outsideR said:
I've heard they don't teach history so very precisely over there... What you are taught to think is USA is powerful, USA is good. USA has never harmed innocent people. It's good to be American... Bullshit!
Actually for the most part you are right here. However we are not taught US is good, USA is great.
But before I hit on that let me clarify a few things first. One. I am not worried about Russia shooting or firing the first nuke. I am worried about where this leads. I realize that Russia has diffrent political system, but a history of a country is important when study a current government. Also lets get another thing straight I am just not worried about Russia here, my own government is something I am kind of concerned with as well. How Bush is handling this as if it was something minor. We already have the means to blow up the Earth, what are we advancing those means for?
Second of all. The USA could of saved the lives of how many Jewish people. Hitler was offering about 120,000. We declined them coming here. We sent them back. Along with England and France. Then a large number of Jewish people made it to America seeking safety, we sent them back. That’s when England, France and I forget the other countries said that they would take 200 and another country would take a 100 and so forth. Only the Jewish people in England survived.
At the start of WWII had America help fund Britain and France better the out come might of been different, but the American people were blind back then. We didn't really like the Jewish people anymore then the Germans. So when reports of the being killed came out, we ignored them. When Churchill begged for us to help fund him. To give him some kind of weapons, ships aid. We made him pay up front. At that time the American people believed in Isolation. Meaning, that it was over in Europe in not in the USA. So we DID NOTHING. Thus allowing Hitler to invade more and more country. We completely ignored the cries for help over there. Thus allowing more concentration camps to be set up. More massive murdering. Look at Poland? I do realize America was in a depression but I will never understand how our government could of sat and did nothing for so long. American soldier’s actually went over to France and England. To try and help fight the war before America was even involved in it. Many of them lost their life fighting under a different military. The whole course of the war would of taken a completely different rout had America been willing to enter sooner. It may have even ended sooner, it may have saved millions of people lives.
March 12, 1938 Hitler starts to occupied Austria
Nov. 10 1938 - Kristallnacht in Germany. The true start of the Holocaust. However Hitler had already started murdering thousand of Jehovah Whiteness…
We did not enter the war till December 8, 1941. The day after the bombing of pearl harbor. It took us a year or better after that. In which we can thank the Brits for having a strong leaders and holding off the forces, why we worked our asses off to build an army and defenses.
When Hitler invaded Poland. Britain, France, Amsterdam, Australia and New Zealand issued a 'back-off' last warning to Hitler, which was ignored. They then declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. On September 5, 1939 the USA declares its neutrality much to the dismay of our allies. On September 10, Canada declares war on Germany. Somewhere around June 10, 1940 fascist Italy declares war on Britain and France. December 7, 1941 Japan declares war on America. December 8, 1941 America declares war on Japan, thus leading to the entrance into WWII. December 11, 1941 Germany and fascist Italy declare war on America.
September 8, 1943 fascist Italy surrenders. October 13, 1943 Italy declares war on Germany.
April 19, 1945, German forces in Italy surrender. May 8, 1945 Germany surrenders, (VE day). September 2, 1945 Japan surrenders, (VJ day).
Now its important to note why America had to go to such extreme measure to drop two bombs on Japan. Let me put it this way, it is in Japanese culture to never to Surrender. We had to weigh the cost. Japan would not surrender and left us no choice but to take extreme action. We sacrificed the lives of so many people to save millions of other peoples lives. Had we not of done that, it is quite possible that we could still be at war today. Japanese fighter pilots to be honest were your first suicide bombers. They believed in death before surrender or being captured. It was an honorable thing to take your own life rather then be captured. Why do you think in Corregidor and Bataan they were so harsh on our P.O.W.S. They marched our men to death. They cut of their heads. The things they did to our POW is UNIMAGINABLE. Read the book Ghost Soldiers. It is a sad tale. That is often not told. It will tell you how they lit them on fire and torture beyond comprehension.
They don’t teach that in history class. In fact hardly any of the stuff I stated above do they teach in American History. They Refuse to teach the history on Korea or Vietnam and even WWI and WWII. Our history never gets to far passed the American Revolution. In which they spend a whole year teaching in American history. Then after that it leads into the Indians and culture with them. Our world history focus more on kings and queens kind of things, which is vastly important, but it is never an in depth look though. They try to give you a brief overview and may be they will hit slightly on what happened in WWI and WWII.
I have went to great lengths. Partly because of my mother to study WWII history. From both American viewpoint and the European view point. As of right now I am trying to educate myself more on the Korean war. I would like to learn more what went on there. I am also struggling to find good information on the Vietnam War. However, they only give the side of the protesters really and not a good really good in depth look that went on with the war itself.
Bring me back to the point that American History teachers do not struggle enough to show us our own history, at least in high school. It is sad that history is often times over looked and ignored. So no my love from history and my knowledge on it did not come from school. I went and researched and read many books. I mean by the time I was in 3rd grade I could tell you all about pearl harbor and the deaths of the men there. My mother, I wish some of you could meet her. She is truly an awesome person. She is kind of a shamed of me though, I am no where near as smart as she is. She out scored College professors and scored up in the top 5% of the American population in a placement test. Her mathematics was her lowest score in still made it into the top 10%. She did not realize that why taking the test she could ask for scratch paper to work her problems out. They were going to fund her to go to college, but she had two kids at home and Jesse living with us. She had house taxes and a lot of other things and she couldn’t afford it. Thus a brilliant mind like her that could be able to give such a wonderful gift of knowledge to so many kind of goes to waste. Kind of hurts sometimes though to look at her and realize you are the reason she does not have a better life. To know she sacrificed so much for you and you have yet to do anything to make her proud.
Notes I left out some facts on the cold war. Not my strongest subject. So I did some research and these are not in my words.
WWII was followed by the Cold War in which Soviet led Eastern European nations and American led Western nations were on unfriendly terms. The two sides entered into an arms race to try to determine who would be the most powerful. In the Soviet Union the Cold War also resulted in heavy censoring of artistic work such as painting, literature and music. Art was supposed to glorify communist Soviet Union.
After Stalins death Khrushchev attained the leadership position. Khrushev admitted that Stalin had wrongly convicted people during the purges. Khrushev did not try to repeat the totalitarian nature of Stalin's rule, although he did have considerable power. This weakening of dictatorial power was a trend that continued until Mikhail Gorbachev came to rule in 1985. Gorbachev promoted perestroika and glasnost. The Soviet economy was not doing well and Gorbachev saw this as a way to help the economy. However, he did not intend to completely drop socialism. Gorbachev also tried to help the economy by working to improve worker discipline and fighting alcoholism. Alcoholism was a serious problem and Gorbachev's attacks against it were unpopular and did not last. The changes Gorbachev enacted led the country into reforms that Gorbachev had not sought. Gorbachev's rule ended on Christmas Day 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.