University of Minnesota professor and author Mark Anderson spoke last week at Binghamton University about how the American government uses the Pacific War to rationalize the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.

Anderson, professor of Asian language, literature and cinema at the University of Minnesota, made his case Friday with ideas from his first book, “From the Sands of Iwo Jima to the Sands of Abu Ghraib,” and his upcoming book, “Japan and the Specter of Imperialism.”

“The department was very interested in having [Anderson] come speak,” said Nick Kaldis, an associate professor of Chinese language and cinema at BU who organized the event.

During the lecture, Anderson showed iconic photographs from the Pacific War, such as the sinking of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and the American flag being raised at Iwo Jima. He argued that the media and government bombarded Americans on television with these images to justify their invasion of the Middle East.

“Why the continuous references to the Pacific War? What kind of story are they trying to tell?” Anderson asked.

According to Anderson, the story of occupied Japan is used as a model for an occupied Iraq.

After the 9/11 attacks, the media began to run symbolic photographs in response to the national tragedy. The images portrayed 9/11 as a second Pearl Harbor, since both surprise terror attacks were on U.S. soil.

Anderson stated that seeing the 9/11 tragedy replayed on television had a similar effect on people as witnessing the events at Pearl Harbor did. After being attacked at Pearl Harbor and at the World Trade Center, America united and invaded the territory of the attackers. As the “Axis of Evil” was the target of resistance during World War II, the Bush doctrine created a unified Islamic resistance, Anderson said.

The flag being raised at Iwo Jima has been a national symbol of patriotism and victory. Many Americans compare this scene to the photos taken after 9/11 of firefighters raising a flag at Ground Zero, which became the modern equivalent of American perseverance in the War on Terror.

However, Anderson’s analysis suggests both photos cannot be symbolically congruent. The Iwo Jima flag picture represented an act of military service while the firefighter picture isn’t related to the military. The inaccuracy of the comparison is that it attempts to transform the 9/11 firefighters into military heroes.

Anderson also said New York City’s Ground Zero site had a relation to the Pacific War. Ground zeros are nuclear bomb sites such as Hiroshima, Japan, where casualties numbered 70,000 — more than 20 times the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks. The government intentionally labeled the Twin Tower site “Ground Zero” to raise the tragedy to proportions of a military wartime standard.

“[On 9/11] there was no military struggle, but it was resurrected as a military triumph,” Anderson said, claiming such images prepared the United States’ mentality for war. “Public political events are chosen which define the nation and define the time.”

The images of the Pacific War in turn downplay American war crimes such as the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib.

“Sympathy for the ‘other’ is something you cannot afford in the time of war,” Anderson said, mentioning how Donald Rumsfeld compared post-9/11 Middle East resistance to resistance encountered in the Pacific War.

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, George W. Bush used “Axis of Evil” to describe Iraq and Iran, linking people’s animosity toward a defined target and paving the way for a war.

“The entire population grabbed the [government’s] explanation. It worked. It worked perfectly,” Chantal Rodais, an adjunct lecturer of cinema, said.