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Having watched the entire series, the Neocon congratulates Ken Burns on his new masterpiece "The War", an epic series on World War II. I was moved to tears on a number of occasions. It had to be very difficult to capture the essence of such a large subject matter. Somehow, Burns manages to pull it off. Congratulations to him! Highly recommended for every thinking person who appreciates history. For the rest of you, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and OJ Simpson are available on other channels.
7 hours ago
Joe: Rarely do I disagree, but I thought the program was very average. Other than the personal angle from the four US cities, most of the content could've been viewed on a collection of cable channels.
ReplyDeleteWhat was annoying was the over-emphasis on the Japanese internment camps and black contributions. Of course internment for the Japanese was bad, but so was the internment of Germans and Italians, which I must have missed. And it was mostly California Japanese as well.
I didn't hear the reason why FDR interned them. He did it because of there WERE spys and traitors amongst them!
Racism against blacks of course was wrong. But this was a story of war. Enough already.
F. Garvin, Ph.D, S.J.
Dr. Garvin,
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree that Burns went out of his way to be politically correct but I disagree that it irreparably harmed the entire documentary. I think the point he was trying to make was that it was EVERYBODY’S war. African American sacrifices were comparatively limited not because of African Americans, but because of a system that failed to provide them with the honor of equal sacrifice, that was his point it seemed to me. I believe that the larger picture achieved in the documentary was powerful indeed. For example, he did point to allied atrocities committed in the heat of battle (also politically correct). But in the end he balanced that by making clear that allied shortcomings under severe pressure, paled in comparison to the evils perpetrated by the Axis powers.
Joe