This will end badly

[GScholz]

np 

[Bizman]

Isn't every soldier willing to die for their country if needed? How do the Kamikazes differ from all of the others, other than that they used one way aeroplanes? If the Japanese had been on the winning side, we wouldn't speculate on this subject...

+1 for the letters.

[wpeters]

 IF you have Netflix watch the Documentary on the Kamikaze..  Most of them volunteered to  go to there death because they didn't want to lose face.  Like I said watch that documentary. There are 3 surviving kamikaze survier on there. They actually never made it to the ships that they were assigned. One duked it out for 37 mins against us Fighters. USN fighters ran out of ammo so he flew away.  Got home and he had 78 bullet holes in his plane.

Also read Tim Bradly's books:  Flag of Our Fathers Flyboys

These books give you a fairly in depth view of what it was like to be a Japenese at that time.    My Great Grandfather was in the Corp and he talked about how scary it was to be on those Islands at night durning the Banzai attacks.  HE helped assault   9 beaches in the Pacific.   He saw many friends lost in those years and he never got over it.   Later years of his life he would always have a can of beer in his hand. Had his own fridge for it. He was ever drunk just enough in the system to dull the pain.

He would always say that the Japs were crazy but they were brave in the face of danger. They knew they were going to die, and  they were going to take you along. 

I think it would be smashing to give the letters to the UN

[Tinkles]

And I see the comments. 

I liked this comment

"Someone on board was taking a *crap* when that happened and woke up in the afterlife wondering what the hell it was he ate yesterday."


 


I say +1 for the letters, never hurts to get a full perspective. Just like Bizman said, "Many troops on all sides fought for their country and were willing to die for it". No matter the reasons, when I think of WWII I don't see anyone being less human than another, I see people fighting for their beliefs, whether I agree with them or not is beside the point.  

 

[GScholz]

"Ore wa Kimi no Tame ni Koso, Shini ni Iku"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908y4HXeKmw

[cpxxx]

You cannot ignore the pitiless regime they were fighting for. Neither can you ignore the consistent callous brutality of the Japanese soldiers. Maybe you'd like to save the letters of the men who casually bayonetted many thousands of Chinese or those who worked to death all those Allied POWs or raped and slaughtered the people of Manila? Wouldn't it be interesting to read the letters of those Japanese who killed American prisoners and ate their livers? That's without even mentioning the futile and stupid Kamikaze tactics that killed people pointlessly when all was lost anyway.

The fact is that the Japanese people lost their honour before and during WW2 and have had difficulty coming to terms with that fact ever since. To honour them or their actions is to give legitimacy to the regime that bred them to be cold fanatics. You cannot separate the two.

[FLOOB]

I recommend watching the Smithsonian Channel "Day of the Kamikaze". I know it's on netflix, not sure where else.

[GScholz]

You cannot ignore the pitiless regime they were fighting for. Neither can you ignore the consistent callous brutality of the Japanese soldiers. Maybe you'd like to save the letters of the men who casually bayonetted many thousands of Chinese or those who worked to death all those Allied POWs or raped and slaughtered the people of Manila? Wouldn't it be interesting to read the letters of those Japanese who killed American prisoners and ate their livers? That's without even mentioning the futile and stupid Kamikaze tactics that killed people pointlessly when all was lost anyway.

The fact is that the Japanese people lost their honour before and during WW2 and have had difficulty coming to terms with that fact ever since. To honour them or their actions is to give legitimacy to the regime that bred them to be cold fanatics. You cannot separate the two.

They were no more "cold fanatics" than the young men who futilely charged the Russian artillery at Balaclava, or German machine guns at the Somme. Do you really think soldiers fight for countries, kings, emperors or democracies? Are you that naive? They fight for their families, friends and the man standing next to them. In WWII there were no saints; tell me how much "honor" there was in killing an estimated 350.000 Japanese civilians by firebombing their homes and nuking two of their cities. The military value of those atrocities can be argued, but there was no honor in it what so ever. Furthermore I'm not sure if it is better that the men who flew these giant killing machines and dropped hundreds-of-thousands of napalm-filled "Tokyo Calling Cards", as they so callously called them, on helpless civilians were not fanatics... but rather ordinary men with utter disregard for the mass slaughter of human lives they were committing. I fail to see how that's better, or in any way honorable. Yet those men are heroes.

If the Japanese want to honor these men for their bravery and sacrifice, then I don't think anyone has the right, or moral high ground to deny them.

[guncrasher]

it is part of history.  we will never know full details until we know what they were thinking.

I remember reading in the book by the top Japanese ace how one of the kamikazes turned his plane around and crashed into a hangar destroying 3 other kamikaze planes on the ground.   he left a letter saying he didn't want to let 3 more of his friends die.




semp

[GScholz]

it is part of history.  we will never know full details until we know what they were thinking.

I remember reading in the book by the top Japanese ace how one of the kamikazes turned his plane around and crashed into a hangar destroying 3 other kamikaze planes on the ground.   he left a letter saying he didn't want to let 3 more of his friends die.




semp

That's awesome... in the true meaning of the word. I hope this man's name is remembered.

[FLOOB]

Here it go right here.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwl9jv_day-of-the-kamikaze-1_shortfilms

[Scherf]

Bear in mind, to be granted UNESCO World Heritage Status requires the same significance for the human experience as, for instance, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The Last Supper, old St. Petersburg, the Great Barrier Reef, the Schoenbrunn Palace, the Great Wall, Angkor Wat, the Forbidden City, Mt. Fuji, or the Galapagos Islands.

The idea that letters home from young flyers about to die have the same significance for mankind as the above is the height of Japan-as-victim thinking. Put 'em in a museum, publish 'em, translate 'em, fine. But world heritage status? Give me a fargin' break.

[Motherland]

Bear in mind, to be granted UNESCO World Heritage Status requires the same significance for the human experience as, for instance, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The Last Supper, old St. Petersburg, the Great Barrier Reef, the Schoenbrunn Palace, the Great Wall, Angkor Wat, the Forbidden City, Mt. Fuji, or the Galapagos Islands.

The idea that letters home from young flyers about to die have the same significance for mankind as the above is the height of Japan-as-victim thinking. Put 'em in a museum, publish 'em, translate 'em, fine. But world heritage status? Give me a fargin' break.

I can agree with this. It is important not to consider imperial Japan as a sort of embodiment of evil compared to anyone else, but not do the opposite either. Every 19 year old in every service the world over performed amazing sacrifice.

[Bizman]

Bear in mind, to be granted UNESCO World Heritage Status requires the same significance for the human experience as, for instance, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The Last Supper, old St. Petersburg, the Great Barrier Reef, the Schoenbrunn Palace, the Great Wall, Angkor Wat, the Forbidden City, Mt. Fuji, or the Galapagos Islands.

The idea that letters home from young flyers about to die have the same significance for mankind as the above is the height of Japan-as-victim thinking. Put 'em in a museum, publish 'em, translate 'em, fine. But world heritage status? Give me a fargin' break.

There's a wide variety in "human experience" in the list you provided. It has been estimated that 4 to 6 million people died building the Great Wall, Angkor Wat is said to be built by slaves, there was a mass slaughter in the Forbidden City after it had been built by a million unnamed workers, tens of thousands died building old St. Petersburg... What would make the Kamikazes less worthy? Are the numbers too low, only about 4000 pilots and 4900 Americans died in the Kamikaze attacks?

[Scherf]

How many died building the statue of liberty? It's on the list too - I suppose I could count up drownings on the reef to see if it clears the criteria.

Besides, if it's all about Japanese casualties, the Hiroshima Genbaku dome has UNESCO status, and the Japanese attempt to give the same status to the letters says a great deal about how twisted the whole idea is.