Sacrifices made in war inspire awe

It seems fitting that I sit here in Kansas City, Mo., writing about that June 6 day 70 years ago, when 160,000 Allied troops landed on the Normandy beaches to help break the Nazi stronghold over Europe that had existed under Adolph Hitler’s personal direction.

The courage of those men is well understood by the 450 history teachers and professors who are here with me, grading the Advanced Placement European History exam. Some here have volunteered their time to correct examinations that their students took at the end of a year. A unit of this class was devoted to World War II.

Part of our job during our academic year is to encourage our students to understand what kind of sacrifice these men and women made 70 years ago. Sometimes, my colleagues in Hawaii show the wonderful film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, "Saving Private Ryan," which allows students to see and hear the sights, sounds and horror of that day. We ask our students to use their imagination to put themselves on those beaches, to imagine being one of those men who made it out of their landing craft, with bullets flying by, and took that beach. Perhaps the students cringe as their mind’s eye sees their buddies fall beside them as they run and eventually hug the sand of Normandy.

As one of my colleagues said the other day: "Our students are shocked by these images." They are in awe of these brave Americans — and they should be.

Going back a decade or so, I remember asking my students at Punahou School to take out pad and pen (before computers were on every desk) and interview people in Honolulu who remembered Pearl Harbor. The result was a booklet called, "The Days the Bomb Fell." With an introduction by David McCullough. Jr., this booklet consists of firsthand accounts of Dec. 7, 1941, when the bombs did fall. It also chronicles the plight of Japanese-Americans during the war and the reality of the end of World War II in Japan. These are wonderful primary documents and a booklet I have used in my classes throughout the years.

As I am older now, my memories drift back to the time when Judy Weightman, a professor at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law, asked me to work on a student guide for her new film, "From Hawaii to the Holocaust." This documentary film chronicled the heroic role of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the all-American Nisei fighting battalion that played such a heroic role in liberating Europe. The film suggests that members of the 442nd may have been among the first group of men to liberate the Jewish prisoners of Dachau — "one persecuted minority liberating another persecuted minority."

This summer, after the Advanced Placement Reading in Kansas City, I will have the chance to study World War II from the British perspective in Cambridge, England. Sponsored by the American Air Museum in England, assignments already are flowing to me and my other American and British seminar colleagues from our host, Lead Officer Suzie Harrison. I hope to pass along what I learn to my students and my history colleagues.

By keeping the history of World War II alive, especially as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of D-Day, I hope to honor my father, who flew his DC-3 transport plane in every theater of the war, including over the Himalayas (The Hump) into China, and to honor the men who so freely gave their blood on the beaches of Normandy and in other battles of World War II.