June 30, 2011: Gunther Pohlman Society Meeting.

My Grandfather, Guenther Pohlmann, and me, Nikolas his grandson, in January, 1996.

To commemorate my Grandfather, I will not cook for you…

…nor will I not put on a magic show….

However, I will present on a topic my Grandfather and I often discussed together: World War II. More specifically, it is about the bomb.

Indeed, Nik did present a very fine film that he created using many film clips of the preparation of the atomic bomb, through Los Alamos labs, the delivery of Fat Man and Little Boy to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Film clips showed the devastation and graphic images of the deaths that resulted. There was discussion about the justification for using the bomb to save American lives in a longer dragged out war where the Japanese home islands would have to be invaded. We saw and heard President Truman warning the Japanese. We saw Oppenheimer give his tearful comments on what he and we had wrought. The number of lives involved on all sides is staggering. The film was a very good reminder, lest we forget, about war and its destruction. The members of the group discussed the terror that the use of these bombs produced as most of us were children and growing up in America. Naturally since we used such a weapon, the populace could have nothing but fear for such weapons being used on us. The old "Duck and Cover" technique that was taught in school from kindergarten on and the drills during classwork are only surface remembrances of the deeper concern we all shared and still share.
     Members of our group commented on a World War II Museum located in New Orleans, developed by Stephen Ambrose, who wrote a wonderful book about it, among others. I commented about the controversial nature of the Japanese people -- how the soldiers behaved in war: the unprovoked attack at Pearl Harbor, the refusal to abide by international rules of warfare during WWII, their brutality in Korea and China. I remarked how when we visited China at one tourist site, an elderly Chinese man who was there selling postcards recognized me as American and said "Thank You" to me in English. I asked him what he was thanking me for. He answered, "For what you Americans did for us in World War II, in defeating the Japanese." The Japanese military was particularly brutal in China. But then as one of our members recently circulated by email, the Japanese people during their recent earthquake and tsunami disaster demonstrated a fortitude and a caring for each other that I think few nations would demonstrate today. They did not complain; they waited patiently in line for food relief and medical help; they did not hoard but only purchased or took small amounts of free relief supplies when offered in order to save for other people; they aided each other; gave up things that they possessed to help others; some 50+ workers at the nuclear plant remained voluntarily to try to stop the disaster there,etc. They in short showed remarkable fortitude and caring consideration for their brethren. How do we reconcile these two pictures of the Japanese people? This is a question that is difficult to answer. Japan has two faces, just as the justification for using the atomic bomb in Japan has two faces.
     I asked Nik if his grandfather had talked to him about World War II. He said that when he was in first through 5th grade, his grandfather used to walk him to school and they would talk about World War II. Also Nik's father is a history buff. These both have probably influenced Nik to have such an interest in these historical facts. Indeed, it is probably only through such interest that we as a society will learn and hopefully in the future avoid such mass destruction that WWII wrought.
     Thank you, Nikolas, for sharing your film with us. Your grandfather would be very proud!