ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by Stonker

Originally Posted by oldcolt

The best books I have read on the mentality of fighting the japs is "quartered safe out here" and "Defeat into Victory" (the latter giving a more distant; top down view of the conflict by one of our greatest ever Generals - Slim). The first book is excellent for anyone who wishes to get inside the mind of the average tom fighting in Burma.

Quartered Safe is due on BBC Radio (10 x 15 minute episodes) shortly - read by it's author George Macdonald Fraser: even if abridged, it'll be a brilliant listen. (Look in the "Artsy" forum for the "Heads Up" thread to find details - you will be able to listen online)

On Slim's book - agreed - although (4WIW) I've just recently read a short Biog of Orde Wingate (in a book called 'Military Mavericks') which suggests that when he finally penned it, 10 years after VJ day, Uncle Bill's recollection of at least one key Chindit-related incident was a bit shaky, which I will have to follow up on when I'm a bit less committed.

Hi Stonker, sorry for the delay; I've had a bugger of a job with on eof the two pc's I log onto arrse with and lost the thread (and the plot! ).

Thanks for the advice and info

Originally Posted by Uncivil_Servant

Originally Posted by Andy_S

Many kamikaze pilots survived the war: Often, they would fly out into the Pacific, fail to find any targets, and come home again. This is all on the record.

I watched that C4 programme - fascinating.

As for returning kamikaze pilots, I remember reading a book many years ago (I think it was called "Samurai") by Saburo Sakai. Sakai was a Zero pilot, and the book detailed his exploits from Pearl Harbour to the end of the war. He mentions being sent on a kamikaze mission, and the sense of shame he felt on returning with his wingmen because he couldn't find a target.

Reminds me of an extremely funny 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' episode involving a Japanese grandfather who'd survived being a Kamikaze pilot.

"Captain Malcolm Kennedy (1895-1984) was an expert on inter-war Japanese affairs, with a varied career as army officer, businessman, civil servant, journalist and intelligence officer."

If anyone is interested in his diaries have been transcribed and are on-line at

www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/libdocs/kennedy_diaries.pdf

C_C

My grandfather, who was a Colonel in the REME during WW2 (and as far as I know never went near Burma) refused to have anything Japanese in his house, an attitude he passed on to my father. It made buying Tvs, hifis etc rather expensive.
Mrs Kyf lived for two years in Japan, and speaks fluent japanese, and when I passed on my inherited opinions re the Japs, pointed me in the direction of this slim volume:
Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History, by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kamikaze-Che.../dp/0226620913)
Not an easy read, fairly academic etc., but rather interesting on how the cultural identity of Japan got hijacked by the ultra-nationalists. Also how some, if not all, of the Kamikaze pilots enlisted for that service because they were themselves rather alienated from mainstream society.

Worth a browse, if only to deepen the debate a bit.

Kyf

Originally Posted by Futsukayoi

As you say 外人gaijin means foreigner (the characters are external/outside and person) and has almost no racist or negative connotation these days. Foreign organizations would use this term themselves in translation (e.g. the foreign correspondents club 外人記者クラブ). .

Thanks, 二日酔い

Originally Posted by expat_71

It seems they are surprisingly ignorant of all cultures around their own little bubble.
Less than 20 years ago my father went to China with a number of Japanese business men who all were shocked that they could read Chinese writing on road signs and shops even though the pronunciation was a world apart you think they would know that the Chinese write more or less the same as them.

I see this in a different way, the Chinese don't write more or less the same as the Japanese.
A Chinese newspaper would be as unintelligible to a Japanese as would a Japanese paper to a Chinese, or indeed as the Frankfurter Algemeine would be to the average British soldier arriving in BFG.
It wouldn't shock Japanese businessmen to learn that they can, (because of the amount of Chinese characters imported into Japanese), recognise Chinese place names. Every Japanese schoolchild will recognise the characters for Beijing for example,

I expect though that they would find it of interest when they can recognise names of places or shops; but only if they are familiar characters to them.

A comparison would be a French person coming to UK and being able to translate place names like Newport, Lands End or Ironbridge (or Reading!) but not being able to translate Leeds or Bristol. Or being able to translate Boots or The Golden Palace takeaway but not Selfridges or Quaglinos.

I've found that Japanese do embrace foreign culture-some getting very accomplished in, for example Ballet or Opera. Judging by the numbers visiting Stratford and Haworth, there's a widespread thirst for English Literature.

This lady seems to have mastered western culture quite well;
Nissan(!) Dorma

Banzai You Ba*tards - Jack Edwards ex RSIGNALS

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Banzai-You-B.../dp/028563027X

Edwards, a Prisoner of War during WWII , gives a disturbing account of the events that took place during his detainment by the Japanese at the Kinkaseki prison or "hell mine". You experience the emotion, the fear and horror of the soldiers who were captured during thier fight to save the Far East from the onslaught of the Imperial Japanese Army. Edwards conveys the courage and strength these men had to survive and tell their story.[i]

I met the author in Hong Kong in 1988. The book was a real eye-opener to a young SSgt and brought some of the realities of war home to a 'Cold War Warrior' who had only served in Germany and NI previously.
I wonder how many future successful authors will fall out of the current wars we are involved in.

Virgil:

What strikes me most about Manchester and MacDonald-Fraser's works (slightly less so with Sledge's) is the sheer honesty and openness of their accounts. Beyond the action, there is material in those two books - accounts of war crimes, unusual sexual experiences and lingering post-war racial hatred - that very few authors would commit to paper.

KYF:

Looks like an interesting read, indeed. There is very little available analysing the way Japanese society moved from a community of civilized, broadly pro-Western "chaps we can do business with" at the outset of the 20th century to the fanatically militaristic aggressors of the 1930s and 40s.

FYI, if you have NOT seen it, buy, beg, borrow or steal a DVD of the Japanese film "Grave of the Fireflies." It is one of the finest war films - hell, one of the very finest films - ever made, IMHO. No other film that I know of depicts the brutality of war on the most innocent victims (ie children) with such well-calibrated emotion.

Yes Kyf
"rather interesting on how the cultural identity of Japan got hijacked by the ultra-nationalists"

I do think that you are on the right lines with your statement.
john
Could we Imagine a Brit Army Indoctrinated along ( British) National Front ideas ?