Wars of Race, Wars of Terror, & the World According to Tom Hanks

UPDATE: I have corrected a misstatement of facts in this post. I wrote that the Japanese attacked us …”because they wanted to invade and eventually take over our country.” This is in fact not true. Thank you to those who brought this to my attention. — Jack

“The World According to Tom” is an article that appears in the March 15 issue of “Time.” It is all about Tom Hanks’ interest in American history. It’s not a bad article until Mr. Hanks is quoted in the second to last paragraph.

Referring to World War II he stated:

“From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place. How could they just pick up their lives and get on with the rest of us? Back in World War II we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”

For some background I served as a medic with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, 1967-68. I retired from the Army as a Physician Assistant and my son currently serves in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. This does give me a bit more insight about our military and “how our troops can re-enter society”.

It is not so hard to re-enter society when society is on the side of a war. We have all seen the clips of victory parades after WW II soldiers were welcomed home as heroes. Many soldiers returning from Vietnam were actually spit on and called baby killers. I am sure this had an effect on every soldier who ever served in that war. I am sure that it contributed to the high rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that occurred in our Vietnam Veterans.

Though it has been around for hundreds of years PTSD was added to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980. Certainly this was a result of the war in Vietnam.

When I returned from Vietnam in 1968 I was given all new uniforms and put on a plane at the airport in San Francisco. We had to travel in our dress uniforms then so being inconspicuous was not an option. But the Army chose to fly me late at night and I arrived in Jacksonville, Florida at about 3AM. Maybe they did that so I wouldn’t get spit on or called a baby killer.

I don’t know how much PTSD there is today but I do know it is not an easy diagnosis to make. Certainly the Army’s suicide rate is the worst it has ever been. How much of that is due to public opposition to the war? Yes many soldiers are doing three to five tours with little time in between. This certainly plays a part but so does the “Code Pink” crazies and the likes of Berkley, California nuts that don’t want a recruiting station in their city.

The other statement I take issue with:

“Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance to what’s going on today?”

Now that is a simplistic and ill-informed opinion. I was born in 1945, and I never learned that in school. I did learn that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor without warning, without any provocation from the United States. I know from watching the History Channel that they would rather die than surrender. Their leaders convinced civilians to commit suicide rather than surrender to American forces.

I know we called them “japs” and we had every reason to call them “yellow dogs.” I didn’t learn that they attacked us because our “way of living was different.” And we didn’t want to “Annihilate them because they were different.” We wanted to annihilate them because they threatened our sovereignty, but I don’t think annihilate is the proper word. Americans are not like that, when we won the war we helped them rebuild, if annihilation was in our hearts we would have just let them rot.

“Does this sound familiar?” Alluding to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, again it started with an unprovoked attack and here Mr. Hanks has it right. They did attack us because of our “way of living.”

Today our enemies must be stopped and those who think different have forgotten that history ignored is likely to be repeated. Anti-war folks thought that President Obama was going to end the war. He has not; in fact he is continuing the conflict just like President Bush did. Iraq is winding down and Afghanistan will eventually be won. If all Americans had been behind the war from the beginning our enemy’s resolve would have been defeated. Yes, I blame those anti-war nuts for prolonging the war. And I believe in “Peace through superior firepower.”