| Subject: Not so fast |
Author:
JeffF
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Date Posted: 06:33:42 07/10/01 Tue
In reply to:
Melody
's message, "I think Canadians know more about US history than US themselves!!" on 20:50:44 07/09/01 Mon
There's a reason Canadians know something about WWII. Canadian troops were an important part of the war effort.
However, a lot of your post is not quite right.
"US retaliation against Pearl Harbor equalled Hiroshima"
False. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was dropped to speed the ending of the war because the Japanese were not going to surrender unconditionally. Remember they fought fanatically and even after the bombing of Tokyo, Japanese fighting was fierce. If the US made a mistake that led to the atom bomb, it was FDR's insistence on unconditional surrender, knowing that Japan would never easily surrender without a guarantee that the emporer could stay in power and that many of the Japanese leaders considered surrender more dishonorable than death.
But in no sense was the bombing revenge for Pearl Harbor. It was Truman's decision that it would save a lot of American lives to bomb Hiroshima(and Nagasaki, which for some reason is often forgotten) and speed the ending of the war. That was the first reason. The second was that the Russians had by that time declared war against Japan and to stop Russia from gaining any control in Japan.
"Jews were not the only persecuted group"
True. Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, Homosexuals, Socialists, later Russians, Slavs were all persecuted by Nazis. The first group persecuted was the retarded. If the world had spoken up against the sterilization and experiments and then genocide against the retarded, what happened to the Jews might have been different(Hard though when the US was also sterilizing retarded people then). Also, if the world had been more willing to take Jews in, history would have been different. In the early years, Hitler was letting Jews leave, but he wasn't finding a lot of countries willing to take them. A little discussed story is the herosim of the little Dominican Republic which took in a lot of Jews in the early years, when other countries wouldn't. The Dominican Republic saved a lot of people who would have died otherwise.
Let's also not forget that Japanese atrocities were also high. The Rape of Nanking in China was one of the most brutal episodes in modern history. We know about Korean teenagers forced by the Japanese into prostititution and we know of Japanese executions and experiments on prisoners.
"But there is no other more despised than Hitler"
Good reason for that. But let's not forget that one man can't do it alone. Nazis were more than one man and some of the puppet governments and leaders of other countries that Hitler took over were also just as bad. Some of the men Hitler was surrounded with(Martin Borman, Heydrich) were even worse than he was.
"God!! Bet his folks were proud"
A miserable childhood. Not close to folks. Beaten.
Not an excuse those. A lot of other people in similar circumstances didn't grow up to be Hitler.
And no surprise of you knew Germans and Austrians who hated Hitler. They had as good reason as anybody.
One problem was a lot of people didn't believe Hitler meant what he said. Mein Kampf spelled out his hate and prejudices. His campaign slogans talked of ridding the country of Jews, but a number of people thought he was just a politician taking extreme positions to get elected who would modify them later. Also, Churchill stood alone in the early years in warning people. No support in Britain or elsewhere for his warnings.
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