V-J Day

[Mike n NC]

That is a very interesting statement. I too would like to know more.

Their basic reasoning was something like this, it doesn't translate exactly but I got the gist of it.

Any animal (people) that would engage in such savage combat and call it a sport, played for fun, is crazy and should not be challanged. (Don't mess with a mad dog.)

Like I said the translation is rough but that was the basic idea I got from them. One point that I will make about the Japanese Veterans is that, much like our own, most felt that they were just doing what their country needed them to do. Being somewhat familliar with their feudal system and having studied some history while I was there, I try not to judge their actions by modern standards.

Mike

[macwilkin]

Yamamoto was the Japanese Naval Attache at the embassy in Washington DC for a number of years, and was a well-known gambling addict who loved poker. As Mike said, he did object to the Pearl Harbor raid. If I remember right, the Pearl Harbor raid was based on a raid by Japanese torpedo boats on Russians ships at Port Arhtur, Manchuria, in 1904.

There are many documented instances of Japanese officers in the Philippines who were educated in the US before the war intervening to same an American officer's personal effects or even life, but that does not discount the cruelty of other Japanese. The late Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking", John Toland's "But not in shame" and Tim Carew's "The Fall of Hong Kong" documents in graphic detail what Japanese soldiers did to British, American and Chinese soldiers and civilians.

My grandfather saw American POW's from Manchura (including Gen. Johnathan "Skinny" Wainright, the commander of Correigdor) after they were liberated and flown to the American airbase at Chengtu, China. He said they were "walking skeletons".

T.

[Verlyn]

I try not to judge their actions by modern standards.

Mike

If only this were practiced by more people. While there were certainly atrosities, and there always will be in warfare, I see too many examples of past behaviors being judged by modern standards. Certain things have always been wrong; won't argue there. But, there are situations in which the frame of reference makes for a very different decision process and modern PC society all too often judges the past on current understanding.