[RushLake]

I get the distinct impression that you don't know very many actual Japanese.

I worked with a number of japs about 12 years ago on a vehicle launch at Ford Motor. The managers were abusive, arrogant and aloof, just like the japanese offices of WWII. They loved it when the young American engineers would call them san and bow to them. I wasn't saning and bowing for a minute. The one jap manager that deigned to speak to me did so in a loud and abusive manner. I responded in kind and advised him that I hadn't forgotten about Pearl Harbor. He worked hard to try to be my friend after that, which wasn't going to happen.

Last year wife and I went to Oahu on vacation. In the evening we'd stroll Waikiki Blvd. and encounter a number of japs. The men made no effort to make way on the sidewalk and I finally had enough of my wife being bumped. It was a lot of fun throwing the shoulder into them to clear the way for my wife. They are still arrogant. Had they won WWII, I'm sure our country wouldn't have been rebuilt. Screw them!

[Hoplite]

Well I'm glad to see you didn't escalate your labor relations issues to hand to hand combat level.

And you can get the same treatment for your wife in any mainland city at the hands or shoulders of your countrymen.

My point still stands - militarism in Japan died with Hirohito, no matter how hard a bunch of blowhards at the Yakusuni shrine try to revive it.

[auggy]

To think that the Left and media tries to make something out of the bombing of Japan by Harry Truman. This is the first I have heard about the cannibalism by the Japs. I was not born at that time. I have no respect for these people. The bombing of Japan was the right thing to do.

[Dimensio]

Hrmm...

I work for a Japanese-owned company and a number of Japanese managers reside here. I've never witnessed or heard about any abusive treatment from management, however. They're all typically pretty nice people, and no one 'bows' or calls them 'san'.

Perhaps you are only seeing what you want to see.

[bok]

The asians have just about taken over hawaii and i understand are very rude to american tourists.

[Francohio]

I too, have worked with many Japanese executives and engineers (Fuji Heavy Industries, Honda, Mitsubishi). There are many things the fat, dumb and happy American worker does not know about his Japanese masters in these companies:
The Japanese despise us on racial grounds. To them, we are "the big-nosed, ugly, smelly Gaijin. They cannot understand why the Sun God, from whom they descend, gave us the broad fertile lands of Ohio, and them the Islands of Japan, with its limited resources.

Although these companies maintain an amusing charade of "American Control" over American operations, they operate under many corporate veils with all meaningful orders coming straight from Japan. They are at the moment, packing their American operations with hundreds of deadbeat execs and techs from Japan so they won't have to fire them.

Financially, they are giving the American tax system a real hosing, typically charging themselves top dollar for Japanese equipment that is already, in Honda's case, over 10 years old. On the "American Content" rules they bend the game a bit too, in a typical case, to order a cam shaft from Japan for $200, when the same part could be mass-produced here in America for $30. Big parts that cannot be airfreighted economically are far more cheaply made here than they ever could be in Japan.

This is a mixed review, in that they run a clean, orderly workplace with good wages and benefits for full-time employees.
However, they like to run upwards of 30% low-paid, uninsured temps, hired through agencies like Addecco, of which the car companies own 30%, to complete the staff at the factories. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to complete the transition from Temp to "Associate," with a full pay-packet and benefits.

The Japanese are also very down on American minority groups. Their MO is to build factories in areas of high-unemployment where the labor pool is going to be white.

A parting shot for my pals who still labor,(albeit indirectly) for the Emperor. Do not Kow-tow and San to the Japanese. They are tough, in your face, take-no-prisoner dirty fighters who only respect a tough guy who can dish it out as well as take it. Always take Pearl Harbor Day and VJ Day off and let them know why.

Those of you hanging around waiting for some sort of WWII apology from the Japanese had better not hold your breath. The average (!) Japanese of today KNOWS NOTHING about WWII. It is not covered in their schools, it is not discussed. It is not taught.What Rape of Nanking, what Bayonet Drill with Live Prisoners, What Bataan Death march?

The executives you meet in the US have all been through select TQM boot camps that mercilessly weed out the weak. They are trained to reveal nothing. Check out the Honda-Mitsubishi-Toyota TQM website.