Just like all the other chapters in Howard Zinn’s book, the chapter on World War II showed me a view of the war I never learned about in any of my history classes. I was surprised by what really motivated the United States to enter the war, the U.S. world interests being threatened by Germany and Japan. In past history lessons they claimed they entered the war for morality reasons and painted the United States as the heroes, when in reality that’s false. They put Japanese-Americans in internment camps and they dropped 2 bombs on Japan without even giving a single warning to the civilians even though that was suggested. Also they still continued to bomb japan after receiving intel that Japan was considering peace allegations.
The U.S. used the bombings of Japan as a way to assert their dominance in the military, and to leave the war being one of the most powerful countries. The last thing that I fount interesting was how Zinn compared FDR to Lincoln. Zinn pointed out that we were taught in our history classes that they were fighting for human rights, when really they both had other motives during the civil war and WWII. FDR had economic interests at mind, but we were taught he fought for the human rights of jewish people during the holocaust and was an all around hero during WWII.
I think you bring up an interesting point of how FDR and Lincoln are portrayed in history. I find it interesting that history alway portrays leaders as heroes. One of the biggest themes I have taken from this class is that history likes to portray leaders as heroes because people like a story with a hero in it. They like a happy ending.
I too was surprised by this alternative viewpoint about our intervention in WW2. I always saw the United States as being the country that took down Hitler and saved the freedom of the Jewish people. I was most shocked by the comparison of blacks in America to Jews in Germany at the time. The point you brought up about bombing Japan after we had intel was also very disheartening to read about in my opinion
I think part of the bombing of Japan is that The United States wanted to be the best and be on top. This notion we have seen throughout all of the history of the United States and other countries. They want to be the best.
Zinn once again dismantles the idea of the righteous United States. The U.S. was not the golden boy of the second world war, and FDR was not a divine figure that led us to victory. One can debate the morality of America’s actions during WWII compared to those of the Axis powers, but, at the end of the day, we remember that mankind itself has many, many faults and flaws.
The evidence of excessive force by the United States of America is disheartening. Its very disappointing to see a country completely lose sight of what is important when dealign with a war and peoples lives. I think the pride and need for power that is engrained into the United States is a major reason for the horrible mistakes you did a great job of talking about in this post.
Bringing up the point that leaders always have their own motives is very important when considering history from multiple perspectives. It’s very easy to look at a leader in times of international crisis and justify all of their actions when in reality they are upholding American nationalism and not promoting the public good.
I totally agree that this chapter has offered a new view approaching world war 2 that I have not learned about before. I think that the United States as a country likes to brag a lot about its leaders and picture them as these good people whose actions were based upon morality when in fact it’s only about their own benefit. I also think it was interesting to see the comparison between Lincoln and FDR by showing the actual motives behind the wars they entered.