The Last 10 Minutes Of A Japanese Officers Life... - Page 2

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Posted: 8/16/2005 6:03:34 AM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
Quoted:
And you know what's really funny?

Threads that talk about the Germans never contain this sort of vitriol. Why is that?

Probably because, other than the usual 88s who are ignored, nobody talks much about the nobility of German soldiers. The depravity of the Nazis' racial policies and death camps is (again, other than by the 88s) universally acknowledged. Nobody seems to have a pseudoreligious attachment to some antecedent code of German militarism which is treated as though it were pure, noble, and unrelated to the wickedness of the Nazi regime. The Germans are not generally believed to have been involved in routine criminal maltreatment of POWs.

It's not particularly vitriolic to point out that admiring reflections on the character of a member of the WWII Japanese army make about as much sense as reflecting on the generosity and good manners of a child molester. If somebody posted a rumination on the admirable efficiency with which Joseph Mengele ran his clinic, you'd probably see similar comments.

Good post, and you beat me to it. When someone wants to describe barbaric treatment of a person or persons, how often will you hear that person's captor described as being "Nazi-like," or some other adjective that incorporates the word Nazi? It's widely known and accepted that what the Nazi's did was incredible not only for their treatment of others, but also the proof they left behind to leave no doubt of how they did it (excepting those die hard 88's).

The barbarity of the Japanese however is not so widely known (check your kid's high school history books for any of the topics discussed here, and see what you find). Once examined under the same investigative light as the Nazi's, their inhumane treatment of prisoners and innocents (in my opinion) eclipses that of the Nazi's. Save for the fact that they didn't systematically build an extermination machine throughout a continent, thier methods were equally as horrific.

Posted: 8/16/2005 6:08:06 AM EDT

[#2]

What strikes me about the Japanese is how damned stupid they were. Your sensei's uncle was an idiot.

Posted: 8/16/2005 6:09:03 AM EDT

[#3]

Another reason they lost the war.

Posted: 8/16/2005 6:13:32 AM EDT

[#4]

I can really find nothing to admire in this officer.

He dishonored himself as a Samurai, and as a man, when he put on that uniform...........

Posted: 8/16/2005 6:21:33 AM EDT

[#5]

Those of you holding on to the whitewashed notion that the Japanese of WWII were all a noble lot of Samurai bound together under a net of moral fiber need to read a little unvarnished history of that war and Japan's actions towards all its Asian neighbors. Their atrocities were not the exception, they were the norm. To try and gain some type of moral equivalency by comparing what they did to My Lai etc is like saying that my bank account and Bill Gates' bank account are pretty much the same because they both have money in them. It is an insult to the Samurai and the Code of Bushido to equate the Japanese soldier of WWII to them.

Posted: 8/16/2005 6:25:19 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Quoted:
And you know what's really funny?

Threads that talk about the Germans never contain this sort of vitriol. Why is that?

No Samuri swords? Why don't you just call everybody a racist so the battle can really begin?

I don't necessarily think people are racist, but I've seen some weird romantic love affairs with Nazi Germany - the guy I knew from school that loved to do reenactment as an SS officer and collected things like forks and spoons with swastikas on them that he found at gun shows. ETA - I really honestly think that a part of that "romantic love affair" comes down to "their uniforms look cool", as stupid of a reason as that is.

The explanations put forth about Nazism being almost universally reviled and therefore it doesn't require anyone to point it out are pretty good, though I'm not entirely certain I can assume that it's universally reviled given the unusually high number of 88s that you can run into as a firearms enthusiast.

Posted: 8/16/2005 6:31:48 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
And you know what's really funny?

Threads that talk about the Germans never contain this sort of vitriol. Why is that?

No Samuri swords? Why don't you just call everybody a racist so the battle can really begin?

I don't necessarily think people are racist, but I've seen some weird romantic love affairs with Nazi Germany - the guy I knew from school that loved to do reenactment as an SS officer and collected things like forks and spoons with swastikas on them that he found at gun shows. ETA - I really honestly think that a part of that "romantic love affair" comes down to "their uniforms look cool", as stupid of a reason as that is.

The explanations put forth about Nazism being almost universally reviled and therefore it doesn't require anyone to point it out are pretty good, though I'm not entirely certain I can assume that it's universally reviled given the unusually high number of 88s that you can run into as a firearms enthusiast.

I think it's one of those "most terrorists are Muslims but most Muslims aren't terrorists" deals: Most 88s are gun nuts, but most gun nuts aren't 88s.

Posted: 8/16/2005 7:27:11 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
And you know what's really funny?

Threads that talk about the Germans never contain this sort of vitriol. Why is that?

While Nazism is reviled, German troops weren't given to idiotic suicide charges and the sorts of behavior the Japanese made a regular habit of. Sure, the Germans wacked some prisoners, but with nothing like the regularity of the Japs.
Rommel conducted himself with honor, and my own father was present when a German commander blessed a request by the Americans to call a cease fire and retrieve the dead and wounded.

Most of the guys who came back from Europe had a little respect for the Germans, most of the guys coming back from the Pacific wanted nothing more than to kill all of the Japanese.
Attitudes like that don't happen for no reason.

The Germans fought hard, but as intelligently as they could, the Japs fought hard and would do anything to kill you even at the expense of being stupid and commiting suicide.

Posted: 8/16/2005 7:42:40 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
And you know what's really funny?

Threads that talk about the Germans never contain this sort of vitriol. Why is that?

Then you've never read any of my replies to such threads.

Here are some pictures of the heroic Japanese, their swords and some liberated American prisoners of the Japanese, that I thought I'd throw in, lest we forget, whom we were dealing with, here.

Was it Halsey? Who said, upon sailing into Pearl Harbor, just after the Japanese attack..."when I'm though, The Japanese tongue, will only be spoken in hell."?

Posted: 8/16/2005 7:50:02 AM EDT

[#10]

Lesson of the day: having hoardes of suicide troops won't stop the US War Machine. You'll see stories of Ali the Terrorist inserting his last clip into his AK, mumbling Allah Akbar, and getting shot to pieces by US soldiers with better training, weaponry, and supplies.

Posted: 8/16/2005 8:03:27 AM EDT

[#11]

Too bad he didn't stand up sooner and catch a bullet from my uncle or one of his shipmates.

Funny, I just finished this book a few weeks ago. Yup, gotta admire a society that practices widespread starvation, rape, POW abuse, and senseless executions.

I did like our August answer to the 1945 Japanese mindset though.

SA, be consistent if you admire such devotion to immoral causes; let's hear you admiration of junior:

Posted: 8/16/2005 8:07:37 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Too bad he didn't stand up sooner and catch a bullet from my uncle or one of his shipmates.

Funny, I just finished this book a few weeks ago. Yup, gotta admire a society that practices widespread starvation, rape, POW abuse, and senseless executions.

I did like our August answer to the 1945 Japanese mindset though.

SA, be consistent if you admire such devotion to immoral causes; let's hear you admiration of junior:

i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/WORLD/meast/06/28/baby.photo/story.baby.bomb.jpg

Ah hell. I don't feel like arguing this again. Dammit, the Japanese may have been war criminals but they were not terrorists!

I am really starting to get this pet peeve for "terrorism" as being the catch-all concept for all of the evil in the world.

Posted: 8/16/2005 8:26:00 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Too bad he didn't stand up sooner and catch a bullet from my uncle or one of his shipmates.

Funny, I just finished this book a few weeks ago. Yup, gotta admire a society that practices widespread starvation, rape, POW abuse, and senseless executions.

I did like our August answer to the 1945 Japanese mindset though.

SA, be consistent if you admire such devotion to immoral causes; let's hear you admiration of junior:

i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/WORLD/meast/06/28/baby.photo/story.baby.bomb.jpg

Ah hell. I don't feel like arguing this again. Dammit, the Japanese may have been war criminals but they were not terrorists!

I am really starting to get this pet peeve for "terrorism" as being the catch-all concept for all of the evil in the world.

+1. "Terrorism," like "imperialism" and "colonialism" is well on the way to being devalued until it means simply "something the speaker doesn't like."

Posted: 8/16/2005 8:33:30 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
There's a better than fair chance that he was motivated as much by a desire to avoid dancing on a war criminal's gibbet as by a sense of honor. I hold little admiration for an officer in an army characterized as much by rape, murder, torture, and kidnaping as by martial gallantry.

Generally I would agree, but I'm willing to give an otherwise unknown individual the benefit of the doubt.

Either way, the man had balls. How many of us here can realistically say we'd so calmly walk to our certain death?

Posted: 8/16/2005 8:46:57 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Wow -good thing the entire American army isnt tied to the shame and guilt of the incident at My Lai.

I suggest you pick up a damn history book and actually know something before you pop off.

Start with the “Rape of Nanking” and the look for “Unit 731”... that is just a very small start.

Posted: 8/16/2005 9:15:04 AM EDT

[#16]

Just as devil's advocate, how about the concept that the US soldiers mentally tortured the Japanese by treating their prisoners like guests, and generally humiliating them by sarcasticly giving them a status above that which they themselves believed they deserved?

Of course, the US troops felt that they were simply acting according to their own code which was better than the other guy's code. Much like the Japanese of the time.

Winners write the history books. They hadn't yet been written by 1945.

NTM

Posted: 8/16/2005 9:27:10 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Just as devil's advocate, how about the concept that the US soldiers mentally tortured the Japanese by treating their prisoners like guests, and generally humiliating them by sarcasticly giving them a status above that which they themselves believed they deserved?

Of course, the US troops felt that they were simply acting according to their own code which was better than the other guy's code. Much like the Japanese of the time.

Winners write the history books. They hadn't yet been written by 1945.

NTM

That has to rank as the most obtuse steaming pile of horseshit I have seen in quite sometime.

I don’t know if it’s based on just monumental ignorance or something worse.

Nobody made up what happen all over Asia when Japanese troops rolled in,,, Nobody made up Unit 731… Nobody made up the Bataan Death March... the list is endless.

Posted: 8/16/2005 9:33:39 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Then you've never read any of my replies to such threads.

Here are some pictures of the heroic Japanese, their swords and some liberated American prisoners of the Japanese, that I thought I'd throw in, lest we forget, whom we were dealing with, here.

img131.imageshack.us/img131/2015/beheading6ve.jpg

img131.imageshack.us/img131/9615/beheaduspilot2lc.jpg

img131.imageshack.us/img131/9186/bataanpow33zh.jpg

img267.imageshack.us/img267/6214/bataanpow23tj.jpg

img267.imageshack.us/img267/6893/bataanmassgrave2504qd.jpg

img165.imageshack.us/img165/3083/bataan3ng.gif

Was it Halsey? Who said, upon sailing into Pearl Harbor, just after the Japanese attack..."when I'm though, The Japanese tongue, will only be spoken in hell."?

I guess SteyrAUG's instructor did not have room on the walls for those photos.

Posted: 8/16/2005 9:50:25 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Quoted:

One of the reasons things like Nanking happen in the first place is because people are able to judge an entire group, race or nation as "all alike."

It's a bit of a stretch to equate judging "all Chinese" with judging "all officers of the Japanese Army from 1937 to 1945," given that being Chinese is an accident of birth while being a Japanese officer in that time period is a matter of being inducted into and indoctrinated by an organization which by its nature inculcated specific norms of behavior and attitude.

The reason that Nanking happened is that Japanese culture, and particularly the Japanese army, were characterized by gross racism and xenophobia, regarding non-Japanese people as presumtively subhuman.

I guess what I'm saying is this.

In Vietnam somewhere the heroic and meritous deeds of US soldiers are being dismissed because they were part of a foreign invasion and guys like Carlos Hathcock were KNOWN to shoot women and children and commit various attrocities.

And while technically "true" it ain't quite the "truth."

I have no problem seeing the Japanese Imperial Army and the Waffen SS for what they were. But I also know they were made up of men. I also know that among those men were dedcent people who did nothing wrong.

As for swingset's suggestion that he have "nothing to do" with the Japanese army and refuse to serve a criminal organization....good luck. It wasn't modern America, you didn't get much of a choice in the matter. It wasn't like people simply thought you were an idiot hippie activists.

Also there were many who felt an honest patriotic duty to serve. This guy was likely the latter.

Now I'm not excusing war criminals. Anyone who had ANY participation in them deserves to be tried, and sadly many weren't.

But I'm not gonna make up for it by condemning men who did nothing wrong.

Posted: 8/16/2005 9:52:59 AM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
I sure would like to see that photo.

A man with balls of steel and armed with the code of Bushido.

you really have to admire the Japanese in some aspects

I'd always wanted a copy. I just could never figure out an appropriate way to ask for a copy.

Posted: 8/16/2005 9:58:45 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I sure would like to see that photo.

A man with balls of steel and armed with the code of Bushido.

you really have to admire the Japanese in some aspects

The only thing I like about them is that so many of them died. There is nothing to admire about a horde of barbaric savages and their perverted ideologies.

Spoken like a true idiot

No, it is the truth. Had this noble officer killed himself rather than be numbered with the most savage army of the 20th century he would have my respect. I find nothing noble or romantic about dieing for cause devoid of any true honor.

Sorry for being contrary, but Steyr knew this might result from posting such a topic. If the Atom bombs had not been ready on schedule, how many members of this board would never have been born due to the casualties of the invasion of Japan?

I think MY opinion on the use of the atomic bombs are well known.

It is the greatest favor we ever did for Japan.

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:00:22 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

One of the reasons things like Nanking happen in the first place is because people are able to judge an entire group, race or nation as "all alike."

Check, and Mate......

Well said, Sir.

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:01:02 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Quoted:

As for being motivated by fear of repercussion, it is possible. But he might have been able to safely surrender if he was worried about saving his skin. I'm sure the Marines would have loved to have a captured officer to show for their efforts.

Soldiers were told over and over, had it drilled into them that Americans would dishonor them in every way possible. This convinced many that death was indeed a much better option.

Note that even this officer does not allow the enlisted man to go with him, nor commit hara-kiri. Enlisted men of the time were considered not worthy of the honor of committing suicide. Enlisted men, in the eyes of Japanese command and officers, were of no use except to take land in battle and then take a bullet.

Edit: BTW, Steyr, since this taken off, let me thank you for posting the story. Still a good read and inspiring of discussion. Well done.

That would be because this enlisted officers was given the responsibility of escaping with a report of their situation.

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:05:37 AM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Quoted:
One of the reasons things like Nanking happen in the first place is because people are able to judge an entire group, race or nation as "all alike."

Remember this on your next ROP rant.

For clarification, I DON'T judge ALL of them the same.

I know there are men who fought us in Iraq, IN UNIFORM, who were only doing their duty. The insurgency is something else entirely.

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:08:07 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
What strikes me about the Japanese is how damned stupid they were. Your sensei's uncle was an idiot.

To us certainly. To him it was the right thing to do.

He probably knew with some certainty that there was no escaping that day and he chose the method of his demise and died on his own terms.

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:13:02 AM EDT

[#26]

Nukem!

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:15:16 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Then you've never read any of my replies to such threads.

Here are some pictures of the heroic Japanese, their swords and some liberated American prisoners of the Japanese, that I thought I'd throw in, lest we forget, whom we were dealing with, here.

img131.imageshack.us/img131/2015/beheading6ve.jpg

img131.imageshack.us/img131/9615/beheaduspilot2lc.jpg

img131.imageshack.us/img131/9186/bataanpow33zh.jpg

img267.imageshack.us/img267/6214/bataanpow23tj.jpg

img267.imageshack.us/img267/6893/bataanmassgrave2504qd.jpg

img165.imageshack.us/img165/3083/bataan3ng.gif

Was it Halsey? Who said, upon sailing into Pearl Harbor, just after the Japanese attack..."when I'm though, The Japanese tongue, will only be spoken in hell."?

I guess SteyrAUG's instructor did not have room on the walls for those photos.

Try and remember my instructors father was a US serviceman who fought the Japanese and later served in the Occupational forces.

I don't think he, or his Japanese family for that matter, had ANY illusions regarding what some Japanese did. You won't find him defending those at Nanking, Bataan or Unit 731.

He probably wouldn't put such pictures on the wall out of respect for the American's in them and out of shame for the Japanese in them.

The photo he did put on the wall of his uncle wasn't to glorify Imperial Japan, it was put up as an example of a man's last minutes who met his fate under his terms and did so with remarkable clarity of mind. I honestly believe if the photo had been of a Marine in similar circumstances he would have admired it just the same.

Posted: 8/16/2005 10:16:32 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
Nukem!

We did. Twice.

One of the better decisions made during the war.

Posted: 8/16/2005 11:47:44 AM EDT

[#29]

lets not focus on the entire Imperial Army of WWII here, lets focus on this one man. I find it hard to believe that so many, including people I respect, would paint a broad brush accross everyone who was Japanese in the 1940s. Can't you people agree that just because he was a Japanese officer that he couldn't have been a good person? That's like me saying that you're a racist redneck, just because you're from the south. If he was indeed a member of the Taira family, a family of Samurai for well over 1000 years, he was raised to follow the true ideals of Bushido, not the perverted and twisted version the Emperor was brainwashing everyone with. I can promise you that he would never mistreat, starve, or torture POWs, because that is not Bushido. That's probably why he was only a junior officer, and never advanced further. Because he showed his enemy respect, this is shown by the fact he chose to die fighting them, and not seppuku. In Bushido it's can be considered shameful to be killed by an enemy with no honor. Knowing what I know about the Taira family, I think it can be safe to assume that this officer acted in true according with The Way otherwise, his decendants wouldn't display the picture of him.

Posted: 8/16/2005 11:50:55 AM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
lets not focus on the entire Imperial Army of WWII here, lets focus on this one man. I find it hard to believe that so many, including people I respect, would paint a broad brush accross everyone who was Japanese in the 1940s. Can't you people agree that just because he was a Japanese officer that he couldn't have been a good person? That's like me saying that you're a racist redneck, just because you're from the south. If he was indeed a member of the Taira family, a family of Samurai for well over 1000 years, he was raised to follow the true ideals of Bushido, not the perverted and twisted version the Emperor was brainwashing everyone with. I can promise you that he would never mistreat, starve, or torture POWs, because that is not Bushido. That's probably why he was only a junior officer, and never advanced further. Because he showed his enemy respect, this is shown by the fact he chose to die fighting them, and not seppuku. In Bushido it's can be considered shameful to be killed by an enemy with no honor. Knowing what I know about the Taira family, I think it can be safe to assume that this officer acted in true according with The Way otherwise, his decendants wouldn't display the picture of him.

Shaolin priests can beat a bullet too.

Posted: 8/16/2005 12:19:12 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
Quoted:
lets not focus on the entire Imperial Army of WWII here, lets focus on this one man. I find it hard to believe that so many, including people I respect, would paint a broad brush accross everyone who was Japanese in the 1940s. Can't you people agree that just because he was a Japanese officer that he couldn't have been a good person? That's like me saying that you're a racist redneck, just because you're from the south. If he was indeed a member of the Taira family, a family of Samurai for well over 1000 years, he was raised to follow the true ideals of Bushido, not the perverted and twisted version the Emperor was brainwashing everyone with. I can promise you that he would never mistreat, starve, or torture POWs, because that is not Bushido. That's probably why he was only a junior officer, and never advanced further. Because he showed his enemy respect, this is shown by the fact he chose to die fighting them, and not seppuku. In Bushido it's can be considered shameful to be killed by an enemy with no honor. Knowing what I know about the Taira family, I think it can be safe to assume that this officer acted in true according with The Way otherwise, his decendants wouldn't display the picture of him.

Shaolin priests can beat a bullet too.

No they can't.

Posted: 8/16/2005 12:20:08 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Shaolin priests can beat a bullet too.

No they can't.

Can too. I saw it on TV so I knows it's true.

Posted: 8/16/2005 12:20:45 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:
lets not focus on the entire Imperial Army of WWII here, lets focus on this one man. I find it hard to believe that so many, including people I respect, would paint a broad brush accross everyone who was Japanese in the 1940s. Can't you people agree that just because he was a Japanese officer that he couldn't have been a good person? That's like me saying that you're a racist redneck, just because you're from the south. If he was indeed a member of the Taira family, a family of Samurai for well over 1000 years, he was raised to follow the true ideals of Bushido, not the perverted and twisted version the Emperor was brainwashing everyone with. I can promise you that he would never mistreat, starve, or torture POWs, because that is not Bushido. That's probably why he was only a junior officer, and never advanced further. Because he showed his enemy respect, this is shown by the fact he chose to die fighting them, and not seppuku. In Bushido it's can be considered shameful to be killed by an enemy with no honor. Knowing what I know about the Taira family, I think it can be safe to assume that this officer acted in true according with The Way otherwise, his decendants wouldn't display the picture of him.

I'll tell you a funny one.

Through a quirk of various marriages after WW2 in this family they now are also related to the Minamoto lineage.

Posted: 8/16/2005 12:55:18 PM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:
Quoted:
lets not focus on the entire Imperial Army of WWII here, lets focus on this one man. I find it hard to believe that so many, including people I respect, would paint a broad brush accross everyone who was Japanese in the 1940s. Can't you people agree that just because he was a Japanese officer that he couldn't have been a good person? That's like me saying that you're a racist redneck, just because you're from the south. If he was indeed a member of the Taira family, a family of Samurai for well over 1000 years, he was raised to follow the true ideals of Bushido, not the perverted and twisted version the Emperor was brainwashing everyone with. I can promise you that he would never mistreat, starve, or torture POWs, because that is not Bushido. That's probably why he was only a junior officer, and never advanced further. Because he showed his enemy respect, this is shown by the fact he chose to die fighting them, and not seppuku. In Bushido it's can be considered shameful to be killed by an enemy with no honor. Knowing what I know about the Taira family, I think it can be safe to assume that this officer acted in true according with The Way otherwise, his decendants wouldn't display the picture of him.

I'll tell you a funny one.

Through a quirk of various marriages after WW2 in this family they now are also related to the Minamoto lineage.

wow that is weird, I wonder if they try and kill eachother at family reunions

Posted: 8/16/2005 1:26:14 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
Quoted:

I'll tell you a funny one.

Through a quirk of various marriages after WW2 in this family they now are also related to the Minamoto lineage.

wow that is weird, I wonder if they try and kill eachother at family reunions

It's not a very direct relationship. And it actually causes far fewer problems then the "Gaijin" that have been married into the family. Not everyone is especially tolerant in Japan either.

The Japanese grandfather in question seems to have raised his children a bit differently than most. Some of the Taira "cousins" are as intolerant as many of the people posting here.

Posted: 8/16/2005 1:33:21 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
+1 on the story.......despite what others say, it is an honorable act to be admired knowing his outcome in life.

I truly doubt, including myself, and many other armchair commando's would do such a thing.

Sitting in the comfort of one's home, thousands of miles from any danger......and more likely to die from a massive blood clot and stroke from eating all those fatty foods, and lack of exercise, its easy to knock the deeds of a man, who paid with his life.

It reminds me of Gen. Swartzkoft (?), at an interview he talked about the Iraqi surrender at GWI, and an Iraqi general asked why he had a portrait of Irwin Rommel hanging in his quarters of his enemy. And Gen Swartzkopf responded that while he didn't support what nation he was fighting for, but he respected him for the military commander he was.

.....IMHO

Preach it!

Posted: 8/16/2005 1:37:30 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
Quoted:
I sure would like to see that photo.

A man with balls of steel and armed with the code of Bushido.

you really have to admire the Japanese in some aspects

I'd always wanted a copy. I just could never figure out an appropriate way to ask for a copy.

"May I have a copy of that picture please, sir?"

how hard is that?

Posted: 8/16/2005 1:41:31 PM EDT

[#38]

That has to rank as the most obtuse steaming pile of horseshit I have seen in quite sometime.

You didn't do too well at philosophy in school did you?

NTM

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:00:53 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I sure would like to see that photo.

A man with balls of steel and armed with the code of Bushido.

you really have to admire the Japanese in some aspects

I'd always wanted a copy. I just could never figure out an appropriate way to ask for a copy.

"May I have a copy of that picture please, sir?"

how hard is that?

way harder than you think.

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:03:25 PM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:
That has to rank as the most obtuse steaming pile of horseshit I have seen in quite sometime.

You didn't do too well at philosophy in school did you?

NTM

Nope

But I know a obtuse steaming plile of horseshit when I see it.

Maybe you were attempting sarcasm… if you were you should not have prefaced it by claiming to play “devil's advocate” and ended it with a bad cliché’ like “Winners write the history books”.

Then to draw an equivalence between the US treating prisoners as they had agreed to and the Japanese violating their agreements and brutalizing POWs is at best obtuse.

BTW do you know what Unit 731 was and what it did?

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:04:08 PM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:

I'll tell you a funny one.

Through a quirk of various marriages after WW2 in this family they now are also related to the Minamoto lineage.

wow that is weird, I wonder if they try and kill eachother at family reunions

It's not a very direct relationship. And it actually causes far fewer problems then the "Gaijin" that have been married into the family. Not everyone is especially tolerant in Japan either.

The Japanese grandfather in question seems to have raised his children a bit differently than most. Some of the Taira "cousins" are as intolerant as many of the people posting here.

Gaijin will always be a problem with some older generations I think.

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:12:20 PM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:
+1 on the story.......despite what others say, it is an honorable act to be admired knowing his outcome in life.

+1

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:24:21 PM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:
+1 on the story.......despite what others say, it is an honorable act to be admired knowing his outcome in life.

Throwing myself into a hail of gun fire isn't admirable, its pretty damn dumb.

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:31:36 PM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:
Quoted:
+1 on the story.......despite what others say, it is an honorable act to be admired knowing his outcome in life.

Throwing myself into a hail of gun fire isn't admirable, its pretty damn dumb.

I don’t have any problem with what the guy did with his life… if he believed it was some how honorable to throw away his life and abandoned his family I guess in his view he died honorably.

But don’t try and sell the twisted version of Bushido as practiced during WWII was anything but an excuse for barbarism on a grand scale. The average Japanese military unit in WWII acted as did the worst of the SS.

Which is worse…

The Nazis who killed and exterminated some types people based on the idea they were racially superior to the victims.

Or

The Japanese who basically killed and exterminated every group they ran across based on the idea they were racially superior to the victims.

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:33:45 PM EDT

[#45]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
+1 on the story.......despite what others say, it is an honorable act to be admired knowing his outcome in life.

Throwing myself into a hail of gun fire isn't admirable, its pretty damn dumb.

I don’t have any problem with what the guy did with his life… if he believed it was some how honorable to throw away his life and abandoned his family I guess in his view he died honorably.

But don’t try and sell the twisted version of Bushido as practiced during WWII was anything but an excuse for barbarism on a grand scale. The average Japanese military unit in WWII acted as did the worst of the SS.

Which is worse…

The Nazis who killed and exterminated some types people based on the idea they were racially superior to the victims.

Or the Japanese who basically killed and exterminated every group they ran across based on the idea they were racially superior to the victims.

Thats the point. The dirty Japanese officer ran out like a coward. I have no sympathy nor admiration for those people. Just watch some of the V-J documentaries on TV. How they took captured Marines, cut their penis' off and stuffed them in throats, before skinning them alive or hacking them into a million bloody pulps......not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Phillipino CIVILIANS that were subjected to the same if not worse.

Posted: 8/16/2005 2:37:26 PM EDT

[#46]

Big deal... just another dead Jap

I see nothing to admire.

Posted: 8/16/2005 3:00:53 PM EDT

[#47]

Quoted:
Was it Halsey? Who said, upon sailing into Pearl Harbor, just after the Japanese attack..."when I'm though, The Japanese tongue, will only be spoken in hell."?

It was. It was also he that ordered a sign hung in Pearl reading, "KILL MORE JAPS".

He's a relation.. One of the crazier ones

Anti-Japanese racism in the US was quite in fashion though, don't forget. Check out "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" for a great snapshot of american thought regarding the enemy. Similar propaganda toons were made defaming the Germans as well (My favorite is Herr Meets Hare), but while the Germans are portrayed as bumbling idiots and con-men, the Japenese are portrayed as monkey-like subhumans. As Bugs hands out explosive ice cream, he says, "Here's one for you slanteyes, and one for you monkeyface". That was society at the time though.

I think that may have had a little bit to do with both the disrespect US vets feel towards the Japanese, and the current view espoused here that the Nazis were somewhat respectable, but the Japanese were barbarians.

Posted: 8/16/2005 3:04:04 PM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:
I think that may have had a little bit to do with both the disrespect US vets feel towards the Japanese, and the current view espoused here that the Nazis were somewhat respectable, but the Japanese were barbarians.

I think it has to do with the SS and Wehrmacht were not one and the same. The same can not be said of the Japs.

Posted: 8/16/2005 3:15:10 PM EDT

[#49]

You know, if the Japs had won on Okinawa, and the Marines had been captured, this story would be far different and there would be no "Japanese honor" in it.
Read "Flags of Our Fathers" to hear about how they cut off a guy's cock and shoved it down his throat.

Posted: 8/16/2005 3:20:47 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
You know, if the Japs had won on Okinawa, and the Marines had been captured, this story would be far different and there would be no "Japanese honor" in it.
Read "Flags of Our Fathers" to hear about how they cut off a guy's cock and shoved it down his throat.

If that happened then maybe this picture would have been hanging instead

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The Last 10 Minutes Of A Japanese Officers Life... (Page 2 of 3)

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