http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198 Each year on this &ldquo;Day of Infamy&rdquo; I get out my mother&rsquo;s scrapbook and look through it, filled with the mementos of her time in Hawaii before and immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor during which she was nearly killed by a shell exploding in her kitchen. The photos of young people with all their hopes and dreams, some of them, the men in sailor uniforms, taken in the bars and around various parts of the islands showed the before and after of the attack. A couple of the photos show my mother and a girlfriend in their gas masks standing next to impromptu and hurriedly built bomb shelters, a sharp contrast to the beautiful lives they were enjoying before the attack. Much of the material in mom&rsquo;s scrapbook is vindication of Norman Rockwell&rsquo;s America, the personal items such as love letters and so much more evidencing the hopes and dreams of a beautiful young woman who had every reason to believe life would be beautiful until those bombs began to fall and explode, and so many young people were being killed for no reason any of them knew. In &ldquo;Gone With The Wind,&rdquo; Ashley was incorrect in commenting after the wars were over people forgot why they were fought. In reality, while it is too often true that liars make history what they want it to be, that as per Henry Ford much of history is &ldquo;bunk,&rdquo; and winners not losers write the histories of wars, nevertheless people do remember why they were fought. That is, those who lived to tell the story. But those who live to tell the story are most often shouted down by those coming after the fact with their own agendas of revisionist histories. Yes, many of our leaders did lie to us before, during, and after WWII to serve their own evil purposes. But the reality of it all is found in my mother&rsquo;s scrapbook, the kind of reality that led to Manzinar, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The decisions made by those in power leading to WWII were based for the most part on the same things leading to most wars; egos, greed, corruption, the most base of human traits that put too many leaders with these base traits in power. And these most base of human traits continue as they ever have, continuing to put too many leaders in power that have achieved their imminence through ego, greed, and corruption. These many years later, I never think of &ldquo;Remember Pearl Harbor&rdquo; that I do not also think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, there was a need for Manzinar, there was a need to drop those atomic bombs thereby shortening the war and saving millions of American and Japanese lives by doing so; and only fools would believe Hitler or Tojo would not have done so. That we had the bomb first decided the issue. But the nightmare that continues for me is the thought of those enormous blasts that snuffed out the lives of so many thousands of Japanese including so many babies and children, innocent civilians that had no idea of why their lives were being snuffed out any more than my mother and so many young people knew why those bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor. Those my age recall when we trusted our leadership, some of us are blessed to recall Norman Rockwell&rsquo;s America, and we have every reason to understand why our present leaders are not to be trusted. But we have no more reason to trust the leaders of other nations than our own. The ongoing tragedy of our species is that the majority of decent people would choose to live in peace if only they had leaders of the same mind. However, neither Pearl Harbor nor 9/11 are aberrations, over the course of human history they have proven to be the rule rather than the exception. And as I leaf through mom&rsquo;s scrapbook I realize this won&rsquo;t change until the leaders of nations are held to account for the evil they do. And I also ask myself, will Bush and his enablers, will any of those presently contending for the White House ever be held accountable for the evil they have done? Is this really the best We the People have to look forward to, more betrayal of the hopes and dreams of a beautiful young woman who was my mother? Each year on this &ldquo;Day of Infamy&rdquo; I get out my mother&rsquo;s scrapbook and look through it, filled with the mementos of her time in Hawaii before and immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor during which she was nearly killed by a shell exploding in her kitchen. The photos of young people with all their hopes and dreams, some of them, the men in sailor uniforms, taken in the bars and around various parts of the islands showed the before and after of the attack. A couple of the photos show my mother and a girlfriend in their gas masks standing next to impromptu and hurriedly built bomb shelters, a sharp contrast to the beautiful lives they were enjoying before the attack. Much of the material in mom&rsquo;s scrapbook is vindication of Norman Rockwell&rsquo;s America, the personal items such as love letters and so much more evidencing the hopes and dreams of a beautiful young woman who had every reason to believe life would be beautiful until those bombs began to fall and explode, and so many young people were being killed for no reason any of them knew. In &ldquo;Gone With The Wind,&rdquo; Ashley was incorrect in commenting after the wars were over people forgot why they were fought. In reality, while it is too often true that liars make history what they want it to be, that as per Henry Ford much of history is &ldquo;bunk,&rdquo; and winners not losers write the histories of wars, nevertheless people do remember why they were fought. That is, those who lived to tell the story. But those who live to tell the story are most often shouted down by those coming after the fact with their own agendas of revisionist histories. Yes, many of our leaders did lie to us before, during, and after WWII to serve their own evil purposes. But the reality of it all is found in my mother&rsquo;s scrapbook, the kind of reality that led to Manzinar, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The decisions made by those in power leading to WWII were based for the most part on the same things leading to most wars; egos, greed, corruption, the most base of human traits that put too many leaders with these base traits in power. And these most base of human traits continue as they ever have, continuing to put too many leaders in power that have achieved their imminence through ego, greed, and corruption. These many years later, I never think of &ldquo;Remember Pearl Harbor&rdquo; that I do not also think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, there was a need for Manzinar, there was a need to drop those atomic bombs thereby shortening the war and saving millions of American and Japanese lives by doing so; and only fools would believe Hitler or Tojo would not have done so. That we had the bomb first decided the issue. But the nightmare that continues for me is the thought of those enormous blasts that snuffed out the lives of so many thousands of Japanese including so many babies and children, innocent civilians that had no idea of why their lives were being snuffed out any more than my mother and so many young people knew why those bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor. Those my age recall when we trusted our leadership, some of us are blessed to recall Norman Rockwell&rsquo;s America, and we have every reason to understand why our present leaders are not to be trusted. But we have no more reason to trust the leaders of other nations than our own. The ongoing tragedy of our species is that the majority of decent people would choose to live in peace if only they had leaders of the same mind. However, neither Pearl Harbor nor 9/11 are aberrations, over the course of human history they have proven to be the rule rather than the exception. And as I leaf through mom&rsquo;s scrapbook I realize this won&rsquo;t change until the leaders of nations are held to account for the evil they do. And I also ask myself, will Bush and his enablers, will any of those presently contending for the White House ever be held accountable for the evil they have done? Is this really the best We the People have to look forward to, more betrayal of the hopes and dreams of a beautiful young woman who was my mother? en-us <font size="3">I was beginning to think no one remembered the significance of this day in&nbsp;our history.</font> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170429 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170429 <font size="3">I was beginning to think no one remembered the significance of this day in&nbsp;our history.</font> And that is to say the least very unfortunate. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170431 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170431 And that is to say the least very unfortunate. <p><font size="3">Well said Sam, but we do have a difference of opinion regarding Manzinar and the bombs being dropped, and that 's all I'll say.</font></p> <p><font size="3">Sixty years from now, the generation then will have forgotten 9/11 just as the younger ones of today have no idea what today is the anniversary of.</font></p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170448 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170448 <p><font size="3">Well said Sam, but we do have a difference of opinion regarding Manzinar and the bombs being dropped, and that 's all I'll say.</font></p> <p><font size="3">Sixty years from now, the generation then will have forgotten 9/11 just as the younger ones of today have no idea what today is the anniversary of.</font></p> Yeah it was sad to me too that I didn't even see mention of today.&nbsp; Its war movie day for me.&nbsp; <br /> <br /> I have to agree with the dropping of the atomic bombs though.&nbsp; All evidence pretty much points to the fact that the Japanese would not have surrendered.&nbsp; They would have forced an invasion of the Japanese mainland and an extreme cost to troops.&nbsp; For a good example, look at Iwo Jima.&nbsp; The Japanese had no plans to win that battle.&nbsp; They put all those troops there with the only intention of taking out as many Allies as possible at ANY COST to show them would it would cost them to invade Japan. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170450 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170450 Yeah it was sad to me too that I didn't even see mention of today.&nbsp; Its war movie day for me.&nbsp; <br /> <br /> I have to agree with the dropping of the atomic bombs though.&nbsp; All evidence pretty much points to the fact that the Japanese would not have surrendered.&nbsp; They would have forced an invasion of the Japanese mainland and an extreme cost to troops.&nbsp; For a good example, look at Iwo Jima.&nbsp; The Japanese had no plans to win that battle.&nbsp; They put all those troops there with the only intention of taking out as many Allies as possible at ANY COST to show them would it would cost them to invade Japan. Bush is a Hitler as far as I am concerned, but I agree with Scottso and Sam... the bomb did need to be dropped back then or many more people would have died. Our present day war is quite different....&nbsp; I'm glad I am no longer in the military because if I were, I would NOT follow Bush's orders. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170482 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170482 Bush is a Hitler as far as I am concerned, but I agree with Scottso and Sam... the bomb did need to be dropped back then or many more people would have died. Our present day war is quite different....&nbsp; I'm glad I am no longer in the military because if I were, I would NOT follow Bush's orders. Well Sparks I for one am glad that you are not in the military either with a comment like that. We went through the Clinton years and didn't agree with much of anything he said or did but it was still my job to "follow" his orders. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170495 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170495 Well Sparks I for one am glad that you are not in the military either with a comment like that. We went through the Clinton years and didn't agree with much of anything he said or did but it was still my job to "follow" his orders. How often do you guys get your orders directly from the President anyway? Isn't there a chain of command? ;) http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170510 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170510 How often do you guys get your orders directly from the President anyway? Isn't there a chain of command? ;) Hitler?&nbsp; I'm certainly not a &quot;right winger&quot;, but what exactly is Bush supposed to do?&nbsp; What would you do if YOU were President? http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170514 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170514 Hitler?&nbsp; I'm certainly not a &quot;right winger&quot;, but what exactly is Bush supposed to do?&nbsp; What would you do if YOU were President? <p><font size="3">I for one would have gone after Osama, not invaded a country that had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11. </font></p> <p><font size="3">Did any of you know that the US was occupied by Japanese? I'm not talking about Americans, I'm talking soldiers. A little island 1000 miles off the coast of Alaska, I think it was called Kishka. And that America had the first &quot;kill&quot; prior to Pearl Harbor? I just love the history channel!!!!</font></p> <p><font size="3">And no one will ever convince me that the A-bombs were the right thing to do.</font></p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170562 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170562 <p><font size="3">I for one would have gone after Osama, not invaded a country that had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11. </font></p> <p><font size="3">Did any of you know that the US was occupied by Japanese? I'm not talking about Americans, I'm talking soldiers. A little island 1000 miles off the coast of Alaska, I think it was called Kishka. And that America had the first &quot;kill&quot; prior to Pearl Harbor? I just love the history channel!!!!</font></p> <p><font size="3">And no one will ever convince me that the A-bombs were the right thing to do.</font></p> <p>Yes there is a chain of command and Bush is at the top of that chain.&nbsp; bunee, if I were president I would have never mislead our country into believing Iraq had wmds.&nbsp; I wouldn't have rushed into war with Iraq&nbsp;.&nbsp; I would&nbsp;have gotten my facts straight first.&nbsp; I also would not be trying to get America to go to war with Iran now&nbsp;for no good reason.&nbsp; Bush is a war monger... he is killing people needlessly, he is killing Americans too.&nbsp; I'm with Joty... If I were president I would have stayed in Afghanistan, surged them, and gone after Osama.&nbsp; The top of the chain of command is&nbsp;an incompetent,&nbsp;moron.&nbsp;&nbsp; However, I do think we should stay in Iraq a bit longer now, if only to clean up the mess Bush created.&nbsp; </p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170573 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170573 <p>Yes there is a chain of command and Bush is at the top of that chain.&nbsp; bunee, if I were president I would have never mislead our country into believing Iraq had wmds.&nbsp; I wouldn't have rushed into war with Iraq&nbsp;.&nbsp; I would&nbsp;have gotten my facts straight first.&nbsp; I also would not be trying to get America to go to war with Iran now&nbsp;for no good reason.&nbsp; Bush is a war monger... he is killing people needlessly, he is killing Americans too.&nbsp; I'm with Joty... If I were president I would have stayed in Afghanistan, surged them, and gone after Osama.&nbsp; The top of the chain of command is&nbsp;an incompetent,&nbsp;moron.&nbsp;&nbsp; However, I do think we should stay in Iraq a bit longer now, if only to clean up the mess Bush created.&nbsp; </p> Thank you for this post Sam.It is a shame that as time goes on we tend to forget some of the most important days in our countries history,yet we start celebrating and learning about dates of importance for other countries.I feel that we need to remember these occcassions and perhaps learn to understand them more clearly in an effort to not make future mistakes.Pearl Harbor is one of the most memorable places that I've been,and&nbsp;I try to put our countries actions into perspective given all that occured there,but I cannot concur with what was done to people&nbsp;with Manzinar or in the decimation of all of those innocent people by dropping atomic bombs.I don't believe that those lives were worth less than the lives of our soldiers.I know that many soldiers lives would have been lost in battles had the bombs not been dropped and that is terrible,but that, to me,is what happens in a war.I am appauled that our&nbsp;government made the choices&nbsp;that it did.To me,it ranks right up there with the genocide of the origional inhabitants of this nation&nbsp;as deeply samefull acts. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170590 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170590 Thank you for this post Sam.It is a shame that as time goes on we tend to forget some of the most important days in our countries history,yet we start celebrating and learning about dates of importance for other countries.I feel that we need to remember these occcassions and perhaps learn to understand them more clearly in an effort to not make future mistakes.Pearl Harbor is one of the most memorable places that I've been,and&nbsp;I try to put our countries actions into perspective given all that occured there,but I cannot concur with what was done to people&nbsp;with Manzinar or in the decimation of all of those innocent people by dropping atomic bombs.I don't believe that those lives were worth less than the lives of our soldiers.I know that many soldiers lives would have been lost in battles had the bombs not been dropped and that is terrible,but that, to me,is what happens in a war.I am appauled that our&nbsp;government made the choices&nbsp;that it did.To me,it ranks right up there with the genocide of the origional inhabitants of this nation&nbsp;as deeply samefull acts. The "Rape of Nanking" and other atrocities cannot be undone. No matter what the personal views of history unfortunately for our species we seem no closer to preventing them than at any other time in history. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170593 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170593 The "Rape of Nanking" and other atrocities cannot be undone. No matter what the personal views of history unfortunately for our species we seem no closer to preventing them than at any other time in history. <p>There was a need for Manzanar Sam? I don't think so! I'll have to agree with you on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki though.</p> <p> </p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170653 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170653 <p>There was a need for Manzanar Sam? I don't think so! I'll have to agree with you on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki though.</p> <p> </p> For those of us&nbsp;who lived the events of&nbsp;WWII there was a need for Manzinar. But you had to experience the era here on the West Coast and what it was like. I don't expect those that didn't to understand anymore than I expect those that have not taught school in Watts to understand what those folks are up against. It would truly be a waste of time. &quot;The only good Jap is a dead Jap!&quot; The Japanese had totally demonized&nbsp;themselves with the attack on Pearl Harbor.&nbsp;You had to live it to understand it, and if that terrorist nuclear bomb goes off at LAX you may live to see internment camps. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170673 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170673 For those of us&nbsp;who lived the events of&nbsp;WWII there was a need for Manzinar. But you had to experience the era here on the West Coast and what it was like. I don't expect those that didn't to understand anymore than I expect those that have not taught school in Watts to understand what those folks are up against. It would truly be a waste of time. &quot;The only good Jap is a dead Jap!&quot; The Japanese had totally demonized&nbsp;themselves with the attack on Pearl Harbor.&nbsp;You had to live it to understand it, and if that terrorist nuclear bomb goes off at LAX you may live to see internment camps. <font size="3">So...there was a need for&nbsp;&quot;internment camps&quot; in Germany for for those who experienced the era over there? The only difference was that we didn't gas anybody...</font> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170684 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170684 <font size="3">So...there was a need for&nbsp;&quot;internment camps&quot; in Germany for for those who experienced the era over there? The only difference was that we didn't gas anybody...</font> Internment camps yes but the way are government seems to be going it would probably be filled with Americans that stand up and demand justice! http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170685 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170685 Internment camps yes but the way are government seems to be going it would probably be filled with Americans that stand up and demand justice! If you think that was the only difference Joty&nbsp;you need a lesson in history. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170689 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170689 If you think that was the only difference Joty&nbsp;you need a lesson in history. So you think that it was OK and necessary to round up tens of thousands of US citizens, strip them of their civil rights that are guaranteed under the constitution, and force them to live in plywood shacks for a couple years? I know what you mean by "you had to be there," but it became obvious soon after then end of the war that the internment was based much more on racial prejudice than on military necessity. Even J. Edgar Hoover said that through the thousands of investigations by the FBI into Japanese Americans on the West Coast, there was no evidence of subversion. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170735 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170735 So you think that it was OK and necessary to round up tens of thousands of US citizens, strip them of their civil rights that are guaranteed under the constitution, and force them to live in plywood shacks for a couple years? I know what you mean by "you had to be there," but it became obvious soon after then end of the war that the internment was based much more on racial prejudice than on military necessity. Even J. Edgar Hoover said that through the thousands of investigations by the FBI into Japanese Americans on the West Coast, there was no evidence of subversion. <p><font size="3">Ok, Sam, so I was exaggerating to make a point. The concept and practice was the same. We didn't take it as far as Hitler, but the fact that we did it at all is shameful. And then it was left out of history books. I had no idea my country had camps until I was a junior in high school in 1967 when a history teacher actually taught &quot;outside&quot; the&nbsp;box.</font></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170747 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/samheath/18198/#c_170747 <p><font size="3">Ok, Sam, so I was exaggerating to make a point. The concept and practice was the same. We didn't take it as far as Hitler, but the fact that we did it at all is shameful. And then it was left out of history books. I had no idea my country had camps until I was a junior in high school in 1967 when a history teacher actually taught &quot;outside&quot; the&nbsp;box.</font></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>