I've been preoccupied the last several days. I started reading a book my dad loaned me. He is a really big reader of WWII books, especially if they are true stories. This one is called Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley. He is the same author who wrote Flags of Our Fathers
, about the guys who raised the flag at Iwo Jima.
The author seems to do a really good job of presenting the facts, as ugly as they are. I haven't done any research to verify his sources but he seems to be very balanced in presenting what happened and why in his opinion it did. He starts by explaining how this book came to be written. This book presents events 150 years prior to WWII and helps to explain the Japanese mindset and how western Christians helped to create that mindset. Yes, Christians.
This book was very difficult to read and difficult to put down at the same time - The idea of not being able to drive past a wreck without straining to see what happened. There were parts that were unbelievably difficult to read and believe. These events were gruesome from all sides. This particular book focused on the war in the Pacific but mentions atrocities that took place elsewhere and perpetrated by US, Japanese and European servicemen. I am shocked that humans can treat other humans this way, then read to discover that the ones being victimized were not considered human. I just don't understand. Another point that I don't understand is that there were conditions that seemed to graces from God - like cloud cover at the right time, cloud clearing at the right time, wind conditions that aided the situation, or worsened the situation depending on which side of the situation you were on.
This was not a book that I received in order to do a review. But after reading it, and feeling so unnerved by it, I wanted to share. If we don't understand history and what promotes and provokes others, we will never be able to live in peace with each other. We need to be more tolerant and allow others to be different, to have different customs, to have different definitions of civilized, to worship differently.....and not fight over who has it right. Agree to disagree and look for commonality. That's what some did in this book, this true story of young military guys who are on different sides of the war but who are not so different as their leaders might want. - both sides at fault and both sides victimized.
God, Help us!!! Amen
, about the guys who raised the flag at Iwo Jima.This book was very difficult to read and difficult to put down at the same time - The idea of not being able to drive past a wreck without straining to see what happened. There were parts that were unbelievably difficult to read and believe. These events were gruesome from all sides. This particular book focused on the war in the Pacific but mentions atrocities that took place elsewhere and perpetrated by US, Japanese and European servicemen. I am shocked that humans can treat other humans this way, then read to discover that the ones being victimized were not considered human. I just don't understand. Another point that I don't understand is that there were conditions that seemed to graces from God - like cloud cover at the right time, cloud clearing at the right time, wind conditions that aided the situation, or worsened the situation depending on which side of the situation you were on.
This was not a book that I received in order to do a review. But after reading it, and feeling so unnerved by it, I wanted to share. If we don't understand history and what promotes and provokes others, we will never be able to live in peace with each other. We need to be more tolerant and allow others to be different, to have different customs, to have different definitions of civilized, to worship differently.....and not fight over who has it right. Agree to disagree and look for commonality. That's what some did in this book, this true story of young military guys who are on different sides of the war but who are not so different as their leaders might want. - both sides at fault and both sides victimized.
God, Help us!!! Amen
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