User Comments

michael walsh on Apr 15, 2007 at 17:49:20 said:

Tom Brokow's book, "The Greatest Generation", noot one mention was made of the submarine service during the Pacific War. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the submarines held the line until the U.S. was able to start an offensive against Japan. The submarines accounted for 53% of all enemy shipping,and statistically had the highest percentage of casualties. Our submarines picked up close to 550 downed allied pilots. In reading excerpts from Mr. Burns' documentary, it appears our group will not be included. I suppose we'll still remain "The Silent Service".

Karen on Apr 15, 2007 at 17:05:11 said:

Shame on PBS and Burns for trying to pull a fast one by leaving Hispanics out of a publicly funded documentary about WWII, one that until recently PBS advertised as the definitive account of WWII.

Hundreds of thousands of Latinos fought in WWII, in all theaters of the war.

But in books such as Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation," Mike Wallace's "Medal of Honor" and countless Hollywood movies, Mexican-Americans and other Latinos are absent, crwating the false impression that they did not fight in the war at all. The truth is that Latinos have fought in every US military conflict since the US Revolution.

Now PBS has hopped on the bandwagon of lies and half truths. But this time we're speaking up.

In 1960, Hollywood made a movie called from "Hell to Eternity" about Mexican-American WWII veteran, Guy Gabaldon. But in true Hollywood fashion, they rewrote him as Italian.

You don't get to pretend that our contributions are all yours anymore. We're putting a stop to it.

Eleven Americans of Mexican descent were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by FDR and Truman for their service in WWII.

And that's what really counts anyway. Not Ken Burns.

James Clifford on Apr 15, 2007 at 11:05:47 said:

You want a story: Bing West said Hispanics have replaced the Irish as the backbone of the Marine Corps. Do a piece on the contributions of both groups. Time to build bridges. And quit using "Anglo," unless you mean people of English heritage. Might as well validate "gentile" for Christians.

Sy M. Kahn on Apr 14, 2007 at 10:12:41 said:

That Ken Burns will be releasing a documentary on WW2 is good news. However, I must wonder whether or not his source material includes my diary - not a memoir - written when I was 18 to 21 years old, as an enlisted man in the US Army who served 27 months overseas in the South Pacific without a break. The diary has been published by the University of Illinois press under the title: "Between Tedium and Terror: A Soldier's Diary 1943-1945. It is only one of two or three at the most complete diaries, which were kept against regulations. Excerpts from the book are displayed in the D-Day museum in New Orleans.

I do not know how to get in touch with Mr. Burns directly, but hope that someone on his staff will forward this information.
Thank you. Sy M. Kahn

m j on Apr 12, 2007 at 08:37:24 said:

Somewhere between 1.6% to 3.1% of those in the service in WWII were Hispanic. Even if we say that the true figure is 2.5%, if you randomly chose 40 servicemen, you wouldn\\\'t choose any Hispanics half of the time. It\\\'s called chance, people.

Twice as many African Americans as Hispanic Americans were in the ervice during WWII. Does this mean that Hispanic soldiers are not as deserving of recognition as black soldiers? Of course not. Buy a decent history book about Americans WWII, and my guess is that Hispanic soldiers are not ignored. To demand that one producer of one documentary include Hispanics in his documentary is ridiculous, given the numbers. If two hundred soldiers were interviewed for the film, and no Hispanics were interviewed, it would be a different story. Someone needs to do the math, though.

By the way, Ken Burns doesn\\\'t exactly write the definitive history of anything. The author of this article, as well as many of the commentators, seem to suggest that Burns has some sort of monopoly on history. Go to a library, and you will see that this is not true. Your tax dollars fund libraries, just like they fund PBS.

To suggest that Burns has the ability to \\\"erase a significant portion of our nation\\\'s memory\\\" is just ridiculous. The author asks: \\\"How will young Latinas learn about the many \\\'Rosita the Riveters\\\' who built and even flew military aircraft?\\\" Perhaps they will have to learn such things by... gasp... reading. Doesn\\\'t the fact that there IS \\\"an incredibly rich archive of materials known as the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project,\\\" which is likely paid for at least partially by the public, show that no one is erasing anything?

Shawn Stafford on Apr 12, 2007 at 00:27:14 said:

Guess what my digruntled minority friends, the Ken Burns series is mostly about the KIA in WW2, 99% of which were white. Every one appriciates minority contributions to the war effort, but lets not affirmative action every public event to death.

Monico P. Molinar Vietnam Vet. 3rd/325 82nd Airborne Divison Inf. on Apr 10, 2007 at 06:54:21 said:

To Whom It May Concern:

For crying out loud what the heck is wrong with Ken Burns?

I bet Ken Burns would leave out Rock and Roll icon "Santana" in we had him do a documentary on Woodstock.

I am not asking for Mr. Burns to give a complete account of WWII in his lastest documentary The War, but how about a balanced, fair, or organized account? This is what happens when a guy gets lucky one time and does an outstanding job for PBS on the Civil War and then cannot get anything else right after that. We have enough living World War II Veterans that would have been able to say or mention that they had a lot of help in their units from Mexican Americans or Indian Americans or or Latin Americans so that Mr. Burns wouldn't have had such a hard time finding one to interview in his documentary.

What was Mr. Burns doing with my tax money for 6 years anyways that he received via PBS who receives my tax money as 15 percent of their budget via my tax dollars? I think I'm getting ripped off now that once again as my American of Mexican culture isn't mentioned as a contribution in his story. I have many cousins, uncles, and newphews in todays Army and in yesterdays Army in Vietnam, Korea, and World II that deserve to be mentioned and interviewed for their devotion and help to our American Dream. I feel Mr. Burn didn't take his project serious enough, almost like a drunk driver who doesn't take driving serious anymore.

I think PBS should never give my tax money to anyone in the form of a contract like Paula Kerger entered into with Mr. Burns until the year 2022. That's scandalous. And to say no one else will have a better documentary than Mr. Burns so we just accept Mr. Burns is as good as it will get is to bothersome on so many levels I don't have time to register them all. Finally, I do ask we review the Civil War series for it shows a lot of details may have been left out that bring fair, honest balance to the history of the Civil War.

Samuel Eliot Morison served as a Rear Admiral in the US Navy in World War II. He received a PhD from Harvard University and wrote several books. I recommend that Mr. Burns go back and look at Adrmiral Morison's book THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE where in my edition on page 447, an account is given of the Fox and Saux Indian tribes that in 1832 were massacurred on their own land in Illinois, USA, over 1000 men, women, and babies killed by then a young US Army Lieutenant Abraham Lincoln and his company; this is never mentioned in Mr. Burns Civil War documentary but should be because "Black Hawk" the Chief of these Indian tribes life was saved by another young Lieutenant at the massacure, Jefferson Davis.

Daughter of 442nd Soldier on Apr 02, 2007 at 09:25:59 said:

Just FYI, the Japanese Americans in the 442nd Combat Team served in Italy, not Korea.

John Duke on Mar 20, 2007 at 09:28:02 said:

When I was young my Father used to tell me stories of his experiences as an M.P. in England in the war. One story in particular always disturbed me. First a bit of background. Men of my Father's generation were used to hearing of black men being lynched if they were caught "bothering" white women. But in England all that changed. Not only were black American soldiers free to persue white English women, the women, for their part, were open to their advances. Needless to say, this simply infuriated the white Americans, especially those from the South. So one night in Bristol members of the 101st Airborne Division brought weapons to the top floor of one of the local hotels on the main street of town and simply shot down dozens of the offending couples. According to my Father, many were killed by fire from high powered machine guns, in other words combat weapons. This incident was completely hushed up in the American press but some stories I think came out in the local paper. Jim Crow Meets John Bull. I think it would make a compelling story for Ken Burn's series

Don Shannon on Mar 19, 2007 at 02:47:39 said:

"According to reports" is not sufficient grounds to make a federal case. Unless Mr Burns chooses to address the issue prior to the broadcast it will have to rest until fall.

The forces involved in WWII were as diverse as the American people and covered virtually every ethnic and racial grouping, and it would be impossible to mention everybody in a film of finite length.

If we are considering groups who could have a legitimate complaint, what about the Japanese Americans who served in a highly decorated unit in Korea in spite of having their families herded into "concentration camps" by the government they were serving. Consider also the Navaho "code talkers" who had less reason than most to serve in the forces considering how Native Americans had been treated by the whites.

In particular consider the African Americans who served honourably in what amounted to segregated units, or in menial jobs that were forced on them by the white officer corps.

There were injustices throught out the American military in that period and while the Latino veterans "may" have been slighted in the film they were almost certainly not the only group in this category

Tony Osteika on Feb 26, 2007 at 01:36:56 said:

The comment was made that Mariscal's criticism of Burn's effort was unfounded because the film was an attempt to "humanize" the war. Okay, well, personal accounts have to be inclusive of the wide variety of soldiers who have something to say, or have said, too, and that includes Mexican Americans.

It's not an all encompassing historical documentary, true; however, WWII was NOT fought just by one particular segment of American society. Our American narrative of WWII, inherently, necessitates inclusively of all the "voices" who were there, and that includes Mexican Americans, as it does, Turkish American, Iranian American, African American, Lebanese American, German American, Italian American, Brazilian American, etc.

It is irrelvant as to the aim of the Burn's efforts, what is relevant is that it be inclusive and fair to all Americans who participated in defending the country during World War II.

Note: It may just be that Mr. Burn needs to be made aware of the extensive role Mexican American soldiers had in WWII.

Marya Hannun on Feb 23, 2007 at 01:02:55 said:

I feel as though this critique of Ken Burns is unfounded. Nowhere in his film or any of the media surrounding it does he claim to be representing the war in its entirety. In fact, his film specifically deals with personal accounts that are meant to humanize the war and depict it from an alternate perspective (i.e. not the traditional historical one dealing in battles and generals). He is not claiming to be creating a definitive all-encompassing account. That being said, wouldn\'t this criticism better be raised towards people who have been trying to present the war as a complete historical narrative and left the hispanic contribution out?

Beatrice Garcia Delph on Feb 22, 2007 at 09:46:49 said:

Although I only had one cousin old enough to serve in World War II, my father worked for the railroad. As you know, the railroads were essential to the war effort at that time. He was required to work 10 hours a day 6 days a week and be on call the rest of the time. Needless to say, he was called on very often because the trains, carrying troops and supplies, had to be kept running day and night. I am sure my father would have been drafted if he hadn't been working for the railroad. In addition, our neighbor had 4 sons that served in the Pacific. One of them still lives in our old neighborhood in case Mr. Ken Burns would want to interview him.