Political correctness and WWII

VFW Magazine, Feb, 2004

Barry University literature professor Porter Crow has found in high school textbooks what many observers have warned about for years. Outright historical distortion has become the order of the day to advance social agendas. "This isn't history" he said. "It's wishful thinking."

After reviewing several textbooks, it became clear to him that women and minorities were being portrayed as having played far more than a proportionate part in WWII. Though their roles must be recognized, he said, they should not be seen as the predominant participants in the war effort.

Because of legal restraints and simple demographics their roles were limited. In textbook photos and words, however, white males appear the minority, Crow found in his study.

On another politically correct front, a group of historians are protesting display of the Enola Gay exhibit in the National Air & Space Museum's new annex at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. They claim the aircraft that ended Japanese resistance in WWII by dropping an atomic bomb on Japan should not be the object of American pride.

Meanwhile, in the Solomon Islands, the proposal to rename the airport there after Japan's national flower was defeated in part by an 8,000-signature Marine petition. The airstrip on Guadalcanal will now be called Honiara International Airport-Henderson Field.