Originally Posted by C.Evans

Hi Meher, I can't say on the above but, i can say this. I was at a Militaria/Gun Show a few years ago in which I met 4 WWII vets-two famous. I've already talked about the two famous ones on several occasions so I purposely leave those two Gents out.

Anyway, I met at the same show, a man who was a Gurkha and fought in and around Imphal-Kohima, and I also met an eldery Japanese gentleman who happened to be a Junior Officer who fought against this Gurkha and his unit. That was a sight to see, these two former adversaries sitting next to each other and having a great time. I was fortunate enough to get to spend at least 30-45 minutes chatting with these men. I had not known that I would have another chance to see these Gents again let alone later that day. That's an experiance ill never forget. I thoroughly enjoyed being with those two Vets even though at that time, I was wrongfully stupid on my opinions of the average Japanese soldier of WWII. Thanks to that rare chance meeting with a Japanese Vet, I then started to change my mind about a lot of things dealing with the Imperial Japanese Army in WWII. I was able to open my eyes wider and be more fair in my views, thanks to those two vets. I never not not had respect for the Japanese fighting ability-but my opinions wnet deeper than that thanks to what I heard about all my life.

My point to this is that even though these former opponents seldomely took prisoners of their opposition during the war, these two Gents were able to sit side-by-side-and as very good friends. I remember when the show ended for the day and I saw these two vets get into the same car and drove away. Well, I was with a few friends and we were hungry having not eaten anything all day, decided to go to a nearby restaurant that also had a BAr in it, and we walked in and who did we see? we saw those two Vets sitting at the bar having a great time with each other. We didn't want to pester them and we waited to be sat at our table. As we were doing so, the Japanese vet had seen us in the mirror turned around and tried to get our attention and to have us join them.

The sent a waiter to go get us and we were asked to join the Gents sitting at the bar. We did, were there for about an hour or so, then we in turn asked them if they would allow us to return their buying us drinks of our choice (in my case my drinks were either Iced Tea-or a Roy Rogers) and we got them to accept our offer. We wound up sitting at out table till closing time. I regreat that we lost tose Gents addresses as both of them lived in San Antonio. The friend I was with who had their addresses in a small notebook, must have accidently left it at that restaurant as we looked in everything and everywhere-and no notebook.

I do not remember the Japanese Gents name but I do remember the last name of the Gurkha Sergeant-which was Bahkta.