During World War II, law-abiding Japanese-American citizens were herded into remote internment camps, losing their jobs, businesses and social standing, while an all-Japanese-American division fought heroically in Europe.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the injustice faced by Japanese-Americans during World War II, despite their courageous contributions to the war effort.
Tom Brokaw's quote underscores the stark contrast between the treatment of Japanese-American citizens and their bravery on the battlefield during World War II. As they were unjustly confined to internment camps, losing their livelihoods and societal roles, many served with honor in an all-Japanese-American military division defending the very country that wronged them. This paradox illustrates themes of discrimination, patriotism, and the complexity of national identity in times of conflict.
In practice
This quote can be used in a history class discussion about civil rights during wartime.
The WWII generation shares so many common values: duty, honor, country, personal responsibility and the marriage vow " For better or for worse--it was the last generation in which, broadly speaking, marriage was a commitment and divorce was not an option
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I had good care going. I had Meredith and the family. And I didn't want to become the object of some kind of pity, most of all. I didn't want to show up on the Internet, 'Tom Brokaw has cancer.'
Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.
The frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.
Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.
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...it would be a mistake...to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages... The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see... we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.
Black history is a series of missing chapters from British history. I'm trying to put those bits back in.
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