Up Close with WWII

Last week all of the tenth grade American Studies class had the privilege of meeting a navy-man from World War II. To have the perspective of someone from the war was quite amazing; you were given the ability to see how someone thought of the enemy (to an extent), the missions they went on (specifically delivering the atom bomb), and the living conditions. When Mr. Fox's, wife's, grandfather (I totally forgot his name e_e, sorry, something like Undermeijer) spoke of the enemy, the Japanese, he commonly referred to them as "Japs", and I thought that was rather interesting considering the word "Jap/Japs" is seen as a derogatory or racial slur now. It kinda shows how Mr. Fox's, wife's, grandfather thought. But the living conditions the men were given were also kind of striking. The way the beds didn't really seem stable; the way they hungs from the walls and how they went in during the day for more room. The picture below wasn't the one that was displayed on the powerpoint given during the presentation, and these beds also seem "nicer" than what was given to the navy-men (then again the slave-ships were a lot worse but still).

Overall, the experience was great and being given the privilege of meeting the man was marvelous and to have more speakers in would be fun and great interactive experience.