Maritime Museum Criticized for One-Sided Telling of WWII History
The program includes a wartime documentary and flight simulator, which encourages children to shoot down Japanese enemies.
For Kenji Tanaka, 9, a weekend field trip to a maritime museum in South Carolina became a test of character. Along with his peers, he watched a World War II documentary with images of American pilots getting ready to fight the Japanese and then watched his friends climb into a flight simulator to shoot down virtual enemies who looked like his father. He quietly ingested these images and listened to his friends joke about the “enemies” until he returned to his Atlanta, Georgia home where the tears flowed freely.
“When he got back from the trip, it looked like he was run over by a truck!” said Elizabeth Tanaka about her son. “Kenji didn’t do the simulator because he said it’s like shooting his dad. He said ‘I feel like people hate me.’ My son was crying for half an hour.”
Elizabeth couldn’t believe her ears — the Tanakas like to instill cultural pride in their children with annual trips to Japan to visit family members and balance after school activities like origami with the Boy Scouts, the reason why Kenji visited Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum Feb. 3-5. He wanted to earn his merit badges for aviation and citizenship.
The museum is touted as one of the most popular attractions in the Carolinas and features a collection of WWII warships and aircrafts. Its centerpieces are the USS Yorktown, a highly decorated warship, and the Destroyer Laffey, which was hit by five Japanese kamikazes during wartime combat. Both are now docked side-by-side in the still water of Charleston Harbor and host many educational programs and seminars each year.
But now the museum is drawing criticism for what critics are calling a one-sided account of history.
“I understand it’s about patriotism,” said Kenichi Tanaka, a first generation Japanese American who accompanied son Kenji to Patriots Point as a chaperone. “I think it’s okay to show [the film and flight simulator] to adults but children who are in the fifth and sixth grades? They don’t have the same level of comprehension. It’s not good exposure.
“There was no explanation that this was just in World War II … they just showed the movie and moved on,” he said, adding that the film seemed like wartime propaganda filled with the racial epitaph, “Jap.”
Museum officials contend that they are giving students a hands-on account of true events during WWII.
“The mission of the museum is to teach the sacrifices and courage during World War II,” said David Burnette, Patriots Point executive director. “The point here is to learn a little about World War II and we fought the Japanese.”
He said there is not enough time in the program to include other aspects of history.
The film, “The Fighting Lady,” is a 1945 Academy Award winning documentary about the USS Yorktown directed by William Wyler, who made the film while serving as a lieutenant colonel in the armed forces. The museum has been screening the film for the past 25 years, and occasionally interchanges it with the 1970 film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” which was shot aboard the ship, said Burnette.
Although he doesn’t remember the word, “Jap” being used in “The Fighting Lady,” he said it wouldn’t be a surprise because the documentary reflects America of the 1940s and the language of the time.
“Even if the particular film they show is an award winning documentary, it doesn’t excuse the use of a film that uses racially objectionable language in today’s world. Essentially, they rationalize their own racism and racist views, and what’s particularly bothersome about it is that thousands of kids have gone through that museum and have learned, perhaps innocently on their part, to view anyone who’s Japanese in derogatory and demeaning terms,” said JACL Executive Director John Tateishi, who called the museum’s program “outrageous.”
“Growing up in my family we would never use that type of language,” said Elizabeth who is Caucasian. “This is another thing to make people hate people.”
She called the museum to complain about the film and the flight simulator, a 15-seat motion simulator that gives riders the sense of being on a combat mission. Kenji did not volunteer to go on the ride, which showed a Japanese pilot getting into a plane with the Japanese flag undulating in the wind, said Kenichi. An audio recording encouraged riders to shoot “the enemy.”
There are five programs used in the simulator, one of which is the WWII scout mission which gives the impression of launching off of a battle ship and getting attacked by a Japanese fleet, said Betty Floyd, the museum’s flight simulator supervisor.
“It’s a warship. You can’t alter history,” Floyd said.
But Tateishi said there is a hidden danger in telling history this way.
“Their brand of racism is disgusting but dangerous because they hide behind the label of telling the truth to promote their racist views,” he said.
Burnette said he has otherwise heard no complaints from visitors about the program and charges parents and chaperones with the responsibility to fill in the blanks and provide the context of history for young visitors who would otherwise not understand.
“I wouldn’t agree. I think it’s [the museum’s] responsibility to explain all the fighting and shooting,” said Kenichi, who added that museums should be an educational place that also teaches peaceful alternatives.
“The flight simulator was not educational,” he said.
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