thedrifter
03-05-09, 06:36 AM
March 5, 2009
After flap, hospital hopes war is over
Veterans say they'll keep fighting removal of historic newspaper
By Will Higgins
will.higgins@indystar.com
The local Department of Veterans Affairs says the controversy over a World War II-era newspaper is settled, but a group of former Marines vows to keep fighting.
Members of the local Marine Corps League, angry that a framed front page from 1945 was removed from a hallway at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is considering picketing the hospital.
"We're talking about some demonstrations out there," said Ronald "Bud" Albright, the group's leader. "We don't intend to let this thing drop."
Albright wants restored a page from The Indianapolis Times with the headline "Japs Surrender." Albright says its removal is akin to "whitewashing history."
The VA announced Wednesday that the historic page was gone for good and would be replaced by a front page from The Indianapolis Star bearing the same news but expressed as: "WAR IS OVER -- Truman."
The front page from The Times had hung for a decade or more at the VA Medical Center, but last month it caught the eye of a new employee who considered it a racial slur and complained to hospital Director Tom Mattice. Mattice ordered the newspaper removed.
When local Marine Corps League members learned of the newspaper's removal, they met with Mattice and urged him to put it back.
In the two weeks since, Mattice said, he'd received more than 100 letters, e-mails and phone messages, almost all of them urging the newspaper be put back on display. But he was not swayed.
On Wednesday, Mattice met again with the former Marines and told them he would not reconsider.
"We want to honor our veterans and their accomplishments in a positive way," Mattice said later.
"It was not good," Albright said of the meeting. "We shook hands, but we told him we'd do what we had to do, which is get more involved in this thing."
Besides pickets, Albright said, his group may hand out facsimiles of the expelled page to hospital visitors and urge those who are like-minded to bombard Mattice with letters.
A framed copy of the "WAR IS OVER -- Truman" front page was put on the wall Wednesday; the original is being framed and is expected to replace the copy later this month.
Floyd Mori, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, the nation's largest and oldest Asian-American advocacy group, said Mattice did the right thing. "Even though this was a World War II newspaper, it sends the wrong message to today's generation," Mori said. "To have it displayed sends a message to today's (citizens) that it's OK. And it's not OK."
Mori, 69, said anti-Japanese sentiment is alive and well. He wrote a letter to NBC this week to complain about a "Saturday Night Live" skit; recently he was alerted to a South Carolina car dealer who, in a TV ad, urged viewers to buy his American-made cars because "our cars don't smell like rice."
The former Marines at odds with the local VA hospital director say they have no ill feeling toward the Japanese but simply want to honor history and not to shrink from showing the prejudice that existed during the war.
"I think in a historical sense those are good lessons," said Mori, "and in a museum that would be appropriate and educational and helpful -- in a place where a lesson is being taught.
"But in a hospital, it might be better taking it down."
Ellie
After flap, hospital hopes war is over
Veterans say they'll keep fighting removal of historic newspaper
By Will Higgins
will.higgins@indystar.com
The local Department of Veterans Affairs says the controversy over a World War II-era newspaper is settled, but a group of former Marines vows to keep fighting.
Members of the local Marine Corps League, angry that a framed front page from 1945 was removed from a hallway at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is considering picketing the hospital.
"We're talking about some demonstrations out there," said Ronald "Bud" Albright, the group's leader. "We don't intend to let this thing drop."
Albright wants restored a page from The Indianapolis Times with the headline "Japs Surrender." Albright says its removal is akin to "whitewashing history."
The VA announced Wednesday that the historic page was gone for good and would be replaced by a front page from The Indianapolis Star bearing the same news but expressed as: "WAR IS OVER -- Truman."
The front page from The Times had hung for a decade or more at the VA Medical Center, but last month it caught the eye of a new employee who considered it a racial slur and complained to hospital Director Tom Mattice. Mattice ordered the newspaper removed.
When local Marine Corps League members learned of the newspaper's removal, they met with Mattice and urged him to put it back.
In the two weeks since, Mattice said, he'd received more than 100 letters, e-mails and phone messages, almost all of them urging the newspaper be put back on display. But he was not swayed.
On Wednesday, Mattice met again with the former Marines and told them he would not reconsider.
"We want to honor our veterans and their accomplishments in a positive way," Mattice said later.
"It was not good," Albright said of the meeting. "We shook hands, but we told him we'd do what we had to do, which is get more involved in this thing."
Besides pickets, Albright said, his group may hand out facsimiles of the expelled page to hospital visitors and urge those who are like-minded to bombard Mattice with letters.
A framed copy of the "WAR IS OVER -- Truman" front page was put on the wall Wednesday; the original is being framed and is expected to replace the copy later this month.
Floyd Mori, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, the nation's largest and oldest Asian-American advocacy group, said Mattice did the right thing. "Even though this was a World War II newspaper, it sends the wrong message to today's generation," Mori said. "To have it displayed sends a message to today's (citizens) that it's OK. And it's not OK."
Mori, 69, said anti-Japanese sentiment is alive and well. He wrote a letter to NBC this week to complain about a "Saturday Night Live" skit; recently he was alerted to a South Carolina car dealer who, in a TV ad, urged viewers to buy his American-made cars because "our cars don't smell like rice."
The former Marines at odds with the local VA hospital director say they have no ill feeling toward the Japanese but simply want to honor history and not to shrink from showing the prejudice that existed during the war.
"I think in a historical sense those are good lessons," said Mori, "and in a museum that would be appropriate and educational and helpful -- in a place where a lesson is being taught.
"But in a hospital, it might be better taking it down."
Ellie