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.
At least Hollywood has taken it upon themselves to make more films about WWII and inform the current generation, (e.g., Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, etc.).
I visited Hiroshima in 2002 and was shocked to see how the Japanese present that event in thier museum. To sum up, it seems that for some unkown reason on a warm August morning in 1945 a shiny, single B-29 appeared in the sky and dropped this horrible, ihumane weapon on these quiet, tranquil and peace-loving Japanese civilians. The rest is history. What I failed to see in that museum was how we all arrived at that point (1931-1945) and how viscious the Japanese were in their conquest of Asia. This was missing and it scared me to see them collectively deleting this Militarist part of their history. So now they’re all pacifist...
I would be nonplussed too. The Japanese themselves seem to know better, at least now they do. What war did it stop if it never started?
“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.
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.