Thursday, April 17, 2008

Presentations on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Battle for the Philippine Sea:

Like others, I felt this presentation was a nice change from hearing about so many war casualties.  She was definitely a much beloved and respected first lady.  So many things that she did were just part of her general character and personality.  I thought it was interesting to note that she was one of the founders of Freedom House, an advocate of human rights and civil liberties.  What a testimony to her and her beliefs that there are still Freedom House offices located around the world today.  It is not surprising that she took such an active part in FDR’s office affairs.  Together they were a very impressive team.       

 

In the presentation on the Battle of the Philippine Sea, or the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, I thought the part about the Kamikaze pilots was interesting.  I did not realize that many of them were college students who dedicated themselves to the cause and were willing to die for it in such a way.  WW II had its own suicide bombers in the form of this group.  I also did not realize that this was the biggest aircraft carrier in battle in history.   

1 comment:

Maria Gonzalez said...

As for the Kamikazi pilots, I had realized that they were a huge part of WWII, but what I did not realize was that suicide was such a big part of WWII. This was a big connection that I had not realized before this week. As we learned this week, Kamikazi civilians were also very common. These civilians would kill themselves to keep from being captured by Americans because they believed that they would be killed, raped, and/or worse if they were captured. Babies were even thrown off of cliffs. The worst part was that they did this not for what they believed in but for what they believed would happen to them. Propaganda that had been fed to these people caused so many unnecessary deaths. To me this is one of the most harsh costs of war. Is suicide a roccurring theme in all wars?