Has New York become Nazi, USA?

New York City never ceases to amaze me. Not only does it constantly keep you on your toes, many times the city carries an acute sense of dismay. Case in point: Back in November 24, 2015, I was confronted with a strange sight while riding the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Squares. To my horror, the shuttle cars were emblazoned with the Iron Cross associated with Nazi Germany, plus a modified Rising Sun emblem of Imperial Japan - even the benches were plastered with it. Whoever thought we would ever see part of the MTA covered in fascist iconography? Certainly not I. What a wake-up call!

Poster of The Man In The High Castle: An Amazon Original Film

The MTA shuttle cars in Times Square covered with Nazi related propaganda

 Appalling: Is this Times Square, or Nazi, Germany?
Imagine the controversy, and the rampant conversations among New Yorkers traveling that day as they witnessed a series of heavy promotions from Amazon which depicts a Nazi, and Imperial Japan winning World War II from The Man In The High Castle. The vivid imagery illustrated an Axis Powers-ruling America. The advertisements were plastered all over subway stations, in and out of subway cars. The whole thing was simply awful. 

Wake up call!

Bill de Basio, New York City's mayor, fortunately acted swiftly by ordering the posters to be removed from all of the city’s subways, in all locations. The fact that this even took place in a large city? Well, only in New York.

I lived about 5 minutes away form this spot in Putney, England.

The whole incident was so powerful, and it took my mind back to my childhood. Growing up in London, I was often told by my mother not to play in or around the "bombed-out-houses" in the neighborhood, with good reason, mind you. Those houses, in most cases had unexploded devises inside them, and as you know, children do stupid things. I can recall that even after several warnings from our parents, we still went out, and played our war games in and around those very same buildings!

 Children in London playing in and around a bombed-out-house, circa 1940s

"What shall we do now that we have no place to play?"
One and half million Londoners were bombed out of their homes between September 1940 and May 1941. It was only in the late 1950s before most of these homes were rebuilt. The memories of the after effects of Nazi, Germany is not something we should glorify, and exploit, even for artistic purposes.