pearl harbor

[SteveP]

once again we mark this day in history... and the soldiers and sailors gradually make their peace with history. just a reminder.
these men and women went beyond the call of duty that many years ago.
tip yr hat or salute these warriers for their achievements.
there wont be many around for much longer.

[billrick]

Amen to that. This date means something to me. My Papa was 5th Marine Division, Red Beach #2, Iwo Jima. I get a lump in my throat thinking about those guys and that black sand.

[j44ke]

Pearl Harbor is a date my family remembers.

My paternal grandfather was a surgeon on a hospital ship in the Pacific. Wouldn't buy anything made in Japan for the rest of his life after that. Not saying that is right or wrong but that it shows the nature of his experience putting people back together during the war.



My maternal grandfather and his family (including my mother) were held in a civilian prisoner of war camp in Manila, Philippines during the war. He was a Presbyterian missionary. When MacArthur lost the Philippines, civilians (and military personnel) were left behind. It took 3 years to get them back out.

[maunahaole]

This story ran on the local news last night. Worth a look, watch the video.

Pearl Harbor survivor's final wish granted - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

[PJC]

I find it strangely ironic that for second consecutive year, I am traveling on biz in Japan during the weeks of 12/7...It bothers me to some extent. Here it is just another day it seems. There is no real mention or visible display. I happen to be in Osaka today....Okayama day before and Tokyo before that.

[R.Liverman]

Here it is just another day it seems. There is no real mention or visible display.

August 6th and 9th have more relevance to them. Few people like to make a big deal out of their past transgressions.

My grandfather was a photographer in the Pacific during the war. Seventy years is not a long time.

[quickag]

I find it strangely ironic that for second consecutive year, I am traveling on biz in Japan during the weeks of 12/7...It bothers me to some extent. Here it is just another day it seems. There is no real mention or visible display. I happen to be in Osaka today....Okayama day before and Tokyo before that.

It is to an extent, but remember that we living in Japan have had much more important things to worry about this year. Contrary to popular belief, the issues at Fukushima are far from over.

[pdmtong]

I'm a US citizen. I was born here, my parents were born here.

One of my ex-girlfriend's family had acres of farm land in santa rosa, ca where the hewlett-packard now stands. The war starts, they get sent to camp, their land is now gone.

My parents wore badges/buttons in school saying they were not japanese.

While I was in college I'm walking around SF and a tourist asks for directions. I say I don't know where that is. His reply..."well, you found your way to pearl harbor didn't you?"

Only 70 years ago...hard to imagine, and sometimes not hard at all.

[j44ke]

Racism is resistant to the passage of time. Wars usually don't do a lot to offset that.

[billrick]

While I was in college I'm walking around SF and a tourist asks for directions. I say I don't know where that is. His reply..."well, you found your way to pearl harbor didn't you?"

Thanks for posting. It is way too easy to forget the pain and hardships on the homefront that were caused by Pearl Harbor. Curious, how old was the tourist in SF?

[jerk]

nevermind.

[PJC]

the issues at Fukushima are far from over

Yeah...we have a mfg facility near Kashima that just came back up. Are there still daily radiation estimates in the shimbun?

[vertical_doug]

Radiation dose measured in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station | TEPCO

Daily Radiation readings courtesy of TEPCO.

For the most part, it has just become part of daily life over there and the Japanese are moving on.

[j44ke]

If anyone wants to read an interesting analysis of the immediate post-war period in Japan, I can highly recommend John Dower's Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. Dower lays out very clearly the political interferences and expediencies that helped create and/or freeze the Japanese perceptions of themselves and their roles in WWII. The spread of Communism in Asia had a very strong impact on the decisions made during the reconstruction of Japan by the occupational government. Very interesting, especially since some of the decisions made then resonate with some of the ones being made now about Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are quite a few excellent books on the incarceration of American citizens of Japanese ancestry by the United States' government. However, there is a recent documentary film that does a good job detailing the complexity of the situation. The title is Unfinished Business: The Japanese-American Internment Cases. As you might imagine, there is still a lot of discussion and disagreement about the true nature of the incarceration, even among the people who were incarcerated and lost their land. And there are some interesting parallels again with current events.

I used to live in Phoenix Arizona, and in south Phoenix along Baseline Road there used to be (still are but fewer now) a number of Japanese-American owned flower and vegetable markets. As I was told, some of these family-run businesses were started by people who were incarcerated in the Gila River internment camp on the Pima-Maricopa reservation. Once released, they decided they didn't want to go home, because it was no longer home. So they settled in Phoenix.

As other posters have hinted at above, it was hard for the Japanese to experience the Fukushima disaster without thinking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think it was hard for Americans to experience 9-11 without thinking about Pearl Harbor. It seems like memory is exactly the thing that condemns us to repeat its mistakes, because it both constructs us and is constructed by us. Which doesn't mean that we do not try to be better.

I was thinking about R. Liverman's post above - that few people like to make a big deal about post transgressions - and I remembered noting a while back while reading something about Lincoln that January 1, 2013 is the 150 year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. So definitely 70 years is not a long time. Nor maybe is 150 years.

[j44ke]

Incarcerated is the wrong word. Interned is the correct word. I am writing about some of this in another context, and I just got my terminology screwed up.

[quickag]

Radiation dose measured in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station | TEPCO

Daily Radiation readings courtesy of TEPCO.

For the most part, it has just become part of daily life over there and the Japanese are moving on.

Fuck TEPCO. They're all lying sacks of shit. They've destroyed that area and lied through their teeth every step of the way. I wouldn't believe these readings.

The fuel is still burning through the containment tanks.
The ocean and soil is now majorly contaminated with Cesium.
There was a major recall on infant formula due to contamination.

If they had any honor left, the Tepco execs would go in and fix it themselves. Sans radiation suits.