Someone here on FR tipped me to read Knights of bushido. unbelievable cruelty perpetrated by the Japanese. which lead me to scourge of the swastika even more accounts of the horrors of war. reading Gemini now about the early space program just to clear my mind a little
When Hitler read in the papers about the “Rape of Nanking” he thought his new Asian Axis ally was being a bit too cruel. If Hitler thinks you are cruel that’s over the top.
I read a lot - can’t help myself - and I’ll look for that on thriftbooks.com. There was a movie some years back about the conditions in the Japanese camps - “The Bird”...awful treatment. I mentioned in one post about meeting a survivor of the Bataan death march in OC, CA and it reminded me I HAVE another book that a resident of Irvine, CA where we lived, gave to me about her brother being taken prisoner...he was on one of the ships to take prisoners to Japan when it was bombed...
I think we all (the survivor and the resident) met through letters to the Editor on a Memorial Day weekend through the OC Register newspaper. It was a nostalgic time for so many and it was also the time I submitted the names of guys we knew who were killed in Vietnam - www.virtualwall.org....You can look at the site and see the many names and the info that the founders of the site research to go with the names. You can submit a name without knowing anything other the name but they do the research and add it. I did that with two high school friends - not knowing anything other than they died in Vietnam.
I submitted the name of one Air Force member who was given the Air Force Cross. His parents were friends and he was their only child. He was (Pararescue) and that was changed to the Medal of Honor years later - a movie was also made of that - “The Last Full Measure.” Politics kept it from being given when it should have been.
“”reading Gemini now about the early space program just to clear my mind a little””
We do have to step back when and if we can....
The N.M. State R.O.T.C. sponsors the Annual Batann Memorial Death March on White Sands Missle Base. It is a full marathon in which you cross the desert and mountains of White Sands at marching pace. I have done it three times. It is the most rewarding marathon I have ever done.
In the early 2000’s a dozen or so survivors were on hand each year to greet the marchers and seemed taken back by OUR “thank yous” to them. ALL of them had survived the brutalities of the March and the camps and had emerged, maybe damaged, but with gratitude for life and were not embittered toward the Japanese.
They did cling to their motto, though:
“No Mama. No Papa. No Uncle Sam.
We’re the Battlin’ Bastards of Bataan!”
I wonder if this guy was one we met there.