WWII: Connection Across Time

Many events that occurred during World War II have left impressions on our society and still reverberate in modern news. Most notably, the creation and detonation of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki have left a trail of debris through the decades and into the modern era.

The question of the creation and eventual use of the bomb was not merely a physical problem -- the bomb would have come into existence eventually in some form or another-- but it was also moral. As with cloning in the modern day, the scientists who worked on the bomb had to decide how far they would go to "play God." And after the monster was complete, the were faced with the same decision once again -- could they, merely men, decide if thousands of innocents should die for what they told themselves was the greater good? In my mind, and in the retrospective writings of both Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, they did not have this right.

However, the scientists and policy makers of the world today are still faced with the same questions. Should we bomb an entire village of civilians because there might be terrorists hiding there? Should we sacrifice the lives of innocents in order to possibly protect ourselves in the future? These are the questions that George W. Bush faced when he decided to invade Iraq, and these are the questions that military minds must contemplate as they strategize.

World War II and her monster, the atomic bomb, did not create these questions or these circumstances, but she certainly magnified them into the deadly force that they are today. World War II left us with a power to wreak more death than ever had before and the responsibility to use it wisely -- not at all.

The Price

"The Price" by LIFE Magazine artist Tom Lea is the most shocking painting that I have found from World War II. It is magnificent in its brutality. This painting offers no glorification of the war that the artist witnessed first hand; on the contrary, it shows a very young man struggling through waves, wounded, and with his own blood splattered on his face.

Tom Lea was able to capture the horrific brutality of the war by using the shock value so often utilized by his contemporaries in their less realistic depictions. The tones are subdued, emphasizing the vibrant red that coats the soldier's arm and face. The painting is at once a commemoration and an expose of the slaughter that, at time it which it was created, remained hidden from the public eye.

Marines' Best Friend

This sketch, entitled, "Marines' Best Friend, was painted on location during WWII by U.S. Marine Corps artist Donald Dickson. It struck me as odd because it is not the kind of heroic -- or even high action-- art that is usually associated with commemorating wars. For this reason, I find it more authentic and more honest. The sketch depicts a rugged Marine intently cleaning his gun. I've heard numerous stories of the relationship that develops between a soldier and his gun; sometimes men even go so far as to name their weapons. This drawing depicts something of this relationship, and, although it evidently takes place during the height of a war, reveals a moment of peace.

This painting, entitled "Col. Robert S. Johnson, was created by Oklahoma Artist R.T. Foster and dedicated in 2000. Interestingly, it is part of a mural located in the Oklahoma capital building along with the previously mentioned commemoration of World War I, "Pro Patria." Like "Pro Patria," It glorifies the war effort, emphasizing the contribution of Oklahomans. Robert S. Johnson is known to have been the most successful pilot flying in WWII -- that is, the pilot with the most "hits." Like the painting, this phrase is misleading. It says nothing of the magnitude of death that the bombs dropped from caused on the ground.

The painting is victorious, showing two American planes with a clear shot of their target, the bridge in the background, and the pilot smiling and waving. If this piece of art is to be believed, then the act of war is a jovial experience. This is Oklahoman propaganda, if such a thing exists. It does not even serve the function of commemorating any of the dead Americans who doubtless flew with Col. Johnson. In fact, it does not even acknowledge their existence.

Response to the Holocaust

The powerpoint that we watched today about the Nazi Death Camps was probably one of the most traumatizing lessons I've ever had to endure, I left class appalled by the bestiality of human beings and their ability to distance themselves so far from reality that they were unable to perceive the Jews as fellow human beings. I was moved by the photos of the concentration camps, although I had seen them all (or photos like them) many times before. It is interesting to me that even as we expressed disbelief that people could deny that such an atrocity had ever occurred, we were able to speak candidly about pulling fillings from the mouths of the dead and shoveling bodies into ovens. It doesn't seem a stretch to imagine Nazi soldiers desensitized to the horror of their crimes or entire religious movements proclaiming the holocaust a hoax when a photos that should move us are reduced to merely articles of evidence that it actually occurred.

There is a common German saying Einmal ist keal inm which translates roughly "what happens but once, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all." Since the Holocaust only happened once (or so we would like to think) it fades into the past. Eventually events fade into the past, losing the emotion and meaning that they once had and depleting into a tangle of philosophical ideas about the human condition. I have no cure for this situation, yet it concerns me. I wonder if this is why history is destined to repeat itself.

Connection Across Time -- Between the Wars

As an artist, I am particularly fascinated by the development of art during the period between the wars. It's interesting to me that the tension leading to WWI and prior to WWII served as such a catalyst for new techniques and views of art. Artists have always been politically involved, all the way back to ancient Rome and through the modern era. I wonder why it was this war and not another that urged artists to neglect traditional styles of painting and sculpture in favor of a style all their own.

It is this kind of rapid development that that has transformed art in the last few decades. Photography, which until the 1950s and 1960s was not even considered an art form, is now well respected and has given way to photo editing and video presentations. Protesters continue to use art as a means of catching people's attention -- something unheard of before WWI. Consider even the practice in Thailand of putting pictures of black lungs and mouth cancer on cigarette packages. This is shock value at its finest -- Thank you Duchamp.

Fountain, Ready-Mades, and Modern Art

Marcel Duchamp, a Cubist and a founder of the Dadaist movement, was a man of unique vision. Appalled by the war and conventional culture's view of war as an honorable and heroic venture, Duchamp attacked symbols of classical and modern culture through vicious parody and satire. This work, one of the first "Ready-Made" sculptures, was dubbed Fountain (not "R. Mutt," contrary to popular belief) in a satire of what makes a Fountain? It is in this period that the titles of artistic works became key to understanding the messages that the artists were trying to send. Without the title Fountain urging the viewer to contrast what he or she sees with the conventional idea of a fountain and thus satirizing the idea of classical, this work is meaningless. Dadism is a challenge to viewers to see the world in a new way, both in art and in the macrocosm of war and peace.