IGX

No war heroes in my family, but we've got (had) some witnesses to the attack.

My dad was 9 days shy of his 2nd birthday. His aunt, who later had an affair with my grandfather and become his step mom, was holding him out front of one of the family member's houses. They said the Japanese were flying so low they could see they didn't have their masks on. Don't know how true that was.

Great uncle Tommy was a janitor or like a building maintenance guy, and was working that day. My grandmother said the only thing he said was that he tried to help pull someone out of the water, and the skin came off the guy's arms he was burned so badly. Then he didn't really talk about it again. They were worried because it was like 3 days after the attack before he came home.

Great uncle Carl worked for the water company. Given his unfortunate ancestry and somewhat sensitive position of employment, he got locked up for a while. I have no clue if he was part of this timeline http://www.hawaiiinternment.org/timeline#year_1932 or what really happened. The family claimed he was pulled from the bathtub. No word on whether he was dragged out with his bits dangling or if he could get dressed first.

I guess a couple of my grandmother's other brothers just sat on one of their porches, smoked a few cigarettes and tried to watch as best as they could.

I'm fuzzy on the details given that a large, even part Portuguese family is tough to get an accurate story from and anyone who could answer a question is dead now, so....

baffled wrote:No war heroes in my family, but we've got (had) some witnesses to the attack.

Fat Cat wrote:

baffled wrote:No war heroes in my family, but we've got (had) some witnesses to the attack.

lulz

Six or so years ago when we were back to bury my grandmother, we went to the memorial. My mom asked, in a foggy moment I'm sure, if there were any Kanetas there. My dad just looked at her and said past Uncle Tommy, the rest were on the wrong side.

I kid, I kid. A lot of Japanese families were split by that war.

Fat Cat wrote:I kid, I kid. A lot of Japanese families were split by that war.

No worries. The Japanese side was pretty well disconnected from Japan at that point and, from what I could gather, could give a shit that Japan eventually got waxed.

My great grandfather was an Okinawan (strike one) who had tattoos on his upper arms. I'm guessing, given that he left Japan for Hawaii ~1905 or so (I think), that he hadn't exactly been the most honorable Samurai. He didn't leave any real sort of connection to Japan, so even though they were Japanese Hawaiians (and Japanese-Portuguese Hawaiians) they didn't really seem to give a damn that Japan eventually got waxed.

We don't even know what his real name was. I guess one of his tattoos read "Zentaro", which I understand simply means "first born son". That's what everyone called him, but as far as I know, it wasn't yet cool to get a tattoo of your own name.

I'm heading to my parent's place in a little while. I'll see if they have any pictures applicable to this thread that I can scan and put up here.

I say we bomb Japan, just for good measure. What he'll, let's bomb S Korea while we are at it.

Batboy2/75 wrote:I say we bomb Japan, just for good measure. What he'll, let's bomb S Korea while we are at it.

I really have no argument against this as long as we include Taiwan so the Chinese can't have it.

baffled wrote: We don't even know what his real name was. I guess one of his tattoos read "Zentaro", which I understand simply means "first born son". That's what everyone called him, but as far as I know, it wasn't yet cool to get a tattoo of your own name.

I'm not sure about your relative's case, but it was pretty popular at that time to tattoo the names of a gay lover on your shoulder.

*covers PROTOBUILDER tattoo*

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Fantastic pics. My grandfather always told me he found out relatively late in the day (he'd been out duck hunting), then enlisted in the Navy the next day.

As for Japan... I loved it during my time there. It seems a lot of older Japanese people (but not Okinawans) still sport a superiority complex, but it didn't really dampen the experience.

Whether or not Japan ever revives its martial nationalism remains to be seen. Considering the fact that they're risking a shooting war with China over unoccupied islands, it's not outside the realm of possibility: http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/02/wh ... ach-other/

Japan will rise as a martial power again, with a friend like us they will have to.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI[/youtube]

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Infamy