[GATOR NAVY]

I wonder if his book will be translated into English. It would probably be very interesting reading.

Link to some photos of his trip here:

http://www.stripes.com/08/sep08/iwo/

[GATOR NAVY]

Are you still doing the Military History ping list?

[PAR35]

Ping

[zeestephen]

“By the summer of 1944, Japanese soldiers and sailors were burrowing their defenses into eight square miles of volcanic rock moored in the Pacific about 670 miles south of Tokyo.”

Interesting how the Japanese and Hollywood histories of Iwo Jima always forget one fact:

The underground bunkers and tunnels were mostly dug by 10,000 half starved, brutally treated, Korean slave laborers.

[calex59]

Like I give a rat’s behind about this guy. People just like him killed my relatives at Pearl Harbor and in the Pacific. The reason he had it tough on Iwo was because Japan decided to f*** with the wrong country. They killed millions in China, they killed American civilians on Wake Island for no reason then they wanted to be rid of them, they made slaves out of prisoners of war, they were an altogether rotten people and this guy was one of them. I care about the few American survivors from WWII but not about the Japanese. They got what they deserved and in some cases got off entirely too easy.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

That is one island that should have NEVER been given back to the Japanese. The US paid a very heavy price for it.

[A.A. Cunningham]

http://www.stripes.com/08/sep08/iwo/

[yazoo]

I really believe that enemy soldiers in battle share a kind of brotherhood that can’t be explained. They may hate each other but when the fighting ends and the war is over they can meet on the old battlefield and exchange stories of how terrible the fighting was for both sides. This Japanese soldier didn’t start the war or make policy for Japan, he was simply doing what he thought was right, even if history clearly shows he was fighting for a depraved cause.