Wars of Race, Wars of Terror, & the World According to Tom Hanks
by Jack L. Treese, CWO US Army, Retired“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. (more…)
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