Posted on 08/06/2010 1:23:08 AM PDT by neverdem
“Well, 65 years after the event as we move further and further away from that amazing climactic end of WWII people seem to be more and more ignorant about how the world arrived at that point in 1945. People, kids and the population in general read far less and know less about that terrible time in history.”
I am going through a stack of Life/Look and other magazines found in my inlaws’ garage from that time period. We are not the first to be lied to and manipulated by the media. These were (including various radio outlets) the equivalent of the Internet of those days. Most obvious were stories (at least two) about Stalin and how he was just like your kindly old grandfather.
We don’t realize how good we have it now! During that era FDR was almost universally loved. There were some that pointed out his socialism but even that was not considered as dangerous and shocking as it is today. The Communist Party was discussed openly then. The MSM today will not discuss Communism or Socialism openly because “they is them”! There was even open discussion about what the world would look like after the war, whether it would be run by a “one-world government” or not and whether free market capitalism would survive.
Obama has been compared to FDR and maybe he thinks he can be like FDR but this is a different age.
We have never had the freedom that we have now.
We have never had the access to information we have now.
Yes, the majority of the people are still “sheeple” but there is a huge and growing populace that is pushing back against socialism.
I am encouraged.
The Commies stood a much better chance with FDR, Johnson, or Carter.
My only worry is that the train has left the station and it is too late to stop it.
You still have people, mostly leftists, arguing that Japan was on the verge of surrendering without the use of the bomb. Then why didn’t they surrender after Hiroshima was bombed? Given the bushido attitude of the Japanese military and the fighting to the last man on many islands, I doubt nothing less than either full-scale invasion resulting in the deaths of millions of Japanese and about one hundred thousand Allied deaths or the cataclysm of the atomic bomb could convince them to surrender. We know what happened.
Excellent essay!
“replaced by the image of the erratic malcontent who needed to be watched closely.”
Hey now...
“Using the carnage of Iwo Jima and Okinawa as a yardstick, estimates of our casualties for the invasion of Japan were one million. Probably double or triple that for Japanese. So the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs saved a heckuva lot of lives.”
With the suicidal thought processes of the Japanese, the costs to our Navy would have been incredible. Then our land forces would have faced a war that might have lasted for a decade in Japan.
One of my uncles, a first Cav Sgt, was on his way home to say “good bye” to his family due to the impending invasion of Japan after years of fighting brutal and mentally ill Japanese soldiers on various islands, the Japanese had seized before and after Pearl Harbor.
My Dad had two cousins, who were like brothers to him, were heading home from Europe’s battlefields to say goodbye to their families. Before heading to Japan for the really bad invasion.
These three warrios and their families were very glad the two bombs did their job and stopped the war. That enabled them to live long and full lives. There were millions like them, who got to say good bye to war, thanks to those 2 bombs.
The Japanese at that time were cruel and heartless invaders of China and the Pacific islands. If the bombs had not been dropped millions of Japanese and probably a million of our troops would have perished.
I've have read a number of times that the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was critical to the eventual demise of the U.S.S.R. I can't cite the references.
We have never had the freedom that we have now.
I beg to differ. Can you both be right? Who knows?
I have my doubts about the kids these days. With all of their tattoos, body piercings, weird hairdoos, etc., they strike me as terribly insecure and lacking in self confidence. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that many of these kids can't do anything worthwhile, so the only way to get any attention is to be or look outrageous.
“We have never had the freedom that we have now.”
The point I was trying to make is that we have the opportunity to research more information IF WE WANT TO than any other time in history.
What we do with it determines the future of the USA (the world?)
The Big Lie of Preventive Care
The Renewable Electricity Standard is a Hoax, a Fraud, and a Rip-Off S. Fred Singer
Statement on Elena Kagan’s Confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court (Wayne LaPierre & Chris W. Cox)
Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Thanks for the ping!
THANKS THANKS.
>I have my doubts about the kids these days. With all of their tattoos, body piercings, weird hairdoos, etc., they strike me as terribly insecure and lacking in self confidence.
I’d probably qualify as one of “the kids” as I’m less than 30. However, I do have a bit of a less-common perspective, being home-schooled before college.
It seems to me that “group projects” that academia is so fond of are designed to subsume the individual into “the collective group;” I find such group-work to be very unsatisfying: either all my input is ignored/discarded by the rest of the group OR I’m one of the [few] individuals pulling the group along. That, as a “fact/way of life,” cannot be good for someone’s self-confidence.
Then there’s the ‘authority issue,’ where it seems that the following circular logic applies: those in authority are generally good/uncorrupted because if they were bad/corrupt they would not be in an authority position. {And whoa! to whomever should DARE to claim that the some authorities assume powers that are not within their purview/legitimate-authority: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2560780/posts?page=93#93 }
>Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that many of these kids can’t do anything worthwhile, so the only way to get any attention is to be or look outrageous.
I hate to say it, but I think that many of these ‘kids’ are bombarded with the message that they *can’t* do anything ‘impactful’, that they are powerless and hence incapable of doing something worthwhile. The link above shows a direct and blatant conflict between my State Constitution and state law; whenever I bring it up to someone [legislator/DA/LEO/etc] I am usually ‘blown off’ with excuses/rationalizations about how the state has similar ‘rules’/’laws’ as to the one that I found {and they bug me as well} or how they are for my own safety... nobody seems concerned about the logical-contradiction there, or that if such a contradiction exists it sets up “precedent” [*spit*] for other contradictions.
{My State Constitution also has a section within its Bill of Rights which declares that nobody is to be “denied any civil or political right or privilege on account of his religious opinion or mode of religious worship.” If the state can pass laws which blatantly violate and/or ignore the State Constitution then it surely CAN prohibit someone from passing out politically-aimed literature explaining that abortion *is* murder, or that homosexuality *is* a sin, or any other thing that the state may not agree with.}
Untrue. The cost in lives of socialist/communist governments has been greater, as much as twice as large. And in most cases, those killed have been "noncombatants", whose only crime is not buying the idea that socialism is the cure for all ills of society. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, Mussolini were all socialists.
That was exactly my impression of the Nagasaki museum when I first visited in 1986 and again in 1991. Sometime in the mid-'90s the museum was updated and when it I went again in 1997 there was at least some context, something which was totally missing before.
I didn't make it to Hiroshima until 2008. I saw a little context, but not much.
I saw Japanese comic book style renditions of WWII history taught at the elementary school level and I must admit, it was very disturbing to see the Americans being routed in every comic box image. It made me think of our comic books always showing the Japanese being blown up or and “Zero” falling from the sky with a wing on fire. In their books it was the complete opposite. If this what they are taught, there can be no true reckoning for the Japanese people.
Japan's *dirty bomb* attack on San Francisco, delivered via submarine-launched aircraft, was scheduled for Late August. More info in FReeppost *here*.
Which goes to show you how smart antis are because they've been used twice in war and many many times in testing and what survived is what the opponents think will be lost if they're used. Go figure.
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