Denying Reality

Throughout WWII, Americans were given a false perception of all that was taking place overseas. However, once soldiers returned to the homefront, citizens were still denied from the truth. It was easier to ignore the realities of war rather than consider all of the injustices that had taken place. Not only did regular citizens who had not taken part in the war not think about all the had occurred, but the soldiers themselves chose to forget many of their experiences when they returned home. Betty Basye Hutchinson said, "My husband had been in the South PAcific. You could never get the father of my four children to talk about the war. It was like we put blinders on the past. When we won, we believed it. It was the end. That's the way we lived in suburbia, raising our children, not telling them about war. I don't think it was just me. It was everybody. You wouldn't fill your children full of these horror stories, would you?" (217). I found it ironic that mothers were trying to shelter their kids from the horrors of war when even they did not know the majority of the graphic details. The soldiers were the only people who had the horrific images of the war engrained in their minds, and they made an effort to keep it that way.

As Americans, we often fail to consider the hardships that other cultures were forced to endure during the war. We only think about the war from our point of view instead of considering the the pain that others suffered as well. For instance, the Japanese community was persecuted beyond belief by Americans. Peter Ota spoke about the fact that the punished Japanese usually did not make an effort to stand up for their rights. This was a change from what we usually learn about persecuted groups from different eras. For instance, African Americans were notorious for standing up for their rights in myriad ways, relentlessly working to gain equal rights to whites. The Japanese, on the other hand, accepted their fate and just did their best to survive. Ota stated, "If you think of all those forty years of silence, I think this stems from another Japanese characteristic: when shame is put on you, you try to hide it. We were put into camp, we became victims, it was our fault. We hide it" (209). The Japanese were brought up to make the most out of what they were given, and never complain about what they did not have. Looking back, I wish that these poor people had done all they could to fight back in order to prevent some of the injustices that they suffered - they are extremely honorable for having endured all that they did with such determination and valor.