Hacker News Reader

Comment by iancmceachern | Hacker News Reader

This is the first, and most important thing I learned from my grandfather.

He was at pearl harbor when it was bombed, he was in a submarine under Tokyo bay during the war, he was part of many battles in the pacific, and finally nearly killed in a collision and received the purple heart among other medals. He was then part of the occupation of Japan after the war.

What did he decide to teach me after all that?

That the Japanese people are/were good people that were fooled and otherwise coerced (forced) into the war by evil leaders. Much like Russia today.

I've carried this with me my whole life. And will continue to try to spread it around (compassion).

View on HN

My grand-grand father was sent on a train to Siberia during WW2 after spending two years in a solitary confinement at Matrosskaya Tishina[0].

Every once in a while the train stopped, and each stop they asked random people to step forward. These people were executed in front of others. However, majority of passenger have arrived to the final destination (prison camp) alive.

Those who made it alive were never the same, they were broken, psychologically.

Their families too. My grand-grand mother hang herself shortly after his arrest. My grandmother was deeply traumatized for the rest of her life by that (she was a little girl who found her mother hanging from the chandelier).

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrosskaya_Tishina

I heard that corpses of dead prisoners were thrown from train windows between stations.

It was even in TV Series .. I forgot title but that moment I remember very clear.

It was shocking. Unbelievable!

The history of Stalin times in Soviet Union is trully horrific. It's worth knowing just to be aware what kind of hell can be arranged on a mass scale by an evil dictator. It should be taught in all schools across the world, along with the deeds of other XX century evil mega mass murders.

For learning more, I personally recommend starting with "Kolyma Tales" by Varlam Shalamov. Aside from the educational part, it's a great piece of literature.

Varlam Shalamov is a master of short form, although IDK how well his stories translated.

About educational part: it's a frequent misconception. "Kolyma Tales" are not autobiography, it's a fiction.

E.g. His depiction of thieves wars reads as documentary but it's not. There is not a single personage that has direct match in reality. For some: it looks like combination of several real persons, some has no real analogues. The same with events, chronology and geography.

To write a documentary was never the goal for Shalamov.

And keep in mind that it's a perception of Shalamov who always was a man of weak health.

Dostoevsky was in similar or even harsher conditions but he found the strength to see in criminals around him not only infernal bad.

If you suppose that Dostoevsky is not relevant: there are other authors with similar experience.I

For example: Ahto Levi, Estonian, Hitlerjugend on start of WWII, conscripted in SS near end, after war - criminal, repeat offender, member of nationalistic gang -he's one of thieves that Shalamov depicts.

His "Notes by Gray Wolf" shows both degradation to beast and then return to human.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com