Angie Zhang
Section A01
Week 5
Darrell Y. Hamamoto’s Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence revolves around the idea that the military contributes to the rise of serial killers and mass murderers because, in a way, it promotes violence. He supports this by stating that many, but not all, of those committing such crimes against the innocent civilians in society have a military background along with anti-government and anti-American political views. Hamamoto also discusses the different reasons as to why many veteran-turned-killers commit these sickening crimes, such as in retaliation, simply due to curiosity, or due to one’s race. For instance, Hamamoto talks about killers targeting Asian Americans, or as he writes, “yellow people,” as a result of the Vietnam War, and how seeing the way other soldiers treated civilians influenced their sadistic acts of such murders later on in life. He also emphasized the way veterans developed a strong hatred for people in certain ethnic groups, in this case Asians, due to them having fought in war against them. This struck me as shocking and extremely sickening as war seems to be promoting hatred towards people in different ethnic groups. Before reading this, I never really gave a thought about how the military seems to be a factor that causes such violence outside of war. Therefore, upon reading this, I find myself questioning the military in terms of how it may affect many veteran’s mentality of certain people post war, such as due to PTSD, and how it may be a factor that increases violence and causes the rise of serial killers and mass murderers.
Question: What can the military do to ensure that veterans don’t develop a sense of hatred towards certain groups of people post war so it can decrease the amount of killers threatening the lives of innocent civilians? (What can the military do to help soldiers combat PTSD?)
References:
Hamamoto, Y. Darrell. “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.” Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire, edited by Carl Boggs, Routledge, 2003, pp. 277-292.
[Digital Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2017 from
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