Bad history.
Jun. 27th, 2004 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreI've been watching the History Channel, and am seeing two of the most biased shows I've seen in a while.
Both are part of the "Days That Changed History" series, and both concern nuclear issues.
The first was about Chernobyl, and did everything it could to make it seem that every nuclear reactor in the world is of the same shoddy design and run by the same idiots. The ending "there is no such thing as a safe atom" was total bullshit, since there's no such thing as a safe coal-fired plant either.
The second was about the Enola Gay and Hiroshima. If anything, this goes even farther! Americans are always shown either in jerky footage, clad in dark glasses and goggles, or never looking into the camera. Japanese (more often than not women and children) are always shown in conjunction with soft, simple music and pastoral scenes. They constantly look into the camera, making connection with the audience.
Nothing is given in context. No mention is made of Pearl Harbor, except when directly quoting Truman. No mention is made of the Japanese war crimes, or of the estimated casualties involved in the invasion of the home islands. The entire thing was made to show Americans as mechanistic, inhuman murderers, and the Japanese as innocent victims of horrid aggressions.
That's not how it happened. Any discussion of history has to look at the whole story. Someday, there will be documentaries about 9/11. I hope that they look not only at the atrocities of the day, but the political climate that led up to them!
Both are part of the "Days That Changed History" series, and both concern nuclear issues.
The first was about Chernobyl, and did everything it could to make it seem that every nuclear reactor in the world is of the same shoddy design and run by the same idiots. The ending "there is no such thing as a safe atom" was total bullshit, since there's no such thing as a safe coal-fired plant either.
The second was about the Enola Gay and Hiroshima. If anything, this goes even farther! Americans are always shown either in jerky footage, clad in dark glasses and goggles, or never looking into the camera. Japanese (more often than not women and children) are always shown in conjunction with soft, simple music and pastoral scenes. They constantly look into the camera, making connection with the audience.
Nothing is given in context. No mention is made of Pearl Harbor, except when directly quoting Truman. No mention is made of the Japanese war crimes, or of the estimated casualties involved in the invasion of the home islands. The entire thing was made to show Americans as mechanistic, inhuman murderers, and the Japanese as innocent victims of horrid aggressions.
That's not how it happened. Any discussion of history has to look at the whole story. Someday, there will be documentaries about 9/11. I hope that they look not only at the atrocities of the day, but the political climate that led up to them!
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Date: 28 Jun 2004 02:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Jun 2004 09:22 (UTC)Glad I missed the whole Enola Gay/Hiroshima thing. I recently got into it with some twink who was going on about "the easily made decision to bomb Hiroshima".