Visiting Pearl Harbor last year, I toured the Iowa. For those that have not, I was struck by learning that a Japanese kamikaze (you know the guys that tried to kill Americans by crashing their planes into our ships and fought us for five years), that succeeded in crashing his plane onto the deck of the Iowa, but failed to sink it was given an honorable burial at sea by those who he tried to kill.

Throughout history, honoring the bravery of the "other sides" soldiers, no matter how repulsive the cause for which they died was, has been a tradition. After WW2, the US was quick to honor the German Army even after it condemned those responsible for genocide of Jews and other war crimes to death.

Recognizing the acts of bravery or soldierly qualities of an enemy's military does not constitute support of that nation's cause. but it has gone a long way to healing the rift between nations, once peace is achieved.

But in our modern woke world, where everyone is divided between the oppressed and oppressors, anyone remotely associated with slavery has been labeled an oppressor... people are not calling just for statues of Confederate generals to be removed, some want to rename our capitol and even our states and cities to eliminate the name of any slaveowner in American history.

I am not from the South, but I have lived at various times in my life. I am sure they exist, but I never met a southerner that was proud their ancestors owned slaves, but I have met many that our proud of their ancestors including those that served in the Confederate army. Anyone that cannot separate the acts of the soldier from the cause of a nation is simply going to add another layer of division that will need to be reconciled in the future.

Honoring African Americans, their contributions, and their sacrifices is important. It is part of telling them in a direct way, they are part of us. But the same thing applies to many southerners whose families fought against the Americans in the Civil War... reconciliation does not mean dismissing the ancestor's bravery, it does mean rejecting racism as ideology.