World War II scholar Tom Hanks appeared on (was it) NBC Wednesday morning. Apparently after a really close reading of the screenplay for "South Pacific," Hanks has determined: "They [the Japanese] wanted to kill us because we were different. We wanted to kill them because they were different." He added that this is not so very different from what's going on today.
Hey, Tom, are you aware that the Japanese, in a sneak attack, just about totally anihilated the USA's entire Pacific fleet? This was just about dawn on December 7, 1941. You never heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor? That's in Hawaii. Hawaii wasn't a state then, but the US military bases there provided an irresistable target. Most of our Pacific fleet was all pretty much lumped into one harbor. The Japanese could wipe them all out in about an hour.
Not to shock you too much.... One often-quoted sailor who saw the whole thing said "it was raining sailors" when the bombs hit the ships. Guys trying to escape, and I imagine some of them -- just pieces of them falling into the sea.
See, Hitler had sort of an alliance with the Japanese. Hitler certainly didn't believe that Asians were half as worthy as Aryans, but he thought he'd let the Japanese conquer Asia and the Pacific while he [Hitler] was getting Europe under control. Then he was going to crush Japan, or at least make it clear to them who was really running things.
Hitler didn't believe America would fight. He saw the USA more as a kind of huge warehouse and factory for its European allies.
Ha-ha!! We sure taught him a thing or two, didn't we? Remember "Saving Private Ryan," Tom? That was supposed to be in Europe during World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we threw in with the Allies to help end the war there before focusing on Japan in the Pacific.
Any of this sound sort of familiar, Tom? You and I both were born after the worst was over, but I've actually spoken to people who lived through it. My uncle was a dive-bomber pilot, shooting down Japanese Kamikaze planes before they could destroy US ships.
My mother and one of my brothers actually met Audie Murphy once. He was a highly-decorated soldier in World War II. He was still a teenager when he joined up. He's buried right across the tour bus turnaround near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetary. I mean, he's really there. It really did happen. He wrote a book about it and even starred in a movie about his exploits during the war. Maybe you missed that one. I don't recall any racism in either the book or the movie, but you know how Americans are, sweeping things under the carpet and all....
And, of course, Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- the atom bomb, that is -- those were just more proof of American racism.
I used to work with a guy named Henry who worked on The Bomb, or the undercarriage to carry it. See, they couldn't make the bomb bay doors on the plane big enough to drop the damn thing, so they had to carry it under the plane. Henry had absolutely no idea what he was engineering, or the purpose of it. He was in Baltimore and not allowed outside the place where he was working. But when he heard the news about Hiroshima, he figured it out.
I also had the opportunity to interview a guy who served on the Indianapolis. Remember "Jaws," Tom? That Steven Spielberg movie? You know Steven Spielberg. Ask him. The Indianapolis was the ship that "delivered the bomb," as Robert Shaw explained to Richard Dreyfus. So they delivered the bomb, under radio silence and all. No one -- not even the Navy -- knew where they were. Then the ship was bombed by the Japanese, and the crew ended up in the water, fodder for a shark feeding frenzy for a couple days.
When I interviewed this guy, I wasn't aware of the history of the Indianapolis. Someone told him to tell me his story. He laid his head on the table and cried like a baby. He didn't have any legs, but I don't know if that was because of the sharks or due to diabetes or something. And he was black.
But this is all about American racism against Asians, right? So I guess we can include blacks in that, right? After all, blacks can hate Asians as much as white people can, right?
Anyway, exactly what do you think was driving Hitler? And the USA stopped him. Why on earth did we do that? Had we been on the other side in Europe -- if we'd supported Hitler -- maybe right now the world would be populated entirely by white people of European descent, and not even a Jew left in the whole bunch. I guess we really blew that one, huh? We could have turned Japan -- and anyone else we don't like -- into marshmallow fluff, but we didn't for some reason.
And you know what else? Hitler had talks with people from the Middle East, too, not just the Japanese. He convinced a few of these leaders to re-name their country "Iran." Know what "Iran" means in English? It means "Aryan." Odd coincidence, huh? Jeez, and they hate Jews, too, and hate Americans because we're friends with Israel. Funny how we American racists and bigots keep ending up on the "wrong side" of the racist-bigot thing, isn't it?
Hey, Tom, no offense, but don't quit your day job.
No comments:
Post a Comment