Apparently she came across some "gold false teeth" in a vial of some sort and asked about them. I asked her if a relative had served in the Pacific during WW2. Her father had served in Europe.
She asked me, and I'm sure she was shocked , if they were some soldier's teeth. I sent her the following email:
Your father was stationed in Europe. That was rough but at least there were a few vestiges of civilization there. The German PEOPLE (as opposed to the leadership) for the most part held pretty much the same views as we do. At that time Americans were mostly European by origin.
A GI in Europe would certainly kill a German and take his helmet, rifle and belt as a souvenir but that's generally about it. (One time in Congress Harry Truman said, "The Germans fight for the Fuhrer, the British fight for the King and Americans fight for souvenirs.")
Prisoners of War were treated fairly and actually quite well. Many former PWs moved here after the war.
The Pacific was entirely different. The Japanese had an entirely different culture and after the Guadalcanal and Tarawa campaigns the servicemen had figured out the rules the Japanese played by and joined into the gala festivities. The Japanese considered being taken prisoner to being a worse fate than death. Atrocities by both sides became the norm.
While most GIs didn't reduce themselves to that kind of behavior MANY did. Collecting gold teeth from dead Japanese soldiers (among other things) became a hobby of sorts for some.
One time I saw a letter opener and asked about it. The woman said her father had gotten it during the war when he had been in the Solomons. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was likely made out of a Japanese thigh bone.
We get pretty damned self righteous with the troops. We condemn them for painting a seminaked woman on their airplane and say it's obscene and then send that same aircrew up to drop fire on their fellow man.
We condemn a GI for urinating on an enemy corpse even though ten minutes earlier the now dead enemy had left the GI cringing in a hole covered in the goo that was his best friend's brains.
We sit in our lovely homes that are secured by the young men we send into battle and then have the downright gall to question the way they secure our way of life. What hypocrisy!
Do you remember the Disney 'Swamp Fox' mini series?
Leslie Nielsen, all American clean cut hero. Francis Marion.
Well the real Francis Marion used to treat snitches by waiting until they were not home and then burning their homes with the families still inside. The snitch would come home to the charred remains of his home and family.
Our freedoms were gained for us by men now roasting in hell.
As far as judgement goes, none of us have the right to judge the battlefield conduct of a soldier.The ONLY ones that can do are the people he served with.
Nobody comes home from a war the same person they were when they left and most of them quickly morph into something different than they were as soldiers.
Actually most GIs were just people that were given a dirty job to do. They did it as best they could and simply wanted to go home, get married and raise a family.
As for your father? He simply is what he is. He has his memories and maybe his demons. They are his and his alone to deal with. If he feels like talking then listen. If not, don't pry.
He also has the joys of fatherhood and treats you like a princess, no doubt. Just go with that.
As for the teeth? I don't have a clue.
Whatever
ReplyDeleteDon't be lame. It is an interesting look into how even civilized and 'good' people can do questionable things once they start to see their opponent as less than human.
DeleteTrue. Look at the propaganda posters that Uncle Sam had printed. The Hun, the dirty Jap. The first casualty of war is truth. Still, for the most part I do believe the average GI that went off the deep end did so out of a feeling of payback.
ReplyDelete