Wars of Race, Wars of Terror, & the World According to Tom Hanks
by Jack L. Treese, CWO US Army, RetiredUPDATE: 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.”
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161 Comments
While I agree with most of this post, the last sentence in this phrase is incorrect: I didn’t learn that they attacked us because our “way of living was different”. They did it because they wanted to invade and eventually take over our country.
Invasion/domination of the US was *not* the reason for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
My grandfather was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines in early 1942 and spent the war in a prison camp as slave laborer in a coal mine. I never once heard him slander his Japanese captors who inflicted horrid wounds on him during his captivity. This sort of moral revisionist nonsense from Hanks is disgusting and I intend to boycott any future projects with Hanks name associated with them.
To Jack L. Treese, thank YOU sir for your service to our Great Republic.
I am the son and grandson of World War II combat veterans. Tom Hanks for years and years charmed his way into America's heart even the sycophant media proclaim him the new 'James Stewart' . I'm sure we would hear Mr. Stewart called America a racist Nation for fighting the Japanese. At least the moment Sean Penn became famous he unloaded his stomach vile upon the nation. But Hanks play Mr. Charmer until today when his true colors came out. I guess he has to pay the devil his dues for all the fame and money he has achieved.
I wonder it Tommy boy knows that the Japanese invaded China in the 1920s and raped that country six ways to Sunday. Even today they deny the Rape of Nanking. They went into Korea and killed thousands, there is no love lost between the Koreans and the Japanese.
Then they invaded all the pacific rim the islands and made slaves of all the Philippines and that ' new race by these libtards the 'island pacifiers" After they sneak attacked us on Dec 7 since we are such pricks, did Tommy boy read about the Bataan Death march, that little walk in the sun where the Shinto monks killed over 700 allied troops. That sure wasn't racism, that was retaliation of American Imperialism and for shutting off the oil to the Emperor. How dare we big bad Yankee imperialistic dogs shut off the juice so the living God can gobble up nations…. gobble, gobble, gobble!
How about the fact that not one Australian POW went home after the war, the Japanese beheaded everyone of them or the fact that, toward the end of the war, they would put Allied POWs, into cargo ships and anchor them off Tokyo Bay so US Subs would sink them. Here we are thinking there were supply ships waiting to be unloaded. That was their Shinto faith of brotherly love towards the American Dogs.
I don't know about you guys out there that read this, but I am FED UP with these Hollywood rich assholes who piss on everything we stand for. I'd would match the worst time in America's history to any other country out there from any other time period.
Where else on this ingrate worthless planet can a kid like Hanks, who comes from a divorced home, make his way here and become a multi-millionaire and then turns around and calls America a racist country?
What other damn country out there isn't racist? The democratic party which the entire Hollywood, the media, they commie professors in our Universities all belong too, has a history of nothing but being a racist party. It was the Democrats that maintained slavery and refuse to sigh the Constitution if they outlawed it. It was the Democrats that broke away from the Union to maintain States Rights for the reason of slavery, not to protect any of the other rights, which today we are dealing with. It was the democrats that put in Jim Crow, created the Klan, segregation, it was the Dems that refuse to join the civil rights movement until LBJ figure by passing the Civil Rights Act he would own the 'N" vote forever in this country as he said in 64.
To add insult to injury we have to deal with these leftist malcontents that crawled out of the mud in Woodstock and listen to the ramblings of what… actors? Lets give these losers a lesson in capitalism, STOP GOING TO SEE THEIR FILMS, Don't WATCH THEIR HISTORY CHANNEL films that insult AMERICA.
. STOP FEEDING THESE ANIMALS break them at the box office, hurt them in their bank accounts, shunned them as outcast and lepers as they do us. When they open their pie hole put your foot down their throats. Don't let the bastards breathe, this is OUR COUNTRY, our home that they are taking a dump in and we are paying them to do it.
Now. Tom Hanks as come out of his mansion paid for by a conservative country to insult the greatest generation that saved his worthless ingrate ass from ending up in a death camp brought to you by those non-aggression nations like Japan, Germany and that commie paradise CCCP.
Its time we slap these quisling misprint ingrates down and hold them up for ridicule as they do any conservative. Hanks, Spielberg, Penn, Stone, Mahar, Baldwin and the rest of this worthless mediocre town be held accountable for the vile hate that spews out of their mouths. They feel we can't do anything to them, lets stop feeding these fat bloated pigs that live off our hard earn money.
These bums couldn't walk in the boots of a new recruit at boot camp. Have you no shame Tom Hanks, how dare you call our war in the Pacific a racist war on our side. When we still have dead Marines buried in the sand all over the Pacific in not even unmarked graves. You sir, are the lowest of a human being. damn you and your ideology.
I agree with Mr. Treese and his assessment of Tom Hanks. But I do hate when history is distorted. Mr. Treese mentioned that "They did it because they wanted to invade and eventually take over our country." This is so far from the truth. Japan did not have the capacity to invade the US. The only reason they attacked Pearl Harbor …….and this was a stretch…….was to destroy the naval fleet especially the carriers. It was done in hopes of (1) bring the US back to the conference table or (2) delay the US involvement in the Pacific for at least 6 hopefully longer. This would give the Japanese time to secure raw materials they needed and build a defensive parameter.
In the 1860s the Japanese had a plan called the TANAKA PLAN it was their dream of expansion of the entire Pacific rim. The Japanese of the late 1800s were admires of the British Empire and their Naval power. That is why the Japanese created a huge Navy to deal with both the British and the rise of American sea power. They had all the intentions of taken over China, all the pacific rim, Australia, Hawaii and parts of the USA. The flaw in the TANAKA PLAN was that the Japanese have NO idea just how big the United States was or its industrial might. Even in Dec of 41 Tojo and the Emperor had no clue of the size of this country. Only Yamamoto knew since he travels from both coast and saw our industry and got to know Americans.
This idea of Tojo running things over there is all BS. THe living God the Divine Emperor made all the plans and made them happen. His ancestors created the TANAKA PLAN and he was the one who have the power to pull it off. He just misread the American since of liberty.
I'm beginning to think this is just another example of Hollywood/liberals (but then, I repeat myself) generalizing bad behavior. There may have been ~some~ soldiers who spoke ill of the Japanese (and the Germans, and the Italians), probably as a survival mechanism in light of the things they had to do to save their lives and the lives of the buddies against an enemy who did not consider surrender an option.
I call it the Archie Bunker Syndrome. I never knew anyone who talked or behaved like Archie Bunker, but Hollywood put him out there as some sort of Everyman. I think the same thing is happening here.
I thought it was so we couldn't come to the defense of China since Japan was trying to take them over????
If there was any "racism" at all it would have been by Japan since they initiated the war with us. I'm seriously trying to dumb myself down so I can put myself in Tom's shoes in order to rationalize his opinion, but I'm not getting any where close. He might as well try and convince me that the sky really isn't blue or the sun really isn't hot.
well, i know who's movies i will no longer be supporting with my money. this guy has made millions from all of america, including the military that i guess he now holds in contempt. idiots like tom hanks have no sense of history, and a lack of knowledge of history only leads to repeating history. i know some of the democrat presidents things that he did to japanese were not p.c. according to today's standards, but that is what happened. but we rebuilt japan, and most of europe after the war, not as colonies, but a independant countries. never in the history in the world did a country rebuild it's former enemy, and call the friend afterwards.
Has Mr. Hanks suffered any sort of head trauma recently that the tabloids haven't caught wind of?
Well said Jack. Thank you.
"spit on and called baby killers." Been there.
Thank you for your service, and your insights in this article.
Are there no contemporary movies that show our WWII Veterans as Heroes, without this layer of leftist ilk coating the production & promotion?
I can't help thinking that these people in "the hollywood system" can't just leave it alone, it's like they have to tell us they they're holding their nose while making a military-themed film.
Please just honor the troops and leave it at that, save your shameless personal opinions to your LA/NYC parties.
In college, I had a history teacher who showed me a map of the axis powers plans for the invasion of America. Everything west of the Rocky Mountains had the name "Japan" (Nippon) written on it. Everything east of the Rocky Mountains had the name "German" (Deutsch) written on it. Go figure.
I did learn that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor without warning, without any provocation from the United States.
Well you were taught a lie. Look up the McCollum Memo. Also, Lend Lease ended US neutrality. There was plenty of warning about the attack but FDR was determined to drag the US in to war so he let it happen.
Tom Hanks – your sorry elitist butt just got owned, on live TV and by this gentleman here. I think its time you and your ilk got your butts handed to you, tarred and feathered. You and Cameron and Zinn and all the others have spoken TOO soon, if you thought to capitalize on a completely ignorant generation. You guys are WRONG. Just because your pappies are around to slap you around for the ingrate you are doesnt mean there arent people out her ready to rectify your defecation.
Mr. Treese, I would like to add my sincere thanks to you and your fellow soldiers for your service. I was just a baby when you served, but I will NEVER forget and will ALWAYS hold you and other service men in the highest regard. Thank you.
Read Jack Marino's posts – he has some good info there…
Mr. Treese, I am a post-Vietnam era Navy veteran (1979-1985) and I concur with every word you said. Somehow, Lefties approach every war America has ever been in from the perspective that all war is wrong (no matter how justified) and that America has always been at fault for them. When you hear Jimmy Carter say that we didn't even have to fight the British in the American Revolution, you know just how deep-seated the insanity is.
If the fight against the tyrants who perpetrated the Boston Massacre, quartered soldiers by force in civilian homes and usurped all government functions while taxing us to death, then no war is worth fighting. Which is what Lefties believe. Wake up call. But don't bother Lefties like Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. They're in Rip Van Winkle mode when it comes to the harsh realities of this world. Thank you for this piece and your service.
I wish your son Godspeed. May he come home healthy and safe
Great Article Thank you! Tom Hanks is just another H'Wood whiner that is compelled to use his fame in attempt to influence us with his non-sense. Message to Tom: Keep your Pie Hole shut and act! Your acting is first class, your opinion sucks!
Mr Hanks, having reached an age of maturity and–just being honest here–certain unappealing (at least to a camera) looks and having reached a point in his wealth that he can slow down a bit is now looking for a way to feel relevant.
Apparently bringing up silly, irrational talking points is the way he has chosen to pursue said relevance. Go figure.
Most historians regard that document as a forgery. Even the Chinese determined in 2008 that it was fake.
I think that this country is trying to fight a global war "on the cheap" – expecting soldiers to do multiple tours with just a short interlude with friends/family. Small wonder some are snapping.
On the Japanese if you take a completely objective view – ignoring whether the Japanese militarists would have been right to establish in the Pacific a "Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" – their attack on Pearl Harbor was inevitable. In fact our strategic planners had predicted this since the 1920s. When the Dutch cut off their oil supply from Indonesia and we cut off the scrap metal (although if that was critical or not I can't say) – an attack was not if but when.
Race had nothing to do with it. Although from the Japanese point of view they considered us to be inferior.
Mr. Hanks is a great actor and if the Pacific is anything like Band of Brothers (which is starting out great) – he will have made another classic.
But his interpretation of "the whys" of history is, ugh, simplistic.
How great would it be to be a fly on the wall at dinner with Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Cameron Diaz, Bill Maher and Ted Danson????
It maybe be a fake, but the Japanese implemented most of it. Until the US put an end to their dreams of another British Empire in the Pacific rim.
Hanks has become a buffoon. However, I will say his first installment of "The Pacific" was outstanding. As a former Marine, I love seeing the Marines who came before me being recognized.
He has really opened a can of worms with his remarks over the alst week or two…..I simply, have tried to stop listening to these ELITIST fools…. honestly, they are NOT part of the country that I know… they have there OWN soapbox to stand on and the MEDIA (FOX included) gives them the power tosay whatever they want…..and we the people are DUMB enough to go see his movie and give him MORE money… I am done with any of the lefties, will not see BOO in the movie theaters anymore… HELL, I will just pirate the DVD's…..muahahahahahah
Even the flies wouldn't feed on their c**p.
Not to be a revisionist Tommy, but Ithink the Japaneese attacked us. Don't forget the rape of China and the Batan Death March! Tommy you're a typical Liberwood douche. It's time we stop going to the silly movies for 6 – 9 months and see what happens. Maybe the O will bail you arsesw out! LOL
"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.”
My sentiments as well. My deepest gratitude for those who served and continue to serve our Nation-despise the ungodly noise of defeat- in quiet determination with courage and will to always move towards achieving the victory of Liberty over tyranny.
AMEN
Beautiful Brother Just Beautiful.
yeti,
What these leftist mad dogs animals did to you and every Vietnam Veteran, including Jack Treese the author of this blog, is despicable. Then they took over Hollywood and spit on you again on every film released by this town of worthless losers. We didn't even treat the Confederate troops this bad after the Civil War and they were considered traitors to the Union.
This is why I made my film FORGOTTEN HEROES to honor each of you Vietnam Vets out there against the Tom Hanks and his peer group of ass kissers to Karl Marx. My film isn't a BRIDGE TO FAR so if you are expecting this huge production don't waste your money. You want to see a good little film about men in war, a heartfelt tribute with moments of real power then FORGOTTEN HEROES is the film you need to own and tell your friends about and fellow vets out there. It is the only game in town and the left made sure you would never hear of this film.
http://www.forgottenheroesthemovie.com
I have been pushing this for over 21 years and I am only looking for people that love the troops and feel that the NAM guys got a raw deal from the mad dogs that run everything. FORGOTTEN HEROES is the only NAM film that 'welcomes you home and thanks you for your service' As small as it is, that was my intention and after all these years, it still is no matter who ignores or attacks the film. Those are like flys at a picnic, we still have the picnic in spit of the flys.
Race had alot to do with it, all non-japanese are barbarians. The Death March illustrated with soldiers haveing their heads lopped off as sport, only critisized if a poor slice. The treatment of the Chinese during the occupation was equivilent to germany's rascism towards Jewish people. To dehumanize the enemy is normal to boister the troops moral, but as my dad said, "you know it's all bullshit when see the enemy up close, if you have half a brain".
We couldn't defend ourselves let alone China. FDR has stripped the Pacific fleet to help with convoys to Great Britain. We were not ready for war. In the Pacific or Europe.
Agree… check out my website http://www.forgottenheroesthemovie.com its a small indie film that finally honors the Vietnam Vets.
" I can't help thinking that these people in "the hollywood system" can't just leave it alone, it's like they have to tell us they they're holding their nose while making a military-themed film."
The leftist cult of malcontents MUST attack our vets because of what they did in the 60s. How else can they justify their protest which gave aid and comfort to the VC and the NVRA who they themselves thanked Fonda, the hippie scum-bags, they even have a John Kerry wing in the Museum to honor him for all his help in that organization Vietnam Vets Against the War. All Kerry was going was seeking to run in the Senate seat for Mass. Now there is a section in commie museum honoring him and his war protest. Hell, there isn't a museum in London honoring Benedict Arnold, as a matter of fact the British look upon him with disdain.
All I can tell you out there is to support FORGOTTEN HEROES because there are no other films out there and we are all fighting this huge monolith of leftist propaganda.
There is no evidence that this memo influenced FDR or anyone else. It does show that at least 1 person on his staff thought about goading Japan into attacking us, but the addition of Knox's statement clearly states that he felt we should NOT have any dealings in the "Orient", rather we should be prepared on both fronts (Europe and the Pacific).
Let me guess, you're a "Truther" too, aren't you…..
Not sure how the Japanese could implement a fake document, but I do agree with you about Japanese imperialist intent in the Far East.
You may have better sources than I do for your comments regarding Japanese development of atomic bombs; my reading shows that the reports from Snell and Wilcox regarding the such a high level of development are discredited….it seems that the Japanese had not even succeeded in enriching uranium by 1945.
The fact that the Chinese determined the document as fake is interesting, as much as they hate the Japanese, and as they presented the document as fact from 1945 to 2008. I do agree with you that the Chinese have credibility issues (Beijing Olympics, fake rocket launch in 2008, etc).
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Defensive perimeter. You bet. They needed one because they invaded Chine, the Phillipines, Australia, Alaska etc. We were pretty busy in Europe. Japn wanted Asia and needed the raw materials for its own needs. Back to the congference table". Just go back to watching American Idol and don't think that anyone is stupid enough to buy your ignorance. There is opinion and there is ignorance. You really take the cake. Shut off your television and go to the library.
The Da Vinci Code is a 'MOCKERY OF GOD'. Hanks, a self hating jew, yes Hanks is jewish. Would you listen to any person that can't be honest about who they are as a person? Yet we should believe what this person says about others? He hates himself therefore he hates others. He is projecting his own self loathing onto others to make himself feel better. He has mocked his own religion, [judiasm], [Jesus Christ] and now his own country. Mr. Hanks, collect your 30 pieces of silver and do as your bretheren [Judas Iscariot] . Do us all a favor.
must be a hollywood kind of injury? they all seem to get the same blunt force trauma in thet town, kinda like the earmark virus that strikes down virtually all politicians in their tracks.
Hankie boy you must still be living with the mentality of your character in the movie"Big".
You've physically become older but not wiser .
You have become a disappointingly ridiculous old dunce.
Even if 90% of our soldiers called every Japanese every dirty name ever invented, so what? It doesn't change the fact that they attacked us without declaring war, on a Sunday morning when they knew we were most vulnerable, and killed our people.
After that, who cares what we call them?
My grandfather was in the Dutch army in Indonesia and was captured and held from 1941 to 1945. He told me many stories of Japanese mistreatment of prisoners that included beheading for sport, using prisoners as bayonet practice, deliberate death by exposure and starvation, and shooting prisoners who were trying to escape burning transport ships that had been torpedoed.
He called the Japs a lot of mean and "racist" (the meaning of which has been twisted anyway) things….and I agreed with every single one of them.
It would have to be a really dumb fly.
Ah yes. The old myth that the public can somehow "lose" a war or cause it to drag on. Always hilarious. And yeah, let's blame folks who want the war over for giving the troops PTSD, and let's completely excuse the government's role in sending troops back overseas, time and time again, for extended deployments away from their families. That makes perfect sense. Blame the American public, but by all means don't blame the government since we all know the government never makes mistakes.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, empowers a government like war. It is the be-all and end-all of power centralization. We got zip out of Iraq, and we're getting zip out of Afghanistan. Where's Bin Laden? Where's al Quaeda? They're in Pakistan, and we're fighting the gutter trash Taliban who never even attacked us. So why are we still there?
People who ask that question aren't unpatriotic; people who ask that question actually care about this country more than they care about its government. Try to wrap your head around that. If you want to lick the boot of government by turning a blind eye to its foreign policy mistakes, be my guest. But don't call yourself a patriot. Be honest: call yourself a statist.
Yes he does……but about half way though he starts to enter the Twilight Zone."It was the Democrats that maintained slavery and refuse to sigh (sign?)the Constitution if they outlawed it."……The Democrat Party ???? Federalist maybe???
"It was the Democrats that broke away from the Union to maintain States Rights for the reason of slavery," WOW……all I can say to this is…….Government schools at work.
Was Israel behind that one, too….?
Being a Army veteran but never having been under fire I would like to make one observation.
I think, even being a devout Mormon(Christian) that I might utter a few seemingly racist comments…….
about someone WHO WAS TRYING TO KILL ME !!!!!!!!!!!
I am not sure but it seems like a common human reaction from fear or rage. Just making an observation..thats all.
This much is true – Democrats were largely in the South, it was Democratic politicians who put Jim Crow into action, and enforced it. It was Democrats who created the KKK. Its Democrats who peddle welfare to keep certain groups of people dependent on the Big Government plantation. We can quibble all day over exactly why the South seceeded…I take the side of the south by the mere fact that it WAS and IS Constitutional to break away if the people did not accept the government. That was the perogative implemented in the Constitution. We may have to face the same choice not too long from now, if Obamanation keeps up his tyranny.
whatever little bit of respect I ever had for Tom Hanks (decent actor, used to keep his political opinions mostly to himself) seem to have vanished. It truly is a shame that our culture so values celebrity that jerks like this get a massive platform to espouse their tortured, misinformed opinions. Fortunately, I have come to the realization they now actually help fire up the right more than inspiring the left. Today in every picture I see of him, Hanks looks like a tired old angry constipated gas bag. That is probably because that is what he is.
This we agree
The Japanese objective in 1941 was the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies – now Indonesia. The obstacle to achieving that goal was U.S. military power in the Pacific – the Navy at Pearl Harbor and the Army and Army Air Corps in the Philippines. Hence the attacks on those two places on 7 & 8 Dec 1941. By March of 1942 the Japanese Army was ashore on Java. They had also made a lightning advance down the Malay Peninsula, driving the British Army before them all the way to Singapore, which the British surrendered on 15 Feb 1942.
Previous to 1941 the Japanese had obtained the bulk of their oil supply from the United States. It was more or less common knowledge that they kept a reserve on hand which would sustain them for approximately six months, should they lose their source of supply. In July, 1941 Japanese assets in the U.S. were frozen and the U.S. State Dept. drew up sanctions effectively blocking Japanese purchase of U.S. oil. This combination of actions was ostensibly in response to Japanese aggression in Indochina, but occurred within days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The Japanese were allied to Germany and Italy through the Tri-Partite agreement, signed by Japan in the fall of 1940.
I will boycott Hanks projects as well.
Watching too much History Channel are we????? Japan was already in China, they were not in the Philippines until after DEC 7th, they never invaded Australia and Alaska (Dutch Harbor) was a diversion for the real target, Midway.
Europe???? We were not in Europe until the Invasion of Sicily (July '43) Gee…. we did not have boots on the ground anywhere near Europe until Nov '42 (Africa)
I sure did not get this info from THE History Channel" I least I know how to read once I get to the library.
Plus I can spell or use spellchecker.
It would be even greater if they were having dinner in some other adopted country.
Wow. You are batsh*t crazy! Lets start with the facts: he is, and never was, Jewish.
I had heard somewhere the Nazis were helping the Japanese with their nuclear program. Even delivering some refined ore.
I think it was on the History Channel back before it became the Ice Road Trucker Channel. There was a documentary on Japanese weapon development. Jets, bombers, super u-boats. They did indeed have big plans.
However, Japan lacked natural resources.
Next time you see your Grandfather tell him we all said "thank you" for his service.
Hanks is a tool and his first Pacific sucked. I hope they get better. Basilone's story is a good one.
So Jesus really wasn't the son of God and every international war the U.S. has been involved in is based on racism and ignorance? Wow, Tommy Boy should be a professor at Harvard!!!
If the use of not-so-nice terms to describe our enemies during war time causes Mr. Hanks to conclude that Americans are racist and ignorant, what must he think of his fellow liberals who use descriptive phrases like "idiot rednecks" and "Christian terrorists" to describe their political foes. Are they ignorant racists, too, Mr. Hanks?
Heh the conversations would probably be predictable! And of that crowd Hanks would be the "conservative"…
*is not
I can show you plans for the US government to stage false flag attacks in the US to start wars – look up Operation Northwoods.
Mr Hanks is a fool with bad breath.
As I understand it, the main thrust behind Pearl Harbor was essentially to sucker punch the US and hope to hell we'd sue for peace.
Guess they didn't really understand the American way of life.
Head trauma, hmmm, yes I suppose that could accurately reflect many modern liberals.
No, but Zionists played a big role in WWII I've heard.
I had a neighbor who had been a Marine in the South Pacific. He said that the Japanese were every bit as evil as the Nazis but rarely held to account. MacCarthur needed the help of the Emperor to rule Japan.
The Japanese in China would throw up babies and catch them on the bayonets for sport. Iris Chang's book The Rape of Nanking goes into these atrocities. They considered anyone non Japanese to be inferior racially, an attitude that went into the postwar era.
But race – or hatred by either side, had nothing to do with the reasons for going to war.
Well I guess you can take the bozo out of the skirt (Hanks) but you can't take the skirt out of the bozo. Good luck bosom buddy.
I am trying to remember the book I got this from – can't – but one soldier – an intelligence officer – was interviewing a German towards the end of the war.
Where are you from?", the German asked…
Connecticut was the reply.
"Where in Connecticut?"
Well, the German knew every landmark, river and when asked how he knew so much replied that he was supposed to be the governor for that region…
You're definitely on to something with the 'all war is wrong' line of thinking from modern liberals.
Going on the theory that all violence is immoral, as America, we should know better, but obviously we didn't, so there for America must be wrong.
If you ask me it comes from a serious lack of face time with reality.
"blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah. Im a veteran my boy serves, if you don't support the war you are a horrible person and anti-american. You cannot hold a view different than my own. "
Seriously, how did this article get approved? Just a bunch of blathering from someone who does not even attempt to understand the other sides point of view.
EdSki,
You are right on the money.
Truman Capote said he didn't want his actors to be too bright. In Hanks' case, he'd be right.
Just what is the "other sides point of view"? That Japanese prewar miltarism was not racist? That the "Rape of Nanking" was a weekend excercise by drunken frat boys? that the Bataan Death March was a stroll in the park? I suggest you spend more time reading history and less time blogging. Who knows, you might still be able to learn.
Completely agree with the author – excellent article.
I was going to invest in "The Pacific" but will now never put a dime of my money or my time towards it, nor any other project Hanks is attached to. I've done it with many other actors/producers/directors and belive many others have done it or Hollywood wouldn't be hurting as much as it is (with exception to Avatar). I'm sick of these fools uttering absolute nonsense and when called on it, just dig in deeper, instead of acknowleging they had no idea what they were talking about. That Hanks can say something like that and believe it is astounding to me – shocking… and not someone I want to support in any way.
Shame on you, Hanks. You should know better. This is nothing short of willful ignorance and willful hurting of those that proudly served in WWII against an enemy (enemies) who attacked us and our allies first. Shame on you!
Not even worth responding to
Tom Hanks is an undereducated movie star, nothing more, nothing less. For a long time, I thought he was, "on our side" (those people who love this country), but he's just another greedy Hollywood type. I don't go to movies for many reasons, but it'll be much easier not to contribute to Tom Hanks', Matt Damon's, Ben Afleck's, etal money pile.
I hope they're amassing these large fortunes so that they can move to a "better" country. Soon, I hope!!!!
I've also heard that the Phillie Phanatic and Mr. Met led the charge unto the Pacific. Not true at all, but I heard it!
blahblah, suck it
What I find hard to understand is how seriously everyone takes the comments of actors. Their only and I mean ONLY marketable skill is pretending to be something they are not at the intense direction of another while reciting other people's words. That's it. And because Tom can talk about how much it hurts when someone talks about hot yogurt on his back in philadelphia we think he's a scholar? Does anyone wake up and ask themselves what Andrew Dice Clay thinks about the war? Larry the cable guy? Then why give a shit what Matt Damon thinks? When they do try to interject their views into their "art" they pay dearly at the box office (see all the hate America flix that bombed – pun intended). So as was mentioned earlier and said about the chixie dix, Shut up and sing.
i do remember being taught a lie about joe mccarthy. i was told he was on the house un american affairs committee, but he was in the senate, i was told he was just out to name names, then i found out he was ordered to name names in order to keep his investigation going, he didn't want to falsey accuse someone of being a spy. we find out in the venona project, every person he named was a soviet spy, imagine that.
Hey come on Tommy is right about the racist thing. He's just wrong about WHO the racists are.
That would be the JAPANESE during WW II
and the ISLAMOFASCISTS now.
Tommy just got a little mixed up as the people who write his dialogue for him probably didn't go over it first.
Same here.
Thank you for your service, sir. I have the utmost respect for those who served in Vietnam and had to come home to such contempt.
Until i was 9, I thought Japbastards was one word. Oddly, my girls were about 9 when the found out dinkbastards is actually two words. My dad was Army, going up through the SWPA ending in the Occupation of Japan and Korea, back for the shooting match in Korea and last trip to Viet Nam in 1964/65 . I did one hot war and the rest "cold" as an EOD man. Chief, great article. Thanks, sir.
Jeff…
First, thanks for your Grandfathers service to his country and I agree with you that Tom Hanks is changing what the events and feelings were really like. My dad and his brother served in the Pacific with the SeaBees. My dad
was with the 87th Battalion. Remember the John Wayne movie? The Japanese he came into contact with during "clean-up" fighting in the jungles fought hard, were sneaky and pulled every trick to kill you. Our soldiers fought hard but the "cartoon talk but yellow buck tooth" stuff was in Hollywood movies.
Jack:
Could not have put it more clearly.
Even when Spielberg and Hanks try to do the right thing, we as a country look like the bad guys.
I bet in the future, school books will show the USA as starting wars on innocent Muslims. Ooops,
maybe I shouldn't give Obama any ideas.
This one seems kind of obvious to me. Tommy-boy has just released "The Pacific" which makes 2 series he's been a part of about Americans at war that treat the soldiers as relative good guys. This is verboten in his circles. It feels like a simple re-establishing of his liberal bona-fides to comfort his friends and keep those lucrative movie roles coming. Does beg the question of why he did these 2 series in the first place however.
Another jerk with a computer
I'm guessing you are referring to the German submarine U-234, which was headed for Japan with non-enriched uranium oxide, but surrendered to the US instead?
I agree with your statement about Japan's minimal natural resources, specifically oil, being a critical factor in its decision to preemptively (and unwisely) attack the US.
Tom Hanks is a Sophist extraordinaire but Hollywood is chock a block with them. He sounds uneducated. Amazing that he is a producer for ,"Pacific", producer yes but certainly not a researcher. Hanks should read the post, here by,"guest". Now that is an excellent history lesson. Please remember that WWII was the result of military aggression generated by the Japanese and Nazi governments with the goal of empire building in mind.The U.S. along with most of the rest of the civilized world happened to get in the way. It took a long time to defeat the Tojo government ,much sacrifice and misery. As for Hank's charge of American racism prodding the Japanese military, well the dictionary states that racism is a belief that some races are by nature superior to others. The Japanese government of that time period certainly did take that view as their own and acted on it with great brutality.
In all fairness, there was tremendous racial animosity felt by the frontline troops. EB Slegde writes about it in his famous account "With the Old Breed" from which some of this series was derived. Racism was not at all a reason that the US entered the war, but it would be inaccurate to say our troops did not experience or express racist thoughts. Sure Hanks is a lefty, but lets not let this get blown out of proportion. He has done admirable work in honoring our veterans and I don't think he has any inention of slandering them. In trying to assess the seniments of the front line soldiers and marines, if you take out the ridiculous "because they were different" nonsense, he probably wasn't far off. The pacific theater was largely a brutal battle to the death and was marked by horrorific atrocities, mostly, but not entirely, on the Japanese side.
Skip past the liberal pablum and enjoy what is likely to be another fine mini-series.
Those who hold the "racist" view of the war need to read a few memoirs of men who fought in the Pacific to understand the intense and vicious nature of the fighting there. At Guadalcanal, there was a case in which a Japanese soldier surrendered and said that others wanted to surrender, too. So, a small detachment of Marines went to accept their surrender, … and were viciously ambushed in the trap. There are also numerous reports of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers mutilating Marine dead when the bodies could not be recovered immediately by U.S. forces. Next, there were the "banzai" attacks that had been, according to some reports, fairly successful against Chinese troops who had only bolt action rifles, less intense training, and few machine guns; these mass charges ended only after the Japanese came to realize they did not work against trained troops armed with the M-1 Garand and sufficient automatic weapons. Finally, there were the reports of the vicious treatment of those the Imperial Japanese captured or defeated … Bataan Death March, Nanking, etc.
So, in my view, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese "way of war" set the tone for the vicious fighting in the Pacific. They set about to destroy others and rule a significant portion of the world, and they did it in a very vicious manner. Keep in mind that it was a WAR, and, as a ground combat veteran, I challenge those who have not shared that experience to give some thought to the intense experiences of those who have faced death in war–it is not an antiseptic affair. Mr. Hanks also enjoys a viewpoint of the war from the position of relative safety–September 11, 2001, was the first major attack on the United States homeland since Pearl Harbor, although not "the first" since 7 December 1941.
As for the reputed goal of annihilating the Japanese, our treatment of Japan after the war makes a mockery of and shows the stupidity of such claims. Imperial Japan was a militaristic totalitarian state run effectively run by the military; today, Japan is a modern democracy, an innovator in technology, and a wealthy country. Not a bad outcome for a country that lost a major war. Not the Carthaginian solution.
Hanks says we fought Japan for Racist reasons .. I wonder what his explanation is for our having been allies with China ? And what were our reasons for Rebuilding Japan after the war ? Tom just doesn't explore his thoughts adequately before giving them voice.
I seem to recall a similar scene from an interview with a veteran in the recent Ken Burns series "The War."
Sir, I knew David Hasselhoff. David Hasselhoff was a friend of mine.
And YOU, sir, are no David Hasselhoff!
A little boid told him, no doubt.
I saw the show you were mentioning as well. If the Japanese possesed an Atomic Bomb, I don't think they would've hesitated a minute, in using it on either the Chinese, or any of us allies. As far as regretting what the Japanese did do during the war sans the A-Bomb, their history books, from what I've heard, don't suggest it.
It's a shame that when there isn't Ice Road truckers on History Channel, they have lumberjacks. Although I like those shows on occasion, they belong on a different channel.
Forrest Gump lives———-
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