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Approaching The Crossroads
The Transformation of America provides readers with a stimulating read and a sketch of growing up in pre-1960 America and contrasts those times with contemporary society. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Just before his death Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendelll Holmes talked about death tugging at his ear saying come with me. He then went on to say that there is that little finishing canter when a man has one final task to complete before death finally arrives. On my 90th birthday I decided that there was one last task I wanted to complete before death finally overtook me. And that was I wanted to write about my life in my early days and what it was like growing up in an America that the majority of the current population have no first hand knowledge of and contrast that to what life is like in America today.
There are probably thousands of books published every year and the average American cannot possibly take the time to read through many books containing hundreds of pages. In fact, many of these books probably go largely unread. For this reason I have purposely kept my book short but I am confident that I have been able to include the most essential aspects of the issues I have discussed in a clear, concise and unbiased manner. By eliminating surplus and irrelevant words the impact is much more likely to leave the reader with much to think about.
Our Country has changed greatly over the past decades and it will continue to change in future decades. I have tried to highlight in an accurate and unbiased manner the major issues facing the American people today and have attempted to provide solutions to them. Realizing that everyone who reads this book will derive their own conclusions and may or may not agree with everything I say I will simply leave it as a legacy to be judged on its merits alone.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
Writing this book was not difficult as writing comes easily to me and I have simply described things in what I consider to be a fair, accurate and unbiased manner. Perhaps writing the book did bring back some moments of sadness when I briefly described the relationship I had with a young Japanese woman while on leave from Korea. It was a very happy relationship and I remember our last night together before I had to return to Korea when we were both in tears. But I returned home, got married and resumed my life. About ten years ago I wrote her a letter as she had given me an address. The letter came back two months later undelivered with Japanese writing all over it. I then contacted the Japanese Embassy. They suggested I should contact the City of Tokyo which I did. I received a very nice email from a City Official telling me how impressed he was that I was still interested in this woman but saying that there was no way they could trace her and that in any event they could not give out personal information. Two days later I received a second email from this City Official telling me how sorry he was that they could not help me. He went on to tell me that his father had served on a Japanese submarine during the war and that he was still alive and not to hesitate to contact him if he could be of help in the future. As for the Japanese woman, our love affair turned out to be a case of two ships passing in the night but there will always be a place for her in my heart and I hope someday to meet up with her in the next world so we can spend eternity together.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
My purpose in writing this book was two fold. One was to provide a glimpse of what it was like growing up in the 1940s and 1950s and to show how the Country began to change during the 1960s. We went from a nation of tranquility and innocence to a nation of liberalism creating a whole spectrum of problems that have only grown worse leading to a violent and divided nation today. The second purpose of the book is to describe the major issues facing the American people today and an attempt to provide some satisfactory solutions in solving them.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from this book?
Our Country is approaching the crossroads between democracy and dictatorship. We have gone from the wishes of our forefathers for a government of the people by the people and for the people to where government is gaining more and more control over the people often ignoring the will of a majority of the people. Our Country must be governed by the will of a majority of the American people. It is up to the American people to unite and rise up to ensure that freedom, democracy and the right of individual choice will always be preserved.
I am going to reflect the views of what I remember of the past and what I predict for the future not as what I would liked things to have happened in the past or what I would like to see happen in the future but rather I am simply calling things as I see them in a fair objective and unbiased manner. And while I do not claim to be the most intelligent person in the world I do have a distinct advantage over the younger generations in that over nine decades I have acquired wisdom and experience which along with my intuitive ability to put things in proper perspective gives me this advantage. In spite of what may seem to be insurmountable problems that exist in the United States today I have every confidence that America will always remain the most important nation in the world and that the American People will find a way to overcome any obstacles in their path.
The Transformation of America
William Hynson’s The Transformation of America begins with an interesting memoir starting with his birth in 1932 up to the 1960 election. He spends much of this section contrasting his childhood with today’s world, for instance, how his family’s doctor charged just five dollars for house visits, or the huge popularity of radio shows which are now largely forgotten. The second part of the book focuses on the many changes in American society from the 1960’s on, both good and bad, like women’s liberation, the booming drug culture, and the influx of illegal immigration. The last chapter discusses American demographic changes, particularly how Whites are en route to becoming a minority within the US.
Hynson provides readers with a lot of thought-provoking ideas and information that I would love to have seen expanded on. For example, he mentions having traveled around East Asia while in the Army during the Korean War. This part alone make a great travelogue or memoir because I found what was given to be fascinating and I wanted more details. Later, the author discusses his company hiring women for roles beyond secretarial work for the first time in the early 1970’s. I would have loved to have understood the mindset of the men and women in those situations because those changes were culturally important.
In the section on demographic change, Hynson cites various statistics about the declining number of Whites compared to other racial groups in the United States. I was fascinated by this and I wanted to understand the implications of this demographic shift. This is a serious and sensitive subject and Hynson provides readers with an intriguing overview of the topic. The Transformation of America provides readers with a stimulating read and a sketch of growing up in pre-1960 America. Readers interested in history, politics and sociology will find this book of great interest.
Pages: 82 | ASIN: B0B8F3BYNF
LITERARY TITAN 