Posted on 09/25/2007 7:39:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
How about Spaatz, Nimitz, et al?
Yes, I know you were referring to US citizens. One of North’s shows told about German Nazi sympathizers caught, tried and executed for treason. Makes you wonder just how many Germans were sympathetic to the “old country” that went unsuspected?
I'm proud of American history, and prefer to think of the dark times in our nation's moral quest as the times that made us strong. Our detractors can't speak about our criminal institution of slavery (and both North and South were equally guilty of slavery, I insist) without facing the Civil War -- where Americans murdered one another at a rate that's never been equaled even in WWII. Let anyone spout off about the crime of slavery as if it were our fresh sin while they're standing on the hallowed ground of Gettysburg.
They can't talk about our oppression of the Indian without understanding that Indians are today some of America's staunchest patriots. Invite a modern left wing anarchist or Osama bin Laden to burn our nation's flag on the Navajo reservation and see what happens to them.
They can't point to our internment of American Nisei in WWII without running face-first into the history of the 442nd RCT -- the toughest US Army outfit there ever was -- and the fact they're the most decorated military unit in our history, and God help us, I hope they stay that way for our future soldiers' sake.
Also, they can't point to our nation's treatment of Italians, Irish, Scots-Irish, Scandinavian, Spanish, or Polish immigrants. Everyone had to prove themselves in America. Some got it worse than others, but we're not the nation that tortured those people. We're the nation that matured from what we've done. I hope our troops never see a bloodbath like they experienced ever again.
Other nations have to live in shame of what horrors they've perpetrated on the world. Only our good graces have forgiven the Germans for their horrors, or the Japanese for their rape of China, or China for their mass murder of their own people in building pot metal statues to their ridiculous dictator, or Russia for it's 80 year hiatus from humanity and spreading their poisonous doctrine to all reaches of the planet --- But in America, we resolved our own problems by ourselves, and that's something to be proud of.
So no, let Ken Burns show that stuff. He's not pointing to our open wounds. He's showing us our own hard-earned battle scars, and our enemies and detractors better take note.
nicely said. kudos
As usual, my fingers can’t type as quickly as they should and I leave out an adjective or two. The “initial” immigrant Asians were not allowed citizenship due to the Naturalization Act of 1790. That act was used to target the the Eastern immigrants more than any other. Many other restrictions were in place, also.
You are correct, their children were U.S. citizens since they were born on U.S. soil, and were sent to the camps with their parents.
As far as the Italian and German immigrants not changing their names..you may want to check with some of the people living during that time. It’s a short walk from Schmidt to Smith.
And they were never able to break the code!! Sadly, I think I read that the language is dying.
For reference purposes...here are links to discussions threads
on “The War”:
URL for the discussion thread for tonight’s Part 4 of
Ken Burns’ “The War”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1902654/posts
And for prior discussion threads:
URL for thread on Part 1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1901006/posts?page=1
URL for thread on Part 2 (Monday 9-24-07)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1901629/posts
URL for thread on Part 3 (Tuesday 9-25-07)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1902083/posts?page=1
URLs for PBS websites:
URL to check listing for local PBS stations:
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/broadcast_schedule.htm
PBS website for Ken Burns’ “The War”
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_thewarbrakenburnsfilm_2007-09-23
Summary of Part 4 at PBS website:
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/about_episode_guide_04.htm
“Our hard earned battle scars, and our enemies and detractors better take note.”
Your post is excellent!!! And true.
Of course, I keep in mind this series is on PBS.
But I can’t believe anyone who has even watched a WWII movie from the 1950’s would think that any war, much less this one was bloodless. I don’t defend Burns...but we did win this war.
Maybe the media made it look like an easy war.
Don’t know about Ambrose, what does that mean?
“Don’t know about Ambrose, what does that mean?”
Stephen Ambrose was a PhD historian prominent in his later career for
producing the book “Band of Brothers” and other military histories.
He caught flak from his colleagues because he was pro-US military;
IIRC, he appeared on a TV show on New Year’s Eve leading into 2000
and named “the American soldier” “The Man of The Twentieth Century”.
I was just musing that Burns may have waited to produce “The War”
until after Ambrose was gone to his reward...as Ambrose would probably
have growled “Ken, throttle back on the sociological commentary...
the real victims of WWII were millions of civilians murdered by
Nazis and the Japanese, not to mentions the ones murdered by Uncle
Joe after WWII!”
IIRC, Burns did have Ambrose as commentator when he (Burns) did a
documentary about the Lewis & Clark expedition, based on a book by Ambrose.
Stephen Ambrose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Ambrose
Thanks for the info and the link. Since I live in the dark ages, and Band Of Brothers is typically shown on HBO, I haven’t seen it. I didn’t pick up the connection.
No doubt your “musings” are correct.
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