Posted on 11/03/2007 6:56:30 PM PDT by Stoat
Amen, Bro.
I don’t think the japanese beleive in god.
The term Japs is no different from calling African Americans N*ger. I hope you dont use such a racist term again.
I hope youre kidding.
My dad served on a B17 crew in England, but would never even consider buying anything Japanese. He took a hard look at a VW once, but wasn’t very happy when I bought a Mitsubishi Colt in 1981. It was the only non-American car I have ever owned and it was a d**m good one, went 250,000 miles with no mechanical problems. Other than that, like my dad, I have alway been a GM man.
I'm sorry for the continuing pain that you (and other surviving victims and victims' relatives) are forced to endure.
I'm sure that you know they all are heroes and our nation will be indebted to their sacrifice until the end of time.
I'm curious, I know of course that nothing can bring them back or eliminate the pain that their unspeakably brutal loss has inflicted upon you and your family for generations to come, but would things have been made just a bit easier for you and your family if there had been more of a forthright acknowledgement of this by the postwar Japanese Governments? Or would it had made no particular difference at all in terms of your family's ability to gain some degree of closure on this?
From the article:
Felton said: "Most disturbing is the Japanese amnesia about their war record and senior politicians' outrageous statements about the war and their rewriting of history
I completely understand your Dad's sentiments....they were and are shared by millions the world over for entirely valid and justifiable reasons. Your choices are also easy to understand, particularly in the context of the modern world economy where so many "Japanese" cars are actually built in America by American workers. If there is a car that would provide the same level of safety as the bigger American cars but it has a "Japanese" nameplate, I might consider it, but it's true, I tend to have a natural bias toward the 'traditionally American' names and I don't expect to change :-)
I'm delighted that you're finding it interesting and worthwhile. :-)
There are a number of excellent books mentioned on this thread....I'm hoping that you might consider some of the others as well, as there's a tremendous amount of superb scholarship on these subjects available now.
They were not ordered to. If they had been, Doenitz would have stretched hemp.
I'd hate to imagine what he would have done had he seen the Japanese tourists I sighted at the Arizona Memorial. Though they tossed flowers into the waters and voiced prayers for the war dead, I know he'd have killed every one of them, had he been able to get to them.
What they weren’t [at least for Western prisoners of war] were POW camps.
I'd hate to imagine what he would have done had he seen the Japanese tourists I sighted at the Arizona Memorial. Though they tossed flowers into the waters and voiced prayers for the war dead, I know he'd have killed every one of them, had he been able to get to them.
If you don't mind my asking, would you by any chance be familiar with what he endured at the hands of Imperial Japan and would you be willing to tell us a little about it?
(considering, of course, that this is a family website)
From your description, it sounds as if he was unspeakably brutalized.
He never spoke of what he went through, what he saw, what he knew or what he may have heard of. He was my grandmothers brother, my Great-Uncle I knew he was in the South Pacific from ‘43 to ‘46, in the US Navy, was in “communications” of some sort and made it ashore much more so than the average seaman. He was so tight-lipped that even his wife knew nothing of his war experiences. I suppose it was common, and is common, that those who were there and who made it back are not the sort to complain or to blow their own horns.
I know one who does.
I met him in 1987 in Tyler, TX.
His name is Noboru Yoshida.
He became a christian and was promptly rejected by his family - a very painful thing for him. Still, he continued in his faith, and pleaded with us to pray for his family, that they may come to salvation. We did pray. I have no idea what became of Noboru.
I have heard of similar responses by Veterans from a variety of theaters and eras. I think that in many cases it's because what they endured was so horrible, bottling it up inside became a self-protection mechanism of sorts, in that it helped to remove the awful memories to the back burner, at least a little bit.
It's also because they're from the pre-Oprah generation, and they know that it's not manly or decent to babble and whimper endlessly about your own problems or bad experiences.
Japanese PM denies "comfort stations" existed.
Whitewashing the Rape of Nanking.
Japanese MPs claim deaths at Rape of Nanking are exaggerated by Chinese
For goodness' sake, it's one thing to try and downplay and rewrite the history. But when some of their victims from WWII are still ALIVE?
Yeah, Waxman to assure there is accountability.
“The comforting thing I tell myself is, these people will soon be confronting the reality of everlasting hell”
That’s your comfort? You’re out of your effing mind.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.