Made in Japan.

A great story, a great read... I enjoyed it, at this early hour prior to my preparing for today's day of work... thank you :-)
 
As always, thank you Carl. I really enjoy your stories of Mr. Van and your Scout Troop.
 
Terrific story Carl---thank you!!!

My dad owned a family business for over 40yrs---16 of those yrs my dads manager "Norm" was a WWII vet. The only time Norm shared his experience with us was of the day he received his Purple Heart. He was shot in the butt, he dropped his drawers and showed us the scare. Took all of us by surprise.

That day Norm also told us that it was after a long fought battle that he was working his way back to his platoon, we was walking in the shallows of a creek when he came across a German soldier headed back to his side---they had seen enough bloodshed and Norm said they just looked at each other without saying a word. They each just wanted to get back home.

My dad said "Norm" was the most honest hard working, trustworthy men he'd ever known.

Paul
 
Good one Carl. Both my Dad and my Scoutmaster were Navy men and WWII vets. Neither experienced quite the trauma of the ground pounders, but they were there nonetheless. Dad worked for Texas Instruments, who worked closely with Sony to develop markets for the transistor. He developed a healthy respect for Japanese businessmen and their products, having a Seiko watch in the 60s and a Nikon camera, before those were household names. Gotta say though, the Arisakas that I have seen are some crude rifles.
 
Carl as a veteran of our two latest wars your story really touched me and hopefully reminded everyone that not all the "bad" guys are "bad just doing what they feel is best for their way of life. Mr. Van reminds me a great deal of my Scoutmaster who encouraged me to become an Eagle Scout who also served in a unpopular conflict called Vietnam, but gave any of us who were willing to listen some real world advice about respect for differences and also the importance of a Sharp knife.
 
Great story and a great treat to read. You, Sir, have talent ! You made my day. And this, mind you, is not an easy task. Whatever the Queen of Darkness may tell...
 
My father in law served in the navy during WWII. He wouldn't talk much about the war, but he was on the other side of the coin. He hated the Japanese and anything made in Japan. He did tell me about seeing other ships in his fleet get hit by the Kama-Kasey pilots but said his ship never got hit by one, as they always managed to shoot them down, but one thing I didn't find out until after his death, my wife didn't even know about it, but his ship got sunk and he spent several days in the water before being rescued. Which may explain my wife's story about how he would take them swimming sometimes, but even though it was known that he was a good swimmer, he never went swimming with them.
 
My 5th grade math teacher was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I wasn't in his homeroom so I didn't get to hear everything he passed on to "his" kids but he did teach all of us to count to 10 in Japanese, write the months and numbers in Japanese, and if your name translated into Japanese he would teach you how to write it also. He was a very kind man and a great teacher.
 
jackknife,

Thank you for the beautiful story!

I'm a 3rd-generation Japanese-American, and during WWII, had an uncle who fought in Europe with the Japanese-American unit. I was unaware of that until recently, and I still know next to nothing about it. He passed away many years ago.

Another uncle of mine, on my mother's side, was best friends with Sadao Munemori, of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously after dying in Combat in Italy.

Jim
 
You're very welcome, Jim. I have very high regard for the Nisei brigade and what they did. Even more so considering how they were treated at the beginning of the war.

Carl.
 
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