World+War+II+Journal

= World War II =

I can’t even explain how I felt after I saw the section entitled Pearl Harbor. To me this all seems really CRAZYYY. All of these countries wanted power and it wasn’t even the countries that wanted it was the dictators ruling the countries. I was so angry when I saw all those innocent people on the floor just lying. They were dead; they were dead because someone decided to bomb that country. Didn’t these people think of all the innocents they were killing??? From my perspective I think that the person who started all of this was Hitler. He made an army, kept making it bigger and bigger. He thirsted for power and revenge. Japan attacked the U.S. and then U.S. declared was on them. After that Germany and Italy declared war on us. I just think that Hitler was the problem, not that others weren’t just as involved as him, but he was like the wood that fueled the fire.
 * Day One 12/9/08**

Oh My Gosh!!! Today we watched the attacks from Japan. I thought that it was horrible how in such a short time Japan concurred the Pacific. As I watched the part about the U.S. and Japan fighting and then the U.S. surrendering many, many thoughts were running through my head. How did they survive with such little food and water? It had to be a miracle. After the U.S. solider surrender they had to walk about 7 days. This march was known as the Bataan Death March. It was merciless. I couldn’t stand to listen to the parts about trucks driving over their bodies. It was appalling. The few soldiers that were left after the march were taken to Camp O’Donnell. Camp O’Donnell was even worse. The soldiers didn’t have proper food and they caught several diseases. Sometimes they would bury up to 250 people a day. It was worse that a jail.
 * Day Two 12/10/08**

I don’t think that I would be able to stand the incredible things the soldiers on Guadalcanal did. They had to live in terrible conditions with Japanese Rice and fish heads to eat. By the end of the battle every soldier that was still living had lost at least 25 pounds. Sometimes the soldiers were very close to starving to death. They had to live with dead bodies lying around them. I would have probably died in the first two days. The Japanese were attacking the marines on Guadalcanal everyday. Hundreds of people were dying. It was just a horrific situation.
 * Day Three 12/1/08**

Today we saw a segment called killing is a craft. I really didn’t understand it until the end of the part. At first the new soldiers who had just joined the army were scared of death and killing others. All of the fighting, bombs, guns, violence, and dead bodies just terrified them. They couldn’t even bare to look at all of it. I still remember one of the guys who was telling his story. He said that he cried the first time he saw one of the gruesome dead bodies. While the story was coming to an end the soldiers got over their fears. They all understood that they were just doing their jobs and couldn’t control the killing.
 * Day Four 12/15/08**

No place for children was the part that we saw today. This was the part when the allies went to Anzio. The Germans were attacking them day in and day out. There was no place where the soldiers were safe. The Germans attacked Anzio for about 8 weeks. After the 8th week they didn’t stop attacking, but they did slow down. The Germans would attack about once a day. The soldiers started coming up with names for the bomb launchers. I still remember one of the names. It was “Popcorn Annie.” This part made me sad. I was thinking about how much the soldiers would have gone through to get over their fear of the bombings anymore. They were to the point where they could make fun of the attacks. If I were in their position I would have died during the first attack. I would have died of fright.
 * Day Five 12/16/08**

D-Day was a significant day in World War II. This is what happened… D-Day is known as Operation Overlord. It started on June 6, 1944. Before the soldiers were sent of to the planes they would paint their faces. The men with the parachutes would drop out of the planes. Many of them would drift to the wrong spot. Some parachutes didn’t work. Haf of the men were never found. One of the landings the ships were going to was Omaha Beach. Omaha was the biggest of the 5 beaches. It had mines, deep sand, and was barbed wired. The German troops were waiting for the ships to dock. As soon as the first ship opened its doors the attack started. Some of the men were killed before the got off the ships. Those who did manage to reach shore didn’t know where to go. General Bradley thought that they should retreat instead of sending out more men to die. Instead he improvised. They started killing Germans before they got off of ships. Americans also attacked enemies from the side and rear.
 * Day Six 12/17/08**

I thought that the part when the man was talking about his friends was really sweet. He said that most of the men that were fighting weren’t worried about themselves, but their friends. They didn’t know which one of their friends was going to die. When Mr.Skoneki was telling us about what the Americans would do to the Japanese I couldn’t even listen. It was really sad and stupid. Ok, if the Japanese were going to be stupid and bomb us we didn’t have to take all of our anger out on them. That man whose teeth were being pulled out could have done nothing. He was just fighting for his country as we were for ours. It made me really sad. There was a small scene in the part today that really bothered me. A man was lying on the ground, dead. He was just laying there with a bullet wound in his head and bugs all around him. They were on his face and body just watching it rot.
 * Day Seven 12/18/08**