THE WAR, Part 1 (DVD)

Hi Derek,

I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to mention to anyone
who doesn't know, that the Ken Burns' miniseries is already
out on DVD. It's not great, but not too bad either.

It would have been nice if Burns could have just given it to
us straight, without his relentless moralizing-by-implication.
Though I guess that's the price we have to pay for he who has
the means to do it, getting it to us at this time.

But it's not as if the History Channel hasn't done a great job
for the past couple of decades too. It's not really clear what
is the advantage of picking four supposedly representative
communities, one of which just happens to be where so many
Japanese-Americans lived, when he could have had interviews,
basically monologues, from many more members of the
Greatest Generation, from many more towns.

It's good that Mr. Burns told about the Bataan Death March,
though he didn't give it in its full horror. At least he showed it.
What some might find offensive, as I did, was that he felt he
had to 'balance' it by immediately following it with the
detention of Japanese-Americans, as if that was remotely
comparable as an atrocity. If he had had the decency *not*
to place the two events side by side like that, this first part of
the miniseries would have made a better impression on me,
in spite of the other flaws mentioned above.

I hope, Derek, that you (as self-appointed moderator of RAMC-F)
will see fit to approve this sincere post's existence, though of
course neither you nor anyone else is expected to fully agree
with it.

Bye Derek.