Lloyd Alexander Quotes
It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.
Alexander, Lloyd. "Lloyd Alexander Biography." Scholastic, Scholastic Inc., 2004.
What is particularly interesting about this quotation is that it shows the role that vengeance played in the support of the war effort. Revenge is a “baser” motive than making the world safe for democracy or preserving freedom or stopping dictators. Yet the political and military leadership did not shy away from revenge as a war aim. Contrast this with later wars. Arguably the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor created a different dimension than existed in the Korean or Vietnam wars. Yet in the War on Terror, the attack of 9-11, created a situation like Pearl Harbor did. Yet President Bush and other political and military leaders had a definite policy of never acknowledging that revenge was a factor, despite the fact that many Americans openly saw this as a major war aim.
Many of the young men who were given this form to fill out, had never been in Japan and some did not even know there was an emperor there. Nonetheless the Japanese American divisions of enlistees were the most effective and most decorated fighting units for America while their parents who had not been born in America were still imprisoned in the internment camps. See {624010}.
Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than forty books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.
