World War 2 Talk - View Single Post

Christos · 05-02-2008, 03:24 AM

This is yet one more example of the chief reason why sites like this one and others are VITAL at this stage of the development of the History of World War 2. In my lifetime, most of the material witnesses, veterans and civilians will be gone, and it will be left to the 'buffs' to explain or clarify the story......but....like any academic who was not there, they will lack a sence of participation, and therefore have only an intellectual understanding of the events as such.....emotions of the times will become more and more absent from the pages of history, as we are left to guess exactly what the paticipants FELT at the time. It is all fair and well to publish a dry tome of the facts, but does this really convey the participants state of mind? Or their psychological motivation for perpetrating crimes like this one. We should NOT leave this merely to academics to explain....it should, rightly, be recorded BEFORE the last participanta are gone from this mortal coil.....I don't want a man like David Chandler having to lucidly explain everything in strict terms, because historical records can be and are a whole lot more than that. It is also important to put yourself in the shoes of the people who committed atrocities, rather than passing off their psychology as 'twisted' for evermore.....I can only read so much information before it becomes vital to shut your eyes and imagine yourself in the same position as the victims, and the perpetrators......anything else reduces history to just a bunch of opinions, frequently coloured by the dogma of the day. A prime example of this is my own town of Darwin and it's consistent and blatant refusal to tell the Japanese side of the story. If we understand the minds and emotions of the participants of the day, then we also understand our subject as a whole in a better manner......

Now, this may sound obvious, but think of this....The Bombing of Darwin Commemoration consistently pushes aside Japanese participation in our city, and yet will still tell the story from a strictly Australian point of view. This can lead to interpretations of historical significance that have no grounding in reality, such as viewing The Bombing of Darwin as a 'moment of Federation', which it clearly was not.

History deserves the truth, and from both sides of the distasteful.......anything else is wartime propaganda in perpetuity......

05-02-2008, 03:24 AM	#3 (permalink)
Christos Discharged Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 485	This is yet one more example of the chief reason why sites like this one and others are VITAL at this stage of the development of the History of World War 2. In my lifetime, most of the material witnesses, veterans and civilians will be gone, and it will be left to the 'buffs' to explain or clarify the story......but....like any academic who was not there, they will lack a sence of participation, and therefore have only an intellectual understanding of the events as such.....emotions of the times will become more and more absent from the pages of history, as we are left to guess exactly what the paticipants FELT at the time. It is all fair and well to publish a dry tome of the facts, but does this really convey the participants state of mind? Or their psychological motivation for perpetrating crimes like this one. We should NOT leave this merely to academics to explain....it should, rightly, be recorded BEFORE the last participanta are gone from this mortal coil.....I don't want a man like David Chandler having to lucidly explain everything in strict terms, because historical records can be and are a whole lot more than that. It is also important to put yourself in the shoes of the people who committed atrocities, rather than passing off their psychology as 'twisted' for evermore.....I can only read so much information before it becomes vital to shut your eyes and imagine yourself in the same position as the victims, and the perpetrators......anything else reduces history to just a bunch of opinions, frequently coloured by the dogma of the day. A prime example of this is my own town of Darwin and it's consistent and blatant refusal to tell the Japanese side of the story. If we understand the minds and emotions of the participants of the day, then we also understand our subject as a whole in a better manner...... Now, this may sound obvious, but think of this....The Bombing of Darwin Commemoration consistently pushes aside Japanese participation in our city, and yet will still tell the story from a strictly Australian point of view. This can lead to interpretations of historical significance that have no grounding in reality, such as viewing The Bombing of Darwin as a 'moment of Federation', which it clearly was not. History deserves the truth, and from both sides of the distasteful.......anything else is wartime propaganda in perpetuity...... Last edited by Christos; 05-02-2008 at 03:26 AM.