Japan

[Captain Kong]

My memories are of Hanako in Moji,
She was lovely I had to share a hot tub with her mamasan and papasan whilst drinking hot Saki.
She would get angry sometimes when I just called her `anako, she would say` My name HAnako, not anako.
anako is hole in ground, me no hole in ground. HAnako is beautiful flower. You number ten boy,`.
Today, she will be a whizzened old lady, I just keep the memory of a beautiful young lady.
Sayonara.
Brian.

[Tony Wilding]

I can *understand how Lou feels, he is one of the unfortunate ones who saw there cruelty first hand, not only cruel but got pleasure from being so, *terrible atrocities done in the Philippines, especially in Manila to the local people, The Luzon Death March is another, *from what i have learnt here *it all seems forgotten, *many go to Japan to work, some Marry Japanese. i often wonder if the time came again, would they be so Fanatical, *old habits die hard.*

[Gulliver]

My memories are of Hanako in Moji,
She was lovely I had to share a hot tub with her mamasan and papasan whilst drinking hot Saki.
She would get angry sometimes when I just called her `anako, she would say` My name HAnako, not anako.
anako is butterfly, me no butterfly, HAnako is beautiful flower. You number ten boy,`.
Today, she will be a whizzened old lady, I jus keep the memory of a beautiful young lady.
Sayonara.
Brian.

Ha Ha Brian ! Nice. You and I are a bit different though-could be the glass half full/half empty thing .

I remember the countless expensive drinks (whisky-coloured 'tea') for my lovely Miyako in Mizushima-or was it Matsushima?,and the zillions of yen that slipped through my fingers, for 'other' services.I might just as well have thrown it into the wind. Calling for her one day and unexpectedly seeing a yellow-skinned ,bleary-eyed girl in a tatty dressing gown and a speck of rice on her chin,whereas when I normally saw her in the club she was a porcelain-skinned geisha clad beauty in a kimono...
Ah memories are made of this...but mostly it's the wasted money that hurts! Don't talk to me about helping the Japanese economy.

[Capt Bill Davies]

Lets put aside the rose tinted spectacles and remember what they did (and not who they currently are), I doubt many prisoners of war found it an "Honour" to be beheaded, which the Japanese assured them it was; even to this day there are schools were they practice the ancient art of slicing a man in two with one stroke of the sword and as stated in a recent programme they construct the target as near to the human form consistency as possible so that they can apply the right pressure to the stroke. To my way of thinking it is an art they should be only too willing to forget and cast into the history books.

Well Ivan, I ACTUALLY sailed with Japanese people for several years and found them to be a truly remarkable nation of people. Their seamanship second to none. As for what they did in the past? I do not thing that is a helpful route, as we here in England are in no position to take a pious view of others unless, it is ourselves we are contemplating with 'rose tinted glasses'

Brgds

Bill

[j.sabourn]

A lot of us lost family/ friends in the last war.I lost an Uncle at the fall of the Island and was missing believed dead for a number of years until after the war. My Grandmother always had the hope he was alive. Sailed with a Ch.Stwd who Like Lou was taken prisoner as a boy, he recounted to me after liberation they went berserk themselves to a certain extent. The Parson who married me was a young army chaplain and his name appears in the Camp on Blood Island book. The very little I have read on the atrocities re prison camp guards, a lot of them were Koreans also. So a lot of the anger must be directed there also. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Gulliver]

Well Ivan, I ACTUALLY sailed with Japanese people for several years and found them to be a truly remarkable nation of people. Their seamanship second to none.

Brgds

Bill

Your 'truly 'remarkable' -ness' of the Japanese nation should be judged in the wider -world context,not just on your perceived admiration of their nautical skills.

[Gulliver]

A lot of us lost family/ friends in the last war.in the Camp on Blood Island book. The very little I have read on the atrocities re prison camp guards, a lot of them were Koreans also. So a lot of the anger must be directed there also. Cheers John Sabourn.

Of course,John but what would you expect from a subjugated nation. Japan committed the original wrong of annexing Korea and put Korean people through a war not of their making, causing immense suffering through war time conscription, and forced labour .
Much as what happened in Japan’s action against China in 1937/8.
In December 2007, newly declassified U.S.Government archive documents revealed that a telegraph by the U.S. ambassador to Germany in Berlin sent one day after the Japanese army occupied Nanking, stated that he heard Japanese Ambassador in Germany boasting that Japanese army killed 500,000 Chinese people as the Japanese army advanced from Shanghai to Nanking. According to the archives research "The telegrams sent by the U.S. diplomats [in Berlin] pointed to the massacre of an estimated half a million people in Shanghai, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Wuxi and Changzhou".

　
　
　
　
Whilst war time atrocities by all nations occurred in many wars,I personally feel that those committed by Japan, over the ages ,would top any league tables.

Whilst modern day Japan is to be admired in certain ways today....you can't re-write history for that......

[Ivan Cloherty]

Well Ivan, I ACTUALLY sailed with Japanese people for several years and found them to be a truly remarkable nation of people. Their seamanship second to none. As for what they did in the past? I do not thing that is a helpful route, as we here in England are in no position to take a pious view of others unless, it is ourselves we are contemplating with 'rose tinted glasses'

Brgds

Bill

Bill, no one is doubting their nautical skills, afterall they are an Island Nation. In your emphasis on the word ACTUALLY are you inferring that perhaps we lesser mortals have no first hand experience of the Japanese peoples, perhaps other than so called Geisha houses. I have ACTUaLLY worked with Japanese in drydocks and on ships, I have ACTUALLY done business with the Japanese in my country and theirs, I have ACTUALLY sold a lot of marine equipment to the Japanese, ACTUALLY under the auspices of my own company. We haven't all gleaned our experience of the world by reading books or being a ship master.

Yes we are all guilty as a nation for doing things we would rather forget which we have enshrined in history, but in the 1930's and 1940' we were supposed to be living in a more civilised world conducting warfare (no matter how distasteful) by a Geneva Convention, which I do not believe condoned the beheading of prisoners or machine gunning survivors in lifeboats or burning people in ovens. A view from the bridge does it seem obscure somethings on the horizon, or not long over it

Kind regards

Ivan

[eric fisher]

Hello All, Ah, JAPAN & CHINA! These M.N. sites trigger my memories (good & bad) of loooong loooog ago.
Give a man a uniform & a gun with his country behind him... and your life is in jeopardy.
Lots and lotsa abuse in China, Tanguu (Tientsin), Tsingtao, Lushun (Port Arthur), Luda (Darien). Our were lives threatened daily along with physical abuse. But also good treatment of one particular Chinese Commie woman in uniform who took care and hid me from the authorities overnight (Perhaps 'cos of my youth or money) who knows !
No abuse in Japan, but on the other hand, if you were a GI, then you might have your throat slit in a dark alley if you were alone. It happened often. Later, sailing with poor Walter Hill skipper of Br. Chivalry and of Jap infamy his torture still apparent 5 years later, I was not sorry to have used their women especially one.. Midori Matsunaga with whom I was so enchanted by, that I would've married had it not been against Martial Law.
All this was in the early days of Commie rule in China 'tween spring to end of year 1950. The result was paying off in Moji (different then Cap'n Kong), with a DR to boot. Repat'd to UK from Tokyo, (another story).
No sour grapes here, many places/people are good. Being alive is being grateful, thankful and important as are good folks around you and memories are even more important

Cheers, Eric Fisher

[denniswalker]

Hi,all,i have been reading this thread with total interest
i have been to japan on several occasions,and it has to be one of the top five destinations in the world,that i have had the privilage to see in my time at sea. I find that theJapenese people to be polite and courtious to anyone who visits their country. Their country is also clean and they are miles ahead in techonlogy. I was told that show the japenese a invention once and they will perfect it,also i was told that the lower the bow the more respect that they have.
regaring the atrocities of the second world war,i truly understand the people who fought in the far east,that the scars will always run deep,and no matters what happens in this world there will be people like hitler,hassain,gaffidi,and the likes,who want to rule.
I fullyunderstand that the sacrifices,that all the men and women went through during the war,and our generation should be grateful for that,if it was not for tolhose brave souls,who gave up everything for us.
Evej in this day and age,there are still people that what wants to dictate,anr in my opinion, there are still people in power,with a mighty arsnal of weapons,with a touch of button.
Lets hopethat our children and their children may find peace in the world sometime in their lifetime.
cheers dennis