Monday letters: Veterans deserve accurate history

I have just completed 49 years of teaching, in 13 civilian schools and colleges and in military settings, and I have found a lot of apathy about the Second World War. I have met and taught people who are in their 40s and 50s who do not even know the significance of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941.

Some of the blame has to go to our educational system. I have found numerous errors and important events missing in textbooks. Some instructors end the course without covering World War II or just gloss over it.

Teaching students to memorize their way through history is not the best way. History should be analyzed and students shown how earlier events lead to larger events later. It’s not so much the battles as the economic, political and social trends created by World War II that should be taught. Much of our current situation can be attributed to the boundary changes created after both of the world wars.

More than 16 million Americans served in the Second World War, and slightly more than two million are still alive. Now in their late 80s and 90s, they will not be with us many more years, and we should honor them with accurate portrayals of the war.

We owe the World War II veterans a lot. As late as January 1945 we could have lost the war in Europe to the Germans. This was prevented by the Americans turning the tide in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.

Columbia