There is one image in the “Medicine: Wartime Medicine and Medicine Subsequent to War” section that still haunts me.\u00a0 In this area the viewer is treated to photographs of people who are being tended to after suffering wounds in combat, as well as some of the long term treatments that these wounded soldiers need after returning home from battle.\u00a0 Many of these are photos of soldiers with their prosthetic devices (usually legs).\u00a0 There is one large image, the last image in the room, of a mother helping her son out of bed.\u00a0 At first glance one would think this could be an embrace (a function of the vantage point of the shot), but when the detail is examined, it is evident that there is a piece of this man’s head missing.\u00a0 Of course, we can surmise that this former soldier is no longer functional as an individual, and will now be, until the day he passes from this earth, dependent for his very survival on others.\u00a0 I had to ask myself which was the greater cruelty of the war – that he suffered this grave injury or that he was made to survive?<\/p>\n
I mentioned earlier that there exists, in the exhibit, one digitally manipulated photo in the “Portraits” area.\u00a0 This was a full body portrait of General Douglas MacArthur standing next to Emperor Hirohito.\u00a0 The artist who submitted the work, however, decided to digitally insert his head on MacArthur’s body.\u00a0 I cannot say that I get why the artist did that, but the greater question was why the curator allowed that particular photograph into the exhibit rather than a reprint of the original image of MacArthur and Hirohito.\u00a0 This one photograph is definitely the weak link in an otherwise excellent exhibit.<\/p>\n
I suppose I can’t really say that my mind was blown by this exhibit.\u00a0 In my Air Force days we were shown some pretty shocking gruesome images of the effects of chemical weapons during our chemical warfare training.\u00a0 This was to underscore the importance of the training to our survival on the battlefield.\u00a0 When I was becoming my unit’s SABC trainer, I also had the pleasure of watching video of battlefield triage, battlefield stabilization, and surgery at a MASH unit (all in Vietnam).\u00a0 The amputation was definitely one of the most gruesome things I had ever seen up to and since that point.\u00a0 The execution images are rather haunting, because for many of these they are the point of time just before or after one has crossed into death.\u00a0 In those that don’t feature the condemned about to die, it shows what their physical beings are reduced to in death, be it scrunched in hastily constructed coffins or the bloodstained shirt worn by the condemned as his sentence was carried out.\u00a0 The one that will continue to haunt me, however, is the image I described earlier of the man missing part of his head.\u00a0 The image begs the question I asked at the end of the description, and it’s not one easily answered.<\/p>\n
The 1971 film “Johnny Got His Gun” may be streaming somewhere on YouTube or Vimeo.\u00a0 If not, you can order the DVD through Netflix.\u00a0 After you watch that movie, you will understand why I ask that question.<\/p>\n
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