I proposed we have lunch locally and I would take them to the Nat'l Air & Space Museum on the airport grounds and say goodbye from there. They were delighted.
When we arrived and met together, the first plane they wanted to see was the Enola Gay. We spent over an hour in front of the Enola Gay as they took dozens of photos of each other at the display.
I was truly baffled, but it was explained in exactly the same way to me as an American. They embrace their past, acknowledge their sins and live to better themselves from that dark place in time.
The Japanese are, by a wide margin, every year, the single largest contingent of foreign nationals to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
I remember being a tourist at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7 1986. I stumbled into a ceremony for the 45th anniversary. There were a lot of WWII Navy Veterans, and quite a few Japanese veterans, who seemed to be friends of the Americans. They were treated as guests of honor.
Ive often wondered what my parents and grandparents would predicted, in late 1945, about the future of American/Japanese relations.
I doubt many would have said this:
“Oh, the future relationship of us and Japan? That’s a no-brainer. They will be our most dependable ally for the next 80 years”.
Miracles can happen.
The times I’ve taken the boat to tour the Arizona at Pearl Harbor, there were more Japanese there than Americans. Like you, I was baffled, but they were interested and completely respectful. They behaved better than some of the ugly American aholes.
“…and Dulles Int’l is 20 minutes away.“
Reading the above it crossed my mind that JFK Int’l isnt twenty minutes away from anything. Well maybe itself. Must be nice…