U.S. History, Thursday, 3/26, Period 2
"Today is guest lecture day," Tyler announced after the students were more or less in their seats. If the class had eyes, they would have already noticed there was a third man with their teachers this morning, so, really, he was just confirming the obvious. But he wasn't feeling great; it was a good day for stating the obvious and reading from his notecards. "And, as your syllabus will tell you, it's also World War II day."
"World War II started on two fronts -- a war between China and Japan that started in 1937, and another that started when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. The U.S. got involved when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941; before it ended with Japan's surrender in 1945, about 11 million Americans served in branches of the military. This is out of a U.S. population of about 132 million in 1940 -- so, one almost one in ten people enlisted."
"Your guest speaker today is Steve Rogers. Steve taught art, he teaches sex ed now, and he has an interesting point of view to share."
"Thank you, Tyler, and hello, everyone," Steve said. “I’m not going to tell you about the entire war. That would take more time than we have. I’m not going to throw dates and names and places at you. I’m just going to tell you about how I saw it. Early in 1941 I went to the movies. There was a newsreel before the main film, back then, and that day it was about the war in Europe. They showed footage of a concentration camp, and I was so struck by the horror of it I decided to join the army.” Understatement of the century. “So yes, I was in before Pearl Harbor, and before America entered the war. I knew we’d be joining. We had to. We couldn’t let what was happening stand. Germany said they needed to expand, they needed more land. So did Japan. And that was one thing, we thought-people still thought that way, that the lines on the map were mutable, that if a country wanted more land it was somehow more or less acceptable to try to take it. But that was the last time we thought that, because the way they went about it was appalling, and they just didn’t stop. The reason the whole world got dragged into it wasn’t just because Hitler’s Reich kept rolling over everything and didn’t give them much choice, it was also because it was a war about how it was acceptable to treat human beings.
“Millions and millions of people died in concentration camps not even because of something they’d done, but simply because of what they were. Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, communists. Dissidents. It was horrifyingly wrong, and the world realized that, and a lot of people did everything they could to end it. Unfortunately, sixty-five years later some people haven’t quite gotten the memo,” he said ruefully. “Millions more died in the fighting. Technology made it easy to die. Planes, tanks, bombs. In my universe both sides had superhumans fighting for them, upping the ante. I wasn’t around for the end of the war, when America dropped the atom bomb on Japanese civilians. I experienced that at fifty years’ remove. The reasoning was to end the war as quickly as possible, before we lost any more of ‘our’ people, but that swift resolution came at the cost of their people, and if there’s one lesson we should have learned from the war it was that that kind of dichotomy just isn’t acceptable if you’re going to be a member of the human race. So, it was horrible, and mind-bogglingly vast, and real, and it opened a lot of people’s eyes even if we’re still processing what we saw. And that’s really all I can say.”
He paused for a moment, then one corner of his mouth quirked up, and he added, “Oh, and one last thing. I believe I’m contractually obligated to inform people of this any time I give a talk on the War: I did once punch Hitler in the face. It was very satisfying.”
"I... imagine it would be, yes. And thank you for your time." Algren gave a nod of thanks to Steve for his talk before looking back at the class. "Now, does anybody have questions for Mr. Rogers that they'd like to ask? And don't forget your economization assignments from last class. We'll get to those when we're finished shaking down Steve for information."
Nathan smirked a little at that. Actually, there were quite a few people from his own time that he would have liked to punch in the face, too.
"World War II started on two fronts -- a war between China and Japan that started in 1937, and another that started when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. The U.S. got involved when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941; before it ended with Japan's surrender in 1945, about 11 million Americans served in branches of the military. This is out of a U.S. population of about 132 million in 1940 -- so, one almost one in ten people enlisted."
"Your guest speaker today is Steve Rogers. Steve taught art, he teaches sex ed now, and he has an interesting point of view to share."
"Thank you, Tyler, and hello, everyone," Steve said. “I’m not going to tell you about the entire war. That would take more time than we have. I’m not going to throw dates and names and places at you. I’m just going to tell you about how I saw it. Early in 1941 I went to the movies. There was a newsreel before the main film, back then, and that day it was about the war in Europe. They showed footage of a concentration camp, and I was so struck by the horror of it I decided to join the army.” Understatement of the century. “So yes, I was in before Pearl Harbor, and before America entered the war. I knew we’d be joining. We had to. We couldn’t let what was happening stand. Germany said they needed to expand, they needed more land. So did Japan. And that was one thing, we thought-people still thought that way, that the lines on the map were mutable, that if a country wanted more land it was somehow more or less acceptable to try to take it. But that was the last time we thought that, because the way they went about it was appalling, and they just didn’t stop. The reason the whole world got dragged into it wasn’t just because Hitler’s Reich kept rolling over everything and didn’t give them much choice, it was also because it was a war about how it was acceptable to treat human beings.
“Millions and millions of people died in concentration camps not even because of something they’d done, but simply because of what they were. Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, communists. Dissidents. It was horrifyingly wrong, and the world realized that, and a lot of people did everything they could to end it. Unfortunately, sixty-five years later some people haven’t quite gotten the memo,” he said ruefully. “Millions more died in the fighting. Technology made it easy to die. Planes, tanks, bombs. In my universe both sides had superhumans fighting for them, upping the ante. I wasn’t around for the end of the war, when America dropped the atom bomb on Japanese civilians. I experienced that at fifty years’ remove. The reasoning was to end the war as quickly as possible, before we lost any more of ‘our’ people, but that swift resolution came at the cost of their people, and if there’s one lesson we should have learned from the war it was that that kind of dichotomy just isn’t acceptable if you’re going to be a member of the human race. So, it was horrible, and mind-bogglingly vast, and real, and it opened a lot of people’s eyes even if we’re still processing what we saw. And that’s really all I can say.”
He paused for a moment, then one corner of his mouth quirked up, and he added, “Oh, and one last thing. I believe I’m contractually obligated to inform people of this any time I give a talk on the War: I did once punch Hitler in the face. It was very satisfying.”
"I... imagine it would be, yes. And thank you for your time." Algren gave a nod of thanks to Steve for his talk before looking back at the class. "Now, does anybody have questions for Mr. Rogers that they'd like to ask? And don't forget your economization assignments from last class. We'll get to those when we're finished shaking down Steve for information."
Nathan smirked a little at that. Actually, there were quite a few people from his own time that he would have liked to punch in the face, too.