The Jaren
- THE JAREN - A black ink and gray pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size vellum paper. It appears in "ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURE Magazine, Fall, 1979". Story by Frederick Longbeard.
This drawing of soldiers in battle reminds me of a pair of soldiers near the end of World War 2, that I read about. Actually, they were two Tibetan youngsters who crossed the border into the Soviet Union in 1941, looking for a job. They were spotted and quickly taken into custody. Though nobody spoke their language they were placed in the Russian army where they were given uniforms and rudimentary military training before being hustled off to the front to fight the Germans.
The two youths were soon captured by the Germans and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in France, where again, nobody spoke their language. After a time they were dressed in German Army uniforms and sent to Normandy to fight the Allied invasion.
Once again the two youths were captured, this time by allied forces. They were sent to a camp in the United States, where again, nobody spoke their language. Until a visiting interpreter came along who spoke a variety of Asian tongues, including Tibetan, and he was able to learn of their remarkable story.
When they finished telling their story, the two Tibetan youths had a question for the interpreter, they wanted to know, "What was all the shooting about"?
I laughed when I read that article, but recently, on December 7, the anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, I watched a roving reporter ask people on the street what World War 2 was all about, and most of them didn't know! And they also didn't know who fought in the Civil War! How can so many Americans be so ignorant of their own country's history?
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