Hannah Larson
ASSISTANT EDITOR

History is a relatively untold subject at
IIT. Plus, its not every day IIT actually makes his
tory by welcoming an Arlist celebrity to our campus.

On Friday, February 2, Illinois Tech’s Hur
manities Department, College of Science and Let
ters, and the newly formed Lewis College of Human
Sciences sponsored a documentary screening and
subsequent discussion on Oliver Stone and Peter
Kuznicks documentary “The Untold History of the
United States: The Bomb."

“The Untold History of the United States"
is a 10 part Showtime Network documentary series,
and a book of the same name, accompanies the
documentary, rounding out to approximately 750
pages. The authors, Oscarrwinning director, writer,
and producer Oliver Stone, and Dr. Peter Kuznick,
the Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at the
American University have been working on “Untold
History" since 2008.

Though the documentary, and subse
quent book have only been released since late 2012,
there has been significant controversy surrounding
Stone and Kuznick’sjoint work. Stone is no stranger
to controversy; many of his racy films have been tarr
geted for their historical inaccuracies (“JFK"), as well
as their suggestive themes (“The Doors," “Scarface.")
“Untold History" proves to follow that pattern.

Upon the documentary, and books re
lease, one reporter from The Daily Beast touted
Kuznick and Stones work as “historical illiteracy,"
while others have deemed it a new way to question
the history we have accepted as a nation, for so long.
“Untold History" even garnered praise from former
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Before the screening. Professor Maureen
Flanagan, Humanities Department Chair, and Dr.
R. Russell Bets, Dean of the College of Science &
Letters, spoke about IIT’s distinguished guests’ acV
complishments, as well as explaining Stone’s absence
from the prerscreening festivities, saying he was still
in the hotel room, recovering from the flu.

“We must realize the importance of why
[Stone and Kuznick] made this documentary," Flar
nagan said. “History is messy because it’s made by
people. We must strive for discussion and dialogue."

The episode shown on campus, titled,
“The Bomb" dealt with Harry S. Truman’s decision
to drop the atomic bombs on Japan during World
War II (WWII.) Kuznick and Stone took extra care
to champion Henry A. Wallace, a lesser known fig
ure of history.

Wallace served as President Franklin
Roosevelt’s (FDR) Secretary of Agriculture (1933 to
1940), and Vice President (1940 to 1945.) He also
served as President Harry S. Truman’s Secretary of
Commerce from 1945 to 1946.

Kuznick relayed an intriguing story
about the 1945 presidential election, as historical
background before the documentary was played.

“For Oliver and 1, Wallace was a vision
ary," Kuznick expressed. “It was the century of the
common man, the people’s revolution."

Kuznick went on to explain that during
the 1944 Democratic National Convention, Wale
lace came in first during the first round of casting
ballots, but by the third, Truman had been selected
based on his more moderate views. Wallace, consid
ered radically leftrwing, was unfavorable to much of
the Democratic Party, especially considering FDR’s
rumored declining health smtus. The vice presidenr
tial nominee was thought to be especially prepared
to take over the Oval Ofiice. Though FDR tried to
preserve his previous administration, he buckled to
preserve the Democratic Party.

After the expected moments of technical
difficulty, the documentarybegan.

Narrated by Stone, the video is a come
pilation of primary source newsreels, Hollywood
movie excerpts, and other miscellaneous propar
ganda. The most notable being snippets of the Loor
ney Tunes Cartoons that portrayed the U.S.’ Axis
enemies in a lessrthanrflattering manner, and that
have since been banned from television. The Duke

himself even makes an appearance in an excerpt of a
wartime movie where he becomes one ofmany casur
alties. Gregory Peck appears in a portion of “Twelve
O’Clock High."

The movie excerpts exemplify Stone’s
famous film aesthetic, while the historical fodder
brings everything to life. Kuznicks particular words
and historical rhetoric reverberate throughout the
script.

Audio excerpts also provided a sense of
reality, a la FDR’s “fireside chats." The direct record
ings also reinforced many of Kuznick and Stones
suggestions about this era.

The movie deploys many sho ck value tacV
tics, courtesy of Stone’s influence, such as the use of
the racially insensitive cartoons, extensive footage of
the Japanese internment camps, and footage of the
aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan. Though
Stone is known for his unnerving cinematography,
but the fact that the footage and audio clips used are
real, adds a macabre element to the documentary.

As this “Untold History" segment unr
folds, Kuznick and Stones critique of Truman comes
to a head. They suggest that Truman didn’t order
thebombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but
was rather guilty of omission. Truman didn’t say
“yes" or “no" to the information he was given, but
he knew all of the gruesome details that would come
with the attack. They also suggest Truman knew that
Japanese Emperor Hirohito had already requested
surrender, based on their intimidation by the Rus
sian forces that would eventually invade them. This
information is from one of Truman’s own diaries.

In the film, the bombing was purportedly
described as: “morally reprehensible and militarily
unnecessary" by five out

 

of seven of the US. military’s five star generals.

The film also tries to dispel the myth that
the bombing of Japan won WWII, and the U.S.rcenr
tric view that “we won the war." Kuznick and Stone
do awonderful job of convincing and reminding the
audience of the US.) shortcomings in WWII.

They pose the question: “could the war
have been won without the bomb?" The obvious any
swer, based on the facm that the film provides, is yes.
It suggests that the bombing of Hiroshima was just
to showcase our new weapon, though the majority of
the scientism that worked on it famously rescinded
their support for is use, i.e. Oppenheimer, Einstein.

Oppenheimer famously said he had
“blood on his hands" from his involvement with
the creation of the atomic bomb. Einstein was also
quoted as saying that he should have never pushed
for the development of an atomic weapon.

The documentary makes a point to note
that though Truman suffered no repercussions from
his omission of a decision, there was slight evidence
that suggested some remorse on his part. Truman
stated in his diaries three different times that he
knew the development of this technology could end
life on the planet.

According to the movie, 85% of Amerir
cans, at the time, were convinced that the bomb had
ended the war. A topic that was covered extensively
was the extreme discrepancies of the Japanese bombr
ings that insulted the memory of those who gave
their lives year after year fighting in WWII. Over the
years, the US. officially cited 23 American POWs,
and 318,000 Japanese civilians killed in the Hiror
shima bombing, and with 40,000 Japanese civilians
and only 250 soldiers from FatMan at the Nagasaki
bombing, though these numbers have been subject

(continued am page 5)

Photos by Bonnie Robinson

technewsiit.com

OPINION 2
CAMPUS 3

AErE 10
SPORTS ll

Fueling Innovation
Campaign sparks
multi-million
dollar donations
Ryan Kamphuis

EDITORVINVCHIEF

After weeks of advertising, stu
dents, alumni, faculty, and university admin,
istration converged upon the MTCC for the
unveiling of ‘Fueling Innovation , The Came
paign for HT? Introduced by President John
Anderson as a campaign to reinvigorate IIT
as a leader in the academic world, the goal of
the Fueling Innovation campaign is to raise
$250 million The money will be used to cre
ate new scholarships for potential students,
endowed chairs to bring in topetier faculty,
completely renovate Engineering 1 and the
Life Sciences building, and construct the
Innovation Center that was announced this
summer by Anderson and Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emmanuel

The Fueling Innovation campaign
has been in the works since 2010, when the
university began soliciting alumni for ‘Lead
ership’ donations Anderson described this
as the ‘quiet phase’ of the campaign, where
the university worked to raise half of their
$250 million goal. The campaign kickoff on
Friday, February 8th signified the achieve,
ment of this goal, and the transition from
the ‘Leadership’ phase of the campaign to the
public portion of the campaign Anderson
mentioned during the kickoff that over $131
million had been raised since the beginning
of the campaign, and that the entire came
paign is on the schedule that was set before
it began

In addition to the public launch, a
blacketie softelaunch was held in the MTCC
on Thursday night. Days were spent prepare
ing the MTCC for the event and transform,
ing it into a luxury venue. Distinguished
alumni, Board of Trustees members, and
university administration used the event
to give a preview of the campaign before it
launched the next day

The speakers at the public launch
talked about the large donations that had al
ready been made to the campaign, and the
uses of these donations Caryl Pucci Rete
taliata, the wife of former IIT President John
T Rettaliata, donated $12 million dollars in
memory of her deceased husband, $2 mil,
lion of which will go towards creating new
scholarships, and $10 million of which will
go towards the complete renovation of En,
gineering 1, which will be renamed the John
T Rettaliata Engineering Center It was an,
nounced that the renovation of E1 would
begin this coming summer It was also an,
nounced that a $215 million dollar chal
lenge donation 7 a donation is only made if
additional $25 million can be raised 7 had
been made in memory of the late Robert A
Pritzker by Colonel James Pritzker Robert
Pritzker is an IIT alumnus and formerly sat
on the IIT Board of Trustees. This money is
going to be used to renovate the Life Sciences
Building, which will be renamed the Robe
ert Ar Pritzker Research Center It was also
explained that, of the money already raised,
over $20 million was set to be used to estab
lish new scholarships that would be given out

(continued on page 4)