When my daughter was in eighth grade she learned about the holocaust. She asked about Japanese atrocities they told her they weren’t mature enough to learn that and it was being saved until high school. She is now a senior and heard nothing from the school about it at all. I taught her a lot about the Japs from my own studies.
It started at her school when her 8th grade teacher asked the class if they thought it was right that we dropped the atomic bombs on Japan and my daughter said, “Yes. They started the war.” At which point the teacher (of Japanese descent) told her how terrible the bomb was.
“It started at her school when her 8th grade teacher asked the class if they thought it was right that we dropped the atomic bombs on Japan and my daughter said, “Yes. They started the war.” At which point the teacher (of Japanese descent) told her how terrible the bomb was.”
Dejavu! My kid answered close to the same thing to nearly the same question from his Japanese language teacher in the 4th grade. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/857912/posts?page=11#11
My 8th Grade history teacher was also the commander of the school's Navy JROTC program. As you might imagine, he had a *slightly* different take on Japanese hostilities and the value of the atomic bomb.
However, your comments remind me of a Clinton-era episode of Politically Incorrect, back before Bill Mahr was on the premium cable channels. He started with the anti-American condemnation crap (no big surprise there) concerning our use of the atomic bombs in Japan, but was slapped down hard by two guests (now both dead): comedian Richard Jeni and actor Werner Klemperer.
It seems that "Col. Klink" had served in the U.S. Army, in the Pacific - and had seem what the Japanese were capable of first-hand. Mahr, evidently, hadn't done his homework. It was Jeni, though, that first returned fire. "Uh, Bill... didn't the Japs *start* that war? Hmmm?!"
It was meant to be terrible.
You have a brave daughter, and good for you too.
It was meant to be terrible.
You have a brave daughter, and good for you too.
It was meant to be terrible.
You have a brave daughter, and good for you too.
That must have stunned her teacher. good. It might help her to think about what really happened.
Teach your children well...
It is a sad fact that we must undertake teaching history to our children (or in my case grandchildren) because today's schools refuse.