November 2013 Web Mailbag
Colonel John Antal, U.S. Army (ret.), the first managing editor of the Armchair General magazine and a frequent contributor (click here to see his FLASHPOINTS series), proudly displays his Gettysburg edition of the Armchair General magazine at Gettysburg during the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the battle, July 1-3, 2013. The memorial to the 72d Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, topped by “Fire Zouave with clubbed musket” is called “The Angle” and is located near the famous copse of trees that Confederate General Robert E. Lee used to focus General James Longstreet’s attack at the center of the Union line on the third day of the battle. The famous Confederate charge against the Union defensive line is knows as “Pickett’s Charge,” in honor of General George Pickett who commanded the brigade that made the attack, and is considered the “High Water Mark” of the Confederacy. The 72d PA statue is the subject of the 2011 “Gettysburg” America the Beautiful quarter dollar commemorative coin.
{default}COL John Antal,
US Army (Ret.)
Dear Sirs,
I had the chance to look over the September, 2013 copy of Armchair General and one letter and photograph stood out to me. I did not have the chance to read the article about the trial and execution of Henry Wirz, the confederate commander executed after the Civil War but I was offended by the photograph that seemed to celebrate a traitor to this country an the man who presided over the prison camp where so many Union soldiers died unnecessarily. That there is a tombstone at Mount Olivet Cemetary in Washington, D.C. that lists him as “Confederate Hero – Martyr” is wrong on so many levels that I do not have the time to go into it in a short letter. More to the point, your magazine, showing the letter and photograph supports the false notion that he is a hero and a martyr. As a confederate he was neither a hero nor a martyr to anyone but the other bias and hateful of the South at that time. We should not be celebrating men like that, better celebrate the unknown men he let die.
Stephen Petrechko
To Mr. Jerry D. Morelock and Armchair General Editors:
I was completely shocked and disgusted about the article ‘Great Warriors’ on the November’s issue. Japanese Army was entitled ‘Great Warriors’ in the last issue. Japanese Army in WWII were brutal beasts, demons. Calling them warriors is a terrible insult to millions victims in China and Asia, also to humanity. Apparently, you have no ideas about Japanese Army’s brutality. They cut open pregnant women’s bully, and put unborn babies on their bayonets; they slaughtered entire village, killed everyone from infants to elders. Right after Pearl Harbor, US bombed Japan inland, and US airplanes had to land in China. In revenge of that Chinese helped US pilots escaping from Japanese captured territory, JP Army slaughtered tens thousands Chinese civilians. You must know these history facts, you are a PhD, you just don’t feel the pain from victims. Imagining, an villain broke into your home, killed your entire family, raped all your female family members, from 10 years old kids to 80 years old elders(if you find those words offense, think about those whom JP Army really did that to), yet that villain must’s been very good at fighting, would you vote him the best fighter in town of the year?
As a publisher, Armchair General has its social responsibility and basic humanity codes to follow. If all your cares are just killing skills, none humanity is your concerns, those two JP Army officers who each beheaded over 100 Chinese civilian in a killing competition in Nanjing, 1937, should be your champion of ‘Great Warriors’; and Al-Qaida fighters should be in the next ‘Great Warriors’, their suicide bombers also fought ruthlessness with their life against their foes which also outnumbered them by many times.
Millions souls of innocent civilian who fell before bayonets on JP Army’s favourite Type 38 rifles, and bullets from Type 99 machine guns condemn your disgusting article from their after worlds. Shame on you.
We want the November Issue to be recalled and official apology to the world from the editors.
We want a guarantee from the editors that similar mistakes won’t happen again.
That was not a mistake. They just don’t feel the pain of the huge scar in other nations’ soul. Boston bombers killed 10 injured 100, that’s evil; JP Army killed millions civilian in far east, Asia, what’s a big deal.
Alright, ‘Armchare General’, you don’t need to have the same feeling as we have, but you must show your repsect to millions China and Asia WWII civilian victims, and you must show your respect to billions who still feel the huge war trauma from JP Army’s brutality.
Apparently, this story’s author has enough conscious to not put Hitler’s Nazi army in his list. Yet he is atrocious enough to call a less capable Japanese army “great warriors”. There is one obvious explanation to it–white supremacy. Since most victims killed by Japanese army in WWII are not white men, they don’t get the same sympathy as those who fell to Nazi. That’s simply how a white supremacist thinks.