HUMAN NATURE ON THE ANVIL
Meyer, Ernest L.
Human Mature On The Anvil By ERNEST L. MEYER HORRORS committed by the. enemy, Germans and Japs, upon both soldiers and civilians in prisons and slave-camps have brought cries for vengeance. The...
...Shall we bring hope or holocaust to the reconquered territories...
...Hope Or Holocaust Swords we shall undoubtedly fashion if we apply to the reformation of the enemy young the method of our old-line prisons and houses of correction...
...second, the type of understanding and guidance represented by Father Flanagan's Boys' Town...
...Sherwood's conclusions about the Japanese are paralleled by the findings of American war correspondents regarding a great many of the Germans...
...The prevailing opinion, heated by the wrath of war, is in the affirmative...
...had he not massacred the Jews, persecuted the Catholics, suppressed, tortured, and exterminated labor unions and political dissenters, then no underground would have harassed him, and the conscience of decent people the world around would not have awakened so soon to the Nazi menace...
...Human nature is malleable on the anvil of the years, and it depends on the method of the smith whether it be fashioned into plow-shares or swords...
...Their education, their knowledge of the world has, of course, been poisoned by a dozen years of Hitler and Goebbels' falsehoods...
...We are witnessing on a scale world-wide and terrible the failure of re-education at the point of a bayonet, the failure of brute force as a moulder of destiny...
...We do not have to travel far afield to find proof of this thesis...
...And no reasonable person can fail to agree that the theory of re-education represented in Boys' Town could be projected with equal success to the rehabilitation of German and Japanese youth now so seemingly corrupted forever by false teaching...
...But is wholesale retribution a sound, sane basis upon which to construct the better world we vision once the bugles have sounded "cease firing...
...Shall we, in a word, fashion plow-shares or swords...
...Yet here and there voices have been raised in dissent, and one of the bravest of these is the voice of Robert E. Sherwood, distinguished playwright, who lately returned from a tour of the Pacific battle area...
...Thus in battle they perform with maniacal courage and when captured are capable of treachery...
...If we proceed from the principle of punishment, of eye-for-an-eye retribution, then truly we will create a new generation of vipers lusting for vengeance against society...
...In our own United States we have a pressing problem of juvenile delinquency...
...They believe that if they do not fight to the end they will be brutally tortured and butchered by Yankee and Russian demons...
...For it demonstrates again that human nature is, indeed, malleable...
...And at least 2 methods of correction are open : first, the old and quite discredited method of punishment and "reform" schools...
...Recently, in a public address marked by courage rather sublime, Mr...
...R Counsel Of Hope The howlers, of course, will not listen to what Mr...
...No reasonable person can study the record of Boys' Town or recall the motion picture in which Spencer Tracy so admirably starred as Father Flanagan without recognizing that potential hoodlums and criminals can, indeed, be moulded into useful citizens without the use of strait-jackets, shackles, and the uniforms of social outcasts...
...If this picture of Hitler's twisted spawn holds horror, it holds also hope...
...Had he exercised humaneness, decency in Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, Austria, Norway...
...The most vital question facing the Allies today is: shall we emulate Hitler's methods, or try humaneness, forgiveness, re-education in the decent democratic tradition...
...They note, however, one general exception: the Nazi youths in their 'teens...
...He said, further, that the basis of all the horrors represented in the Japanese character is fear of Americans, citing as an example the mass suicides of Japanese civilians in areas conquered by our troops...
...Given intelligent direction, Boys' Town can be expanded to Boys' World...
...And he added that once the Japanese realize that Americans are not barbarians and butchers, as they have been taught, they become friendly, cooperative, decent people...
...Sherwood declared that if we are to continue believing in our professed principles of democracy Americans must be prepared to forgive the Japanese their atrocities after the war...
...But Hitler persisted and is being destroyed...
...Sherwood said in defense of his startling heresy...
...The reaction is both inevitable and understandable...
...That was Hitler's technique in his conquered domains: the technique of terrorism...
...If a decade of corrupt teaching and training has resulted in malformed character, then there is no reason to believe that a long season of wise counsel and enlightened leadership cannot undo the evil...
...He said that extermination of the Japanese people is physically impossible...
...These boys often fight with a fanaticism not shared by the veterans who have gone through many campaigns, including the first World War...
Vol. 9 • April 1945 • No. 18
