Pearl Harbor Vets Reconcile in Hawaii

Associated Press ^ | December 4, 2006 | Audrey McAvoy

[Cecily]

HONOLULU - Sixty-five years ago, Takeshi Maeda and John Rauschkolb tried to kill each other at Pearl Harbor. This week, now both 85, they met face-to-face for the first time — and shook hands.

The Japanese veteran gripped Rauschkolb's arm with his left hand and briefly hesitated, as if he was searching for the right words. Then he said, "I'm sorry."

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese Imperial Navy navigator Maeda guided his Kate bomber to Pearl Harbor and fired a torpedo that helped sink the USS West Virginia.

Rauschkolb, a Navy signalman, stood on the West Virginia's port side as a series of Japanese planes pummeled the battleship with torpedoes and bombs. The West Virginia lost 106 men in the assault.

"He may have been shooting at me," Rauschkolb said as he shook Maeda's hand.

Overcoming the legacy of the attack, the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor and the Americans who survived the attack are coming together during a five-day series of Pearl Harbor attack anniversary observations in Hawaii.

[Landru]

A *lot* of "reconciling" going on, Sarge.

Glad they can find it in their hearts to forgive, many of us can't.

...& won't.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Good story about men, especially after arriving after a spat caused by misinterpretation.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Pearl Harbor reconciliation ping.

[Cecily]

Oops. I didn't notice the missing "L" in Pearl when I copied the title to paste it in.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Noticed it after you pinged. Freepers should be able to piece it together.

[digger48]

[holden]

My father, a POW under the Japanese for 3-1/2 yrs, now gone 16-1/2 years, was not able to be so forgiving, through the day he died.

I'll honor his position as a fully-informed, fitting response. How much unprovoked destruction and grief is offset by these late, paltry few handshakes?

HF

[digger48]

Don Stratton, a USS Arizona sailor who suffered burns over 60 to 70 percent of his body, said embracing the Japanese who carried out the attack is out of the question.

"I don't stand beside them. I don't sit beside them. I don't shake hands with them," Stratton said. "There's a thousand men out there on that ship that lost 65 years of their life and I'm sure they would not shake hands with them."

[Cecily]

Japanese pilots:

[newcthem]

Seems as tho the MSM trots out this sh*t about every couple of years....suppose the same should happen to the sand-maggots who killed 3000 of our countrymen...........just not in my life time.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Apparently the representatives of Mankind on this thread are not such shining paragons.

And don't draw conclusions from "Pikachu."

[DTogo]

Yep, I've worked with older colleagues and chatted with in-laws who lost loved ones and/or their homes to American bombers, yet we're all friends and family now.

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)

[July 4th]

Japanese pilots

They bombed it 60 years ago. Now they all vacation there.

[Eclectica]

My Dad, at 90, has never owned a Japanese car, though he flew PBY-5A Black Cat missions in the Pacific with VP-11.

Still, if told "I'm sorry" by a warrior from an opposing country, I'm certain he wouldn't try to land a punch.

[31M20RedDevil]

Your dad must have been a very strong man to have survived that
ordeal.

Captured by the Japanese : about as SOFL as one could be in WW2.

My dad`s best friend in WW2 spent the war in a Stalag,he just lost
weight. A lot of weight. He had no hard feelings tho with his treatment.

[PzLdr]

What "combat"? The soldiers and sailors killed at Pearl Harbor weren't at war until the damn bombs started dropping, the torpedoes started running, and the planes started strafing. that's why it's called a sneak attack.

And although the Jap sniper that killed my uncle on Guam did it during a battle, my uncle wouldn't have been there but for that sneak attack.

[PzLdr]

The mortality rate of American prisoners held by the Japanese was around 37% to 40% [and a bunch were murdered].The mortality rate of U.S prisoners held by the Germans was around 3% to 4%[lower than the mortality rate of Germans held here]. Says a lot about the Japanese.

[longtermmemmory]

Here we go again...

Associated Propaganda pushing pacifism in a time of war.

Perhaps the repoters of the AP need ot miss a week or two of meals in an iranian solitary cell before they write their next story.