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A Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old
- siberianbear 11y agoThere is a movie based on this man's life called "Too Young the Hero". I enjoyed watching it a few years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Young_the_Hero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Young_the_Hero
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoSee also the 8-year old WWI veteran: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mom%C4%8Dilo_Gavri%C4%87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mom%C4%8Dilo_Gavri%C4%87
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- markdown 11y agoA brave young teenager leaving his safe space to go to war. Respect.
- gambiting 11y agoThe same sentence can be said about a young man from Syria going to war for Isis. Except that you probably wouldn't put "respect" at the end of your sentence. No young people should go to war anywhere.
- lujim 11y agoTruly just wars may be few and far between but the Pacific war was one of them. I get annoyed by flag waving and chest thumping as much as the next guy but very few people alive today would try to justify Japans actions in WW2. I think it's ok to use the word "respect" in this case. Comparing a Marine or Sailor who broke the rules to fight in the Pacific to a kid fighting with ISIS is a real stretch.
- gambiting 11y agoI don't think it is, really. A 13 year old child is not going to understand what they are fighting for, doesn't matter if they are from Syria or from US. We don't let 13 year olds have sex because they don't understand what they are doing, we don't let them drink alcohol, smoke or drive for the same reason - but going to war is somehow laudable? The only reason why there's "respect" in here is that he fought for the "good" side. If he fought for the "bad" side we would all be saying how horrible it was that they used children soldiers.
- lujim 11y agoI would respect a "Bad side in ww2" Japanese or German boy who decided to lie about his age to enlist and AFTER seeing the horrors of combat still acted more heroic than most grown men. I think this guy was a complete bad ass.
- KC8ZKF 11y agoIf in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. --Wilfred Owen
- cbhl 11y agoHard to believe an "abusive stepfather" could be called a "safe space".
- lujim 11y agoSafer than the deck of the South Dakota.
- NetWarNinja 11y agoAwesome story of these kids who sacrificed so much. But in those days males were groomed to become the man in the family when they reached teenage years, a lot of these kids worked in the local town factory or were farmers. Alexander the Great was 25 years old when he conquered the known world. Man is hardwired to conquer in all aspects of life. The desire to explore and to experience and see the unknown or undiscovered.
- Asbostos 11y agoIs it also awesome that the Japanese soldiers they fought also sacrificed so much? If so, then how is it a good thing for people to kill each other with no apparent purpose? If not then who decides which side is right and which is wrong? Add to your list the desire to kill other people. That's a human instinct which was, as the article seems to suggest, a strong motivator for this boy. Much like what drives westerners to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS, or what drives a mass shooter in America. We shouldn't deny that soldiers often choose their job for the opportunity and pleasure of killing.
- lujim 11y agoRead Flyboys. The Japanese soldiers, especially the officers were acting in a way that could truly be described as evil. One jaw dropping story involved an officer raping a woman, killing her, and then adding her to a stew that was fed to his soldiers. Another mind blowing tid bit was about a Japanese commanding officer that dug up buried American airmen that had been decapitated so he could eat their livers. While you're at it read "With the Old Breed" by EB Sledge. The Marines in the pacific had the joy of living in the mud next to their own excrement and the magot infested corpses of their best buddies for months at a time so that they could stop the kinds of atrocracies described in Flyboys.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- HillaryBriss 11y agoWTF was wrong with the Navy, taking away a wounded soldier's disability benefits and medals and putting him in jail after he'd served so bravely in a deadly sea battle? And why did it take until the 1980's for this man to get disability benefits restored? That doesn't exactly renew my faith in government.
- cperciva 11y agoI'm guessing that they didn't want his example to be one which other 12 year olds would aspire to follow.
- kiba 11y agoRemember hero exists, because tragic scenarios exist. Without tragedy and wars, there will be no heroes and that is a good thing. Remember, the people who get medal of honors are either dead or are involved in horrific situations.
- andyl 11y agoThank you for your teaching.
- anandr2013 11y agoI also think this is a very Campbellian view of heroes. Most of the people I consider as heroes (Einstein, for example), have nothing to do with tragedy (unless of course, you consider the whole human condition thing as being a tragedy)
- lujim 11y agoEinstein was a genius, but he was also a jerk to his first wife and kids. His existence was certainly a big win for humanity I don't think of him as a hero, just a super smart guy that followed his passion. Being a good parent, or employee, friend is commendable but not heroic. The word heroic has become watered down to describe people that do commendable things. Knowing you can be killed, disfigured, or severely injured within the next few minutes and still doing your job is heroic. Dan Carlin's hardcore history podcast described British soldiers in WW1 looking at their watches and knowing that in 5 minutes they would be going over the top into no man's land and would very likely be killed or injured. That hit me for some reason. Imagine taking your last look at the world around you and knowing that in two minutes you would probably be dead or wrenching around on the ground in complete agony, but you still go.
- StavrosK 11y agoAre you still a hero if you die invading a country for its resources? What if you die because someone asked you to walk into gunfire for no reason and you did? Is it the death that makes the hero, or the defending others? If the latter, why does the hero have to die?
- Animats 11y agoDave Hackworth was a sergeant at 15. He entered Army service in 1945, right after WWII, after a year in the Merchant Marine. He had a long career, fought in all the wars of that era, won many medals, leaving as a full colonel, and later became a military reporter for Newsweek.
- xyzzyz 11y agoWe have a statue put up for the child soldiers who fought and died during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. It's in a pretty prominent location, hard to miss if you're a tourist in Warsaw. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C5%82y_Powstaniec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C5%82y_Powstaniec Hundreds of thousands of civilians also died in that uprising, many of them children who didn't fight. There's no statue for them.
- Asbostos 11y agoWhy are child soldiers a human rights violation when they happen in Africa, but a hero when they happen in America? Is it the difference between volunteering and being forced to fight? That shouldn't apply to children who are too young to make those decisions themselves. He still broke the law, and the navy still didn't check his ID thoroughly. If we wanted child soldiers, the age limit would have been reduced from 16 to 13. That shows they were already socially unacceptable even during WWII.