received this today. I never heard about this but wanted to share.
http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/centaur/
WWII Sinking
received this today. I never heard about this but wanted to share.
http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/centaur/
It seems that by 1943 it would have been known that a white ship with big red crosses was nothing more than an easy target for the ruthless Japs.Originally Posted by Capt P
Never attribute to the enemy that which can be attributed to incompetence. In this case, bureaucratic log jam. Camo that ship, or warships. Which get the dockyard first.
Then again, which one has to sail today to perform emergency duties. Or after 2 May 1942, every ship in Australian harbors was probably yelling about getting out of port. (2 May 42, air attack Darwin)
So there are many arguments, but since no one who was there, is here to tell us today, we will probably never know.
As some from the 60's expressed it so elegantly, "Sh*t happens. Too bad, get over it or you will go insane."
Sh*t happens. Get over it? I lived in Japan for two years and the Japanese I've met are very nice people. I have no issues with them. But I still say that during WWII they were ruthless. Not just to captured soldiers but to civilians. Along with volumes of documentation to the fact, I've also met a few Filipinos that lived through the war and saw the cruelty first hand and they did hate the Japanese with a passion for the things they did. Sinking a hospital ship that was brightly colored and well lit so that it was easily identifiable. No problem.
"The Japanese did not acknowledge responsibility for the incident for many years and the War Crimes Tribunal could not identify the responsible submarine. However, the Japanese official war history makes clear that it was submarine 1-177, under the command of Lt Commander Nakagawa who had sunk the Centaur. Lt Commander Nakagawa was convicted as a war criminal for firing on survivors of the British Chivalry which his ship had sunk in the Indian Ocean." From the article in question.
Not our fault that McArthur let the japs whitewash the emperor who was ultimately responsible. And as far as modern day Japan. Well they are still less than reprehensible. http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-mayor...042050746.html
They were right in 1945. The only good jap is a dead jap. Too bad Truman let them stop too soon. Could have held off on the nukes, gone with plan B and starved them out with full naval blockade. Would have killed 20 to 40 million more of them.
It is without question that the Japanese did reprehensible acts during WWII - this story being one of them. I have in-laws and Filipino friends that lived through such times. Recently, I listened to an audio book and read a book on the same story - Louis Zamperini. At times, it was hard working through these. The Japanese ideology of the time greatly affected the military's treatment of others. I do not think it is fair, though, to characterize modern Japanese in the same way.
Click through, read the article. http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-mayor...042050746.html
Now you see, I personally beleive that Mac A and Truman should have let LeMay and the 20th keep working on Japan for five more years. While enforcing the starvation plan. Sorry guys, a good jap is a dead jap, then and now. Because if the mayor of osaka today can state such nonsense, then obviously they did not understand the lesson plan.
Last edited by Wargamer; 05-14-2013 at 23:55.
Where to begin where to end?
A red cross on a ship in the Indian Ocean - civilian passenger ships with refugees (Baltic Sea 1945) - sailors in lifeboats...
WW II can tell you many of this stories.
It is always dangerous to allow the voice of an individual speak for the nation or a people. I'm sorry Al, but to speak of genocide, which is what you are actually stating, is an inappropriate response at best. I suggest any further discussion along these lines be limited to PMs, or not made at all on this site. This is not what the Anchorage is about.
We may point the finger- the sinkings of civilians fleeing Memel, the bombing of Dresden, Japanese atrocities in WW2, but we have similar atrocities from all forces in all wars the winners just don't talk about them and rarely get called to account.
Should the North Vietnamese hate the US and Allied troops with the same ferocity as some hate the Japanese and Germans? Should we hate the Turks for the Armenian tragedy, the Spanish for the deaths in the New World, the Romans for wiping out Carthage, my fellow Australians for the massacres of our indigenous aborigines a century ago? You see, the further back you go the more ridiculous it becomes. The "Romans" of today have no more penance to pay to the ancestors of Carthage than todays German or Japanese children have to the nations that were smashed under their heel.
This is not the same as forgetting what happened, it is not the same as saying things never happened (denial) as these are separate cases usually reserved to a minority who should forever be argued and defended against. We don't forget, we never stop mourning but neither should we persist in our hate against a nation or a race or a religion for wrongs of the past, casting them all in to the same pot of venom for what occurred.
PS: And yes Eric take to PM,you got in first before me!
Thank you.
I agree 110% with Eric and this topic should remain on the original subject... not on our personal feelings about a country or their leaders. This falls completely in the realm of No Politics on the site.
Unbroken is a great read. Read the book and saw a segmint on a Sunday morning show about it.
Reading these remarks I am sorry I posted this. Just wanted to remember what happen that day. So to those I offended forgive me for that and as pointed out there were things done on all sides.
Bob my Shipmate,
When you throw a paper plane, You can not say which way it is going to fly? I have been in an unhappy thread myself on this site , it was sad for all of us. You did not plan the way it went. You have no grounds or need to say sorry.
Be Safe Shipmate
Rory
Bob, you did not cause any offense, nor did you set a tone for offense.
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