Pearl Harbor Day

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Pearl Harbor Day
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eugene Adams on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 04:44 pm:

flag


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Aldrich Orting Wa on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 04:59 pm:

The Navy is a long standing family tradition in which almost all male members (and one female) have served. I lost no one at Pearl but my father was there at the time and I still have his Hickam Field ID.

I served 1972-1997 as an Aviation Ordnanceman.
My son now serves as an Aviation Jet Engine Mechanic from 2000 until ?? at least 2020.

December 7th will never be forgotten in my home and I honor all veterans of all the Armed Forces.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Seth - Ohio on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 05:00 pm:

Say a prayer for the past and present service men and women. Thanks to all


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Darel J. Leipold on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 05:23 pm:

Many of us remember where we were on December 7, 1941. I was nine years old that time. My father owned a 1938 Packard 8 and it had a radio. He was driving with all of us south on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was sometime in the late afternoon, but still daylight. A radio program was interrupted with a special news bulletin that Pearl Harbor had been attacked by a Japanese air force and that there was great lost of life and ships.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard Wolf on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 05:34 pm:

Think about that when you buy a JAP car.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By William L Vanderburg on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 06:00 pm:

The Japanese attacked us and we buy their cars and electronics....full circle....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sam "POPS" Humphries on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 06:15 pm:

Nothing but Fords at this home.
04 F150, 03 Crown Vic and granddaughter has 11 Focus.

Almost forgot 1916 Model T FORD.

We support and thank all those who have served so that for now we still have the freedom that so many sacrificed for.

Our flags will be out tomorrow.

Our Home


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob McDonald-Federal Way, Wa. on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 06:58 pm:

Like darel we were on a sunday drive in my parents 38 Dodge and were on a back road (dirt) east of King City Ca.that crossed and re crossed a stream and had stopped for a picnic lunch (as we often did) when the news came over the radio. That is one day that I'll never forget. On our way home we picked up every service man that was heading back to camp, we even drove an extra 100+ miles to get them to there bases. We didn't get home until well after midnight.
BLESS THEM ALL "PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE"

Bob
USAF 51-55 Korea


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 07:46 pm:

Bob,

"Peace is Our Profession." (825th Combat Support Group (SAC), Little Rock AFB, 1963-1967)

As far as Pearl Harbor Day, I don't remember it specifically, but I think I drank milk and slept, with perhaps some time for looking around and responding to voices. I was exactly six weeks old that day.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Harold Schwendeman - Sumner,WA on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 08:14 pm:

You're just a bit older than me Dick. I'm told that December 7th, 1941 is the day my Mom and I were brought home from the hospital where I was born. Guess you and I are just a bit older than "Baby Boomers", huh?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 08:38 pm:

Yes, I have always figured that the Baby Boomers are people born after 7 September 1942. I'm not a War Baby, I'm a Pre-War Baby.

My dad was in the Army Reserve and had been called to active duty in early 1941. He and my mom were at Camp Davis NC when I was born. In early 1942, his unit shipped out to Trinidad.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 08:52 pm:

I was a month from 5 years old.
I remembered our neighbor from across the road having just been home from officers training school.. he was on his way to some place in the Pacific and we knew he was at Pearl Harbor that day for a stay over.
His brother came over and they talked about Claud being there. We were outside, it was a warm day in Wisconsin that day. Our battery powered radio was on most of the day.
He was an unarmed traveling soldier and could only shoot pictures at the time.
He made it home OK, but died of a heart attack about 8 years later at 37.
We had moved 15 miles but after the war he rented a farm a mile from us, where he died.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 09:00 pm:

I used to go to San Jose every Vet's Day and join with others to carry Pearl Harbor Survivors in the Veteran's Day Parade in our old cars.
The last two years we had no Pearl Harbor Survivor's group as there are not many left.
The crowd would just go nuts when we drove past with a couple guys in each car. Usually about 10 cars the last few years.
In early times (25 years ago)there would be about 35 Survivors marching and 3 in each of 10 to 15 cars.
Those days are gone.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Robbie Price on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 09:07 pm:

December 7, 1941 was my Grandfather's 21st birthday. Needless to say he was drafted into the Army a short time later and he always said "I wanted to go, I wasn't afraid to die" he felt proud to go into the armed forces to fight for the cause of Freedom and serve under the Star Spangled Banner! He was in for three years and came home after the war ended.
He passed away on Christmas Day, 2003. In the last few years of his life he talked more about the 3 years he spent in the Army than the 80 years he spent out of it.
To me he is a prime example, a standard if you will, of the fine Men that made his generation what will forever be known as
"The Greatest Generation"
God Bless America!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Semprez-Templeton, CA on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 09:49 pm:

On December 7. 1941 my Dad and Mom were building a dog house when the news reached the west coast. I was born 7 years, 5 months and 5 days later, yet I have this memory indelibly etched in my mind.

My folks taught me to respect the flag, the veterans, and the United States of America.

When I started working in my career, most of my bosses were WWII vets. A finer group of people I have never met. God Bless America and all who have served!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gilbert V. I. Fitzhugh on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 10:05 pm:

Re: Buying Japanese cars -

In the spring of 1978 I made three business trips to Tokyo. Much "business" in Japan is conducted after hours in bars, restaurants and karaoke places, generally accompanied by way too much booze. At one such business event, one of the Japanese guys said: "Fitzhugh-san, do you ever wonder what would have happened if Japan had won the war?" I replied: "No, but I know one thing that would NOT have happened." "What?" "The streets of Tokyo would NOT be full of Fords and Chevrolets." It got kinda quiet while they chewed on that thought!

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Thursday, December 06, 2012 - 10:30 pm:

My Dad's favorite thing to talk about was his friends in the Army. He was at New Guinea, the Phillipine's and a couple of other places in the Pacific. He told me he was at Hawaii when he first went over. I asked him how that was. He wouldn't say anything about it. But then the only thing he talked about regarding the military were his friends. It was like he was there but didn't want anyone to know he was. When my brother and I came home from Viet Nam. If we started talking about it he told us we didn't have to say anything. My brother still won't talk about it. Though I did get him to open up once. I never brought it up again. A few years ago I was told by a doc at the VA I should talk about it because it would help with the PTSD. So now I talk about it. I don't know if it helps any. Maybe it does. But I know I'm damn proud of my Dad and my Brother for serving they're country. God Bless those veterans that gave their lives at Pearl Harbor and those that have served before and since.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 08:12 am:

Pearl Harbor and 9/11 is what happens when we sit around on our butts, thinking we can 'negotiate' with everybody. I work here, watch this.
www.freedomisntfree.org
The first man speaking is Bill Price, he's 92. He earned a Bronze Star in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach on D Day. The second man to speak is Ron Freedman. He also earned a Bronze Star at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.
I have the honor of working with many such men, while they are still around.
DJH
315th Air Div. USAF
Viet Nam 66-67


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Jablonski on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 08:16 am:

I was privileged to have worked with a Pearl Harbor vet. He related his story of his experiences on December 7, 1941 on several occasions, but only one on one.... emotions would evolve. John went on after the war to be one of New York City's finest, retiring, then a second career in the Manhattan Diamond District. We worked together for 10 years in his third career. Retiring again, we kept he & his wife on our Christmas card list.... 5 years ago a phone call from his wife, said John wanted to speak to us...... he didn't know why ( mild dementia ), but wanted to speak to me , remembered working with a young guy who was a friend. He passed shortly after as did his wife.

God Bless.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Ashton Rosenkrans on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 09:02 am:

My dad was a brand new Air Corps cadet in upstate Pennsylvania and quite smitten with the queen of the cadet ball. They were married in Alabama just before he was to ship out for the Pacific flying Thunderbolts.

They're both gone now, rest their souls, but they both remembered where they were and what they were doing that Sunday.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 10:10 am:

We have lost 3 members of 'the greatest generation' at the museum in the last 2 weeks. Honor these men (and women) while we still can. :-(


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Larry Smith on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 10:17 am:

I was in the Navy, in submarines, and we docked at the sub base in Pearl many times. It is the most beautiful Navy base of all. I love it there.
Dec 7th was indeed a tragic day for America, and I agree, I'll never own a Jap car because of it.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard Wolf on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 10:22 am:

Larry;
I wish everyone felt the same as you and me. I can't believe so many WW2 vets buy them. No room in my driveway for them.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 10:51 am:

I don't remember "the day" as I was 4 years old. I do remember we had a little dog named Tokey and wondered about the phrase "Bombs over Tokyo." Must have been after the Dolittle raid. I went to live with my grand parents as both parents were working in defense plants. My mother at Willow Run building B-24s.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Charlie B actually in Toms River N.J. on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 11:08 am:

Odd bit of business on a recent first time visit to Pearl: The tour guide told us that Japanese children aren't taught about the attack and Japanese tourists are rare at the Memorial. There was, in another group, a young couple with 2 small children, who appeared to be Japanese. During the film that's shown before entering I watched this guy sink lower & lower in his seat until he wasn't visible any more. (we were about 8 rows back). I don't know how they got out but we didn't see them after the lights came up.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Peter Claverie on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 01:00 pm:

I was 4 years old, but don't remember how I heard the news. My dad wanted to join the Navy so badly he had recruiting posters in our home, but he was Manager of a plant that made 55 gallon drums, so they wouldn't let him join up.

I later worked for a Navy man who had lived, until 3 weeks before the attack, in a small, red-roofed house on shore alongside where the Missouri was berthed. His kids used to lie in bed and watch the movies on the deck of the MO out their bedroom window. That home was riddled with shells as the planes strafed the MO, but thankfully nobody lived there at the time. The home can still be seen in many of the pictures of the monument that are taken from the air. It used to be clearly visible from the monument platform, until the travelling wall with all the names of those lost on the MO finished its tour and was erected at the land-end of the platform.

About 10 years ago I visited Pearl Harbor. In contrast to Charlie B's report, there were many Japanese on the tour when I was there. they were quiet, respectful, and very curious to see the sunken ship. When they made eye contact, it was clear they were distressed, but understood that the events commemorated here were from an earlier generation.

I must say that when the shuttle-boat docked at the MO, there was a PA system that played The Marine Hymn on chimes. It was probably the most moving thing I have ever experienced - I wasn't allowed to watch the births of our children, but that's the only thing I can think of that might have equaled the welling-up of emotions that I felt.

Clearly it moved everyone on the tour. I didn't see many dry eyes on that platform.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 01:52 pm:

One of my favorite columnists is Bill McClellan of the St Louis Post-Dispatch. This was the column that greeted me when I opened the paper this morning:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/bill-mcclellan/mcclellan-one-shining- moment-for-pearl-harbor-survivor/article_d9274d7d-defc-5b70-81c6-8845ceb60a5e.ht ml


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 03:32 pm:

I remember my parents listening to President Roosevelt, not sure it was Pearl Harbor Day, but I remember him saying in his speech "My head aches and my heart aches".

Years later when I was in 9th grade, my history teacher was teaching about WWII and she said her husband was one of the people killed at Pearl Harbor.

I am not one to shed tears, but when we visited Hawaii a few years ago we went to the Arizona memorial and I was reading the names on the wall. My teacher's husband's name was there. When I read that name, tears came to my eyes.

In 1977 December 7 became for me no longer a day of infamy. That was the date our first grandchild was born. He is now a father himself.

Norm


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Charlie B actually in Toms River N.J. on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 03:46 pm:

LOL. I read that last line wrong Norman. His grandchild was born on Dec. 7th? How old is this guy?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Vaughn on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 06:36 pm:

I served 21 years in the Navy and the first time I re-enlisted I did so on the 4th of July aboard the USS Arizona Memorial with two other shipmates. A very special time in my life that I will never forget because of the dedication of the sailors that came before me. I re-enlisted a couple of more times after that but not as memorable as the first time


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 07:56 pm:

We can't turn back time an undo the things that have happened. We talk about how messed up our world is now. The condition of the world and the position of our country was very different on December 7th 1941. Our enemies hated us and went to no ends to destroy us. And though it took four years for our enemies to fail. The were beaten and the war was over. Afterwards the United States put unbelievable amounts of money into rebuilding the Japanese economy. And we succeeded at that too. My father was a prejudice man. He fought in World War 2 and showed those prejudices against the Japanese even though his country had rebuilt that entire nation he would not show any pride in his country's accomplishment. All he could remember, right to the day he died, he hated those GD'ed Japs.

I fought in the Viet Nam war. I was in combat for a total of 365 days. Even when I thought I was in "safe" areas the VC and NVA could reach out with mortars and rockets and harass us. When I came home and settled back into civilian life I followed in my father's footsteps. I was very prejudice. I hated the Viet Namese. I called them Gooks, Dinks, Slanteyes and Slopeheads. But I didn't look at them as people.

But time went on. I became a father and tucked my prejudices away as my children grew. And as time went by the country became the home to a great many Viet Namese people. And my son started working in a factory and was responsible for work direction for a crew of Viet Namese on a packing line. He worked side by side with them and learned who they were and how to communicate with them. He came home and told me what good workers they were and how much he enjoyed them. And for a long time I seethed inside. And then my son started dating one. And I told him I'd rather he not bring her into my house. And my hate for those people hurt my son. I could see the hurt in his eyes. And I became ashamed because of his hurt but not because of my prejudices. But over time his hurt has gone and the girl is gone too. But I'd like to think I've lost a little bit of my prejudices and don't have too much of a problem with the people I once hated. And they've become less threatening in my eyes.

I wish my Dad could have found some place in his life where the hate wouldn't have been so strong and his hurt wouldn't have had to be so harsh.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 10:53 pm:

I dated a Japanese woman that wanted so badly to become a U.S. citizen and be able to vote, which she eventually did.
I took her from Ca. to my folks home in Wisconsin, by car. She had a Ca. driver's license and could drive well and was up on all the laws.
After the second day when we were some place in Utah or Wyoming in the open & flat desert land she said,"Japanese people very stupid."
I asked what brought that on and she replied that if they had just sent a few Japanese military leaders over here and had them drive across the country they would have surely gone back to Japan and said to forget about any attack on the U.S.! Country too big and too strong.
She thought it was mind boggling how large the U.S. was.
She told about being shot at on her way to school by American planes. She said they would just fall with their bikes into the rice paddies.
Since about 1980 she has been running her own manufacturing business with 3 or 4 employees.
She blended in well with everybody, has paid off her house and travels and spends money and pays taxes unlike a lot of foreigners in San Francisco.
She would be 80 years old now and I think she is still a proud American running her business. at least she was last I heard from her.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Friday, December 07, 2012 - 11:11 pm:

To Err is Human;
To Forgive is Divine

The fact the Japanese purposely attacked us doesn't constitute human err. But the forgiveness has to come.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 08:14 am:

Admiral Yamamoto was educated in the US. He knew full well that if the war lasted a long time, we would overwhelm them.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 09:23 am:

One of my neighbors is Nisei. Her Japan born father and some of his friends in a US detention camp thought the Japs would win.

To them:

Business is war, and anything goes in war.

If you aren't Japanese, you are defective. They won't allow immigration, and their aging population is dying out.

They could not understand why anyone would leave Japan.

---------

The way they handled the Fukushima disaster and the Toyota recalls are telling of their culture.

Louis Zamperini was a SoCalif delinquent who ran in the 1936 Olympics, then was captured by the Japs in 1942. He received special torture because one of the head guards knew his Olympic history.

Louis was on the road to self destruction after the war when he met the young Billy Graham, who turned his life around. Louis realized he had to forgive his captors and torturers, so went to Japan. The video of him entering the room and speaking to them showed the unmistakable hatred still in their eyes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini

We have and have had POWs from WWII and Korea in our little Old Bold Pilots group. Especially later in the war, Germans treated the GIs as good as could be expected.

The Japs brutally tortured their prisoners, and that is the source of much hatred of them today.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 09:58 am:

Ralph, because of the Allied Mass Grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (where the British Commonwealth military hold a Remembrance Ceremony every November 11th) that contains the ashes of 71 American, 16 British, 10 Dutch and three Australian military and civilians who died in Fukuoka Camp No. 1 in Japan, I have done some reading about allied prisoners of the Japanese. Two cultural reasons for the contempt of the Japanese for their prisoners were (1) as you said, a belief that non-Japanese are inferior, somehow less than human, and (2) Bushido, the warrior code that says that to surrender is to commit the most dishonorable act that there is. Non-Japanese POWs fell into both categories, and they were indeed brutalized.

I have mentioned here before Paul Brookman, a member of the Dutch community here, who was a POW at Fukuoka Camp No. 14 near Nagasaki, and survived the bomb. I haven't seen Paul since his wife died a few years ago, but he was doing fine then in his late 80s. About ten years ago, with Paul's permission, I contacted Harry Levins at the Post-Dispatch, a columnist who did a lot of military and history articles. Harry and I drove up to Paul's house and this is the column that resulted:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/dutch-vet-in-ferguson-survived-nagasaki -atomic-bombing/article_ead316e4-52f8-11e0-ab96-0017a4a78c22.html

Then in March 2011, prompted by the nuclear tragedy in Japan, Bill McClellan revisited Harry's column and Paul.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/bill-mcclellan/fat-man-survivor-recal ls-big-blast/article_93f0817e-6fe0-5162-81f1-af55ac794c21.html


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Peter Claverie on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 01:00 pm:

Duh Me!! I feel so stupid! In my post I talked about the battleship Missouri, and I should have said the Arizona. What a doofus I am!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 02:13 pm:

Oh, Peter, don't be so hard on yourself. Those two ships bookended the war you could say.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Seth - Ohio on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 02:21 pm:

Well Ralph I don't know where you got your information about the Germans treating their POWs as good as expected...my Father was a POW in Germany and he was tortured for two years before being freed by Allied forces!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gordon Byers - Rangely CO on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 02:25 pm:

Like others who have posted, a visit to Pearl and the Arizona Memorial is an awe inspiring experience, and I was filled with a due reverence to those who gave their lives on December 7, 1941. The downside for me was the presence of a busload of Japanese tourists who were behaving as if they were at Disneyland, laughing, joking, and showing no respect whatsoever. I didn't have the opportunity to visit either Hiroshima or Nagasaki on my brief visit to their country but I do know that I would have had a serious and thoughtful mien rather than a "tourist" attitude if I had.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 03:45 pm:

My dad was in the Pacific Theatre during the war, and told me that Acey Deucey was a wildly popular game everywhere. The beauty of it was that you could draw the board on the back of an envelope, make dice from sugar cubes and use yellow atabrine tablets and white aspirin tablets as chips.

He told me one story, but I don't recall where it happened. It could have been at Pearl Harbor, but it could also have been elsewhere later. In any case, a ship had been sunk and there were three or four sailors trapped in a compartment on the sunken ship. There was no way to get them out, but they did have communication with them. When told the situation, one of them replied, "Don't worry about us. We have a hot game of Acey Deucey going here. We'll be okay."


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 03:49 pm:

Should have googled before I posted that. Just found this:

"...And none of us will ever forget the heart-twisting story of the damage control party that was trapped below decks on a sinking carrier. When advised they were trapped and couldn't get out, the kids replied: 'We're O. K. Gotta a game of acey-deucey going. When you fire the fish, put them well up forward. We don't want to have to die slowly.'"


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 04:18 pm:

It's over now. The Japanese were following orders from their superiors. It is the leaders who were responsible for the attacks. The Americans likewise were following orders from their superiors. Very few of the people on either side is still alive today, and they are not in a position of authority anymore.

It is time to forgive and forget. It is not time to forget that it could happen again so we should keep up our guard, but I don't think the Japanese will be the ones to attack us again.
Norm


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 04:32 pm:

The Japanese that were here before the war who went back to Japan to be on the side of Japan were housed in shacks right on the shores of Japan. They were never allowed to go into Japan. 42% of them died on those beaches from starvation and poor health.
22% of American soldier prisoners died in German prisons.
The Japanese treated their own people worse than the Germans treated their enemies.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Aldrich Orting Wa on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 06:05 pm:

Norman,
I've had the opportunity to visit both the Arizona Memorial and the "Peace Park" in Hiroshima Japan. If the Japanese can forgive us for the bombs then forgiveness from us for Pearl is due.

The Peace Park and all the displays were a very humbling experience... especially for someone like myself who once was heavily involved with nuclear weapons. The placards on the various displays clearly showed Japan felt responsible for the US entry into the war and the subsequent death and destruction.

It is time to forgive but never forget. Remembering may prevent us from ever getting to that point in the future.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 07:35 pm:

I don't feel we owe them any forgiveness.
They bombed hell out of us, took over the Phillipines, torchered and murdered Fillipino people as well as American and Fillipino soldiers, did the same in Guam and other places, sunk the Indianapolis after the war was over.

Oh, the lady that drove with me to Wisconsin...
She said when the war stopped and the American soldiers were all over Tokyo they thought they were in for some serious ass kicking.
They did not expect to be treated humanely.
Example: She told of women with a bag of groceries, etc. in one arm, a baby in the other and a two or three year old beside her as she was trying to get across the street.
They would see an American in uniform pick up the little one, take the ladies grocery bag in hand and walk them to cross the street. She claimed to have seen it happen.
They never expected to be treated like that.
She told also that a women alone in public 'till this day can expect to be treated badly by the Japanese men. Especially in a crowded elevator, for example.
She is not the only Japanese person that I have met that hates to go back there, even for a visit.
I was there part of the first and second day when I decided to get the hell out of there and never go back.
I will not visit a place where I am treated by the police like I was treated there.
We don't owe them an apology for the bombs. we don't owe them forgiviness for their bombing the piss out of Pearl, or any other place.
It would be nice if they would show a little appreciation for building their country back up though.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 07:54 pm:

When the Olympics in Japan was on there was a TV show about the American Prisoner and the gaurd that beat him that RD Ricks mentions and linked to the story about Zamperini. I saw the show and remember it well.
The gaurd was only found many years after the war.
One thing that stands out was how after Zamperini had been beaten so much by Wantanabi and was finally transfered to some place in the north, I think actually out of Japan, and in a very few days Wantanabi (Wantanaby?)was again one of his gaurds and he was beaten by him even more for trying to escape to a different prison.
The gaurd was interviewed by the TV crew but he refused to see and meet again with Zamperini.
No, we have nothing to forgive them about.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Saturday, December 08, 2012 - 11:16 pm:

The Japs invaded China beginning in 1931, and were there until we defeated them. Somebody mentioned to me last week that we shouldn't have repatriated the 200,000 soldiers back to Japan, but should have left them for the Chinese.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anthony Bennett on Sunday, December 09, 2012 - 06:32 am:

No one wins a war do they.

I have been to the Arizona memorial and it was quite touching... something I will not forget.

I still think it's deplorable when these dodgey "recently unearthed" box brownie images of Pearl Harbour turn up in your email... who is it that photoshops explosions into the vast clouds of black smoke to make them more dramatic?

Retouching history should be a crime.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Sunday, December 09, 2012 - 08:54 am:

A lot of the time, Anthony, they are real pix with bs stories attached.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Sunday, December 09, 2012 - 11:53 am:

Received this in an email this morning, and just finished watching all 36 minutes.
-----------
This is spectacular live footage of the 3,000 round trip mile air assault upon the Japanese mainland, with 3 bomber wings and a host of P-51's. This is the real way to end a war.
No matter what war footage you ever saw before, this is the real deal and will keep your undivided attention. The P-51 & B29 footage is remarkable. The strafing runs by the P-51 pilots were incredible.
There are several “breaks” as the film canisters are changed, just wait for the count down
(View Full Screen/Sound On)
B-29/P-51 Actual WWII Footage:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheLastBomb1945


On a mission like this, local Old Bold Pilot, the late Joe Fahey, received the DFC for setting a P-51 endurance record of about ten hours as he flew wing on a damaged P-51, escorting it to a ship where it could ditch; and then he went on to land on Iwo.

Our small group has only 3 pilots left from the War now, all P-38, by coincidence. One just joined. We also have a B-29 gunner, but he is busy caring for his wife with Alzheimers.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Sunday, December 09, 2012 - 01:06 pm:

If you have not seen it, it is a must to go up one post to RD Rick's post and click on the link.
Be sure you have a half hour of uninterrupted time to watch it.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheLastBomb1945


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Randy Schultz-Rathbun on Sunday, December 09, 2012 - 01:53 pm:

I did a few 12 hour plus missions in the Air Force, in helicopters. My personal record was 15.5 hours. (You have to love, or hate, air refueling). Watching this, I can still feel the exhaustion I felt when climbing out of the cockpit. The commentator was right, the last hour is longer than the rest of the flight.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Sunday, December 09, 2012 - 03:39 pm:

Has anyone thought about what might have happened if Japan had not bombed Pearl Harbor? Hitler could have won WWII and Japan ruled asia and the Pacific. We don't know how things would have turned out if certain events had not happened. After the war was over, I would think the Japanese wished they hadn't done it. They aroused a "sleeping giant", and lost the war.
Norm


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