session 8

Just remembered:
To the question as to how Americans felt about the use of the Atomic bomb, I think that Morgan did a good job when he said that as the effects of the bomb were more and more known, the number of lives that were saved grew exponentially. The movie Atomic Cafe is great the way it handles that question. There are very short interviews with American people some who believed that we should have used many more bombs... There is also an interview with the pilot of the Enola Gay who says he was just fulfilling the orders of his superiors. I mispoke when I said it was Mac Arthur who had opposed the use of the bomb, it was actually Eisenhower. It the series by Ken Burns there are interviews with other Americans who say that no one will be able to convince them that the use of the bomb was wrong when it saved so many American GIs.

I don't believe Truman ultimately knew what he was doing, nor do I think he had a choice. The atomic bomb was the developing technology of the time. If Truman hadn't used it when he did, someone else was going to use it eventually, and to what end would that have been? If Truman could have looked into the future to today and been able to look back on the ultimate effect of his decision, should he have done anything else? It was that act that propelled the USA into being the number one country in the world for the next 70 years until China took over that title:-). Would any of us two generations removed from that decision, those who truly reeped the benefits of that decision, actually be prepared to deal with the world wide effect of the US not scaring the pants off the rest of the world by making an example of Japan. It ended imperialism. I find the ever increasing number of lives saved based on the ever increasing number of lives lost fascinating, but indirectly, it could be true.

So, yesterday, while teaching 6th graders about the origins of Hinduism, my knew found knowledge of pre, during and post war Japan, totally came in handy. I teach about Ghandi in this part of the curriculum because he is so important to the world. Anyway, I have always talked about how he kicked the British out of India peacefully, but never really understood what they were doing there to begin with. This time, I was able to tell my students all about why the Japanese empire became so big, based on the international policies of the worlds strongest nations during the 1800's and early 1900's. Great Britain was in India for the same reason the US was signing unfair treaties with Japan in the 1850's. And because of that, in the 1940's the US encouraged the USSR to invade Manchuria and Korea (a fact I learned recently). They were attempting to kick out a foreign invader; in this case the Japanese. However, it was done through violence so it inevitably led to the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and especially the Cold War, where US funds helped train Osama bin Laden to fight the USSR through the means of terrorist acts, and now American troops are fighting in in Iraq and Afganistan, because of that. The cycle goes on and on. The difference in India, is that invader was kicked out peacefully, so there was no residual bitterness left to cause another war... as far as I know, but I may need to take another class like this one to say for sure. Anyway, what I am saying is my students were totally into my lecture on Japanese imperialism and Ghandi is cool.

" and now American troops are fighting in in Iraq and Afganistan, because of that. The cycle goes on and on."

I really like how you are connecting the big picture together here.[Edit by="price on May 31, 1:42:58 PM"][/Edit]

"Would any of us two generations removed from that decision, those who truly reeped the benefits of that decision, actually be prepared to deal with the world wide effect of the US not scaring the pants off the rest of the world by making an example of Japan. It ended imperialism."

I must strongly beg to differ- the US is clearly still acting as an imperialist in the world. We have happily toppled democratically elected governments and assassinated leaders around the globe left and right in the last 20 years ostensibly in the name of democracy or at least anti-communism yet it is thinly veiled support of corporations that profit a few who have ties and power within the US government.
I was never even a radical or leftist really and I knew this. It's not really hidden information, you just have to continue "after the jump," into the back pages of the New York Times to find out about this. Look into Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Where did we help the slavery of the sugar plantations recently? and about a dozen others- what do I know- I'm a science nerd! (but I know this!)

Someone else who really knows their stuff please jump in![Edit by="price on May 31, 1:54:28 PM"][/Edit]

Dear Historians,
1. Hindsight 20/20 vision
2. History is written by the winners

What we know about "history" is that it continues to get re-written in light of current events. We have re-written our history by including "Black History" - women in history -- and on and on. I think a most important point is that no one knew the effects of the atom bomb at the time. They had soldiers in Nevada "observing" the testing.

The reason we have this opportunity for this wonderful series is that one individual decided this was important. Our current perspective of the history of East Asia Since the 1800 is unique. Part of what motivated me to attend this class is that I have so little trust of our current journalism. All you have to do is listen to a particular news item on several t.v. stations, read the newspaper and a magazine and realize how little agreement there is for any particular event.

I think part of our job is to teach our kids that there are many points of view and I try to present as many different perspectives as I can. I relate this in terms of voting. It will be their job to sift through many points of view so they can be wise voters. And since their vote counts as much as mine- I want them to make good choices.

The American public has been lied to so many times in the past by our by our government, we should be used to it by now. This is not exclusively the US. Governments world wide do business this way. "The bigger the lie, the more people can be fooled by it". I feel genuinely embarrassed by some of the things I've learned about our past from the government of the nation that I love.

I am also amazed at how forgiving the Japanese people are. About a year ago, I remember reading that survivors of Hiroshima came to Torrance (I think it was Little Company of Mary Hospital) for their follow up visits concerning the long-term effects of their exposure. I thought it was extraordinary that they came to this country for that service.