Posted on 09/01/2015 4:42:47 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Interesting article about the Suicide bomb plant.
The mention of a flying wing prototype is first
I’ve heard.
Okha (Cherry Blossom) or Bakka (fool) rocket gliders were the development of the suicide planes.
Ditto what you said, except for the Kindle!
This has been a truly great public service. Not only for the war history, but for the social history revealed by the journalism and the evocative advertisements.
Thanks again, Homer_J!
Harold Stassen oughtta run for President.
Ahem.... Dick Cheney says that obama was going to go to Hiroshima when he was on his world apology tour in 2009 and apologize for the United States dropping the atomic bomb... you know to END the war!
The Japanese Prime Minister turned obama down.
The German Fritz X was the first remote guided anti-ship “missile” (it was more of a glide bomb). The Japanese Oka should have been an improvement, as it had a better guidance system, the expendable Japanese human brain. But it was less effective than it should have been, being that it was hard for the Japanese bombers to get within launch distance without being shot down.
I have really enjoyed reading these through the last couple of years. It’s been very educational.
Since we’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Great War, what are the chances that we could see newspapers from that era? (not meaning to sound greedy)
Thank you again for this.
This original source, contemporaneous reporting is great. Thanks for doing all this work.
The first is on #12, about the surrender of the remaining Bonins, the islands including Iwo. Their head was Lt. Gen. Yoshio Tachibana, who was an evil bastard among evil bastards. Among other things, he had two Americans prisoners executed, flayed, and eaten, for which he was eventually hanged as a war criminal; cf here. But for me, that's not all...he grew up in Ehime Prefecture, meaning the Imabari/Matsuyama area of Shikoku where I worked in '97 and visited a number of times since, with Imabari being the sister city of nearby Lakeland, FL. Tachibana is a common name in Imabari (there are a few others, such as Yano), and the Tachibanas are an extended family-clan of sorts. One of the men who was instrumental in bringing together the Lakeland/Imabari sister city connection was a Mr. Tachibana, who was born in the 1920s and was in his 70s when I knew him. Look at any picture of Yoshio Tachibana, and the Tachibana-san I knew was the spitting image of the evil bastard Lt. Gen. I have no doubt they were related; my Mr. T may very well have been his nephew. That is how strange Japanese relationships are.
The second is on #3, about the baka bomb factory on Yokosuka NB. Further down, it talked about the tunnels that were excavated for the sake of factory production underground if necessary. When I was in Yokosuka in the late 60s, the tunnels were still there, an object of exploration for Boy Scouts (I was Senior Patrol Leader of Troup 33 for my first year there, before getting Eagle and forming the Explorer post I mentioned a few days ago), and also for those wishing to engage in teenage illicit activities--and it was quite possible to get lost inside the tunnels, it happened to a few people while I was there.
See post #18.
Good name for a rock band.
I have spent a lot of time working on these posts over many years and there have been times - though not many - when I have wondered if it will be worthwhile in the long run. Then I get a word of thanks from someone I haven’t heard from before or maybe a regular. I rarely respond directly to those messages. I’m usually so pressed for time I don’t even have time to read the news I post. But I read every one and I consider them to be payment for that day’s news. So now that I have prepared and scanned the last article I can take a moment to express my gratitude to all the readers who have thanked me expressly or complimented my efforts. THANK YOU for reading and you are all most welcome. It has truly been my pleasure.
Again, Homer, thanks on behalf of all of us history nerds!
There is a band of brothers smiling at you from afar and long ago.
In 2009 there were two Prime Ministers: first Taro Aso, who was deposed by Yukio Hatoyama. When that election occurred, I wrote the following to students who were taking a basic philosophy course from me, which I think y'all would find interesting, because it shows how little things have changed in Japan politically since before, during, and after the war...
"Let's assume, for the sake of the argument, that you have heard about the election: how for the first time since I was in diapers, the Japanese have kicked out their ruling Liberal Democratic Party--perhaps the most misnamed political party in the world today, since it is neither politically liberal nor anything like the Democratic Party in this country--and replaced it with the Democratic Party of Japan, which is actually like the Democratic Party in this country. In some ways, this is in fact a sea change, and Japanese domestic and foreign policies are likely to change over the next few years as a result.
"But underlying the change is a complete lack of change, if one takes the much longer view of Japanese society that a Confucian would, going back at least 100 years and perhaps more. Yukio Hatoyama of the DPJ, who is going to be the next Prime Minister, will take over from Taro Aso of the LDP, who has been the Prime Minister. In terms of policies, there are quite a few differences between the two men, and the parties they have controlled. Don't let the differences fool you, however. What do Taro Aso and Yukio Hatoyama have in common, besides being Japanese? First, I'll let Wikipedia tell about Taro Aso:
"His father, Takakichi Aso, was the chairman of the Aso Cement Company and a close associate of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka; his mother Kazuko Aso was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's daughter. Taro is also a great-great-grandson of Toshimichi Okubo [the Japanese leader who first hired then fought Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai - Dr M], and his current wife, Chikako is the third daughter of Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki. His younger sister, Nobuko, is the wife of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, a first cousin of the Emperor Akihito."
"Now, Globalpost on Yukio Hatoyama:
"Hatoyama's great-grandfather was the speaker of the Japanese parliament [under the Emperor Meiji, who shows up at the end of The Last Samurai], his grandfather, Ichiro Hatoyama, was prime minister, his father foreign minister, and his younger brother, Kunio, is currently a government minister in the cabinet [with Taro Aso, meaning he is about to be out of a job: imagine Jeb Bush having been Attorney General in the Clinton Administration while his brother George Bush ran for President, and you get the idea]. Just for good measure, his other grandfather was the founder of the tire giant Bridgestone."
"Get the picture? The Japanese were choosing between someone whose family has been in national politics since the last samurai era of the 1800s, and someone whose family has been in national politics...since the last samurai era of the 1800s. That's as Confucian as a democratic election gets.
"P.S. Incidentally, Aso is a Catholic, which in Japan would be a little like Bush being a Buddhist, while Hatoyama is called "the alien" because of his new age neologisms such as having as his campaign slogan, "Love and Friendship." By the same token, Ichiro Hatoyama, the grandfather of Yukio Hatoyama, who defeated Shigeru Yoshida the grandfather of Taro Aso for Prime Minister in the 1950s (the last time the LDP was out of power and when I was in diapers), was a Baptist and a Freemason, and there is a picture running around the internet that supposedly shows Yukio-san giving a Masonic handshake to someone."
Just for grins I pulled up Homer's September 1. 2009 post, "German Army Attacks Poland."
If you could show a reader of that headline today's paper they would be amazed that Hitler is dead and Germany is under occupation by not only the British and French, but also the Americans and Russians.
They would be dumbfounded that Gen. MacArthur is in Tokyo taking Japan's surrender to end a war that would not begin for more than two years.
Homer, you have documented an amazing history. What happened over those six years is one reason I so enjoy reading history. It's so much more interesting than what people make up. You have my profound thanks.
Thank you Homer!
Homer, this has been a priceless education.
While Homer is resting, I might just drop back a lap and do a realtime + 75. Is there a date index other than the posting history?
76 years ago today, when it all began
GERMAN ARMY ATTACKS POLAND (9/1/39)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2329283/posts
This thread contains all the links for 1940. Other years are covered on my profile.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2650113/posts
Thank you again and again!
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