On my way in to the (terrific) NYC history meetup I was reading the last chapter in "Fateful Choices" by Kershaw. This chapter cuts to the horrible essence of WW2, as it deals with the process by which the Nazis decided to build death camps for the Jews. One thing that struck me was the Nazis' interim intention to displace Jews to "reservations" in Eastern Europe, preferably in Russia. This intention was disrupted by the German failure to knock out the Russians in 1941.
In any case, the word "reservation", mentioned in the context of the Nazi genocide, sent my thoughts to the North American genocide of the Indians. Of course, reservations played and still play a large role in this tremendously shameful aspect of the European settlement of the New World.
Mainly what I was meditating on was how (evidently) the Germans have rather creditably striven to come to grips with the crimes of the Nazi era in contrast to what is a rather oblivious attitude in American culture to what was done to the aboriginal population of the US and Canada. While American crimes against the Indians are of course not totally ignored, they tend to be masked by a general attitude of American self-congratulation. To quite a large extent, this reflects the writing of history by the "winners", but I believe a certain jingoism also plays a role.
I think, as a country, we engage in way too much talk about how great we are, effectively shrugging off a sober and realistic view of our past. Only slavery seems to be substantially acknowledged as a dreadful crime, and that too is somewhat overshadowed by the prevailing "USA! USA!" mindset. The incarceration of the nisei barely registers in the public mind.
When will we start learning, and teaching, the truth?
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