Posted on 04/24/2013 2:33:16 PM PDT by NYer
Bob and Sarah Fisher were checking their daughter's homework last week when a social studies assignment caught their attention – it criticized the United States for dropping the atomic bomb during World War Two.
"Both of our grandfathers were in World War Two and this worksheet makes it seem as if they were the bad guys," Fisher told Fox News.
The Fishers have a daughter in eighth grade at Victory Junior High School in New York. They said the anti-American slant in the homework assignment was shocking.
"As if somehow the Japanese were the victims and that the United States had no right to do what they did," Fisher said. "It totally takes away from the sacrifices made by their generation and we won't stand by and not say something about it."
The "Why Did the U.S. Drop the Bomb?" homework assignment was created by EdHelper.com.
"But even now, people are still dying from the effects of the atomic bomb," the worksheet states. "The effects were so awful it is necessary to ask the question, 'Why did the US drop the bomb when the war was nearly over?'"
The students were then given four "possible" reasons why the United States dropped the bomb including the idea that "Americans believed Japan would never surrender."
The worksheet also suggested the U.S. bombed Hiroshima because 'the bomb cost a lot of money to develop and the U.S. wanted to use it. It would have been difficult to justify not using it after such a vast financial investment."
Students were instructed to write an argument against the Hiroshima attack "which you hope will stop the bombing."
Neither the principal at Victor Junior High School nor the superintendent returned numerous calls seeking comment.
One of the reasons the Fishers were so shocked is that they have been relatively pleased with the education their daughter has received at the school.
"We check homework regularly and have always been happy that history has been taught truthfully," Fisher said. "We have never seen homework that has been twisted or put a leftist spin on history before, which is why we were shocked by this one."
They said they've seen reports about liberal bias in public schools and they fear it may be creeping into their community.
"We do think that many public schools lean left – that they take history and put a liberal twist on it," Fisher said. "By not saying anything, it just makes it easier for them to slowly erode our educational system and change the true history of our country."
But the couple was especially proud of their daughter, Amanda.
"The funny thing is that our daughter thought it was wrong before we even said anything to her about it," she said. "She said that she couldn't argue against it because the United States had a right to drop the bomb in retaliation."
The atomic bomb was used to save far more lives than just the American lives. The Japanese had alreqady been executing or murdering huge numbers of Prisoners of war, civilian internees, and civilians on the approach of Allied forces liberating territories captured by the Japanese. The Japanese commander on Wake Island murdered the American civilian construction workers when an Allied task force bombarded the island in what the Japanese mistakenly thought was the opening salvo for an invasion of the island.
The same atrocities were about to be staged on a vastly larger scale throughout Japanese occupied territories as the end of the war approached. Emperor Hirohito found it to be a difficult task to keep his senior military and naval officers from disobeying orders that forbade the killings. Senior members of the Emperor’s royal family had to be dispatched to demand obediance to stop and refrain from going forward with the mass murders and executions. The atomic bombings played a major role in stopping the Japanese massacres of many hundreds of thousands of these people in Japanese hands.
The atomic bombs also saved the lives of millions of the Japanese soldiers, airmen, sailors, and civilians. The executive of a major Japanese entertainment company explained to my uncle, on duty in Occupied Japan, how thankful he was the Americans saved his own life by using the atomic bombs. This man was just graduating from school when he and his fellow students were issued sharpened bamboo sticks and were giventraining on how to use them to attack and kill U.S. Marines at a beachhead.
It should also be remembered how the Japanese had two atomic bomb development programmes underway, one Army and one Navy, for the purpose of using them against the United States. At the end of the war in 1944-1945 the Japanese Navy was deploying the largest submarines ever built, until the advent of nuclear submarines, for the purpose of attacking American targets such as New York City, the Panama Canal, and other targets with Nuclear, Biological, and/or Chemical weapons when possible in addition to conventional weapons. When the NBC weapons were ruled out due to unpreparedness and/or fear of potential American retaliation in kind, the firstmissions were redirected against the U.S. naval fleet at Ulithi until the surrender ended the mission.
The bottomline is that the atomic bombs used against Japan saved far more lives on both sides of the conflict than would have been lost had they not been used at all. The entry of the Soviet Union in the war against japan did not change this situation.
my dad was on a transport ship leaving the European theatre on his way to the pacific when the Japs surrendered. He said it was dead silence when the announcement first came over the PA then pandemonium of joy by the crew.
Exactly...most of those teachers and administrators probably never would have been born had we not dropped Fat Man and Little boy.
the traditional job of marines is to shoot down mutineering sailors
The Old navy purpose for a Marine was to demonstrate just how mean an existence could be even lower than that of an ordinary seaman.
Where are the Liberal's tears on those?
Based on the original article, I personally don’t see a big problem with the the worksheet. Encouraging students to critically examine historical (and current) events should be encouraged. There is more than enough evidence to support the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for most of the reasons other contributors have raised - foremost being the saving of American lives. Given the brutality of the war to that point and the fact that the result was a foregone conclusion, the decision to drop the bombs was the correct one.
Atomic bomb dropping revisionists piss me off to no end...
Years ago, -— in the 80s-—I hosted 2 Japanese high school girls for a weekend. They had been in the country as exchange students for a year, and came to the NYC area for one last weekend before returning home.
As I usually do with guests is to take them on the Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan. The dock for the boat is located next to the WWII carrier The Intrepid. As is the routine, the guide mentions the role of the carrier during the war, and the Japanese kamikaze bombers, as the Circle Line boat passes by the carrier.
I told the girls to expect to hear what happened to The Intrepid, and it was just a fact of history. One of the girls said “Oh don’t worry about it. We’ve already forgiven you”! I was so astounded that I was speechless. Evidently that is what they were taught in school in Japan.
I had many businessmen gleefully explain to me how amazing it was for them to do to us economically what they couldn't do militarily. More than few times I had some drunk interrupt a dinner to curse me out (the American) for killing some relative of theirs at Nagasaki, Hiroshima or Tokyo. I enjoyed my time there, but was happy to leave.
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