SENT NBSONE ED 177 577 CS 205 214 AUTHOR Politowski, Richard TITLE - David Douglas Duncan's Changing Views'on War: An Audio-Visual Presentation. PUB DATE 78 NOTE 25p.; Paper presented at the AnnualMeeting of the Associaticn for Education in Journalism(62nd, Houston, Texas, August 5-8, 1979) EDRS PRIC2 MF01/PCe1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Changing Attitudes; *MultimediaInstructionC Photographs; Slides; *War IDENTIFIERS *DuncaA (David Douglas) ABSTRACT This paper is the script for a slldepresentation abcut photographer Davld Douglas Duncanand his view of war. It is intended to be used with slides madefrom pictures Duncan took during World War II, the Korean War, and the warin Viet Nam and published in various books and periodicals. Itdiscusses a shift in emphasis to be seen both in the pictures and inthe text written ky Duncan in which he increasingly portrayed thesuffering and death of war. It concludes by saying that Duncan in hispictures did not oppose war it. general but opposed the sentiventalizing orglorifying of war. (T43) **************************************e.******************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that canbe made from the original document. *********************************************************************** S CIIPARTMENTOR /ALM. OUCATION s we NATIONAL INSTITUTEOR EDUCATION HAS SEEN RHSSO. THIS DOCUMENT FROM DUCED EXACTL YAS RECEIVED OROANaATIOt. ORIGIN- THE PERSON OR CPINiONS MING IT POINTSOT VIE*OR NE( ESSARIL 'TFPRE sT ATI D DO NOT INSTIT.11$ st NT OFIC lAt NATIONAL Out A .ON POS1ON OR POl It LIN rft. DAVID DOUGLAS DUNCAN'SCHANGING VIEWS ON WAR Lu . ) anaudio-4sua1presentation by Richard Politowski Michigan StateUniversity PERMISSION "O ILE PRODUCATHIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRAN D BY ElchArsLEolitowski 0 THF ELAICATIONALRI ';OURGP; iNf AT ON C.1 t1 T 1 It RIC, Copyright 1978 V) David Douglas Duncan'sChanging Views on War SLIDES TEXT It's the wounded thatwreck 1. Name only "The dead are dead. four. us. Ike Fenton's bloodshot, angryeyes swept the bearers had just been 2. Ika Fenton empty foxholeswhere the stretcher at work, thenstopped on me. 'Okay, get your pictures. But for Christ'ssake don't getwounded.' He tore open his K-rations. 'How about killed? Ike Fenton almost 1 smiled. We were old friends." David Douglas Duncan,American 3..Title Over a 25-year span, photographer andcorrespondent, photographedand wrote about three major wars in ourtime -- World War II,the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam. Although Duncan has many accomplishments besides his warphotography, this presentation-portrays andanalyzes the developmentof ncan's personal attitudetowards war. Conclusions are drwn chieflyfrom his photographs,but also from his fItings for magazinesand the texts which accompany the photographs in hisbooks. City, Missouri, in1916. 4. Portrait Duncan was born in Kansas From the beginning,Duncan wasstrong-willed and independent. he claims to In his pictorialautobiography Yankee Nomad, have been "expelledfrom school so oftenthat his presence I 2 in class foi a fullunbroken month was consideredbather unusual."2 Of his boyhood in Kansas CityDuncan wrote, "In all the land, the wholeisolated land, there was perhaps no place more remotefrom reality,.or happier, than Kansas City, Missouri, myhometown.° the University of Arizona 5. Portrait In 1933 Duncan entered intending to major inarchaeology. There he took his first photographs with aBakelite, thirty-nine-cent camera, a birthdayg4ft from his younger sisterJean.4The pictures were of a fire atthe Congress Hotel inTucson. They rhcluded one .of amiddle-aged man who was attempting to re-enter cheburning hotel to recover asuitcase. The following day Duncan read inthe paper that JohnDillinger and his gang had beenflushed out of the hotel bythe fire and realized his cameracontained still undevelopedpictures In Yankee Nomad he wrote, 6. Portrait of the attempted escape. "Later I was to improve onhitting newsbreaks with pictures."5 A love ofwildiife stemming from boyhoodcompelled Duncan to tv-sfer tothe Univsrsity of Miamithe following year tc major inzoology. In 1936 he won secondprize in a Kodak snapshotcontest for a pictureof a Mexican fisherman caating his net. With the money from this prize he purchased betterphoto equipment and began to fill his spare time withpicture-taking. In a letter to his parents,"Today, 7. Portrait dated March 7, 1938, he wrote I graduated. Bachelor of Arts, Universityof Miami, 3 mid-teri, no formalities. Zoology and Spaaish. They'll . except I intend send the diploma later. That's it . to be aphotographer."6' After graduation, Duncantook part in several nature photographyexpeditions Which includedgiant turtle . fishing and a broadbillswordfish study. Several of hl.s photo stories fram theseexpeditions were subsequently published in rational Geographic. Duncan's draft board gavehim permission to leave the country in 1940 todo advertising photographyin Latin America for Pan AmericanAirways.7While working in Latin American, he madeseveral unsuccessful attempts toobtain a draftdeferment because, as hestated in a letter to thought he "could best servehis President Roosevelt, he A c=ntry as arepresentative in LatinAmerica. On Da#id Douglas Dundan was wornin as 8. Letter February 17, 1943, States Marine Corps a SecondL1eutenant in the United Reserve. .9 The religious toneof Duncan'slitter home announcing his enlistment wasnot out-of-keepingwith letters he receivedfrom his parents.. His mother, less than a monthbefore this, wrote,"The Bible says 'the fervent prayer of arighteous man availethmuch ' I'm no man, am nottoo sure I'mrighteous, but I'mpreying fervently every day that you mayfind your right place and be satisfied init."9 Similarly, his father wrote David's him less than sixmonths after hisenlistment, "May songs bring youcomfort and peace and an un tanding .10 heart. r 4 After basic training, Duncan was putin command of a photo unit. His longing for more activeduty was satisfied when he was given aspecial commission to photograph the entire operationsof the South-Pacific Combat Air Transport Command(known as SCAT) on January 11 20, 1944. To his parents he wrote,"I shall now South 9. Jungle photograph Marine Corpsaviation throughout the fighter Pacific. Perhaps the finest complimentof all is that I've .been turned loose onthe assignment with nostrings attached. Much like those jobs Idid for Pan American .12 of adventure and Airways . With a boyhood sense independence which photography gavehim and an almost religious sense of missionwhich being a Marineinspired in him, Dunpan beganhis career as a warphotographer. Most of Duncan's WorldWar II photographs were never publishedand are not readilyavailable for examination. This is because they weretaken under governmentassignment. However, three articlesby Duncan illustratedwith his own photographsfrom the war were publishedin 1945. Bougainville," 10. Double The first of thesewUs "Fiji Patrol on appearing in 'the Januaryedition of NationalGeographic. Duncan wrote in the article,"I was a United StatesMarine, being flown by an Armypilot, going to join acampaign u13 gives a with Fiji islanders. The text of the article firsthand account of theIbu campaign onBougainville. Among the photographs areportraits of some of thejungle "Scowl and fighters. The one on theleft was captioned, gun lurk inambush -- he killed 50Japanese."14 6 5 i'Food Floats Down from the Heavens," 11. Parachute Under a subtitle Duncan describes theparachute drops of food andmilitary supplies to this SolamonIslands outpost against the is also reported on 12. Planaiug Japanese. Planning military strategy and illustrated in thearticle. But surprisingly,al:though the text of the article coverssome of theintensity of the Ibu campaign, inwhich Duncan himselfparticipated both as photographer andfighter, none of the accompanying photos portray combat orviolence. The military, almostpatriotic emphasis of the article is most dramaticallyrepresented by its concluding colonel had guided his 13. Departure paragraph: "For sixty days the men acrossthe largest of theSolamon Islands, through the heart of enemy country. With the loss of only one man he had fulfilledhis miFtsion. He had proved thatthe thousands of Japs onBougainville, neutralizedby our troops at EmpressAugust Bay, can beleft to 'die on thevine."15 from Bougainville werepublithed 14. Mah with gun Similar pictures in Yankee Named,Duncan's pictorialautobiography. Bougainville and the Fijiwarriors was also thetopic of a second article,this one published inThe Saturday Evening Post in March,1945. Entitled "The GreatestJungle Fighters of All," thearticle opens with adescription Nishino. A private in theJapanese 15. Group of the death of Nichi reading a dirty army, Nishiao wascaught off guard while Coldly book somewhere deepin the Bougainvillejungle. quick death and without compassionDuncan describes the of the unfortunateJapanese private. Mostlyheildeand- shoulders portraits ofthe Fiji fighters accompanythe text. had completed thefirst 16. MP By April, 1944, Duncan phase of his specialphotographic assignment withSCAT, A year the South-PacificCombat Air TransportCommand. later he was assigned tospecial aviation duty to photograph combat aviationfram the air. This took him to OkinaWa andresulted in an articlefor the October 1945, National Geographic. The si..ort two pagesof text gives an almosttourist's view of Okinawa,especially in light of thefirst subtitle which says,"Island Reminds 16 But the pictures -- atleast some 17. Refugees Americans of Home." of them