| [Joking about past hatred between Japan and America] is a message also to Iran. They can have a brilliant future if they will only reach out and seize it. * * * Great point, Candor7. I had an 45-ish friend when I was stationed in Japan in my late 20s. His English was quite good (spent a couple years in America). He would tell jokes and so we would meet for breakfast at the club from time to time. He once told me, "If you're going to be beaten in war, it's best to get beat by the Americans." |
JApan has become a treasure to America. In so many ways. I could write a book.
I once met one of my relatives by marriage, near Nagoya who was 85 years old, a former Imperial Marine who served in WWII.
He had been wounded in a strafing run on his boat, and ended the war as a trainer of the general population up in the mountains of Yamagata, using sharpened bamboo spears as weapons.
I asked him if they had trained hard and he said “No, we mostly sat around playing cards and drinking sake.”
A precious man.