Why is US education so poor on WW2 in Asia/the Pacific?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My personal annoyance is that it is All Holocaust All The Time. Other historical genocides are either briefly mentioned or not at all.

I am also annoyed by this. It makes it seem like it was a one time event and is thus preventable. Never mind that similar things have happened over and over in different parts of the world.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ask what we were taught about “the missions” as kids

What were you taught about "the missions" as kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Accurate history teaching has mostly gone out the window, OP.

I took British history as an elective since it was one of my favorite teachers, learned a lot there.
And my language was Japanese in high school and college.
My assessment after living and working in S Korea and Japan is that that totally blocked it out too with the respective reconstructions. They are however worried about China.

This was public school? What year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the answer to your question is that the main U.S. effort went to defeating the Germans. In terms of their success and brutality, the world had not seen anything like the German army since Genghis Khan. And Genghis Khan did not have death camps, as far as I know. The Japanese forces were just not a threat (to the U.S.) on the same level as the Germans.

That being said, I do agree that the Japanese have been let off the hook for many of the brutalities they committed during the war. I doubt many Americans know that they enslaved and tortured American POWs and even performed Dr. Mengele-like experiments on them.

Not true at all. Japanese barbarism was so bad at areas like Nanking it disgusted even the Nazis. The Japanese used to cut off peoples arms and legs and use live torsos for bayonet practice. They were ungodly barbaric in Singapore, Shanghai, Manila, and especially in the Andamans/Dutch East Indies. The Japanese too had death camps with appalling conditions that were arguably even worse than what the Nazis ran. In fact, more Americans were held in Japanese death camps that the numbers held in Nazi death camps.

How in the world were the Japanese not a threat to the US? They friggin' bombed pearl harbor. They actually hit mainland US with bombs dropped by balloons that even killed a few US citizens. There are historical records of FDR sweating bullets because the US govt anticipated a west coast invsion of the US and the govt believed that the Japanese might not be able to be stopped until they reached Chicago. It's a complete myth the Germans were more barbaric or were more of a threat.

All true.
But instead my kids learned about Angel Island, internment camps of Japanese, and how badly the US treated Asian immigrants (during the plague period in CA so yeah, no one was out and about).

All of which are extremely important and more relevant to US History.

There are many many things in world history that are not but should be taught in the US. The Pacific side of WW2 is one of them. WW1 and especially the changes wrought in the aftermath is another. However, the Japanese Internment is frankly more important from a US perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the answer to your question is that the main U.S. effort went to defeating the Germans. In terms of their success and brutality, the world had not seen anything like the German army since Genghis Khan. And Genghis Khan did not have death camps, as far as I know. The Japanese forces were just not a threat (to the U.S.) on the same level as the Germans.

That being said, I do agree that the Japanese have been let off the hook for many of the brutalities they committed during the war. I doubt many Americans know that they enslaved and tortured American POWs and even performed Dr. Mengele-like experiments on them.

Not true at all. Japanese barbarism was so bad at areas like Nanking it disgusted even the Nazis. The Japanese used to cut off peoples arms and legs and use live torsos for bayonet practice. They were ungodly barbaric in Singapore, Shanghai, Manila, and especially in the Andamans/Dutch East Indies. The Japanese too had death camps with appalling conditions that were arguably even worse than what the Nazis ran. In fact, more Americans were held in Japanese death camps that the numbers held in Nazi death camps.

How in the world were the Japanese not a threat to the US? They friggin' bombed pearl harbor. They actually hit mainland US with bombs dropped by balloons that even killed a few US citizens. There are historical records of FDR sweating bullets because the US govt anticipated a west coast invsion of the US and the govt believed that the Japanese might not be able to be stopped until they reached Chicago. It's a complete myth the Germans were more barbaric or were more of a threat.

All true.
But instead my kids learned about Angel Island, internment camps of Japanese, and how badly the US treated Asian immigrants (during the plague period in CA so yeah, no one was out and about).

All of which are extremely important and more relevant to US History.

There are many many things in world history that are not but should be taught in the US. The Pacific side of WW2 is one of them. WW1 and especially the changes wrought in the aftermath is another. However, the Japanese Internment is frankly more important from a US perspective.

DP. I agree but the Japanese internment camps, the way I learned US history, which was a very rushed WW2 and not much after, make much more sense with the context presented in this thread. As I learned history, they are just a strange bad act by the US government, an overreaction to Pearl Harbor.