather than Kalifornica.
I resented that force reduction move.
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