Victor Davis Hanson: World War II Was a Noble Cause — Anything Else Is Ahistorical

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Normally, we would expect the Left to be the ones questioning the validity of the United States’ involvement and conduct in World War II as anything other than a ‘noble cause,’ – which it was. As of late, World War II revisionism is happening on our own side, among some conservatives. These revisionists are not focusing on typical, left-leaning talking points like Japanese internment or the dropping of the atomic bombs. Instead, they have chosen to die on some very odd hills: Japan was pressured into attacking Pearl Harbor because of the U.S.’ oil embargo, Admiral Yamamoto was a peacenik, and Hitler was sincere when he sued for peace in July 1940 after conquering much of Western Europe. This and more on today’s editions of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:” 00:00 Introduction: Revisiting World War II Decisions 01:00 Conservative Reinterpretations of WWII 02:08 Key Elements and Misconceptions of WWII 04:38 Japan's Aggression and the Pacific War 05:25 Hitler's Ambitions and the Importance of WWII 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273 👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Race the rudder.
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0:19.0	Start converting your V2B audience into high quality leads today. Spend 200 pounds on your first campaign and get a 200-pound credit for the next one. Go to LinkedIn.com slash lead to claim your offer. Terms and conditions apply. I know I've talked to you before about the decision to drop the atomic bomb to end World War II in the Pacific, and we've talked about the revisionist that have appeared. But I want to revisit something that I think is happening, and it's on our side of the conservative atmosphere. And that is, people are starting at this critical time to look back at World War II and to reinterpret it. Usually we saw that on the left that said, you know, we were racist,
0:54.4	we were colonialists, we didn't have to do this, we didn't have to do that. For the left,
0:58.4	World War II is essentially the Japanese internment and the dropping of the atomic bombs. When we
1:03.4	have the internet and we have all of this fake news and all of these conspiracy theories,
1:08.3	it doesn't behoove us to go back and say that this noble cause to
1:12.0	win World War II was somehow flawed. These were fascists, Nazis. They wanted a war. They thought
1:18.0	they could win the war. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen with The Daily Signal.
1:33.5	I know I've talked to you before about the decision to drop the atomic bomb in August of
1:39.8	1945 to end World War II in the Pacific.
1:43.5	And we've talked about the revisionist that have appeared,
1:46.7	such as Daryl Cooper and David Cullum, on Tucker Carlson's show. We've talked about a, I think,
1:55.0	a misreading of what I said in the text, and she heard Dina West who won an apology which I can't give
2:03.1	because she was mistaken.
	...

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