Although the Air Force has removed two officers in Seattle, Washington from their jobs and reprimanded them for showing the movie “Operation Abolition,” the film is now being show by Imua at military bases on Oahu.
Lawrence V. Cott, executive vice president of Imua, said last night that the film is not only being show to all military branches, but also to church groups, civic organizations, students, teachers and businessmen.
“They ask for it; we lend it,” he said.
Imua, the local anti-Communist organization formally known as the Hawaii Foundation for American Freedoms, has shown the film to a number of Air Force organizations in the past two months, Cott said.
He indicated that Imua has received several requests for the film from military organizations and that he “will continue to show this film anywhere and debate its points.
“And it is being shown at local churches, even though one of the major groups against it is the National Council of Churches.”
“Operation Abolition is a 45-minute film of the student rioting in San Francisco during a hearing of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in May, 1960.
Those arguing against the movie say it presents a distorted picture.
Defenders, such as Imua, say it is not distorted, but is an accurate anti-Communist document.
On Thursday, the Air Force reported that two officers were relieved of duties at the 2648th Air Reserve Center in Seattle and reprimanded for violating orders by showing the film to a reserve unit during training hours.
Along with the Defense Department, the Air Force has issued instructions barring showing of the film during training hours.
“I thought the Armed Forces has learned in Korea that the enemy was Communist,” Cott said.
“This action by the Air Force is the most reprehensible thing I have heard of. It is an indication of the profound ignorance, in depth, in certain high echelons in the Defense Department. The disciplining amounts to film burning, which is as bad as book burning.”
Since the film was released last October, Imua has shown “Operation Abolition” twice on local television stations and to 50 audiences in the Islands, Cott said.
He estimates that some 70,000 Islanders have seen the film to date.
