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2
Alphaape
Not really true. Try taking a walk in Yokohama around the Hinedocho Station area and you will see many sex shops and buy me drink places, and most will give the "No Foreigners" Same thing in Yokosuka, the Honch used to have a few shops, but Shore Patrol and the police hit them heavy. Most of the action is around the Yokosuka Chuo area, and that area is not foreigner friendly. As for Okinawa, Gate 2 used to see much action but again public outcry has closed most of the action. The establishments in Naha don't like to cater to foreigners, and will not take money from them for fear of losing their Japanese customer base. Same as in places like Osaka. Hashimoto is saying one thing, but not really looking at what really goes on.
This is the guy who wanted to can city employees for having tattoos, so do you really think that he would welcome foreigners using the sex industry in his city and other Japanese establishments?
Posted in: Gov't - but not Ishihara - backs away from Hashimoto's comfort women comments
3
Alphaape
I saw the information you presented, and you do need to mention that the Red Cross also stated that many of the German POWs just left and went home on their own. Also, after the war there was widespread famine and hunger in Europe and many people both POW's and civilians died. But not by the harsh conditions found in the prison camps in the jungles and in Japan.
Posted in: Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March
3
Alphaape
I believe that those were Japanese POW camps run by the Japanese and not by the US. Not many Japanese chose to surrender compared to the Allied forces captured by the Japanese. There were no large scale surrenders done by the Japanese like the British did in Singapore and Hong Kong and other areas, or on the scale as the Afrika Korps did in North Africa to the Americans.
Posted in: Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March
2
Alphaape
This was done also by Japan and Germany during WW2.
Not true. I earlier mentioned an article in my hometown newspaper about German POWs who were kept in Arkansas during WW2. One incident that is well documented was when the Black actress/singer Lena Horne was there to entertain, the white Germans were sitting in the front rows and the Black Americans who were there as guards were sitting in segregated areas in the back. Lena Horne marched off the stage and performed in the back rows and vowed never to perform at a USO show again unless Black soldiers were given better treatment (she did, she was a big enough star to force some changes). The point is, that doesn't sound like a country that will supposedly mass starve 1,000,000 German POWs if they give them better treatment than Black US Soldiers. Also, German POWs earned .80 cents a day working farming and other jobs, and were able to use the money to buy extra amenities like cigarettes and other items, whereas those who survived the Death March were in forced labor camps and were either beaten or starved to death by the Japanese.
Posted in: Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March
-1
Alphaape
I don't agree with his methods but he has a point. When I read on another forum where he told the commanding General those words, the General just gave a stock stern reply that the US military does not condone that type of behavior. What the General should have said was that's a good idea, let's start doing that as soon as those sex establishments start to allow foreigners to enter them and stop turnig them away.
To counter people like this guy, sometimes you have to hit them with the truth. The truth is, the sex industry in Japan discriminates against foreigners, something that people like him don't want to admit in public.
I do think that the military needs to loosen up a bit. I understand that you shouldn't be going to places where the women are held against their will for services, but if the government of Japan lets a business in the sex industry operate, then why can't the military let it's members go and visit. Maybe when a few druken guys get roughed up by the local Yaks when they get out of line, the message will be sent to be on your "P's and Q's" when out at night and abiding by the rules.
Posted in: Gov't - but not Ishihara - backs away from Hashimoto's comfort women comments
2
Alphaape
@ SamuraiBlue: I suggest you find the film "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On." It was done back in 1973 by a famous Japanese producer who looks at a man who did survive the war fighting for the IJA in New Guinea. He confronts a former Sgt who had forced them to eat the remains of both enemy soldiers and their own dead to survive and he goes on to tell about the treatment the IJA pretty much did to those soldiers instead of letting them surrender honorably. It's a pretty good film which has been discussed in this forum from time to time.
I'm currently reading a book about Japanese fighter pilots from WW2 from some of the last survivors, and their story is pretty much the same. By the time of 1944 rolled around, they knew what they were up against, and knew that they were not going to win. Yet they went to war for their country some being patriotic, and some because they were told they had no choice, bringing up the Bushido code. They were not taught to surrender, nor to really feel that those who did so were honorable, so that would lead one to surmize that those POWs taken at the beginning of the war when Japan was winning were really in a bad position.
Posted in: Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March
2
Alphaape
This isn't an issue. I don't see Abe directing Japan to sink a SK naval vessel or shell an island with artillery. That's what NK has done and we get nothing out of SK. I say if SK is worried about the actions of a political leader from another country, they should look to the north. Yes Japan ran Korea from the early 1900's to the end of WW2, but in more recent history, it has been NK that has done more to do harm to the people of SK than Japan.
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2
Alphaape
@ mikihouse: As I stated you are entitled to your opinion, but not your own facts. The fact is that Japan committed some horrid war crimes during WW2.
This is true to a point, but you are leaving out that the Japanese ordinary soldier was told never to surrender. It was considered a shame on themselves and their families and the emperor. Japanese soldiers would literally fight to the death before surrendering. If anything, it would be considered an intelligence coup to get a live prisoner. Take a look at what the IJA told the Japanese residents of Saipan, who leapt to their deaths rather than be taken captive. Or the accounts of how the residents of Okinawa were treated with kindness when the Americans landed and the battle was over rather than what the IJA had told them that they would be raped and pillaged by the Americans and many decided to kill themselves.
Did individual units try not to take prisoners. Yes they did since they knew none of the Japanese would have surrendered willingly or they would have booby trapped themselves. Try reading some of the narratives of the Japanese prisoners who did survive and the treatment they received. Better yet, there was an article in my hometown newspaper in the states on how German POWs were free to move about and had much better food and shelter as POWs than when they were in the German army. Even with the interment of Japanese citizens in camps in America, it was still better to be a POW of the Americans than either the Germans or Japanese during WW2.
Posted in: Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March
7
Alphaape
@ mikihouse: I guess you are entitled to your world view. Japan is a free country, but it really wasn't back in the 40's during the war. But I imagine with the attitude you posted, you would have done well. So by your logic, then you don't feel bad about the US dropping atomic bombs on Japan, since according to your logic the US had asked Japan to surrender, and the Japanese government refused and was still fighting in various theaters. So according to you, the US was justified in dropping the A-bombs.
There are stil many Filipino's who still harbor deep resentment against Japan. Also remember that during the Battle fo Manila in 1945, the Japanese Admiral (Iwabachi) knew it was hopeless in defending the city but decided to stay and fight it out with the Americans in order to redeem himself for having his ship sunk from under him, as a result instead of declaring the city an "Open City" as MacArthur done so in 1942, he didn't and the fighting done to get them out of Manila, even though MacArthur put restrictions on how the bombings and use of flame throwers could be used to protect the infrastructure of the city and save lives, the Japanese fought on and as a result an estimated 100,000 Filipinos were killed.
So I don't think the IJA had the best interests of the Filipinos in mind during the Death March in 1942, or even at the end of the war when they knew they were loosing. So I don't think it
Posted in: Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March
0
Alphaape
@ SuperLib: I agree with you on that. But just as some seem to think that people who are in favor of gun ownership don't want to change, the same thing you said about legislation needs to be applied to this case in NO. Specifically for the case of the lawless attitudes by some of the residents. Making prisons tougher and doing more to protect persons who decide to testify against the bad seeds in the area will not get passed because some group will feel that somehow we are trampling on their rights. Since when was it a right for someone to terrorize a neighborhood without fear.
A few weeks ago, a news article on the Orleans Parish County jail (where NO is located) appeared in the media that shows a video made in the jail and posted on Facebook that showed them in jail, with drugs, and a gun and basically "kicking it" like they were on the block and bragging on how they ran the jail and it was just like being on the streets. That is the real reason why this violence took place on the streets of NO, criminals not afraid to go to jail, and corruption in the force that has allowed this type of behavior to grow. Taking guns away from those who can legally own one will not stop the violence in this city nor would it have prevented it from happening. Only a tough stance on crime would make any real impact,
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
1
Alphaape
@ SuperLib and others: The problem with this particular shooting is that the people who live in the area, know who did this but they are not talking. They have a fear of the gangs who run the streets. So when you people on here keep talking about taking guns away from those who can legallay own them, and rely on law enforcement to protect you, where is your response to that? People in the area are afraid and the police seem to look the other way because if they get no help, why spend time wasting resources. Sad but that is how the world operates.
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
-1
Alphaape
@ cleo: Back when they were shutting down the Boston area looking for the Tsarnev brothers and the manhunt was on for the survivor and the police were going around telling everyone to stay indoors, be honest with your answer. What would you rather have, your moral superiority of knowing that guns are bad and that you don't have one and if it came down to it, you can defend yourself against someone who has bombed, and shot and killed a police officer, or having some sort of protection in your home, that you have been adult enough to keep locked and out of harms way of any minors in the home but ready to defend yourself. Even with all of that major police presence going from door to door, it was the actions of one person who tipped the police that the suspect was hiding in her back yard. Don't know if she had a weapon or not, but the point is, with that heavy police presence, he still slipped through.
For me, I would not go out looking for trouble in that case, but I would certainly be ready to defend myself and home if I knew a suspect like the one they were looking for was on the loose.
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
-3
Alphaape
@ zichi, but even with your argument, you are saying that people get killed with guns in a country where gun ownership is not readily available to the general public. Do you have the statistics on who was killed? Are you saying that only the "bad people" are getting killed who deal with people who own guns and they get what they deserve? One thing I have noticed about living here in Japan, is that the news is generally skewed in order to keep the populace somewhat in the dark at times. Are the gun deaths in Japan from gangster on gangster crime, which I have seen reported. But I would imagine that some are the result of some bad people doing harm to innocents. And I think that is the case world wide.
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
-1
Alphaape
Obviously you have not been reading about Mexico and how the drug cartels are killing people left and right, by gunning them down. And that personal firearm ownership in Mexico is outlawed.
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
4
Alphaape
@ SuperLib: Please explain to me how the proposed laws would have stopped someone who is going to not follow the law from getting a gun? The whole point of the laws was to make it harder for guns to be gotten legally. All this would have done would have driven up the price of illegal guns, and those who sell them would make more money and the business would take off. Case in point, look at the cost of buying a pack of cigarettes in NYC, and then look at the increase in black market activity of people buying cigarettes from VA and NC and driving them up to NYC to sell. The criminal element will always find a way because there will be buyers who can't legally purchase for some reason. Same thing with gun laws.
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
8
Alphaape
Lizz: You are 100% correct on this. If indeed it was at a "Second Line" parade, it was in one of the Black wards of the city. For those who keep saying we need stricter gun laws in the USA, I will be able to say with 100% certainty, that if the people are caught who did this, by the current laws on the books, they would not be allowed to own guns legally due to privor convictions of crimes. How they got the guns, is probably the same way as they get illegal drugs, other lawbreakers see a market and sell them.
The liberal press will not really jump on this one, since just as the violence in Chicago, it goes against their agenda. Poor Blacks killing and shooting at each other while a bad thing, kind of brings to light some of the ineffectiveness of the programs that have been put in place by the Great Society anti-poverty programs. So the tragedy of the poverty and violence in these areas gets overlooked, and that is a sad thing. I as a Black American have seen the driect results of this type of thinking, watching the areas that I grew up in fall deeper and deeper into violence such as this place in New Orleans and other US cities.
Posted in: Gunmen open fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade; 19 wounded
-2
Alphaape
@ Magnus Roe: No it isn't. Sources have confirmed it is just what the article says. A drunk guy passed out on someone's yard. No B/E (Breaking and Entereing) or no sexual assualt. Just the brass reacting to what the press puts out.
Posted in: Drunk U.S. serviceman arrested for trespassing in private residence
0
Alphaape
@ lucabrasi: Only if he is in a place like Mexico or Japan. You should read up on the plight of the illegal immigrants from Central America and how they are treated in Mexico, or the requirement that Spanish is the official language for dealing with the government in Mexico, or that foreigners can't own property in places like Mexico or Japan and you will see that children of illegals as well as illegals themselves get far more sympathy than any place in the world. What Wolfpack and others who are against the current form of the bill are not cold and heartless. What's cold and heartless is people bringing children into a situation that they know will put them at a further disadvantage in another country. It is not unfair to ask people to come into a country in a legal manner.
Posted in: Battle over U.S. immigration bill looms in Congress
3
Alphaape
@ Laguana: Those polls can be misleading depending on who did the survey. Believe it or not, not all Americans want to just give amnesty to the millions who are there.
On a personal note, I have had to jump through all the hoops to get my spouse the proper documentation to become a legal alien in the US. I've paid the fees, show proof of employment, and even had to sign a document that I will not get on any public assistance for my spouse when we get back to the States. So now, why do all of these people who didn't go through the process get to get in for free? What about the millions who are trying to do it the right way? Why reward law breakers.
As far as America needing the so called "high skilled" workers, how many college graduates will be available during the next few weeks? You mean that someone from outside the US is not smart enough to do those jobs, yet we have many of the so called illegals who are in the US on student visa overstays who will get amnesty. If the US universities are only producing people who have "high self esteem" but no real valuable knowledge, then why so many student visa overstays in the US?
I say go back and redo this and take out all of the special interest items from both sides, and secure the border. It has nothing to do with being anti Hispanic or whatever the race or country, but just doing right by those of all races who call themselves American citizens.
Posted in: Battle over U.S. immigration bill looms in Congress
0
Alphaape
It probably would have. Oh and by the way, there is an RAN ship visiting in Yokosuka now, and from what I have seen, some of their sailors have been doing the same thing. Police involvement and arguments among themselves. RAN officials have not placed them on any libety restrictions, since they don't have to follow the US rules. I wonder if JT and the Japanese press will publish any of the incidents that have been going on since they have been here.
Granted, none of them are of major crimes, but then again, this incident isn't either.
Posted in: Drunk U.S. serviceman arrested for trespassing in private residence