Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Carnival of Some Very Bad History
A former history professor of mine, Jonathan Dresner, at the Unversity of Hawaii-Hilo blogs at Frog in a Well. He has just posted the sixth edition the Carnival of Bad History. One blogger notes that the 150th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's birthday is fast approaching this July 10. There is also some discussion there on just what Tesla didn't invent.
However, it's not called the Bad History Carnival for nothing. Prof. Dresner links to this blog entry about the idea of:
But, it's this blogger's spin (Update: not the blogger's intention, see below) that interests The Dougout:
Last week I posted an entry about Operation Forager, the invasion of the Marianna Islands. I included a link to the US Marine Commemorative Series. Included in that series is a monograph on the Saipan campaign. This fine publication includes these eyewitness reports from Lieutenant Colonel Chambers:
This was after such events as this:
Lt. Col. Chambers continues:
Despite the above incontrovertible truth, there will always be some who feel the need to "support the troops" by slandering them.
Update, 6/28/06: RC has more good stuff on Tesla.
Update II, Thanks to Mutantfrog for updating their post. This is a touchy subject as some historians have been trying to paint American soldiers in the Pacific Theater as no different that Nazis, not to mention the Enola Gay exhibit. That's not gonna happen.
However, it's not called the Bad History Carnival for nothing. Prof. Dresner links to this blog entry about the idea of:
The Banzai Cliff in Marpi could soon turn into a cemetery for the Japanese war dead, with the governor offering the property to the families of World War II soldiers who lost their lives on Saipan.
But, it's this blogger's spin (Update: not the blogger's intention, see below) that interests The Dougout:
The Banzai Cliff was what hundreds of Japanese civilians jumped from in the aftermath of the battle. They chose to end it all rather than be raped and tortured by the Americans. I remember seeing on the History Channel a mother jump with her child no more than 50 feet from the American soldiers who looked on with a video camera rolling. [Emphasis added]
Last week I posted an entry about Operation Forager, the invasion of the Marianna Islands. I included a link to the US Marine Commemorative Series. Included in that series is a monograph on the Saipan campaign. This fine publication includes these eyewitness reports from Lieutenant Colonel Chambers:
We also picked up several civilian prisoners, including some women and children. The thing that really got to me was watching these boys of mine; they'd take all kinds of risks; they'd go into a cave never knowing whether there would be soldiers in there, to bring out these civilians. The minute they got them out, they began to feed them, give them part of their rations, and offer their cigarettes to the men. It made you feel proud of the boys for doing this.
This was after such events as this:
Using civilian men, women, and children as decoys, the Jap soldiers managed to entice a volunteer patrol forward into the open to collect additional civilian prisoners. A dozen men from A Company were riddled as the ruse succeeded.
Lt. Col. Chambers continues:
During this day as we moved along the cliffs and caves, we uncovered civilians all the time. The Jap soldiers would not surrender, and would not permit the civilians to surrender. I saw with my own eyes women, some carrying children, come out of the caves and start toward our lines. They'd be shot down by their own people. I watched any number of women carrying children come down to the cliffs that dropped to the ocean.
Despite the above incontrovertible truth, there will always be some who feel the need to "support the troops" by slandering them.
Update, 6/28/06: RC has more good stuff on Tesla.
Update II, Thanks to Mutantfrog for updating their post. This is a touchy subject as some historians have been trying to paint American soldiers in the Pacific Theater as no different that Nazis, not to mention the Enola Gay exhibit. That's not gonna happen.
# posted by Grant Jones @ 4:36 PM 
Comments:
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interesting comments on Tesla, i just did a quick little run through of some of the interesting things about his life on my own blog today (namely b/c David Bowie will be playing the supporting-part of Tesla in Christopher Nolan's upcoming film the Prestige.)
You probably would enjoy my post.
Strange Culture: Brief Look at the Life of Nikola Tesla
Let me know what you think.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
You probably would enjoy my post.
Strange Culture: Brief Look at the Life of Nikola Tesla
Let me know what you think.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
It's a cheap smear to imply I'll believe any retarded bullshit because I made the error of saying "video". Forgive the poor choice of words, but I did not mean to say that Americans were actually raping and torturing prisoners, but the Japanese most likely believed that at the time.
Me again. Just want to reiterate it was not my intention to "spin" the facts to make US soldiers sound like rapists. Sorry you took it that way - I should have added "or at least that's what they might have thought."
Grant, thanks for updating this. While the US armed forces in WWII and other wars have not been perfect. They have certainly been far superior in treatment of civilians and POWs to their enemies. There really is no comparison between the US Marines and SS Einsatzgruppen.
There are of course I believe strong similarities between the conduct of the Japanese armed forces and the Nazis. I would also add that the Soviets behaved in a similarly brutal manner. In Manchuria, Korea, Karafuto and the Kuriles Soviet forces did commit horrible atrocities against Japanese civilians. The fate of Japanese civilians and POWs in Soviet custody has not received much attention in English language literature.
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There are of course I believe strong similarities between the conduct of the Japanese armed forces and the Nazis. I would also add that the Soviets behaved in a similarly brutal manner. In Manchuria, Korea, Karafuto and the Kuriles Soviet forces did commit horrible atrocities against Japanese civilians. The fate of Japanese civilians and POWs in Soviet custody has not received much attention in English language literature.
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