I'm going to get off the subject in this entry, and write about Bushido, the soul of Japan, which Japanese military personnel kept in their minds throughout the war and the cruelty of the U.S. of the time.
A few years ago, a former Royal Navy marine, Sir Samuel Falle, aged 87 at that time, visited Japan and his story surprised and strongly impressed us, which was not known even among the Japanese people until then. The story was featured in a TV show. I found the motion pictures of the story with English captions and will show you them. (Link1, Link2, Link3)
Summarizing, he was rescued along with more than 400 of his fellows in the fierce battle area by his enemy of a Japanese destroyer when he was at his limit drifting on the sea for 20 hours after the sinking of his ship in 1942. He has been grateful all his life and would like to thank the then captain of the destroyer. It was why he visited Japan after more than 60 years.
On the other hand, the 1st picture is of the B29 bombers dropping numerous bombs on Japanese citizens, which is called incendiary bombing and was for burning out the Japanese people and their wooden houses. The last one is my hometown on the next morning after the night of the bombing. Why did they need to kill ordinary people, mainly women and children, in the cities where lots of men disappeared. Link to Next
Bushido, the soul of Japan and Chivalry;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdX2ngSepY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbHIC_CLDhk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcwX93oi1CE
(Vocabulary)
indiscriminate〈攻撃・殺人・暴行などが〉無差別の, 手当たり次第の;〈人が〉見境のない, 思慮に欠けた
fire bomb / incendiary bomb 焼夷弾
戦争中、正義を貫き通した日本の武士道精神と、アメリカの残虐性について。次に、戦場において我が身を省みず、敵兵を救助した駆逐艦の話。数年前に、この時助けられた元兵士が来日し、思いを語った映像が残っている。また、我が郷土松山で米軍が行った無差別殺戮の話。当時も今も明らかな国際法違反である。
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