Pearl Harbor Day

[jeffro11]

Let's just forget about the Canadians/Indians/British that were stationed in Hong Kong who were some of the first to see conflict in 1941. Canadian troops did surrender on the 25th mind you. But we were still there nonetheless.

I really dislike topics like these when its "America, rah rah rah"

Makes me a sad panda.

[Flake]

Let's just forget about the Canadians/Indians/British that were stationed in Hong Kong who were some of the first to see conflict in 1941. Canadian troops did surrender on the 25th mind you. But we were still there nonetheless.

I really dislike topics like these when its "America, rah rah rah"

Makes me a sad panda.

Already covered that. This isn't rah rah America. This is rah rah America finally joined everyone else's fight. Read the last couple of posts.

[Luke]

Canadian troops did surrender on the 25th mind you.

Fella's let's take their country but leave the hockey.



Oh. Let's grab their beer too.

[Droid party]

Look folks, I don't think that having a little pride in the accomplishments of your country is a zero sum game. Me saying 'I am glad that the US finally got off its butt and helped the rest of the world with their struggle' doesn't equate me saying that the rest of the worlds struggle meant nothing.

Fair call, I too was offended by your initial post (being an Australian) but I see what you're saying. Thank you for taking the time to remember the fallen.

Pearl Harbour

Below the still Pearl Harbour waves,
Brave sailors rest in watery graves.
They died without much chance to fight,
One December morning,
just past light.

Scream of zeros’
Sirens whine,
Fire, explosions, smoke and brine.
Blotting out the day so fine.

Arizona struck by shell,
Exploding, burning, fiery hell.
Clash of nations
Tools of war
Disturbing Karma evermore?

.The tourists visit battle row,
and pay respects to those we owe,
To those who lie beneath the sea
Their lives cut short to keep us free.
A thousand hearts made sudden still,
Ten thousand dreams left unfulfilled.

Remember them,
The gift they gave.
Their futures forfeit
To the waves.

[hashiriya1]

Let's not forget that boys on the other side lost their lives on that day because of a power-hungry war mongering savage who brainwashed his subordinates and deceived his emperor. The civilian population was against the war. It was some of these civilians that were forced into the military and died for a cause they did not believe in. They took the best from Tokyo and Waseda Universities and made them into suicide pilots. What a waste.

[dedalusdedalus]

Let's not forget that boys on the other side lost their lives on that day because of a power-hungry war mongering savage who brainwashed his subordinates and deceived his emperor.

Let's not forget the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March. Great bunch of boys those were on the other side.

[ZeroAX]

Let's not forget the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March. Great bunch of boys those were on the other side.

He who thinks there is a "good" side in a war deludes himself. Ask the German women who were raped by ally forces when they invaded Germany.

[hashiriya1]

Let's not forget that boys on the other side lost their lives on that day because of a power-hungry war mongering savage who brainwashed his subordinates and deceived his emperor.

Let's also not forget the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March. Great bunch of boys those were on the other side.

Oh, Nanking is in Pearl Harbor? I thought it was in China. I thought this thread was about Pearl Harbor. I must have misread the title.

Anyway, I am the grandson and great-grandson of two men who saw the the Nanking (and Chongqing) event firsthand. I also met Iris Chang at a book signing at Stanford University because she wrote about an event that has affected my family. My family is originally from Chongqing, one of the first Chinese cities that Japan attacked. According to what has been passed down from them and their comrades, the majority of the Japanese soldiers weren't in the pillaging, they were in foxholes just defending the front. It was only a handful that did the bad things. Japanese soldiers were also killed by their own superiors because they didn't want to partake in what they thought was wrong. You can't generalize all of them because a fraction of them did something wrong. That is the seed of racism.

I'll never forget what my great uncle told me. It was something like: "These kids from Japan who came to China. I don't hate them, but I hate what they did. I know it wasn't their decision, they were following orders. I don't hate their country, I just hate the people who think they can do this to others."

Also, don't think there weren't any Chinese nationals siding with the Japanese during that whole ordeal. Both sides have blood on their hands.

[dedalusdedalus]

Let's not forget the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March. Great bunch of boys those were on the other side.

He who thinks there is a "good" side in a war deludes himself. Ask the German women who were raped by ally forces when they invaded Germany.

Are you seriously trying to draw moral equivalence here?

I understand that there will be rape and plunder committed by both sides, but there's a huge difference in degree. Read this article and the relevant quotes I pulled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_rape#World_War_II

Japanese army
The term "comfort women" is a euphemism for the estimated 200,000, mostly Korean, Chinese, Filipina women who were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels during World War II.[69] It is also said of the Nanking Massacre that the WWII Japanese militants sexually assaulted any women of their defeated city or area neglecting the fact that some of the women they raped were married or pregnant.

US Army
Secret wartime files made public only in 2006 reveal that American GIs committed 400 sexual offences in Europe, including 126 rapes in England, between 1942 and 1945.[88] A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II.[89][90] It is estimated that there were around 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war and one historian has claimed that sexual violence against women in liberated France was common.[91]

The fact of the matter is, every army committed atrocities, but certain armies committed more atrocities than certain other armies. In the final days of World War II, Germans were basically praying that their towns would be retaken by the Americans rather than the Russians, because there was non-stop rape and pillage in the territories retaken by the Russians.

Tell me with a straight face that if you were a solider in WWII, that you'd rather surrender to the Japanese than the Americans.

[ZeroAX]

Tell me with a straight face that if you were a solider in WWII, that you'd rather surrender to the Japanese than the Americans.

I'd probably pick neither. Better to live as a free man for an hour than a slave for 40 years as we say.