inkbluesky

bench in winter 

Ulrich Straus has an interesting background. He’s retired Army and Foreign Service officer. Born in Germany and later moved to Japan where he became fluent in Japanese. Japanese-American Wartime Interactions - A model not followed in Iraq.

Since most of the Japanese had been wounded, the excellent medical care they had received as POWs contrasted sharply with the treatment they routinely suffered at the hands of their own countrymen. Even more important to the Japanese was their impression from the proffer of a cigarette by a GI that Americans did not despise them for having surrendered.

Navy Commander Huggins even followed these precepts to the point of dressing up a trusted POW in civvies and taking him to a local pub in Honolulu in order to share a few beers while pursuing their discussions about the capability of the guns aboard the Japanese battleship Mutsu in more convivial surroundings.

Difficult to choose what to clip from the article. Its not difficult to assert that Pearl Harbor was a far more devastating attack then 9-11 and that a heavily armed nationalistic Japan was a much much larger threat to America, yet to we managed to have a little perspective sixty years ago that we or those in charge can’t seem to have today. Note that WWII was won by a liberal president in less time then we’ve occupied Iraq.

old russian advert santa and tobacco. i had an old american magazine ad with a nurse smoking a Kool that would have been a good companion to this one, but i can’t find it.