Today is the 74th anniversary of the end of the Second World War

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Remember growing up how even the thought of buying Japanese electrical products appalled family members. Even if those returning never opened up on the psychological torture they’d experienced, their physical condition couldn’t disguise what they’d undergone.

Remember getting a yamaha keyboard when I was about 13 and my grandad went ballistic at my folks for buying Japanese. don't know who the silly bugger thought made the mitsubishi on his drive that he changed every three years.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

When I was a boy opposite lived a veteran of the Japanese camps.
Even in the late fifties he maintained he could kill any Jap he met without a moment’s thought.

 

[nellyonthewing]

If this forum had existed in 1938, people who fought in WW1 would have posted exactly the same bollocks as this.

Really? Could you imagine the uproar if conscription was introduced. You wouldn't be able to move for protesters with 'Stop the war Banners' and 'Russians welcome '. So its not bollocks contrast todays 'X factor generation with those who grew up in deprivation of the 30's and the shadow of the Great War . Chalk and cheese.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

If this forum had existed in 1938, people who fought in WW1 would have posted exactly the same bollocks as this.

Bloody hell, we were relegated in the May a year after being champions.... This place would be in meltdown!

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

My grandfather served in the RAF in Burma but my Great Uncle Jack was a pow of the Japanese, murdered by them when the hell ship he was on, Suez Maru, was torpedoed by the USS Bonefish. After rescuing the Japanese and Korean crew the officers decided to machine gun the pow's rather than rescue them. The war crimes trial was abandoned in 1949 as the Americans wanted the help of the Japanese in fighting the Chinese menace and those responsible were freed from jail.

Why did the USS Bonefish torpedo the ship? Did they not know POW's were on board?

 

[Fame Monster]

Just to add to the anti-Japanese theme, there was a big thing in my family about it too. One of my great-uncles was shot in the back by a Jap which was a big thing back then plus they killed 3 other family members so it's fair to say they weren't highly regarded. The family members who survived barely said a word about any of it. I don't know what the situation was with the Manchester/Lancashire regiments etc., but it seems a lot more fought the war in Asia than they did in Europe?

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Really? Could you imagine the uproar if conscription was introduced. You wouldn't be able to move for protesters with 'Stop the war Banners' and 'Russians welcome '. So its not bollocks contrast todays 'X factor generation with those who grew up in deprivation of the 30's and the shadow of the Great War . Chalk and cheese.

Always amazes/fascinates /horrifies me that only two decades after the great war we as a nation were prepared to do it again and sacrifice another generation - essentially the kids of the survivors of 1914-18.

 

[AliBobbyJ]

Always amazes/fascinates /horrifies me that only two decades after the great war we as a nation were prepared to do it again and sacrifice another generation - essentially the kids of the survivors of 1914-18.

1914-18 was a foolish game by various nations' rulers to be top dog and those who died for their masters' dreams of dominance were lions led by donkeys. 1939 was the free peoples of the world gladly risking or laying down their lives for liberty rather than yield to evil.

 

[Ourman]

Why did the USS Bonefish torpedo the ship? Did they not know POW's were on board?

The Japanese never marked ships that carried pow's, part of the Geneva convention, they used regular troop ships.

 

[Ourman]

The Suez Maru atrocity, where over 400 British and over 100 Dutch servicemen lost their lives was covered up by the Allied command when the war crimes trial was abandoned. My grandfather went to his grave 40 years without knowing the circumstances of his brother's death. It should also be pointed out that the only reason this atrocity is known about is due to a Japanese crew member of the Suez Maru who was following the trials and was aghast at the officers names not appearing. He wrote twice to bring it to the Allied command's attention and when nothing was done he travelled across Japan to present himself in person. In case anyone thinks I'm just "jap bashing".