Hollywood always has a tendency to rewrite history to reflect how they want it to be. It doesn’t matter if its historically accurate or not. Hollywood will reflect their own values and ideals, which are usually liberal, and to hell with how it really was. They’re especially fond of rewriting history if it means that they can make America look bad in the process.
The newest celebrity out to rewrite history? Tom Hanks, who talks with Time Magazine about his new HBO miniseries, The Pacific.
But the context for Hanks’ history lessons has changed. Band of Brothers, HBO’s best-selling DVD to date, began airing two days before 9/11; The Pacific, his new 10-hour epic about the Pacific theater in World War II, plays out against a very different backdrop, when the country is weary of war and American exceptionalism is a much tougher sell. World War II in the European theater was a case of massive armies arrayed against an unambiguous evil. The Pacific war was mainly fought by isolated groups of men and was overlaid by a sense that our foes were fundamentally different from us. In that sense, the war in the Pacific bears a closer relation to the complex war on terrorism the U.S. is waging now, making the new series a trickier prospect but one with potential for more depth and resonance. “Certainly, we wanted to honor U.S. bravery in The Pacific,” Hanks says. “But we also wanted to have people say, ‘We didn’t know our troops did that to Japanese people.’ ” He wants Americans to understand the glories — and the iniquities — of American history. How did this shrug-prone comedic actor transform himself into our most ambitious champion of U.S. history? And how is his vision of history shaping the way the past informs and, yes, entertains us?
First of all, the only people “weary of American exceptionalism” are the socialist liberals found in Hollywood, universities, the mainstream media… and at Time Magazine. Average Americans actually still do believe that the United States is exceptional, and that’s because it is. It’s the greatest country this earth has ever seen. There is only a small, select group of people who like to constantly bash America.
As for Tom Hanks, how could he say that with a straight face? What we did to the Japanese?? How about what the Japanese did to us? Duane Lester has a pretty good round-up of the atrocities committed by the Japanese during WWII. They tortured US soldiers. They practiced cannibalism. There was the Bataan Death March. And who could forget what started the entire war… Pearl Harbor?
Clearly, Tom Hanks is talking about the bombings of Hiroshima and Tokyo. It wouldn’t matter to liberals like him, of course, how many thousands — or even millions — of lives were likely saved by bombing those cities and ending the war. How much longer would the war have been dragged out had we not put an end to it? It may have seemed savage, but it was the right thing to do.
But to Tom Hanks, we were the only savage ones and we didn’t fight the Japanese in WWII because they attacked us first. No, we fought them because… they were “different”.
And he is pleased that The Pacific has fulfilled an obligation to our World War II vets. He doesn’t see the series as simply eye-opening history. He hopes it offers Americans a chance to ponder the sacrifices of our current soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. “From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place,” Hanks says. “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?”
There’s no such thing as a definitive history. But what was once a passing interest for Hanks has become an obsession. He’s a man on a mission to make our back pages come alive, to keep overhauling the history we know and, in the process, get us to understand not just the past but the choices we make today.
Oh, so all of us ignorant rubes who thought that we fought the Japanese because they killed 2,402 servicemembers and injured 1,282 more in the attack on Pearl Harbor were wrong. We actually fought the Japanese because of race and because they were different. And coincidentally, that’s apparently the same thing that’s happening now. We aren’t fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Iraq and Afghanistan because of almost 3,000 murdered Americans on 9-11. We’re fighting them because they’re different. Ri-i-i-i-ght.
Yeah, Tom Hanks is trying to overhaul history, all right. And as if all of this isn’t bad enough, he’s got to go and smear our troops, too.
“It’s even worse for our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Hanks says. “At least the Pacific-war soldiers coming back from World War II decompressed on ships for weeks. And then once the troops arrived portside, it was often a long train ride home to Peoria. Today these guys in Afghanistan fight in bloody hell and are flown back in 18 hours. How can they cope with that? How can they suddenly go from Tora Bora to Peyton Place?” Even the legendary Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War II, suffered posttraumatic stress disorder after his return from the European theater. During one meltdown, a deranged Murphy held his wife hostage at gunpoint.
How can they cope with that?? They can cope with that because they’re good men, they’re good soldiers. They cope with it because most of them are coming home to their families, to their homes. They’re happy, believe it or not. And they believe in their mission. What I find odd is that Tom Hanks is complaining that our troops come home from their missions too quickly. I have never, ever heard a single Marine returning home from Iraq say, “Gee, I wish that I could’ve stayed in Kuwait a few weeks longer and had some time to unwind.” No — they want to get back in 18 hours. They want to get home and see their wives, their children, their parents. They don’t want to take their time getting home, and usually, when they get home, they aren’t emotionally damaged.
That’s not to say that everyone comes home and has it easy, but the majority of soldiers don’t come home with PTSD. I know liberals don’t like to face that fact, but it’s the truth. The soldiers who come home with PTSD are the exception, not the rule. But that won’t stop Hanks and Time Magazine from using a seriously disturbed WWII soldier as an example of a “typical” WWII GI, will it?
The Pacific hasn’t come out yet, of course. But hopefully it won’t be as bad as this interview makes it sound. He mentions that he focuses a lot on Chesty Puller — he better damn well do right by him and the other honorable heroes who fought and died in the Pacific during WWII.
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The Japanese were even more racist than the Americans that fought them. At least the American soldiers and Marines did not cut the heads off of the prisoners that they captured on the islands that they took. The Japanese did that and more. They used American and other Allied POWs for slave labor and hideous human experiments. The Japs made the Germans look like pikers in that field. The Germans did abide to the Geneva somewhat, but the Japs totally disregarded any kind of international agreement.
Wow, a blog written by a pretty, gun-wielding, witty, non-liberal lady (Who’s actually from MY generation!!!); can this be for real *rubbing my eyes*? Lol.
I stumbled across this page, and I am very glad that I managed to do so. Your commentary regarding the subject matter is point on, and I have to say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed in Tom Hanks for his as-of-recent leftist rantings all over the place. I once took him as a patriot, and an individual who was pro-military (As well as a gentleman who was extremely supportive of our Greatest Generation). Now however, I am beginning to think differently of him.
My Grandfather was in the 1st CAV in WWII. He left in the middle of the night onboard a train after Pearl Harbor, and he managed to be assigned to Ft. Hood when they still had the active mounted units (ie, Real horses). He was amazingly adept as a rider, and I can recall how much he loved those animals (He would often sleep in the stalls with his horse, and all of the guys were distraught when they had to give them up prior to shipping out). He participated in the Admiralties Campaign, and the liberation of the Philippines as a Medic (Leyte, Luzon (Into Manila), and so forth). He was a Warrant Officer during the War, but he lost the rank sometime during their operations. I have no idea why he was stripped of it, but whatever did occur, he gained an immensely loyal following from the guys who served with him, and they downright revered him. However, he never discussed what he did while in the Pacific. My Mother (His daughter) would always bug him about it, and he would just reply: “I handed out band-aids, and salt water for sore throats”. She even recalls passing his room at night, and sometimes seeing him sitting up with his head held down, whilst rubbing his forehead. He would smile when he noticed her looking though, but you know he had flashbacks of the War (They were most likely horrific ones at that, especially given the fact that he was a Medic). He never had problems functioning in society despite such, and none of the guys who served with him did either. Back then especially, there was no “PTSD”, there was simply war experience, and memories. People moved on with their lives, because they had no other choice but to do so. 16 Million Americans served (Just about the entire population of able men in the entire United States), 500,000 died, and Millions were injured. Most now-a-days simply have no idea what a WORLD war is actually like, and I don’t know anyone outside of that generation who can truly comprehend such a reality!
I also have a Great Uncle who served in Italy in the U.S. Army during the War, and another who drove landing craft ashore while in the USCG. The Coastie personally drove General Patton ashore in North Africa, and he then participated in the invasion of Sicily. Soon thereafter he was granted two weeks Stateside leave, after which he was shipped out to participate in the landings at Guadalcanal.
My Old Man was a little kid during the War, and he remembers it clearly as well (It’s a major part of what lead him to serve in the USN for 30 years (SpecOps)). Everyone in America trained and qualified with firearms, while neighbors made their own ammunition, and Victory Gardens were the norm. His Father was a Police Officer who enforced air-raid procedures, and his Mom drove for the air-raid motor pool. One time he even saw spotlights trained on an airborne soldier, and he thought they were being invaded! It was only a drill fortunately, but that is how bad the reality was back then, as people really thought we were going to lose the War (We almost did), and everyone truly feared the worst. I have a close friend who was living near London, England as a kid back then too, and he recalls the very same attitude. The only difference was, he was in the middle of nightly bombings. He described to me how one night they saw a fireball in the sky, and it was a NAZI bomber shot down by their defense garrison. What did the kids do? They all ran outside to find the crash-site, and they came upon a HUGE crater near town! He also made a point that one of his greatest joys after the War for him, was in being able to eat a Banana for the first time! They couldn’t afford such shipments back then, due to the U-Boat threat, and resources being redirected for the War effort. Can any Westerner nowadays truly understand such a thing? The reason we fail to even ponder it, is because of those before us who gave it their all so that we might dwell in a better existence.
I hope that Tom Hanks can even begin to grasp what life was truly like back during World War II, and if he had lived in the midst of 9/11 (As I did), then he might not be so quick to bash OIF/OEF right now either.
The Germans certainly did not abide by the Geneva, not in the extermination and concentration camps during WW2. There is a reason why folks like Dr. Josef Mengele were infamous. And there is a reason why terms like final solution, Holocaust, etc., have become part of history’s vocab when it comes to what the Germans did during the war. Ask the Ulkranians and other civilian folks in Russia, Poland, etc., if the Nazis abided by conventional laws of warfare.
America did do wrong to Japanese-Americans during WW2, similar to how it treated German-Americans during WW1. The common link is that in both wars, US got attacked or provoked into war in the eyes of the Presidents during both wars. Germany did not attack America during WW2 (though it foolishly declared war on the US four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor), thus giving FDR poltical room to be able to send his men into Europe, North Africa, etc., to drive out the Germans), so probably reason why German civilians in America got the pass that the Japanese did not get during WW2 and that they themselves did not get during WW1.
I do agree btw the Japanese military during WW2 was very atrocious and committed many war crimes against humanity, especially in China as well as the Philippines, Indochina (which is present day, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), etc.
Cassy,
As I posted in a comment over at Misha’s place, Hanks is pretty much parroting the sentiment in this article. It’s not just about the atomic bombings, it’s a blaming of America for bad things that happened during the whole Pacific campaign. They imply that it’s due to racism and negligence that there were so many civilian casualties, especially out on the Islands, even when it was civilians killing their own families out of the fear instilled in them by their government’s propaganda efforts.
“And who could forget what started the entire war… Pearl Harbor?”
Wow, on this count, you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. Pearl Harbor was just the start of American involvement in the war, and a good 2 years after most of the rest of the world went to war.
The war really started in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
And just because the Japanese treated Allied soldiers poorly doesn’t mean the same is not true in reverse.
Geez, Sonja, thanks for educating Cassy and I on the details of WWII. We had no idea that the war in Europe started in 1939!! Although, technically, if we are talking about the war in the Pacific, it actually started in 1937, when Japan invaded China.
BTW, you have no f**king clue about the how the Japanese treated their enemies, based on your statement. “POORLY” does begin to describe their treatment. Let me give you just one example (because my 11 year-old son is doing a report on the Doolittle Raid): The Japanese slaughtered around 250,000 Chinese CIVILIANS when searching for the Doolittle Raiders. For the US, this would be the equivalent of the military executing all 110,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps because a small number of these people were spies for Japan.
The “rape of Naking” and Batann death march are testaments to what cruelties the Japanese did during WW2. They were to Asia as Germany then was to Europe.
[...] at Cassy Fiano. Thanks [...]
JFH: And what? That made it okay for the US to torture Japanese?
Your argument is just like the feminists’ arguments when someone points out crimes committed against men: They whine “but women have it worse”. You are whining that the Japanese committed worse – true, but failing to at all acknowledge what the US did to the Japanese.
Neither side were angels, in Europe, the Pacific, through Korea, Vietnam and into Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s nothing new about it, and it’s not worth getting worked up over someone pointing out the ills of one side.
Sonja,
With all due respect, if this is “not worth getting worked up over” then nothing is.
By the way, we did do bad things to the Japanese, but maybe not in the way you think. We essentially had internment camps for Japanese Americans during WWII. We had similar camps for German Americans too, but they weren’t as numerous as the Japanese ones. So, in a sense, yes we were bad to the Japanese people.
However, I seriously doubt that is what Tom Hanks was referring to…