World War II – Stick to the facts

August 9, 2006

Today (August 9, 2006) is the 61st anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States. While we in the U.S. commemorate such events with full disclosure of information, sometimes to the discomfort of people who do not want a discussion on the use of such weapons, Japan itself is often reluctant to confront and acknowledge its actions in the war, actions which prompted President Truman to determine atomic bombs were the most humane solution to a quick end of the war.

High schools in Japan are using right-wing history textbooks that tend ot whitewash the role of Japan in World War II. Go see the brief article here, in China’s Peoples Daily On-Line.

Rational discourse and debate on the control of nuclear weapons in order to assure justice and peace depends on our understanding the truth about the use of nuclear weapons. Textbooks which distort the truth, either by omitting facts or selectively endorsing them, tend to keep us away from both justice and peace.

Also see this post, Atomic Anniversaries.

1 Comment | Atomic Bomb, History, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Atomic anniversaries

August 7, 2006

This week marks the 61st anniversaries of the U.S. dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).

This is the only event that occasionally causes me to wish for school in early August. Marking the anniversaries in a U.S. history class could be a useful exercise. Texas’ TEKS require students to know a bit about President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the bomb, and especially his reasoning behind the decision. To get there in an orderly fashion, and to keep kids captivated by this most interesting part of recent history, I think a class needs to lay the background with the end of the war in Europe (especially D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge) with troops hoping to go home to the U.S. and being diverted to the Pacific, the background of the U.S.’s “island-hopping” strategy, especially the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the carnage that was required to take the islands, and the background of the Manhattan Project, from Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt through the secret cities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Trinity Project at White Sands, the training of the bombers at Wells Wendover, Nevada, and the World War I service of Harry Truman himself. It’s a fascinating history that, the Texas tests show and my classroom experience confirms, students know very little about.

As with the misinformation on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which I reported earlier today, this history of atom bombs informs us of policy choices available and necessary in our current dealings with North Korea, Iran, Ukraine and Russia, among other nations.

Japanese foundations sponsor trips to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for U.S. reporters, and there used to be one for high school teachers, too. It’s a history I lived with for a decade trying to get a compensation bill for downwind victims of fallout from our atmospheric nuclear tests in Nevada. I wish more people knew the stories.

5 Comments | Atomic Bomb, Curricula, Harry Truman, History, Nuclear weapons, Science, TAKS, Technology, TEKS, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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