Aug. 15 marked the 71st anniversary of Victory in Japan or V-J Day, which ended World War II.

The event was huge for this nation and the world. After nearly four years of fighting, American soldiers were able to return home from the Pacific war and resume their lives. Many other U.S. soldiers were already returning from the European front, where the war had ended three months earlier.We fear that the significance of this date and many details surrounding World War II, including the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation, are being ignored in many of our classrooms.Five-sixths of all Americans never take a course in American history beyond high school, so whatever students glean in their first 12 years of education form what they know about our nation's past.Working as a guide and historian at a military museum - which includes a mobile museum bus that travels to schools - allows me contact with all student age groups. Sadly, the mention of key World War II figures such as Gen. Dwight Eisenhower or Franklin D. Roosevelt, and places like Normandy (D-Day landings in Europe) or Pearl Harbor, is often met with blank looks.From what we've seen in Common Core textbooks, things are not likely to improve. The Common Core standards were written in 2009 under the aegis of several D.C.-based organizations, including the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve. The writing group of 27 involved quite a number of representatives of the testing industry but few educators.After being released in 2010, the standards were endorsed by 45 states and the District of Columbia in a matter of months.Proponents of Common Core felt the more rigorous standards would help raise test scores by making sure that students everywhere on every grade level are taught using the same formula. They felt this would level the playing field.The new priority set by the Common Core was to gain knowledge by reading high-caliber "informational texts." Instead of learning the who, what, when, where and why regarding people, places and events, students are asked to analyze and evaluate ideas using their critical-thinking skills.Opponents feel that Common Core's mandated, one-size-fits-all approach does not allow enough flexibility at the local level, nor does it improve college readiness. Former Gov. Tom Corbett felt Common Core was overly influenced by the federal government and had the state adopt its own core standards, which were designed to work more closely to the specific educational needs.Sen. Rand Paul was one of the more vocal voices in Washington who criticized the way the standards portray American history. The senator from Kentucky claimed the standards contain "anti-American propaganda" and a "revisionist history that ignores the faith of our Founders."The treatment of World War II is a prime example. In the textbook I reviewed, nothing was said as to why America entered the war when the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, nor was there mention of the atrocities committed against the Jews or Germany's attack on Great Britain. Winston Churchill and

F.D.R., the two greatest Allied leaders of the war, were ignored.Another writer critical of the Common Core text stated that "all of World War II has been reduced to dropping the bomb and consequently, we are led to believe, America's inhumanity."This is not teaching," he said. "It is programming."Common Core's interpretation that America in some way was responsible for World War II is appalling. Omitted are the rise of Nazi Germany under Hitler and the expansion of Japanese Imperialism in the Pacific, both critical "whys" of World War II. Also critical are the omissions about the two atomic bombs. Because the Japanese did not show any sign of surrender after Hiroshima was bombed on Aug. 6, 1945, it was not until the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later that the Japanese surrendered.Historians agree that the death toll would have been staggering with a land invasion of Japan. The Japanese were prepared to defend the mainland with 2.5 million troops and a civilian militia of millions more. American deaths would likely have been in the hundreds of thousands, and Japanese casualties in the millions.One fact also omitted is that American planes dropped three-quarters of a million leaflets urging the people of Hiroshima to evacuate the city before the bombing. That pamphlet is a document you will never see in a Common Core textbook.A world dictator who rose to power in the 1930s once said: "He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future."The author of that comment was Adolf Hitler.The evil madman of Nazi Germany during World War II also made an ominous boast that could be applied by future despots: "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed."By Jim Zbick |

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