Peggy Terry's recollection of America during World War II paints a very clear image in my mind of how manipulative our government was to the innocent people in society. She talked about the women she worked with making shells for bullets in the war. They were treated with no respect and worked under inhumane conditions. They were exposed to toxic chemicals and fumes that turned their hair and skin and eyes orange and made it hard for them to breath. They worked with detonators and took the chance of being blown up in a massive explosion in their own work station. They were threatened by their bosses and treated with absolutely no respect. They weren't even allowed to drink water or take time off to spend with their dying mothers! It is disgusting to see how horribly the poor were taken advantage of at the time. But it was worse than that. The government took advantage of them as well. They warped their minds and provided them with false ideas of what this war would mean and who they were fighting exactly. Terry recalls the characters she saw in films during the war. The Germans were generally a very good looking group of people but the Japanese were hideous, yellow, little people who looked nothing like Americans. They were portrayed as a completely separate group of humans. They were made to seem scary and evil. People hosted bonfires in which the whole neighborhood was supposed to bring any belongings they possessed that had been made in Japan and throw them into the fire. When reflecting on these times of misinformation from the government, she realizes how much they contributed to the mass paranoia in the country. Americans were lead to believe that the bombing of Hiroshima was a terrible incident that simply had to happen, but they did not realize at the time exactly how horrible it was. She later learned that the bomb had not been dropped on the enemy at all. It had not hurt the Japanese leaders who were killing American soldiers. It did not bomb the men responsible for the war between Japan and America. It bombed innocent women and children just like her and her own kids. It bombed people who had absolutely nothing to do with their country's decision to go to war or not. It killed countless innocents and didn't even touch the men responsible. After years of being misinformed about the activity of the American government or about their Japanese immigrants, she was finally able to see how manipulated her perception of the war was. She was able to see how mistreated she was and how her rights were violated. She was able to see how her patriotism was taken advantage of by the American government and she was able to see how easily people can be manipulated.
This passage was very different than the previous passage. This was the memories of a man who fought in the war in Japan. He saw the violence and the gruesome acts inflicted from soldiers on each side to soldiers of the opposite side. But not only did he witness these monstrosities, he was right in the middle of them. He talked a lot about how savage the Japanese were. He tried to save a man's life one time, a Japanese soldier who was starving and almost immobile. He and his buddy carried this poor man until they could find medics to help him. Despite this being an enemy soldier, they took pity on him and tired to save his life. In return, this Japanese soldier pulled out a grenade and tried to kill them all. That's what they were up against every day. How can soldiers be faced with that cruel of an enemy and not turn savage themselves? Well, it turns out that many Americans did. It was not that they were brought up with the same corrupt ideas of war as the Japanese were. It was not that they had always been dangerous and angry men who enjoyed inflicting pain on their enemies. This was simply a matter of survival. In order to outlast such horrible conditions and fighting tactics of their enemies, they had to retaliate by showing this same cruelty and savage behavior. They ripped out the gold teeth of their Japanese enemies and they killed old women who got in their way. They shot at the bodies of already dead corpses and they took no mercy on helpless or dying Japanese soldiers they found. He struggled with this change of spirit, however. He had not been brought up to enjoy violence or to accept these cruel tactics. He knew that these were good men at one point, but now he saw the monstrous behavior that they showed towards the Japanese enemies and he had to question his involvement in the war. He had to question any American's involvement in such a horrible crime. This passage really shed light on the effect that war has on its soldiers. Whether it is the men who turn savage, or the men who struggle to resist this path of cruelty, all men involved were forever changed and scared from such horrible times.
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