WWII a battle between militaries far less divided, ethically, that they should have been

All the militaries involved in WWII were segregated.

Full stop.

All ignored the fine talk of the Allied Atlantic Charter, all treated some fellow human beings as lesser beings.

In all, upper class males from the dominant ethnic religious group ran the show and all the rest of us followed their orders ---- or felt the lash.

If we were allowed in the military, its combat units or its high-paying weapons factories at all.


Women barely were, ditto men from the the non-white races.

Even though only a small minority of any military ever held a rifle and crawled through the mud with fifty pounds on their back in real combat, all recruits was expected to be able to do so.

So many of what they then called (in public) the handicapped (in private : defectives) were denied any chance to help defeat Hitler by releasing a more 'fit' individual from their cushy job in some rear echelon base.

And if you were 'out' , forget it.

If let in at all, their numbers were set by very low 'political' quotas that military commanders (or union leaders) chaffed against and tried to negate.

The lesser beings served in low prestige non-combat roles.

They were strictly segregated, physically, from the dominant ethnicity males in the 'regular' military units.

Segregated from entry into even the lower ranks of the officer corp.

Segregation was compounded, joining prejudice against gender to that of 'race' , such that there was almost no black women officers in any military.

Our common humanity was denied when even the military's blood transfusions had to be segregated by race and ethnicity.

Its a wonder that badly wounded protestant male soldiers didn't refuse blood from Catholics or women, preferring death to dishonouring their race and gender.

There was a muted attempt to try and achieve a "Double V" victory in WWII, to stop Allied, as well as Axis, hatred against our fellow beings.

It didn't succeed, but it also didn't stop when the guns stopped firing.

Dawson largely succeeded, in his sphere, to win his Double V victory, with his idea of cheap abundant natural penicillin for all becoming a reality in the last year of the war and immediately afterwards.

But is a victory really a victory, in the human sense, if it goes un-saluted, if it is a victory known only unto God ?

That is why I write of Dawson's wartime Manhattan Project - because the dying doctor's victory is only 'awesome' and 'inspiring'  if it actually inspires and induces awe in others......