15: World War II

In all, 6,300 Germans and German-Americans were arrested and over 3,600 were interned. While some were believed to have assisted Germany with information or finances during the war, many were incarcerated for simply being German. Along with German soldiers, Fort Oglethorpe also held German businessmen, journalists, academics, and artists who likely had no connection with the war effort of their native country.

Trump’s supporters suggest that detention was harsh but necessary; his critics say that it was a mistake. But both sides seem to agree that the government believed it was justified. And both sides seem to agree that in the Korematsu case, the government offered its good-faith defense of detention, and the Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutionally sound. In fact, however, none of these things is true.

Wyoming governor Nels Smith said that his state would not "stand for being California's dumping ground." If Japanese Americans bought land in his state, he added, "There would be Japs hanging from every pine tree." [5]

Meeting between the War Relocation Authority (WRA) and western state governors, attorneys general, and other state and federal officials held on April 7, 1942, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to discuss the resettlement of Japanese Americans excluded from the West Coast in their states. The unanticipated hostility of state officials to Japanese Americans coming to their states led to the WRA pursuing the building of concentration camps to house the removed Japanese Americans and contributed to the resignation of the WRA's first director, Milton Eisenhower .

I am therefore addressing this urgent appeal to every Government, which may be engaged in hostilities, publicly to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event and under no circumstances undertake bombardment from the air of civilian populations or unfortified cities, upon the understanding that the same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all their opponents.

The bottom line of the positive critical evaluations is this: <em>Saving Private Ryan</em> is a new and different World War II combat film because it finally refutes the dishonesty of previous Hollywood movies of the genre.

WWII veterans who have stated that <em>Saving Private Ryan</em> is the most realistic presentation of combat they've seen.

Spielberg's mastery of sound, editing, camera movement, visual storytelling, narrative flow, performance, and color combine to assault a viewer, to place each and every member of the audience directly into the combat experience.

This opening sequence is a nightmare.

<em>Bataan</em> (1943), directed by Tay Garnett and written by Robert D. Andrews.

<em>Bataan</em>, of course, was shot entirely inside a studio on sets, using matte shots, rear projections, and artificial fog machines. What <em>is</em> realistic (and gritty) about it is the genuine anger it contains. Its propagandistic passion was fueled by the recent fall of Bataan and America's overall failure in the early days of the Pacific war.

This <em>Bataan</em> beheading is one of the most graphic of combat deaths of the pre-sixties period, and certainly one of the most brutal of the era itself. Yet by today's standards, it is a bloodless kill.

Does this mean "unrealistic"? Physically, yes. Psychologically and emotionally, perhaps not.

Filmmakers of the 1940s knew how to create powerful effects for the audiences of their time.

<em>Guadalcanal Diary</em> (1943

the United States spent more than $50 million annually on documentary movies.

My research for <em>The World War II Combat Film</em> indicated that the traditional story format contains three basic elements: hero, group, and objective