PEARL HARBOR: FORGIVENESS

TruthInConviction ^ | Dec 7 09 | J. Grant Swank, Jr.

[freedomyes]

Some time after the conflict, Fuchida came upon the testimony of a young Christian woman. Her mother and father had been killed by the Japanese. That war had swept away her parents’ lives.

[null and void]

Oh. I though 0bama was forgiving the Japs.

[CodeToad]

We kicked their ass, they surrendered, we got on with life. Nothing to forgive.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We won the war. Then we had to buy all their cars...

[oh8eleven]

Then we had to buy all their cars...
If anyone is interested in how that happened I suggest David Halberstam's "The Reckoning."
It's over 20 years old, but still a fascinating read.

[elcid1970]

I think this is legit. IIRC, there was an account from years ago about how Flight Leader Fuchida became born again and started his own ministry.

I have also read about a truth that is seldom talked about, that most Japanese like Americans for the reason that our occupying forces did not pillage and rape as their warlord leadership propagandized them to believe.

It has been written that the mild nature of the U.S. occupation (I was there as a kid in the 1950’s) caused the Japanese belief system about America to collapse like a house of cards. The people realized they’d been lied to for decades, and remain suspicious of their military to this day.

And Japan is still governed by the `MacArthur constitution’.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Edwards Deming did it.

[oh8eleven]

I’m a CQE - believe me, I know all about Deming.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Sagamihara and Yokohama, 1951-1961.
I was an Army Brat.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A 1960 Toyota was an awful thing to behold.
By 1965, Deming's SPC had taken over.

[elcid1970]

Heh, heh! I’m an Army brat, too.

Yokohama (Negishi Heights), then Camp Zama. Went to school in Sagamihara.

Still got your jacket with all the division patches?

;^)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I had a bed spread with about 50 patches. The bed cover finally wore out but I saved the patches. I still have my dad’s CBI patches from his service.

[PhilDragoo]

Beyond Pearl Harbor: How God caught up with the man who led Japan's surprise attack.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2001/jun01.html

My dad served on USS Saratoga (CV-3).

Now we have a president who is against that whole victory thing because it brings back images of the emperor surrendering to MacArthur on the deck of the Missouri.

(Hey, Barakistan, the emperor on Mo is like the Yamamoto quote from the 1970 film Tora!Tora!Tora!--it's all in your mind.)

Easy for a Kenyan to confuse U.S. history, mistake Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu for the emperor.

The MacArthur U.S. Constitution, and the even-handed and just U.S. occupation has led to our being allies for freedom against the real enemy, Barakistan's Girlfriend-Forever, the Peoples Republic of Tiananmen Square.

We won World War II. We're not caving to a busload of Chicago tenement rats.

[potlatch]

I read the story of Fuchida and DeShazer, Phil. Very interesting. Honors for your father, who bravely served!

[ntnychik]

The perfect story for Pearl Harbor day.

I hope 9/11 and its aftermath produces a similar story.

[elcid1970]

Still got your Yo-Hi yearbooks?

You know, those 1950’s days in Japan seem more remote than the war itself, what with all the newly discovered archives, footage, and computer re-enactments. Back then, we made friends with Japanese kids our age with no recriminations or ha-ha we won, you lost.

Nowadays, time has the opposite effect from before, when memories receded as the actual participants passed on. Now, media technology brings the past closer and closer to us in the present.

Now, some on both sides are even ready for a rematch.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yes. I have 1957, 1958 and 1961. My folks moved me to the Yokohama International School, run by the Swiss on the Bluff in '59 and '60.
A couple of years ago, Jim Hyatt was looking for two of these to complete his YOHI web page and I mailed them to Jim so he could make copies.
These books were bound in beautiful red silk brocade material but this covering was lost when a fire devistated our Iowa home in 1966. My school teacher mom knew that the state penitentiary at Fort Madison, IA had a textbook binding and book repair class for inmates and so the three annuals were sent there.
The books returned three months later in green vinyl with all traces of the silk removed, and cut down by about 1/8th of an inch to clean up the burned page edges.