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| Item ID | egyptian 1943 0507vol 24 #27.tif |
| Title | DARK MUSINGS |
| Author | By EARL BROOKS |
| Description | A natural wave of anger spread
over America recently. The news of the execution
of American fliers who helped raid
Tokyo April 18, 1942, and then fell into the hands of the Japanese, shocked civilized men the world over. |
| Original Publication Source | Daily Egyptian |
| Date | 1943 May 7 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 27 |
| Page(s) | 2 |
| Digital File Format | .TIF (Tagged Image Format) |
| Digital File Publisher | Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
| Rights Statement | All copyrights held by Southern Illinois University Carbondale. For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use this image, please contact the Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Phone: + 1 (618) 453-2516. Email: http://reftrack.lib.siu.edu/reft100.aspx?key=SCRCEmail&cllcid=SCRR |
| Collection | Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) |
| Transcript | DARK MUSINGS
By EARL BROOKS
A natural wave of anger spread
over America recently. The news of the execution
of American fliers who helped raid
Tokyo April 18, 1942, and then fell into the hands of the Japanese, shocked civilized men the world over. It was a barbarous deed, and America's vows of vengeance are just and understandable.
It is said that Major General Jimmy Doolittle, who led the raid, wants to go back and erase Japan from the earth;s surface. Churchill promised America that the famed RAF would join in a united effort to blow Japan into pieces. Our own administration has sworn that the responsible parties must be punished. All these are the sentiments of a free people. They are
sentiments of a free people. They are understandable, natural sentiments, and I agree with them all.
The thing that puzzles me about the whole affair, however, is why the Americans and Britons cannot be horrified over similar barbarities elsewhere. The act is the important thing, not who commits
it. The horror is in the fact that it is barbarous, the fact that it is committed. Truly decent, civilized people would be equally horrified and angry over similar acts of barbarity anywhere, despite who
commits it, or who happens to be the victims. In the cases of both Britain and the United States this has not been true. No doubt neither of them would execute enemy aviators. To do this would be barbarous and uncivilized. Yet it is all right, quite civilized to deal harsh, inhuman treatment to their own respective citizens. Both great powers have kept their darker subjects in a state of economic and political slavery for years— years of punishment, brutality, horror, humiliation, and pain. Looking back, the acts of Japan are mild compared to some of the self-inflicted horrors of these two great. democratic, now indignant nations.
It was not quite "cricket" for Britain to bomb the grass covered huts of defenseless India and murder the Indian people. It was a form of mass murder! Yet, no tears were shed; no sleep lost because of it. It was merely a civilized way of teaching India to think sanely, to see civilization through the rose colored glasses of the British. Even today Ghandi is held prisoner under a law long since declared void. These things are not right, but unfortunately they do not count. The Britons are blind to their own. deeds of horror.
Coming home to angry America we find a deplorable condition. Civilians are wantonly murdered on the streets of the south. Soldiers in uniform are, murdered by the men they fight to protect. Men are butchered and slaughtered here, but there is little if any indignation. The right to lynch and murder evidently has been endowed upon the English speaking people alone. Only when used by others does it become a horrible thing. Then, and only then do we rise up to wipe the barbarous sinners front the earth.
According to their own definitions, the Britons and Americans are the greatest sinners humanity has known. The isolated incidents they denounce abroad are commonplace at home. I agree that Japan was wrong; that the deed itself was brutal. But what about Sikeston, Hattiesburg, Shubuta, and others? What about conditions this country over?
When I heard of Japan's deed. I was angry clear through. But I was also angry about the Hattiesburg incident, about the almost unbelievable horrors of the Sikeston case. In fact, I am always angry because similar deeds of horror are committed in this country constantly. I advocate punishment for the Japanese, but first I would say that America must eliminate the disease from her own house. If this is not done soon, the disease we watch and hate in others will have eaten our own foundation away. If Americans and Britons don't soon begin to practice what they preach, they will find that their ability to preach in the near future will be greatly impaired.
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| Language | English |
| Type | Text |
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