Down the Memory Hole
With all the terrible stuff that is going on today, I suppose it may seem like a waste of energy to be upset about what happened 30 years ago. But as George Orwell said, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

I was having a conversation today with Monika, who is the other English teacher in my town. Monika is one of those world traveler types who spent time teaching English in Laos and Cambodia before coming to Japan. Monika was talking about her time in Laos, and describing how the destruction from the Vietnam war is still very visible. In most places, she said, it would be impossible to walk in a straight line across a village with out having to zig zag to avoid bomb craters from long ago.

And then there is the problem with bombs that were dropped during the Vietnam War, but never exploded. These Bombs will occasionally be accidentally triggered by farmers or children playing nearby with predictably deadly results. The United States has given little to no aid in removing these left over bombs, but NGOs and bomb removal volunteers from other countries are doing what they can.

Monika described some Irish volunteers she met, and her conversations with them. These volunteers have contacted the United States pentagon asking for the "render safe programs" to defuse these bombs, but the pentagon has refused to give these materials out because the bombs, although 30 years old, were often proto-types for bombs still in use. (I found this article on line which backs up Monika's story). Therefore the NGO volunteers, to defuse the bombs, must take their lives into their own hands with each bomb they attempt to defuse. Monika said the night before one of their missions she went out drinking with some of them. "Should you really be drinking the night before you defuse a bomb?" she asked them. "It's the only way we can get through it," they answered. She said the stress of the job was visible in their eyes. She also added, with apologies to me, that they were vehemently anti-American.

As the conversation continued, Monika contrasted the attitude of the NGO workers she met with the attitude of Americans. She described a bizarre episode in which she was near the Vietnam Laos boarder, where a lot of the bombings had taken place, with two Americans who had joined the military to get money for school. She said they were very patriotic, and refused to acknowledge that the secret illegal bombings of Laos and Cambodia had even taken place, despite standing beside bomb craters that would appear to be evidence indicating otherwise.

In fact, the US bombings of Laos and Cambodia is one of those events that has disappeared down the memory hole. Obviously people old enough to have actually lived through those events might remember, but there is no reason anyone of my generation would know about it. It has been completely erased from the history text books. I noticed this during my History Education courses at Calvin College. We compared various High School text books. None of the text books mentioned the illegal bombings of Laos and Cambodia. None of them mentioned the carpet bombings in North Vietnam. None of them mentioned the My Lai massacre.

Unless someone is a bit of history nut like me (or perhaps you) someone of my generation is more likely than not completely unaware of these events. Try a little experiment. Mention "The Pentagon Papers" to someone under 30, and see if they have a clue what you are talking about. My experience is that most of the time I'm the only in my circle of friends who even know what they are. It has been erased from our collective memory. Not only to history text books omit the Pentagon Papers, they often repeat the lie debunked by the Pentagon Papers 30 years ago, that US soldiers were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Indeed our collective memory of Vietnam has been so white washed that most young people have no idea of the extent of US atrocities in the area, and most older people are content not to remember. This attitude was seen very clearly in the past presidential election when attempts were made to demonize Kerry for opposing the war upon his return home. There were attempts to link Kerry to Jane Fonda, but where was the outrage when President Bush appointed Henry Kissinger, one of the world's worst war criminals, to head the 9-11 commission?

Which brings me to a pet peeve I have. As anyone who reads about Japan knows, Japan has a problem with writing honest history books about atrocities during World War II. And it is a real problem. The atrocities did happen, and the history text books used in Japanese schools do often breeze over them. But what bugs the hell out of me is when people talk about this as if it were only a problem in Japan.

I once met an English teacher in Japan who was a former Mormon, but lost his faith in Christianity after reading about American atrocities in the Philippines during the American-Philippine War 1899-1904. As this war is not even mentioned in history text books, he didn't even know the war existed until he came to Japan and meant some Filipino friends.

My sister had a similar experience while studying in France. One of her French friends was talking the how the CIA overthrew a democratic government in Guatemala in 1954, but my sister didn't have a clue what that was. After realizing this, the French friend just replied in disgust, "Well, it figures they wouldn't teach you that in the American schools." They teach it in the French schools. They damn sure teach it in the Guatemalan schools. But to be fair, we Americans can't be bothered to keep track of all those little countries we've over thrown this century.

At this point I'm tempted to go into a little rant about the American attitude, "I can't understand why the rest of the world hates us so much," but this post is long enough already, and I think everyone can connect the dots on their own. History is a very slippery thing. If you don't watch it, it can change on you very fast.