hollywood home to heart relocation center, a japanese treatment camp in wyoming. he took numerous photographs that document a day to day life of the japanese-americans holder. eric muller, editor of trade to presents photographs from the collection while speaking at the interpretive learning center in wyoming. this is about 45 minutes. [applause] >> thanks and good afternoon, everyone. i want you to take a minute and conjure up in your mind an image of world war ii. just try to get an image in your mind of world war ii. i'll make a couple of suggestions. you might try picturing a burning u.s. warship at pearl harbor. or if you'd rather do a happier image, how about a man kissing a

woman, leaning and kissing a woman in times square in new york on the third day. or maybe you prefer politics. how about churchville, stalin and roosevelt a filter sitting down together. maybe that image. or maybe you'd rather think of something from the america of that area roughly, maybe a little bit earlier, the great depression, to get an image in your mind of the great depression. if you're having trouble, think of it tired him a worried looking at another stare off into the distance with a ragamuffin child leaning on each shoulder. can you find that famous iconic image in your mind? that image by dorothea lange

called migrant mother that has come to symbolize the great depression. the images you've conjured up in your mind have been black and white. very, very likely. so i'd like you to do the same exercise but think of japanese imprisonments. think of the imprisonment of japanese americans during the war. so what are you picturing? does it look like this? a bunch of young, japanese-american grossing promoters dancing? this is a photograph taken by a government photographer at the granada relocation center, also known as the macho in 1943. so if this is that which you had in mind, what's different about

it? well, it's a photo of young american citizen to being a celebrating the spirit of ancestors in a summertime buddhist ritual called bonny dore. does this surprise you the japanese-americans would have engaged in such open displays of japanese culture model is basically a prison camp? maybe wasn't so often because after all it was a night. so there is a surreptitious quality to this. well, this is a photograph of dory here at heart mountain and he was taken either in july 1943 or july 1944. we can't be sure which. its daytime. nothing suspicious about it, not the surreptitious about it in

the barracks and background ec takes place in an open, public space within the residential area of the camp itself. just check this image. so there's something else that's special about this image. it's in color. brilliant, beautiful color. take this photograph of the same event at heart mountain taken up by government photographer, but one of the internees in camp. just checked out of. look at that, the color restored. by taking color photographs and remove the color so you can see them the way we are accustomed to seeing this area and in the

weekly for shot by the photographer. i want to take a moment and ask you what the impact is right up to your couple comments. what is the impact of seeing this historical moment in color rather than in black-and-white? could a couple of you put into words what the difference might need of seeing it in color as opposed to black-and-white? >> when i saw the colors, it felt warm. >> any other reaction? >> color makes it seem a little more present time. black-and-white has a sense of that a while ago. >> suggestion is a black-and-white historical others are something that marks it as history, whereas color you said makes it feel little more

current. any other suggestions? [inaudible] spin now interesting. it makes you feel happiness and that everything's fine. [inaudible] >> interests, stoner. >> dark versus real. >> spontaneous versus staged. the black-and-white propaganda images are some that seems authentic and at that moment. >> wonderful suggestion. let's hold onto old days because it's an important aim of this project, the book, tree into, i

which this is a presentation tonight just think of the episode were teaching, but also the way we interact with it, the windy city and delete these representations communicate meaning to us. so let me say a few things. i will volunteer a few of my observations about what is striking about this photograph. one of them is the beauty of the subjects term is not just talking about the americas, which are gorgeous. and talking about the energy. there's a beautiful energy. there's the light. the humor. the lighting is not perfect, but the woman in the red, but with the way flowers is turned to her left in the look of what can only be described as gleeful amusement.

obviously something very funny headset in this photo was snapped in this group of women. delay, humor, playfulness and the interactions of the screw. this is unusual. but we are accustomed to seeing his images in dreariness, bleakness, depictions that on the surface communicate injustice. if you are familiar, toyota to miyake's photograph of three boys advance in our stand to end looking wistfully across a barbed wire fence come a black-and-white image. that's the classic image of japanese-american incarceration. this is something quite different. notice the contrast between the beauty of the subject in the bleakness of the backdrop. the dry, parched ground they stand on.

tarpaper barracks they lived in. the chimney of the communal masala. it is again something i suggested in the early photograph the openness of japanese culture. this is something we are very unaccustomed to in the imagery of this era. this is hard to see in this way. look at the young lady in the purple facing to the left of the woman who is laughing, smiling. she is. saddle shoes. if you look at the bottom, she's got on saddle shoes. so this is not a depiction only of japanese culture. there is something culturally complicated going on here, given the ages of these subjects, we can be certain that if we could listen in on their conversation,

they would be speaking unaccented american english. so there's something culturally complicated this been done here. i love this photograph. this one shows a cultural blend i'm talking about in a beautiful and humorous way. it's about a dory summertime ritual of ancestors and misguided young woman dancing in over her right shoulder in them if they had been his dancing. over her left shoulder is a man or a woman who has stressed 10 or herself up as some kind of fanciful word or try again. nbc would they use to make the costume? they used cereal boxes from the muscle kitchen. the white plates in front is a race krispies box and the one above it is from a cereal but i

believe has not survived. i've never seen it. something called guido max. [laughter] there's layers of cultural complexity here because you got a japanese-american dancer engaging in a japanese dance in an american prison camp, making a costume out of boxes of american serial in the american serials they chose this race krispies, a concoction based on the staple of the japanese diet, race. so there's one other thing about this photograph that is a little surprising. the size and taxpayer in color, the fact they show japanese cultural entities rather than american cultural activities. but i want to give you a hint. it's not in the frame.

there's something a little bit startling about the photograph that's not in the frame. any idea what they might be referring to? >> is surprised many people were allowed in. [inaudible] >> exactly. the thing that i'm alluding to is what is outside of the frame is the photographer. someone was taking this photograph of a camera and he was a japanese-american prisoner at this camp. so that's worth noting, too. we are usually led to believe, and it was true at certain points that cameras are contraband. so why would a japanese-american have had a camera and by this is so comfortable shooting photographs in the open like this under the eyes of the

administration? i'll say more about that later, but for now remember somebody's taking these photographs and remember, there's a lot more going on in this place of confinement and what you see in these photographs. the photographs are a snapshot of a subject, but there's an entire world surrounding that subject. what i'd like to do for a while today to share with you, introduce to you this very weird collection of kodachrome color photographs of ordinary life inside the camp here at heart not. i'd also want to introduce you to the photographer and to his family and give you some sense of what was going on outside of the viewfinder, i decided to view frame. this is bill manbo. this is the photographer. bill manbo was born in riverside, california in 19

away. american citizen of course, was born in the united states and under the 14th amendment a citizen by birth. he went to hollywood high school. he was in the class of 1921 at hollywood high, went off to the frank wiggins trade school to study to be an auto mechanic. he graduated in 1923 and he opened up a garage in hollywood. he liked model racecars and the left cryptography. he was an amateur photographer. he also developed an alias for himself that he used at times. his name is real manbo. he developed a french version of his name but he refused. he would refer to himself as either manbo and he changed the spelling of the last name so it would be not manbo. man bio -- there's actually a

photograph of disparate key is built-in for your with plywood in front of the door and arching artistically across this little entryway is the name manbo. break your heart mountain. cu is a bit of a character, no question about it. this is a lot of his family. in the middle, to older folks in the middle on the left is jim's attire from his father-in-law and next to him, his wife, rio, bill manbo's mother-in-law. they were both immigrants from japan. trained as a mechanical draftsman, but did a number of different jobs and he came to the united states and ultimately took up farming in the mid-1920s in the work of the california, southeast of

downtown los angeles. they had three children. on the right is the youngest child. that is eunice. she was about 16% even this photograph. on the other hand on the left is mary, who then became mary manbo. on the left is the photographer's wife, mary manbo. and then is bill and mary sun, really. also called bill, that he was called billy and the family. he came in 1940s if this is some 10 shots in 1943. is three years old touching his toy airplane. mary went to the frank wiggins school as well. she was studying to become a seamstress. she became a seamstress and it's costing design for theater come

any among other jobs. and there was a third child, a boy. by 1941, cne who is not pictured in this photograph the jamaican later was at you see berkeley in the rotc program in 1941 and units as they say was in high school. madchen so had done some accounting work for japanese accounting school and as a consequence of doing that accounting work, been affiliated with the japanese school, he was arrested in march of 1942, several months after pearl harbor and he was moved to a federal justice department camp for enemy aliens and he was held there through may of 1942. when franklin roosevelt signed, he left berkeley came back to

norwalk, back to the farm to help his mother in the absence of june so who is locked up in the camp to gather and conclude their affairs. and that included making arrangements for their farm. they were farmers some of the most valuable crops was required. the rhubarb crop was not yet ready to harvest, but rhubarb is a perennial plant and its roots are valuable. see cme, getting ready to be excluded, negotiates a contract, signed a contract. their attendance on the farm, strikes up an agreement the landlord is going to care for the rhubarb, it's going to marcus harvest and is going to share the process with the family in kiev for the duration

of the word that began the contract will terminate at the end of the family returns. that was the region and they struck the landlord. a couple of buildings on the property they own a slot on the landlord agreed to take care of those. so they are forced out in march of 42 and they go through santa and neither can the so-called assembly center where they spend the summer of 1942 living on horse stables. and then, they are sent to heart out. this is a photograph of bill member took of his wife, mary and little billy on an outcropping to the west of camp. so heart not missed at the back, looking out across the camp, the site where we are today. you should know that the very first trainload arrived here 70

years ago yesterday. august 10th, 1942. heart not was run by the war relocation authority become a civilian agency said it are the purpose of running these camps. [inaudible] >> executive order 9066, yes. [inaudible] >> the civil liberties act of 1988 was also signed on that date. thank you. during the time when heart out with soap and at its maximum population of almost 11,000, it is the third-largest city in wyoming. and what an unfamiliar place it must've been for people from temperate, california. check out the icicles on that eric on the right there. there was a day in january 1943 and went and dug out the

meteorological record. there was a day with a high temperature was 13 below zero, the high for that day. now bill mann though was a hobby photographer and he used not a professional, not a documentarian. he is the camera for the most part the way you and i use cameras. he tried to capture things that struck him as beautiful or interesting. so here you scatterbrained though. obviously in good lighting you'd see at other latrine building were all rainbows and of course. [laughter] a pot of gold, or a pot anyway. thank you very much. well, remember i told you she was a man with a camera. why did he have a camera? the reason was the war relocation authority, which unlike the military was staffed

by people who in the context of their time were progressive. they figured out the cameras would be a good thing to have. it would be an affirmatively good to for japanese americans have at the coastal strip to be allowed to reclaim their cameras they had surrendered as contraband. because why? because it is a way of feeling normal. it is a way of doing what we all do, documenting her experience, taking pictures of your family, pictures of your children, pictures of events. the camera recognized it was an instrument of adjustment for the incarcerated community. after march of 1943, japanese-americans off the west coast, not manson are, but the camp outside the western defense command were allowed to reclaim

their cameras. that's why bill manbo had a camera and is comfortable walking around in public. so what did he shoot? seashell parades. boy scout and is very active at heart mountain. here you've got the boy scout at the head of the parade with the american flag in the dry nature with the time just behind. and then maybe i'm not so classic american image. sumo wrestling is part just open my camp, very much again like the japanese culture being practiced with permission of the war relocation authority. if you could see the faces of the folks behind, it's clearly a light moment in this particular match. and looks as though the older gentleman has been pushed out of the ring by the younger guy others' cultural historians might see some interesting comic

relief going on because there's a fair amount of unspoken intergenerational conflict at the camp between the immigrant generation. so there's a way in which the young man pushing the old man out of the ring may have had a certain kind of tension breaking humor to it. the vote really gets in a skating lesson. people with ice skates from catalogs or they got a lot of blogging they couldn't buy at the canteen. a scheming became a very popular activity. swimming pools. see the splash of the diver, just seven,. assuming home was built after young boy charmed swimming illegally and one of the irrigation canals.

one of her sons to movie theaters. people lined up for what must have been in that they showing. if you look carefully at the photograph on the right side, you can see black curtains that have been hung in the window to darken the structures of the films will be shown in the film shown that a has a bluish sign downward to the right of the big sign that says theater in the film is so well preserved that you can read if you look closely but almost shown. somewhat ironically they were showing how green was my valley that particular day. [laughter] bill manbo used his camera to document newsworthy events. like a fire in a mess hall. these are men on the roof who are trying to control a mess hall blaze. there's all sorts of layers of meaning in photographs, but one

thing noteworthy here is a self-sustaining the community needed to be. it was internee supervising fire protection with the cooperation it is the war relocation authority. internal policing this largely a run enterprise. this is one of my favorite photographs. bill manbo let the landscaping using this camera to capture the various hues and needs of the camp. this is a shot at don. there is just a single light on. it's hard to see, but the second. on the right has a single illuminated window and that's the only light you see other than those tingling from light posts. the smoke from the chimney and of course the gorgeous guy. if any of you are photographers camille be impressed to know that the asa speed of the film, the kodachrome was 10.

so to capture a photograph like this at don but they tend asa film, he was not a bad photographer, bill manbo. and he loved to shoot portraits. it's mary his wife and steamy. rembrandt mentioned sammy before. a and sister, very striking, very handsome photograph of his wife and brother-in-law and especially loved shooting photographs of children as we all do. that's billy, his son with the military cap leaning to one side there. they're playing with something. it might be a marvel, might be something else. this is a little group of children, a little bit ragtag looking it must be said, but

adorable. that's billy on the right with the blue cap and galoshes and a little baseball bat looking thing they are. that's also billy eating an ice cream. someone of the things we conceived though manbo doing with color film and camera is what most japanese-americans were not able to do, which receives a camera to create and bring together some sense of a normal family life. taking pictures of our children is one of the staples of normal family life. but that's what he was doing with this camera. he was in a certain way, you could view photographs has been a family album that so many japanese american families don't have from this time. so that's a photograph of the porcher. it may show you picture really. kind of different.

what would you describe is the difference between the last portrait and this one? tessellation i'm hearing? survival i am hearing. i'm sorry? [inaudible] >> monochromatic. it's a bit better with the lighting, but it is certain monochromatic for a color image. what i'm trying to get back here is that bill manbo may have mostly used his camera in ordinary ways, but there is clearly something else going on. he was at times documenting and commenting on the bleakness comedy of bleakness, delay solution, the enormity of the surroundings in its unmistakable in an image like this with little billy walking at the avondale is a pile of coal in the barracks. how about that image? but set a picture of?

is a guard tower. now he could've taken any any number of photographs of baruch structures around camp. it's impossible to read a photographers mind of course, but it's very heard for me to believe that he was not commenting on surveillance. that is the central image of the photograph. if the focus of the guard tower on the hill. [inaudible] >> at the mess hall. how about this portrait of childhood? this is not exactly the way of taking portraits of my children clinging to barbed wire fences. soap bill manbo hit documentary instincts certainly. we see in the photographs a keen awareness of and containment. but there's really only one image in the collection that is a shot of an overtly political moment and it's this one.

there's hard part in the background. the high school building on the left and an enormous crowd has gathered on a september afternoon in 1943. can see folks protecting themselves from the sun with umbrellas and aerosols. this is the moment when the people who have filled the government's loyalty test that she may have heard about him of the so-called loyalty questionnaire was administered in the spring of 1943. those who failed the test were shipped off from heart out and in other camps and sent to one can't been converted to resegregation camp in california. this is a gathering to send off those from heart mountain who are being ripped up from her cotton and put on trains to be shipped off to tule lake. loyalty questionnaires are a.

they produce far more -- they caused what one official called the mortality of loyalty. they ended up undermining the very thing they were intended to gauge by asking a man of insulting questions. i was able to find bill and mary manbo's loyalty questionnaires in the national archives in their anger and disaffection jumps off the page of those forms patroness for citizenship, they report american? when they ask if they will swear loyalty to the united states, one says only if my rates are restored. very since japanese and i'm not ashamed of it. you can sense on these forms that they are briskly on what they asked to endure.

it got them in trouble. their answers on farms were deemed sufficiently suspect that they were submitted to hearings to determine whether they were or were not loyal and hearings begin, their anger, transcripts and the national art. their anger is culpable. but the debut ra understood better than the military that japanese americans had good reasons to be angry and hate and ultimately bill and mary manbo or adjudicated oil, not disloyal. so they weren't on that train in september 1943 had enough to the leak. this june so embryo with their grandchild, billy. let me tell you how things went for the manbo family towards the end. do you miss -- eunice when she turned 18 last camp, went to the midwest and took a secretarial

job. have a left to do some agricultural work and then he volunteered in the united states army. build the photographer left for cleveland to find work in a factory that are. towards the end of 1944, june so decided he wants to see if he can get work in new jersey at seabrook farms, which is a thriving enterprise was recruiting japanese-americans. so these can't been followed october 44, has two new jersey to scope the situation now. at that point, sammy is gone, bill is gone, eunice is gone. the only people left are radio and mary and little billy. maria suffers but doctors called

a nervous break down. she ends up in the hospital and for the rest britannic camp, and other nearly here at camp, rio is suffering greatly and really unable to work from the barely able to leave the barracks. she's something of an invalid for the rest of this. juno comes back in comes back and finds his wife in the hospital. so he decides not to take the family two new jersey, batiste can't and care for his wife. mary and billy end up leaving to join bill at the factory in cleveland. the only went five to 1945 are rio and juno. they finally leave in september september 1943 -- a month or two before the camp closes and they head back to california to find

the cruelest blow. they discover we make it back but a few months after they left in 1942 plowed under the rhubarb crop, carted off the building. they're gone. they have nothing left of the coolest of all, it turns out that the landlord didn't even own the land. he had been collect in rent from the family in 1937, but the property had issued a two state in 1937 because the landlord hadn't been paying his taxes. the state hadn't come in and taken possession, but that landlord had no right to their rent from 1937 although he threw and they were forced out in

1942. bill and cleveland injures his back at the factory returns to the west coast with mary and little billy and besides to reopen his garage in hollywood. his father-in-law more or less tinkers. he creates a maker that gets installed in a store in los angeles, a matter returned to productive economic life. what about little billy? billy is now 72, lives in anaheim. he became the recreational parachutist. more than 1100 free falls in his career until he finally stopped because of injury. anyway to work in the aviation industry. [laughter] he designed exit systems for

airplanes and ultimately win in two operations for several major aviation centers. these photographs, these colors by, not prince, but slide that boxed up in villa manbo's closet for decades, which is why they look so great. kodachrome has enormous staying power if they are treated properly. he sat in the dark for 60 years, said they've been remarkably well preserved. colors are extraordinarily brilliant in the book can still see. they really sat there until i learned of them when working with pattani on this museum. send a few color photographs including one of the women gabby, most and i just did a triple take. i had no idea such images existed. with bill junior's permission,

about a third of the photographs. the collection of 180 photos, one third now. this new book, trained to allow with interpretive essays by several scholars, myself, a cultural historian and just meant i wonder who is an art historian, historian of photography at the university of wisconsin, milwaukee and a very lovely essay about what it was like to be a youngster in the can. i want to conclude with the image of the cover of the book. you see the book i choose to use, the image of the young women in their come on us. i want to share with you that it was a struggle with what the image on the cover of the book should be. i went back and forth between this image and the image now on the back of the book, the image of billy clinging to the barbed wire fence.

i decided to go with this image, but with some trepidation because when i asked about color, initially i asked about color and people said things about warmth and happiness. thank you. people said things about warmth and happiness and there certainly is warmth and happiness in iphoto. there's no question about it. the smiles are not fake. do not even smiling for the camera really. this is in anything a classic portrait. i was concerned that this image scene quickly could lead people to think that these iraqi places, but these are places of joy and frivolousness and these

people were really japanese rather than an american, repeating the very categorizing mistake but that the country into this whole problem in the first place. i ultimately decided if you allow yourself to reflect on these images and you inform yourself a little bit about the very tragic part of the manbo family, which is representative of so many japanese american families, that you ultimately come to see that any concerned these are places of joy is no sicker than a paper on which the photographs are printed. thanks very much for your attention. [applause] i'm going to look at our timekeeper appeared to be of

time for a few questions? [inaudible] >> will move it along. if there's questions or comments, we have time for those. [inaudible] >> they had to be shipped back to california. so one of the things that billy has is the mailers in which the envelope in which the slides came back from the photo lab in california. and they are dressed to manbo. yes. >> when i saw the word kodachrome attack right away of paul simon song. the first two verses are so appropriate, especially the political context of the one photograph that was so political. when i think about all the stuff

i wanted high school, it's a wonder i can think of all. though my lack of education has a hurting on, i could read the writing on the wall. kodachrome gave us a nice bright colors command makes you think the world of sunny day. i've got a nikon camera. i love to take photographs. so mama, don't take my kodachrome away. [laughter] >> i'm glad you mentioned it. my essay in the book really tells the back story of the manbo families, by the open with paul simon's kodachrome. i open with that very lyric. because what i say is kodachrome does make you think all the world is a sunny day. but what if the story really isn't so sunny and that's the central problem in the central challenge and the sensual delight of these color photographs.

adiabatic adding a mac >> is a very preset of observation. so billy was four when he left camp. he doesn't remember any of this. he had very fleeting memories. his family as was common among japanese american families, his parents never taught about this episode at all within. so he has no memories of this. he has no evidence dearness. he remembers going around looking for rocks with his grandmother. he remembers little things like that, but he has no bitterness. he's a very quiet gentleman, a reticent man and doesn't speak extensively about any of these subjects.

but he has extremely happy his father's photographs are coming to public attention. one more and we can wrap things up. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> will again, and encourage you get the images in the work itself because part of what you see here is leaching from the fluorescent light. so the colors are more vivid. the u.s. a great question. the only thing we did to the sides. the book is published by the university of north carolina press onward for documentary studies at duke university. i have the photographs scanned -- the slides scanned at high resolution and using a computer, dust was removed. not from the original, but the

scanned images. ever perhaps a dozen photographs , the duke center for documentary studies people altered ever so slightly a bit of the contrast perhaps. cannot photographs of the movie theater, there is an enormous shadow of a friend in the back job is in the brilliant sunlight. so they recite adjustments made to bring the foreground out and told the background on a tiny bit. mostly you are seeing them the way they would appear if they were sitting in old-fashioned slide projector we outgrew up looking at pictures from. i think we should bring things to a close and we can keep the program moving. thank you so much. >> is to visit the heart mounted interpretive center. for more information visit heart mountain dog work.

>> booktv is on location at the u.s. naval academy or we interview professors who are also authors now joined by richard root, professor at the naval academy. what do you teach?

>> i teach predominately southeast asian history, though i do offer courses in premodern asian history. mostly thailand and vietnam. >> why it's important to know the history? >> are suffering much engaged in the history of the world. we have many allies there, many partners we still work with and many students at the naval academy who are going to go to southeast asia and represent our interests there. it's important for them to know southeast asian history to be comfortable with cultures and have some knowledge of their history. >> professor ruth, one of our long-time allies is thailand. you've written a book called into this company. what role does the military play? >> thailand was very close ally during the vietnam war that many people who are familiar to know

that not only did thailand send troops to fight alongside the united states, but thailand also served as the base for many aircraft were flying bombing missions over the ho chi minh trail, over laos, south vietnam and at the time we had looked seven airbases and develop a port there as well to facilitate the u.s. effort in the vietnam war and know so many american soldiers went to bangkok and spent a lot of time there. in terms of direct support and more peripheral support, thailand was a close ally and an important part of the war effort. >> to that country of soldiers in vietnam? >> absolutely. i said i concentrate on the book. thailand send 37,000 soldiers to

fight in south vietnam. they also sent smaller naval units and air units. this still definitely combat units outsiders the province working with united states, the south vietnamese and other allies, filipinos and south koreans. >> what about casualties? >> 500 plus casualties -- i should say 500 died in south vietnam while fighting what we call it the viacom in the south. it's an important detail to focus on. to dismiss them with the insulting nature to use as an american mercenary paid for a lot of the military hardware and transportation logistics and extra pay the troops received and also tends to focus on

black-market schemes. but the truth behind it all his soldiers were fighting, thai soldiers were dying. for years, thailand was carrying out their war, what they saw as their war in south vietnam. so the casualties are something we should keep in mind. >> professor ruth, thai u.s. relations. when did they start to really gel because thailand has been an ally for a long time. participated in the iraq war and world war ii. >> absolutely. you can date back to the famous example of offering abraham lincoln for his troubles in the american civil war, but definitely in the 20th century, the ties were always a close u.s. ally in this

intensified during the second world war. but pretty much comes in as a strong u.s. ally and definitely a strong cold war ally in terms of being an anti-communist component to u.s. global strategy. >> why do you call it "in buddha's company"? where did that come from? >> is seldom so says produced warriors, that informed a lot of their service that is ideological. they saw themselves trying to halt communism as the kind of threat to the crack is the religious values or religious traditions. they saw buddhism in some ways under threat by communism and

some of it also has to do with thailand in this role as the custodian in the world as being the center of an intense predisposition. many thai soldiers who fought there before leaving takeouts in front of the most sacred buddhist image in thailand now. what we call the macau match. many became his signature, especially when they came in contact with other countries, they were almost in identifying symbol. they brought statues have been answered or rebuilt buddhist temples that had been wrecked or abandoned in south vietnam because of the fighting. they think their service is informed that buddhist ideals, loving kindness and mercy of other veterans had talked to

while i was doing research but often in the concept of mercy to describe why they were fighting in my face and that they so much with the vietnamese people and why they wanted to help them. so even if they think about it, their attitude towards nature, all of that at the root to it. so i'm coming up with the title, i did want to focus on their own self-image is kind of buddhist warriors. >> what role does team play in thailand and if the king had said no to war, with thailand have halted in vietnam? >> that's a great question because the king plays an important part not only in promoting thailand involvement in the work, but giving his

blessing to the departed soldiers from earlier discussions with the united states for the king of thailand in the middle of discussions talking both in bangkok and washington. but when they did start recruiting soldiers covered the king made it clear he supported the venture. he bid farewell, sponsored a lot of celebrations that marked the departure of the troops in south vietnam. he showed a direct personal interest in their well-being and visits wounded soldiers in the hospital when they came back. he presided over funeral ceremonies for them at the royal sponsor temple. so from the very beginning, the king of thailand was involved in supporting it. whether it will still go forward i don't know, but pretty much are to imagine such a thing

taking place. >> currently but relationship is the u.s. military have? >> be the close relationship with the royal thai army. this is something that hasn't changed since the vietnam war. we have regular annual exercises with other regional armies to help them every year in thailand. many in the united states have contacts with the american counterparts here. so that hasn't changed in the vietnam war. there is a brief souring of thai u.s. relations at the worst conclusion, but abysmal materia. most of the time we had a relationship. >> is this important note about the that the thai involvement? >> well, there's a couple

reasons. they had the third-largest foreign army in south vietnam for many of the years the were underwent after the united states and south korea. thailand saw this war is a direct threat to themselves. they were regional power in a regional board. they saw it as something that would directly affect them and a day. we at times tend to concentrate in south vietnam, but many of the same soldiers who fought and sets the town also disservice serve as fighting in laos against the north vietnamese and against laotian communists. so i think you can't get a full view of the vietnam war without reading a regional nurse. and the united states, we tend to not only privilege and american positions, but also focus on an american perspective of the vietnam war while

ignoring the immense perspectives, but also thai, lao, cambodians. there's many other national news we should consider. i also think about allies as well but the united states going to have foreign allies in these conflicts. through studying our interaction with them what worked, what didn't work, what elements to be agreed and disagreed to help us understand what we're doing in iraq or afghanistan or other conflicts. sicu a complete picture of the vietnam war, it is works like this that will help. >> "in buddha's company: thai soldiers in the vietman war." richard ruth, professor at the naval academy is the author. thank you for your time. >> thank