cantona2
Posts: 3749
Joined: 5/21/2007 From: Gibraltar Status: offline
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BoB I think was made with the right intentions, to honour the men that fought those campaigns. This one, I think also has that at its core, however the hyperbole surrounding the launch of The Pacific has made it a disappointment to many grognards and students of the Second World War. That it is made by two of America's 'we set morals' brigade doesn't help its cause. History has to be viewed objectively and one cannot use one's own 21st century prejudices, opinions or biases to portray an event from the past as emotionally charged as The Pacific Campaign. Fact was that americans at the time regarded the japanese as yellow, slant eyed monkeys as portrayed in propaganda and in slogans at the time. It was also a socially accepted view of Japanese peoples so physically and psychologically different to Americans. the attack on PH heightend this and fuelled these attitudes and behaviour, and lets face it you want your soldiers to be as antagonistic and aggressive towards your enemy as possible. The PC brigade of today would have a coronoary attack in the 1940's. IMO I think that we have swung too far to the other side nowadays but as all GCSE students are initially taught, historians need to empathise with the period of history they are studying and take those opinions as they are and not transpose a 21st century point of view on them. As to the series, this last episode was, for me, the best one so far. I understand the antagonism to the non battle episodes but two factors have to be considered. soldiers were not in action all the time and the portrayl of battle stress, at a time when the condition was deemed not to exist was interesting. Likewise the vast geographical area invloved meant that at times units in the Pacific spent longer times out of direct contact with the enemy. In Europe, as the fighting all took place on the same landmass, the front was a more consistent line and contact with enemy was more regular. Take the Ost Front for example, a line running from Leningrad to Rostov in mid 1942 with constant contact. the Pacific theatre was hardly ever like this. The ocean or the jungle made this largely impossible, therefore the actions in the pacific are less regular but at times more intensive than in europe.
< Message edited by cantona2 -- 4/14/2010 7:10:36 PM >
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1966 was a great year for English Football...Eric was born
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