One thing good the Japanese did during WWII

[Cida]

Originally Posted by hapaleeretired

I grew up hating [Japanese people]! I watched movies where they did nothing but EVIL.

Okay, but you probably also were watching cowboy movies where Indians were always the bad guys. Did you grow out of that?

[hapaleeretired]

Originally Posted by James Austen

There was a real scare after Pearl Harbor that the Japanese would not only invade Hawaii but land along the west coast of the mainland. The opinion at the time was that the invaders might receive assistance and collaboration from the Japanese people in California/Oregon/ Washington thus it was decided to move them to camps well away from the coast.

On the other hand there was zero chance that Nazi Germany could do the same.

Just two years ago I was watching American Hero's Channel and I saw something I'd never seen before. An elderly gentleman told a story about when he was a Major in WWII in charge of Nazi POWs. A German officer approached him, and in perfect English, inquired as to where he was from. When he said "Bridgeport CN" the German (I'd say kraut but someone would get pissed and call the PC Police) was amazed and proceeded to tell the American everything about Bridgeport. He (the German) had been training to be the Governor or Burgermeister of that area when the Nazis took over the United States.

[James Austen]

Originally Posted by hapaleeretired

Just two years ago I was watching American Hero's Channel and I saw something I'd never seen before. An elderly gentleman told a story about when he was a Major in WWII in charge of Nazi POWs. A German officer approached him, and in perfect English, inquired as to where he was from. When he said "Bridgeport CN" the German (I'd say kraut but someone would get pissed and call the PC Police) was amazed and proceeded to tell the American everything about Bridgeport. He (the German) had been training to be the Governor or Burgermeister of that area when the Nazis took over the United States.

Well you have to give old Adolf a bit of credit for supplying a few laughs. There was no way the German military at it's best was equipped to carry out any operation against America. The sheer distance for a start, their two engine bombers had no worthwhile range. They couldn't even reach the Urals to bomb Stalin's weapons factories and their navy while equipped with some pretty decent warships was not large enough nor did it possess a single aircraft carrier.

The Japanese on the other hand were in much better shape to stage a landing but they would have faced a formidable foe, a well armed population and eventually repulsed with heavy losses. I don't think they ever intended to try a landing anyway, just neutralize American's ability to carry out a sea war. a gamble they tried and lost

[msgsing]

The Japanese on the other hand did make an effort to actually attack the United Sates albeit on a very limited basis. A Japanese submarine actually shelled an oil refinery in Southern California. They also launched hundreds of paper and wood balloons into the jet stream that reached America and some flew as far as the Midwest. A church group out on a picnic outing found one of these balloons and were killed when the explosives went off.

[hapaleeretired]

And the Japanese did invade the Aleutians

[James Austen]

While serving in the British Army we were doing a jungle warfare exercise in northern Malaysia near the Thailand border. One day we came across an aborigine village in the middle of the jungle miles from nowhere. The villagers were friendly and invited us to meet the village chief. He was a toothless old man and spoke some English. He insisted we come to his longhouse and showed us several shrunken heads hanging from the ceiling in a small room at the end of the house. He told us they were Japanese who he and his partisans had ambushed during the Japanese occupation. Apparently they never used firearm just arrows tipped with a deadly poison which caused instant paralysis and shortly afterwards death.