“Wife and I visited the Arizona Memorial a few years back, after walking the deck of the Missouri.”
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I attended Elementary School for several years in Hawaii.
It was an annual field trip to the Memorial.
You would be stunned how even 5th and 6th graders would be quieted by the earie death scene they were walking above.
We would also see Japanese tourists placing Funeral Wreaths upon the Memorial. They were so respectful towards the men who died and what it portended for the future of the world.
Age dims many memories; I am so glad the still be able to relive in my mind the days I visited, right down to the breath of the wind over the Memorial.
Dad was stationed in Japan with the Army 1950-61. I grew up in Sagamihara and Yokohama. We came home via MSTS and stoped for a day in Honolulu. It was a before the Memorial was creaed.
On our most recent visit, we boated out to the Arizona with a dozen Japanese girls. I asked why they were on the tour and was told they wanted to see what their fathers and grandfathers had done. In Japan, WW II is known as the Great Pacific War, but public schools skimp on telling the story.
It is incredible the pain and destruction the bushido warrior class inflicted upon the world, and on Japan.
I am a fan of the modern Japanese. My dad, of WW2 vintage was not.