GOP congressman Paul Gosar got Twitter’s attention Monday night when he urged supporters of President Donald Trump to be more like Japanese soldiers who didn’t surrender after World War II.
Those soldiers were, of course, fighting Americans.
“The America First agenda is just in its infancy. There are 75 million of us,” the Arizona dentist and politician tweeted to his 78,000 followers. “Also. Did you know some Japanese soldiers kept fighting for decades after the war?”
Gosar included a screenshot of a Wikipedia page for Teruo Nakamura, an Imperial Japanese Army soldier who did not surrender until 1974, which was 29 years after the end of the hostilities in 1945.
Quickly, observers pointed out he was likening the 75 million Trump voters in America to soldiers who actively waged war on Americans and continued to do so out of a refusal to accept that they had lost or a lack of realization they had lost. Some added that comparing Trump’s supporters to soldiers from any country wasn’t ideal, given Trump himself repeatedly avoided the draft for the Vietnam War.
Some of the criticism came from those with military experience, too. Former Army officer Mark Hertling asked, “I forget…how did it work out for those Japanese cultist in caves fighting for the emperor for years after the end of the war?”
This isn’t the first time Gosar has courted controversy with a tweet. Earlier this year, he tweeted a doctored photo of Iran President Hassan Rouhani and former President Barack Obama with the caption, “The world is a better place without these guys in power.”
The original, undoctored photo from 2011, which can be viewed here, is of India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. After being called out on the social media platform for posting a fake photo, Gosar tweeted, ” No one said this wasn’t photoshopped … no one said Obama met with Rouhani in person. The tweet says: “the world is a better place without either of them in power.”
In 2018, six of his siblings endorsed the Democratic opponent for his congressional seat.
The America First agenda is just in its infancy. There are 75 million of us.
Also. Did you know some Japanese soldiers kept fighting for decades after the war? @Cernovich @ali @kelliwardaz pic.twitter.com/w74Dfvw3fX
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) November 24, 2020