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An oral history of Betty Kishiyama.

ContributorsKishiyama, Betty (Interviewee, Contributor) / Koons, Michelle (Interviewer) / Hara, Nikki (Transcriber) / Neriz-Robles, Emilio (Film editor)
Created2006-11-09
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The occurrence of tragedies throughout history, whether it be natural disasters, pandemics, or wars, is inevitable. The way that humans have chosen to respond to destruction and disagreements has also changed. However, something that remains the same is that those with less monetary resources and political power are at a

The occurrence of tragedies throughout history, whether it be natural disasters, pandemics, or wars, is inevitable. The way that humans have chosen to respond to destruction and disagreements has also changed. However, something that remains the same is that those with less monetary resources and political power are at a higher disadvantage whenever the world is under duress or hardship. This propensity (tendency) can be seen through the comparison of two very different yet very profound events in recent history, the COVID-19 pandemic and World War II. The two events are distinct in their time periods, the nature of the disaster that they caused, and the problems that were created by their existence. Although they are very dissimilar, those in the US who had less monetarily were still disadvantaged much more than those who were more affluent. This pattern of disparity is revealed through the use and failure of the supply chain during both events. A supply chain is the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity or service (Supply Chain Definition & Meaning, n.d.). Although the supply chains used in World War II were not as fine-tuned as the ones required to distribute goods around the world today, World War II was instrumental in the refinement and use of the supply chain due to the high demand for goods and personnel across the world. During COVID-19 the quick shift in demand for unprecedented goods and services exposed the inflexibility of the world's largest supply chains, which in turn caused shortages around the world. For the United States government or large global corporations to fix the problems caused by these events, they both turned to the people who bear the majority of the burden of working overtime to account for the loss of goods; those who are most susceptible to the shortages of goods and services: those in lower-income communities.

ContributorsKarlowicz, Elizabeth (Author) / Lee, Christopher (Thesis director) / Wiedmer, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description

An oral history of George Kishiyama.

ContributorsKishiyama, George (Interviewee) / Koons, Michelle (Interviewer) / Hara, Nikki (Transcriber) / Neriz-Robles, Emilio (Film editor)
Created2006-10-19
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Description
After the First World War, citizens, soldiers, and political figures alike thought they had witnessed the archetype of human sadism and war brutality. Yet, less than twenty years later, World War II immediately countered this notion. World War II was a transnational conflict that epitomized total war, which directly engaged

After the First World War, citizens, soldiers, and political figures alike thought they had witnessed the archetype of human sadism and war brutality. Yet, less than twenty years later, World War II immediately countered this notion. World War II was a transnational conflict that epitomized total war, which directly engaged civilians in the conflict like never before. Typically when we discuss Germany’s involvement in the war, we have visions of Hitler and his high-up officials personally crafting the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews via firing squads, ghettoes, and gas chambers. The post-war landscape furthered this notion through the Nuremberg trials, which sentenced the most evil of the war’s perpetrators on the international stage, and the denazification process by the allied countries, which worked to reteach a “brainwashed” generation of Germans. However, rarely was the role of ordinary soldiers and the people at home a part of the dialogue of German complicity. Through the phases of post-war memorialization, people began to question the roles of themselves, and eventually their ancestors, in various ways. Of course, there are immense differences between the architect of the Final Solution and a Wehrmacht soldier who was drafted into the war; my goal is not to place these people on a ladder of guilt, but to widen the dialogue on the complex role ordinary Germans held during the war.
I will begin by establishing complicity among Wehrmacht soldiers, and then among ordinary people, contrasting beneficiaries and participants in popularized crime with bystanders. I will also argue that as women suffered uniquely during World War II, they also exercised unique complicity. Next, I will take these findings and discuss the memorialization of complicity in order to understand how individuals, the public, and the state framed their respective roles in the war; in order to accomplish this I will first discuss individual remembrance by examining individual interviews and familial interviews in order to gain an understanding of how people perceive their role in the war and also how individual stories can change as generations pass. These interviews include people who were both beneficiaries and bystanders. Then, I will discuss collective remembrance by examining the controversy over public monuments. Ultimately, I will argue that ordinary Germans all held significant levels of complicity that need to be assessed in order to understand the Nazi war effort and political system; additionally, how complicity is remembered greatly and profoundly affects memorialization and our future.
ContributorsTobin, Janna K (Author) / Benkert, Volker (Thesis director) / Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05