I enjoy reading and writing about history, it is a passion of mine. Though I do not have any degrees, and have not been paid or published, I like to consider myself to be a historian. One thing I have learned from many years of studying history is that history is never done. There is always the possibility that new information or new discoveries will change how a particular historical event is viewed and understood.
A case in point is the book Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of of Midway by Anthony Tully and Jonathan B. Parshall, which completely changed how that epic naval battle is understood. Using the after action reports of the four Japanese carriers and their air groups that fought at Midway, as well as a careful examination of Japanese carrier operations and doctrine, the authors unravel the myths and misconceptions that had resulted from an over reliance on eyewitness accounts and personal reflections.
We can take this same lesson about history never being done and apply
it to other disciplines, other subjects of study, as well as to politics
and other world views. Even in science there remains the possibility
that new information and new discoveries will change what has become
accepted. More importantly, perhaps, this applies to our own thinking and
to our own perspectives.
We are often told these day to question certain things like religion, yet at the same time that we are told that we should not question other things like science. In fact, we should question everything, because it is only by asking questions and seeking answers that we will learn. We cannot learn if we close our minds and shut out information that is not compatible with what we think we already know. Usually when someone tells me I should not question something, I take that as a sign that I am on the right track.
Sir James Dewar said, "Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."
John Wooden, the college basketball coaching legend, said, "It is what you learn after you know everything that matters."
Often we choose not to listen to certain people, based on appearances or who we think they are, or some other criteria, but truth is truth no matter the source, or, as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of state Colin Powell once said, "Truths from the mouths of curmudgeons is truth all the same." Truth and plainness can come from unexpected places.
When war broke out between Japan and the United States, diplomats of each country were interned by the other until an exchange was made starting in August 1942. On the first exchange ship was a Rear Admiral Yokoyama, who had been the Japanese naval attaché in Washington during 1941, the assistant attaché, and a naval intelligence officer from the Japanese legation in Mexico City. Before sailing for home, these men had had full access to American newspapers for more than six months and the knowledge gleaned from the press was added to all they had learned in their official capacities before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Upon arrival in Tokyo, the three men were immediately sequestered at Naval General Headquarters where they were to play a war game using their fresh knowledge. Playing the commanders of the United States, they started farther back than where the forces of the United States then actually were -- for the purposes of the game, it was assumed that Japan had recaptured Guadalcanal. Despite the handicap, the team playing the role of U.S. commanders managed to retake the Philippine Islands by October 1, 1944 -- 20 days before General McArthur's return to the Philippines on the island of Leyte in actual fact.
In recounting this episode in his fifteen volume history of the U.S. Navy during World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison would point out that a "grave defect arose from the excessive respect for rank and position in Japan. The initiation of suggestions about strategic plans, which any officer could venture in the United States, was in Japan the prerogative of Naval General Staff and Commander in Chief Combined Fleet, and anyone who brought unwelcome information or intelligence to the top men was apt to be snubbed."
This did not bode well for the findings of the three men so recently returned from America. "These officers, who so successfully anticipated Nimitz's and McArthur's moves from the Solomon Islands to Leyte Gulf, were, however, ignored. Nobody wanted to their information or their views. We asked one of them [after the war] if anything was said to his winning team by the Naval General Staff. 'Yes,' said he, 'we were told to keep our mouths shut!'"
Sometimes we get caught up in our own perceived wisdom, perhaps based on our experience or education as compared to the experience and education of others. It is also commonplace these days to argue that other people should open their minds. Ironically, it may be that those arguing that others are closed minded might in fact be the ones whose minds are closed. Perhaps it is like humility, once you think you are open minded, your mind is actually closed. Our minds may be closed because we are so focused on opening the mind of someone else. Or, as one wise man put it, we are so focused on the sliver in another's eye that we completely miss the telephone pole in our own eye.
To have an open mind means that regardless of the subject and regardless of our first reaction to an event, or the label we place on the messenger, that we are at least open to the possibility that we might not have all the information, and that additional information could potentially alter the way we see that event. Are we able to step back from our initial reaction and consider that the reality could actually be the complete opposite of how we perceive it? When we can do that, then our minds are truly open.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he shall make it plain.
(Hymn #285 "God Moves in a Mysterious Way")
We are often told these day to question certain things like religion, yet at the same time that we are told that we should not question other things like science. In fact, we should question everything, because it is only by asking questions and seeking answers that we will learn. We cannot learn if we close our minds and shut out information that is not compatible with what we think we already know. Usually when someone tells me I should not question something, I take that as a sign that I am on the right track.
Sir James Dewar said, "Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."
John Wooden, the college basketball coaching legend, said, "It is what you learn after you know everything that matters."
Often we choose not to listen to certain people, based on appearances or who we think they are, or some other criteria, but truth is truth no matter the source, or, as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of state Colin Powell once said, "Truths from the mouths of curmudgeons is truth all the same." Truth and plainness can come from unexpected places.
When war broke out between Japan and the United States, diplomats of each country were interned by the other until an exchange was made starting in August 1942. On the first exchange ship was a Rear Admiral Yokoyama, who had been the Japanese naval attaché in Washington during 1941, the assistant attaché, and a naval intelligence officer from the Japanese legation in Mexico City. Before sailing for home, these men had had full access to American newspapers for more than six months and the knowledge gleaned from the press was added to all they had learned in their official capacities before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Upon arrival in Tokyo, the three men were immediately sequestered at Naval General Headquarters where they were to play a war game using their fresh knowledge. Playing the commanders of the United States, they started farther back than where the forces of the United States then actually were -- for the purposes of the game, it was assumed that Japan had recaptured Guadalcanal. Despite the handicap, the team playing the role of U.S. commanders managed to retake the Philippine Islands by October 1, 1944 -- 20 days before General McArthur's return to the Philippines on the island of Leyte in actual fact.
In recounting this episode in his fifteen volume history of the U.S. Navy during World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison would point out that a "grave defect arose from the excessive respect for rank and position in Japan. The initiation of suggestions about strategic plans, which any officer could venture in the United States, was in Japan the prerogative of Naval General Staff and Commander in Chief Combined Fleet, and anyone who brought unwelcome information or intelligence to the top men was apt to be snubbed."
This did not bode well for the findings of the three men so recently returned from America. "These officers, who so successfully anticipated Nimitz's and McArthur's moves from the Solomon Islands to Leyte Gulf, were, however, ignored. Nobody wanted to their information or their views. We asked one of them [after the war] if anything was said to his winning team by the Naval General Staff. 'Yes,' said he, 'we were told to keep our mouths shut!'"
Sometimes we get caught up in our own perceived wisdom, perhaps based on our experience or education as compared to the experience and education of others. It is also commonplace these days to argue that other people should open their minds. Ironically, it may be that those arguing that others are closed minded might in fact be the ones whose minds are closed. Perhaps it is like humility, once you think you are open minded, your mind is actually closed. Our minds may be closed because we are so focused on opening the mind of someone else. Or, as one wise man put it, we are so focused on the sliver in another's eye that we completely miss the telephone pole in our own eye.
To have an open mind means that regardless of the subject and regardless of our first reaction to an event, or the label we place on the messenger, that we are at least open to the possibility that we might not have all the information, and that additional information could potentially alter the way we see that event. Are we able to step back from our initial reaction and consider that the reality could actually be the complete opposite of how we perceive it? When we can do that, then our minds are truly open.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he shall make it plain.
(Hymn #285 "God Moves in a Mysterious Way")
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