ENOLA GAY

[patrick66]

The Japanese are not the same people of 75 years ago....with that said, I was at the USS Arizona memorial with friends in 1986. The mood was very solemn, quiet, and respectful. It IS a memorial with over 1,400 American sailors and Marines forever at rest within her hull. A boatload of Japanese tourists offloaded and they were all chatting loudly, snapping pictures, and not acting properly, overall. I was getting more and more pissed by the second. I found their tour guide and quietly asked him to remind these folks exactly where they were and if he would ask them to kindly shut the **** up! He did. And they did. Their behavior was rude, at best.

 

[Auggie56]

The Japanese are not the same people of 75 years ago....with that said, I was at the USS Arizona memorial with friends in 1986. The mood was very solemn, quiet, and respectful. It IS a memorial with over 1,400 American sailors and Marines forever at rest within her hull. A boatload of Japanese tourists offloaded and they were all chatting loudly, snapping pictures, and not acting properly, overall. I was getting more and more pissed by the second. I found their tour guide and quietly asked him to remind these folks exactly where they were and if he would ask them to kindly shut the **** up! He did. And they did. Their behavior was rude, at best.

At the Air Force museum in Dayton Oh there is a display of artifacts from one of the downed Japanise aircraft. I witness several Japanise tourist chatting it up excitedly and taking pictures. I had a twinge of disgust at that point.

 

[Mr Gorsky]

You know she's still around, right?

Pretty amazing standing there looking back in time.....one of the pics I took of her a few years back at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Washington Dulles Airport:

 

[Mr Gorsky]

And another:

 

[miller]

Too bad they couldn't treat the Belle, with the same respect. But, that's another story.

 

[Chilsam]

Mod'd P-47...inverted CHRYSLER HEMI powered...

 

[Richard Cranium]

This is pretty interesting...

https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...-uss-final-preparations-for-the-nuc/23067563/

 

[super-bee_ski]

My father was in the 41st Infantry division (Jungleers). They fought their way across New Guinea and then the Philippines. They where slated as part of the invasion force, but as luck would have it, they became part of the occupation force. I can still recall his pictures of Nagasaki (which sadly where lost in a basement flood). The level of devastation was amazing. What was also amazing to me is that he spent about 6 month there as I recall and suffered no radiation illness. I'm not quite sure how he felt about the Japanese when he passed in 2000, but Ski makes a good point.

Wow, a True American Hero!
Yeah, not digging it in but sadly, those Pics would sure be rare and important today.
Imagine seeing Nagasaki "post" bombing?

 

[super-bee_ski]

Important ally. So many great products in my life and childhood were from Japanese ingenuity. Dirtbikes, Nintendo's, Toyota's, Televisions, Soundsystems.

Beyound that, the war totally ravaged their Island. We got the best of them tenfold times twenty. They lost an almost entire generation of men plus millions of civilians.

I've no hatred toward them and my grandfather died twenty years ago.
Still I will always remember that his brother died from Malaria caught while being a SeaBee in the Solomons and my grandmother's cousin was kia fighting attached to the 1st Marine Division at Pelelui. I may not have been born yet but their sacrifice won't be forgotten.
So I can honestly say the Japanese have effected my family's life in the worst way.
But they chose to be in the Navy and like many others, paid the ultimate price.

Yeah,
The books I have been reading are quite specific, especially the Seabees landing on Guadalcanal and relieving battle weary Marines.
Riding Bulldozers and firing machine guns while building Henderson Field!

Malaria was terrible, my uncle was in the Pacific.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Let us remember the haltered (again, well deserved just as in WWII) we Americans harbored against the Vietnamese (N. Vietnamese)

 

[super-bee_ski]

PEARL HARBOR WAS NO MISTAKE!! neither was 9-11.!! CONVERSATION ON THIS THREAD IS OVER FOR ME. GOD BLESS US ALL ON FBBO, OUR VETS,OUR COUNTRY!

Uh, gee, I didn't think anyone said or mentioned that Pearl Harbor was a mistake.
Gee, I have visited that memorial at least 4 times.
If I said it was a mistake, I am surely sorry.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Amen BadBee. When I was growing up we were shown how bad the Japanese were to our soldiers in wartime. Using Chinese prisoners and U.S. servicemen for bayonet practice then laughing while they died. Read about the rape of Nanking.How about the treachery of Pearl Harbor? My great uncle passed away last year and he told me of being in the Navy in WWII and fearing the kamikazes were going to get him or his boat. And I guarantee that if we would have had to invade mainland Japan...Iwo would have looked like a picnic. I think the Atomic Bomb was a far more sane way to end that war.

We are forgetting the Bataan Death march also.
Been to the Philippines back in 1982.
Horrific actions

Lest we not forget, a Nation driven by Madmen can and have performed unspeakable actions upon humanity.
Yes: BadBee and some are unable to forgive/forget.
Some Nations and some Americans hold America wholly responsible for killing innocent women and innocent children during both Atomic bombings.
In defense of BadBee, they too have a "right" to hate America and "HER" actions.....

 

[BadBee]

Ski I agree but what did RAMBO SAY? THEY DREW FIRST BLOOD!!! Atrocities were undoubtedly committed on BOTH SIDES! But EATING LIVERS??? the MALMEDY MASACRE?
I visited MALMEDY IN 04 Said my Prayers at the STONE WALL IN BAUGNEZ, MALMEDY. When our troops were told that PRISONERS WERE BEING EXECUTED BY THE "SS" THEY FOUGHT EVEN
HARDER! SO YES MEN GET VISCIOUS BUT JAPAN AND NAZI GERMANY ITALY FOLLOWED
DICTATORS! SO GOD BLESSS AMERICA HER DEMOCRACY(IF WE CAN HOLD ON TO IT!) HER VETS! MY CONCERNS NOW ARE NORTH KOREA! IRAN!!! MY UNCLE WAS IN KOREA,A BAR MAN TWO TOURS AND HE CAME OUT "BAD SHAPE" I MISSED NAM BY TWO YEARS! SO I KNOW WHO BUTTERED MY TOAST BEFORE AND AFTER!!!!
VETERANS!!!! THANKS FOR THE INPUT MEN!!! GREAT PEOPLE HERE!!!!

 

[OK charger]

I personally harbor no ill will towards the modern day Japan. They emerged from WWII with their country in a shambles. I think that they were thinking that their emperor was a living god and were therefore fanatical. Yamamoto was right to believe that Pearl Harbor was a mistake...on Japans part. My Uncle for many years harbored a strong dislike of the Japanese. I do remember he kind of let it go later on but he bought nothing that was Japanese made. I give them this...they are a very prosperous and for the most part peaceful people now. We should never forget our history.

 

[steve from staten island]

My father was in the 41st Infantry division (Jungleers). They fought their way across New Guinea and then the Philippines. They where slated as part of the invasion force, but as luck would have it, they became part of the occupation force. I can still recall his pictures of Nagasaki (which sadly where lost in a basement flood). The level of devastation was amazing. What was also amazing to me is that he spent about 6 month there as I recall and suffered no radiation illness. I'm not quite sure how he felt about the Japanese when he passed in 2000, but Ski makes a good point.

My father was also in New Guinea and the Philippines. He fought along side Philippine freedom fighters. He never said much but did say the Japs were brutal and when the Philippine fighters captured one they slaughter them. I guess like the Japs slaughtered them. My dad was also on mainland Japan after they dropped the bombs. Id guess the war was over for the old man when he bought a Toyota pick up truck, seriously he let it go but like most that went through the war never forgot. The japanese were brainwashed and as impossible as it seems that they committed the most horrific crimes against humanity just look around the world today

 

[super-bee_ski]

Ski I agree but what did RAMBO SAY? THEY DREW FIRST BLOOD!!! Atrocities were undoubtedly committed on BOTH SIDES! But EATING LIVERS??? the MALMEDY MASACRE?
I visited MALMEDY IN 04 Said my Prayers at the STONE WALL IN BAUGNEZ, MALMEDY. When our troops were told that PRISONERS WERE BEING EXECUTED BY THE "SS" THEY FOUGHT EVEN
HARDER! SO YES MEN GET VISCIOUS BUT JAPAN AND NAZI GERMANY ITALY FOLLOWED
DICTATORS! SO GOD BLESSS AMERICA HER DEMOCRACY(IF WE CAN HOLD ON TO IT!) HER VETS! MY CONCERNS NOW ARE NORTH KOREA! IRAN!!! MY UNCLE WAS IN KOREA,A BAR MAN TWO TOURS AND HE CAME OUT "BAD SHAPE" I MISSED NAM BY TWO YEARS! SO I KNOW WHO BUTTERED MY TOAST BEFORE AND AFTER!!!!
VETERANS!!!! THANKS FOR THE INPUT MEN!!! GREAT PEOPLE HERE!!!!

It is (was) much worse than that...
Yes, great adjective: Atrocities. Period
Lets not forget the Korean women captured as sexual slaves then discarded as human trash...
The "horrors of war"
Again, Emperor Hirohito (Emperor from 1926-1989) led his Country into ultra-nationalism and militarism.
Declared was on ALL of their Asian neighbors.

 

[super-bee_ski]

My father was also in New Guinea and the Philippines. He fought along side Philippine freedom fighters. He never said much but did say the Japs were brutal and when the Philippine fighters captured one they slaughter them. I guess like the Japs slaughtered them. My dad was also on mainland Japan after they dropped the bombs. Id guess the war was over for the old man when he bought a Toyota pick up truck, seriously he let it go but like most that went through the war never forgot. The japanese were brainwashed and as impossible as it seems that they committed the most horrific crimes against humanity just look around the world today

Horrible
War is utterly horrible, let alone when military forces are not held accountable.

 

[Ranger16]

"War is hell"
No truer words where ever spoken, but I think with everything that has been said, we can't (or a tleast shouldn't) hold this generation responsible for the sins of their fathers or grandfathers. Today's Japanese are much different people than those of the 1920's, '30's & 40's. They learned a tough and brutal lesson.

 

[66Satellite47]

My father was a B-24 pilot that flew out of Guadalcanal not long after it had been "secured". I can't imagine what the ground troops went through in those island hopping invasions. The Japanese soldiers were committed to their cause and clearly as brutal as can possibly be imagined. The bombs at Hiroshima & Nagasaki made a profound impression on most of their people that lasts till today. I imagine (not having served) that combat gives a person a terribly different view. My father only told me a couple of his combat stories, my neighbor, 82'nd airborn, also said very little. It's too bad that too many of our current politicians don't have a feel for what the committed aggressors (terrorist) mind set is.

 

[Basket case]

Too bad they couldn't treat the Belle, with the same respect. But, that's another story.

and that has finally been corrected....