Japan's air force chief sacked over WWII comments

All right, that does it. Crank up the Enola Gay. Let's go!!!!

 

Blimey, in one thread he's singing kumbyar and then in another he's pushing the plane down the runway...

Education...I just love denial.

I'm afraid I have some not quite liberal attitudes to this argument...and beleive me I can be very Liberal, in a British way not a lets all march on Washington way.

I've read and heared enough on this subject and especially on the prisoners over the years, togehter with my grandads tales of his fighting the Japanese and the things he saw and found himself doing because of it.

This translated more so than the tales my own dad and his family, and mother and hers told me about their experiences in ww2 fighting against the Germans.

My Grandads tales and they kept him awake many a time, held in my memory more so.

To the point of nearly losing a job over it many years later.

While woking in City of London in 90's on a technical representative role for a major international company based in States, I had occasion to attend a meeting together with a colleage from London and Brussels. We were told in no uncertain terms by the Japanes banks English liason contractor what was expected of us on attending the meeting. I was prepared for hard discussion on the merits of giving a rebate for our services, and was even pleased at being told how to address the banks management around the table....Hello etc in Japanese...Unfortunately we hit a problem when we were told it was common courtese to bow ones head still...

We had a problem, call it what you will, it may be wrong to manifest itself in me, but thats real life, I rememberd my grandad, the prisoners, the lack of Japanese credibility in their teaching of ww2, and was after all a ww2 nutcase I suppose...I refused to bow.

My services were still needed, panic and briefing of colleagues on my own role so they could take over, contractor angry and spitting at my intended insult.

I was removed from the meeting process and spent the afternoon outside drinking coffee and on end of mobile phone.

Sorry, but I just couldnt, and wouldnt, and still wont.

 

Congrats on standing fast when you had to. Not many could say that, well, many could say it, but few would have the conviction to do so.

When foreigners set up shop away from wherever they come from, they should conduct business in the manner that it is conducted locally, if locals are a part of the preceedings, and not the way they do it in their homeland. If there are no locals present, then let them carry on as they see fit.

The Japanese have a problem with their past, and stick their head in the sand when confronted with the truth. What can be done about it, I don't know. I agree with a previous post claiming that this mentality stems from MacArthur's lenient treatment of the Japanese during his "period of empire" before the Korean War. The Germans, on the other hand were crushed into the ground and had their faces rubbed into their past that they created, so hopefully something like that will never happen again. Nothing like that happened in Japan, and now we have to deal with their version of history.

There's a bar not far from my house that my softball team was recruited from. On most Saturdays, two old gents used to sit in there and sip a few cool ones and watch the game or whatever, and every now and then they'd talk about the war. They were both were drafted in early 1941, and arrived in The Phililppines just before the Japanese did. Both were assigned to an AA unit, but their guns never arrived (diverted to Australia). They fought it out on Bataan as infantry, and spent the rest of the war as guests of the IJA on Luzon. They don't have anything good to say about anything Japanese, and cannot understand why anyone in the US would buy a Japanese car now. I don't think that they would bow either.

And soldiers can be righteous and spiritual too. Take the tanker from "Kelly's Heroes" and the sniper from "Saving Private Ryan" for example. See, two very good examples there.

 

To further reinforce Japanese denial over what happened during WW2, I just read an article in Wikepedia that Japan refuses to acknowledge Russian soveriegnty over Sahalin and The Kurile Islands. Japan still claims the four southernmost islands in the Kurile chain. While acknowledging the loss of southern Sakhalin, they refuse to recognize Russian soveriegnty there. The article goes on to claim that Japanese maps reflect the area of southern Sakhalin Island as "no mans land."

 

I wonder if Japan also leaves out the A-bomb devastation in their history classes?

 

Of course not.

 

Great! I'd then love to know what reasons/excuses the students are given for Japan's 'victimisation'.

 

In a nutshell, in Japanese schools it is taught that the US forced Japan to attack as a result of the embargo that was imposed on them. Japanese teachers fail to mention that the embargo was an attempt to get them to pull out of China, where they have been waging a genocidal war since 1937. And concerning the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, again Japanese teachings indicate themselves being the victims yet again. I am not trying to be callous concerning the dropping of the atomic bombs there, it was an extremely unfortunate consequence of a long and bloody war that was perpatrated on the world by what is called today "rogue nations." The pros and cons of the employment of the bombs has been talked to death on other threads, so there's no need to start another discussion about them here. The fact is that Japan hasn't owned up to it's actions in the war yet, and comments by the air force chief reflects that mindset.