Comments on: Jap Pilots Ride to DEATH on Flying Bombs

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:42:03 +0000

It’s always amused/confused me that war has “rules” at all. The point is to win the objective. If that objective is more easily achieved, and with less loss of life, by a few suicide bombs than by marching hundreds of men to their grisly death by gunfire, grenade, land mine, or bayonet, why is it considered “wrong”? By the same token, why is the assassination of leaders outlawed, other than because the leaders themselves like it that way? Again, it seems as though many lives would be spared if the issue were decided based on the fate of one man, or a man and his political allies. Instead, they sit safely away from the action and direct thousands of young people to their death, until one side or the other runs out of bodies to throw into the meat grinder and surrenders. It seems insane to me. Granted, I can’t picture myself taking something from another by force, because I’m just not wired that way. I’m not frightened of violence – it just seems pointless and counterproductive.

By: Will Davis

Will Davis — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:13:21 +0000

If riding a bomb seems fantastic, take a look at the following puppet show article! The puppets were stated as being “life-like”… we may not yet be a perfect society, but I’m happy we have for the most part abolished that kind of entertainment, and I’ll find the fullest happiness when it’s completely abolished. How we could of found such racism entertaining is truly baffling to me! And the fact that discriminatory aspects still invade entertainment in this day and age equally baffles me! Handicap jokes, fat jokes, mental illness jokes, Asian jokes, and other jokes and depictions at the expense of others, still seem to creep into our entertainment. I suppose the puppet show article after the flying bomb article compelled me to hop up on my soap box and voice my frustration. I would like to thank the host of the above article for including the full uncensored page. It reveals a glimpse into a prominent mindset in America during the 1930’s, and certainly the majority of the 1900’s in some degree or another.

By: MrG

MrG — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:59:32 +0000

That Japanese are not innovators is something of an accepted wisdom. However, they are hardly unimaginative — try the movies of Hayou Miyazaki or Satoshi Kon (recreational drugs may be recommended for the latter), the subtly bizarre comedy series THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA, or the elegant “alternate universe Japanese folk tales” of MUSHI-SHI. Cheers — MrG / http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html

By: JMyint

JMyint — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:38:32 +0000

There is still really little innovation from the Japanese mostly it’s it’s buying or “borrowing” other peoples patents and ideas. Go to any industrial conference in the US or Europe and you’ll find the Japanese there recording everything.

The economics of the Second World War were such the the Japanese had indeed lost against the US when they attacked Pearl Harbour. It was their arrogence that prevented them from seeing it.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm

By: nlpnt

nlpnt — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:01:55 +0000

Riding a bomb? I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned “Dr. Strangelove” yet.

By: John M. Hanna

John M. Hanna — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:26:56 +0000

1933? I didn’t think the Japanese were using suicide bombers until late in the war.

By: MrG

MrG — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:40:29 +0000

On the other hand — for younger folks who weren’t around up to the mid-1960s, do realize that “MADE IN JAPAN” meant “junk” and with good reason. Remember Doc’s shocked comment to Marty McFly in the first BACK TO THE FUTURE movie? By the mid-1970s that was a faint memory. Ironically, in the old days Japanese live-action movies tended towards classics — Kurosawa above all — and these days they tends toward junk, though I’ve seen some reasonable Japanese horror flics like DARK WATER. Cheers — MrG / http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html

By: NdotM

NdotM — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:55:23 +0000

I was hoping to see this article after previously seeing it on the cover. I agree, it speaks more the American attitudes towards race in 1933 than to the actual technological ability of the Japanese.

Case in Point: The most unfortunate puppet show taking place on the last page of the article. Yikes.

By: MrG

MrG — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:33:04 +0000

It is fascinating but clearly because it says more about American attitudes towards the Japanese than about the Japanese. The Japanese have their own distinct culture but they are not from another planet. One of my favorite lines, from Masamune Shirou’s action-comedy manga DOMINION TANK POLICE: “Let’s RAM them! We’ll take them with us!” “WHAT?! You Japanese are KAMIKAZE-crazy!” Cheers — MrG / http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html

By: slim

slim — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:51:48 +0000

A fascinating article. Thank you for posting it Charlie.

By: MrG

MrG — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:16:26 +0000

I think this was a fantasy at the time but it wasn’t 10 years later, when the Japanese Navy developed the Oka (Cherry Blossom) manned rocket bomb, nicknamed the “Baka (Fool)” by Allied propaganda. It should be noted that not all Japanese officer approved of suicide tactics, finding it disgraceful to order men they were responsible for to die, and that the Navy built the Oka themselves because they felt if they asked civilian aircraft manufacturers to do it, the manufacturers could have thought the Navy had lost their minds. Cheers — MrG / http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html

By: Eliyahu

Eliyahu — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:58:55 +0000

The “Japanese mind” lacks the ability to do any innovative mechanical design? Okay, that explains why none of their cars sell here and why our automobile industry needn’t worry about Japanese competition. Right? And it explains why we had such an easy time of it in the Pacific during WW2.

The fact is, had the Japanese launched a third wave of bombers to take out the oil tanks on Ford Island and then not been caught rearming their planes during the Battle of Midway, they probably would have either won the war or, at a minimum, it would have lasted for several years longer. And it wasn’t until the second year of the war that we finally came up with torpedoes for our submarines that were as good as the ones the Japanese had invented on their own.

One of the characteristics of hubris is a tendency to assume that one’s foes, or one’s competitors, can’t possibly do anything as well as we do and that whatever they make will be inferior to our own products. It got us in trouble then, it put our manufacturing industries in the mess we have now, and it’ll get us in trouble in the future if we don’t learn from the past.