Birdbrains by Thom Bluemel for February 25, 2013

This is in pretty poor taste considering whatreally did happen in WWII.

War is in bad taste. Unfortunately the mavens haven’t laid down the law.

I agree, bad call Thom.

Sorry, not a good one this.

The above strip is a perfect match for the strip’s name.Obviously Thom is not a student of history.

Regardless of the hisses and boos, Thom, having proudly defended your right to be as perverse as you are, I feel affirmed when you and others dare to publish such. Hell, I even laughed…which goes to show how perverse I can be.

I’ll admit to being disturbed knowing my own history as well as being an avid student of history. My family (by marriage) is Pinoy. Apologies? I have none. Respect? I have much. Disrespect? I have experienced that as a Vietnam veteran and a policeman. Censorship? I will not condone. Humor? An entertainment not always for the squeamish; humorous is not always funny.

Anyone is welcome to piss on my grave.

They went through hell: http://www.army.mil/asianpacificsoldiers/history/bataan.html

I like to cross the line but this is too far. sorry you lose all your atta boys and then some

My home town tank battalion was sent there just before Pearl Harbor. One or two were killed in the fighting. One died on the march. Over sixty died in the camps and on prison ships to Japan. Look up the “Janesville 99”

Irony? → The road I most often take to and from town to the area where my rural house is located (house isn’t on the highway) is designated as the Bataan Memorial Highway. Subaru’s US plant is located on this highway and I pass it going to and from town all the time. The signs for this are still up. I also drive a car made there

Could be Thom’s take on this was with respect…………This was done in Black and White.

It made me look up the Death March, and I found that there is a commemorative Bataan Death March at the White Sands Missile Range each year………26 miles as well as 14 miles.

With respect, I honor all who had to partake of this March!

Bad, bad, bad idea. Incredibly poor taste, grossly disrespectful of the men who died and suffered in the hell of the death march.

What’s next? Hamsters in Auschwitz?

Yes Thom, it was that bad. There are some places you simply do not go.

Thom,

While I can appreciate your twisted sense of humor, I also feel that this badly crossed the poor taste line. What those soldiers had to go through, with many being tortured and killed, is not an appropriate story line for a cartoon. I agree with “andylit” that this was some place that you simply shouldn’t have gone.

Not at all funny. Too far!!!

You have the right to publish trash like this.I have the right to stop reading your strip. I am an American who knows history, this is a shame.

Not funny.At.All.

To All,

I’m very, very sorry for offending anyone with this cartoon – THAT WAS NEVER MY INTENT. Nor was it my intent to belittle the tragedy of Bataan in any way nor the bravery of those who were there and suffered.

Unfortunately, too many have taken the intent of today’s cartoon the wrong way. This cartoon was meant to be a parody of the “March of the Penguins,” which was a documentary (albeit sanguine documentary) about penguins marching to reporduce. Because I thought that documentary was so overdramatized, I chose to make an overdramatized cartoon about it – NOT ABOUT BATAAN.

My father fought in the South Pacific in WWII – I have the greatest respect and admiration for all who fought in that war – and all the others as well, It is NEVER my intent to make light of any such sacrifices.

I hope you will accept my apology for what was evidently one of my greatest strikeouts yet. Hey, I never promised you perfection, but I will try to be more sensitive to other interpretations – to the best of my ability.

I hope you all understand.

And thanks for reading this tasteless cartoon,

Thom

Sorry Thom.., I was there. Of my unit of 502 men I was one of 8 that came back home.

I am outraged at this strip. My father – in – law was in the Bataan Death March and was a prisoner of war for 5 years. When he came home he weighed only 89 lbs and he was in a military hospital for nearly a whole year. He told how he was forced to hold his best friend in his arms while they pulled out his friend’s fingernails trying to get my father – in – law to give them information. He was the oldest enlisted man left in their group as a Master Sargent at the age of 17. He lied about his age to get into the service to begin with. He told how they gave him only a white diaper (Japanese) cloth to cover himself and forced him to work on one of their airstrips in unbearable heat and no water to drink. He just passed away last year and my son is devastated at the loss since they competed together in SASS competition as grandfather and grandson. I know we all have the right of free speech but you should give some thought to honoring our military, police officers and firemen. If you were near me right now I’d slap you silly.

t’aint funny mcgee. oh how self righteous we can be, but it ain’t funny.

Thom (The Blue). Today’s strip didn’t work out as you had planned. The Bataan death march, what preceded and followed it were about as bad as human nature can get. The Japanese committed some horrible crimes in WWII. But that is the nature of war. I am glad you published this strip because it has obviously got people thinking, whatever your intentions were. There have been all too many death marches over the centuries committed by no particular culture but by a ruthlessness that seems to pervade across our species.

I do business with a Japanese company. It’s amazing how war destroys humanity. We are friends now. The owner of the company and his wife visited me here in the Rockies where I live.They are good people. My point is that no one should be held responsible for the horrors their parents and those before them have committed. If we can’t forgive there is no hope.

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” -Martin Luther King, Jr

I found this strip very offense and demeaning to those who were on that death march.you should publicly apologize to the families and memoirs of both the deceased and the survivors

It’s a cartoon people. Sometimes gives perspective to things which cannot be given any perspective otherwise. I like your humor Thom. Always have.

Bad bad bad. Thom goofed big time.

The bataan death march never was never will be funny in any context. This was and is an insult to the survivors and to those that died. Shame on you of the most intense type.