Just watched For Love of Liberty on PBS last night about the history of black soldiers and also have been reading again about the most decorated regiment in US history, the 442 Regiment comprised of the Japanese-American soldiers who were led by a Korean-American (how about that for multiple layers of irony!). It is astounding to think that the small regiment had 21 Medal of Honors - they ain't that easy to get since the Congressional oversight of that medal. I have always loved Truman's quote which he apparently whispered into the ear of a recipient as he placed the Medal around his neck: "I would rather have a Medal of Honor than be President of the United States."
Humanity is myopic by nature probably somewhat correlated with the fact that as animals we have present physical needs (i.e. food, shelter, etc.) and that Time is a force of the universe that is impossible for us to grasp beyond the immediate. Anyway, each era including our present one has it's end of the world nightmares (global warming - 50 days to fix it or it's all over!), it's market gyrations (the mkt will crash and you will have to move to a mountain to survive the chaos), etc. but the enormity of the destruction and chaos that resulted from WWI to WWII eras is really beyond - for the vast majority of us who did not experience it - our ability to comprehend.
When I look at the pictures in the link it does remind me that human beings are a crazy species but we are a very resilient one nevertheless. Amazing to see the contrasts from then and now...