Warbird Information Exchange

Hello,

I lived in Japan for over three years and interviewed over fifty WW IJN aviators/aviation mechanics so I can speak from personal experience.

In general, the usual Japanese person knows very little about WW II. They really don't learn much about it in school (aside from the A-bombs and a little bit about Pearl Harbor). I even had one student in my class that didn't even know I had a picture of a WW II Japanese fighter on my wall (a Zero with a big hinomaru or meatball)!

I believe, however, the Japanese simply try to forget the war and move forward. This is sad because they need to know more about the past and the men who fought and died for their nation.

Hopefully, my book on IJN veterans will "set the record straight" once it is published in mid-2007.

Furthermore, I found the general Japanese people (non-veterans) to either love or hate westerners. There was no middle ground.

Regards,

Ron Werneth

Heh, good one Ollie.

This is my personal opinion and is a version of the answer I give when I am critisized for the Luftwaffe Resource Center and the Imperial Japanese Resource Center. By studying and understanding your opponent or the opponents of those you admire, like veterans, it helps you comprehend what those people went through in fighting them. By understanding the abilities of a German Ace and his aircraft you gain insight into the difficulties faced by American and British pilots and in my opinion adds to thier accomplishments.

By understanding all points of view (or as many as possible) it allows you to put a conflict in context. In the case of the Japanese, if we had understood them better and respected them for thier strengths we probably wouldn't have entered WWII at the time and in the manner we did. Yes the Jaopanese and Germans committed horrible atrocities, but the only difference between thier atrocities and the ones America has done is about 60 years. Ask an Native American how he feels about Americas activities in the 1800's. Should he hate all Americans alive today? Since I am part Native American I view this time period as horrible and repulsive, but like the Holocaust, the Bataan Death March, and the Mass Graves in Serbia and Iraq, it is something to be remembered and prevented.

By continuing a cycle of hatred and ignorance you perpetuate the issues which caused the conflicts in the first place. Just look at the middle east.

I try to honor the Allied Veterans in any way I can, and I love the military technology, but I would rather have avoided the World Wars and have history to be alot more boring and have those men and women alive. We should honor the sacrifice taht soldiers made for thier countries but mourn the necessity of it.

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Well said Scott. From a personal prospectve, my father was a radar operator in a B-29 crew. His group flew the first missions against mainland Japan since the Doolittle raid from their base in Chengtu China. He always told me how he feared capture if he was forced to bail-out over Japanese held terrritory. The treatment of captured US flyers by the German Luftwaffe was far and away better than what fate would befall flyers captured by the the japanese. Nontheless, my father treated his service as a job to do, and once the war was over, he never felt any hatred to Japanese people.

I'd suggest reading a book called 'A Mind In Prison' bu Bruno Manz. It's pretty interesting...t

The author grew up in prewar Germany, and fell into the trap laid by the Nazi propaganda machine. He bough into it, even as he had questions, but the indoctrination sold him past the doubt. It was an incredibly interesting look into how a normal human can get sucked into such a horrific philosophy. I've never heard of such a book from the Japanese side, but I'm looking.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

MY Opa (grandfather) was a sheetmetal worker before WWII and was drafted and made a sheetmetal mechanic in the Luftwaffe working on JU-86,JU-88, HE-111, etc. years ago I asked him to show me where his unit surrendered which was on the eastern front in northen Germany. he was a P.O.W. for 5 years AFTER WWII from 1945-1950. All he would say was that out of the 5,000 men in his camp only 1,500 came home. my point is that he did not want to be in WWII but was forced to and paid the price. I have seen both movies Flags of our fathers and letters home from Iwo Jima, I liked both as pure movies and took with a grain of salt what was shown. I have plenty of books and other historical information that I use for factical data.