‘Casualties of War’ Tiresome to Reader

In regards to the story “Casualties of War” (Mar. 15), I don’t know about other people, but I’m really getting tired of hearing about the plights of the Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Do they think they were the only ones who suffered mentally and physically in the ‘40s? My parents, who lived in the Midwest at the time, faced ridicule and harassment in their city because they were children of German immigrants. They had to bind together in fear in a small community, which, in turn, was nicknamed “Bull Dog Bottoms.”

Also, what about the GIs who fought in the Pacific? My father was wounded on Saipan, and to this day still suffers from the pain inflicted so long ago.

In the end, there was no apology, no reparations made to either of these situations--neither from the town to the German community, nor from the Japanese government to the Allied soldiers.

And that’s another whole argument in itself: $20,000 to each of the interned Japanese-Americans because it was wrong? What does the U.S. get for the “mistake” at Pearl Harbor? When there is war, there is fear, and maybe that’s why we should remember why war was meant to be horrible. So we do not repeat it.

GEORGE STEINER

Beverly Hills