M. Valdemar
Top Veteran
- Location
- New York City
I will be in Tokyo this summer and I plan to visit the Nikon Museum.
If anyone is interested I'll post some photos when I return. I'm also planning on hitting a number of used camera stories, and a few flea markets.
Previous shopping expeditions have turned up some remarkable items.
Here is my son a couple of years ago at the Yakusuni Shrine in Tokyo. Although my wife is Japanese and my kids are half-Japanense, I have to say that the Chinese and Koreans are correct when they object to politicians visiting this shrine. It is a totally unrepentant paean to Japanese military prowess in WWII and other wars. But to visit there is fascinating nonetheless. The Japanese position is that they were unfairly hammered down for attempting to practice the same type of imperialism practiced by the West. Hammered down simply because they were not a part of the West.
BAKA rocket-propelled suicide plane/glider. (Otherwise known as an Ohka) Some poor 16 or 17 year old kid was strapped in the cockpit drunk with about one hour of training in a dummy plane.
It was carried under a bomber, pointed at a target, and released. When a few hundred yards from target, the rocket is ignited and the poor kid tried to steer it and slam into enemy carrier.
Definitely a one-way ride, it was filled to brim with high explosives. The Japanese borrowed some rocket engine and design know-how from the Germans.
It was interesting because I was directed to see the BAKA by some sweet blue-haired old ladies who said: "Oh, did you see the BAKA? Most visitors like to see it!"
I said something like "If anyone tried to put my little boy in a suicide plane and aim him into a ship, I would put them in first and see how they like it."
The sentiment sort of didn't translate, they just nodded.
(Just for comparison, I have uploaded a photo I took of a German V1 rocket bomb that I photographed at a museum in Virginia. This was unmanned. I was sort of surprised at how big the thing was. I always pictured it about the size of a small torpedo.)
These are dead kamikaze pilots. There are thousands of photos, somewhat horrifying. I found it interesting that there were several American/Western looking kamikazes. These were the half-Japanese kids of ex-pats living in Japan who volunteered to die for the Emperor. They even had American sounding names.
If anyone is interested I'll post some photos when I return. I'm also planning on hitting a number of used camera stories, and a few flea markets.
Previous shopping expeditions have turned up some remarkable items.
Here is my son a couple of years ago at the Yakusuni Shrine in Tokyo. Although my wife is Japanese and my kids are half-Japanense, I have to say that the Chinese and Koreans are correct when they object to politicians visiting this shrine. It is a totally unrepentant paean to Japanese military prowess in WWII and other wars. But to visit there is fascinating nonetheless. The Japanese position is that they were unfairly hammered down for attempting to practice the same type of imperialism practiced by the West. Hammered down simply because they were not a part of the West.
BAKA rocket-propelled suicide plane/glider. (Otherwise known as an Ohka) Some poor 16 or 17 year old kid was strapped in the cockpit drunk with about one hour of training in a dummy plane.
It was carried under a bomber, pointed at a target, and released. When a few hundred yards from target, the rocket is ignited and the poor kid tried to steer it and slam into enemy carrier.
Definitely a one-way ride, it was filled to brim with high explosives. The Japanese borrowed some rocket engine and design know-how from the Germans.
It was interesting because I was directed to see the BAKA by some sweet blue-haired old ladies who said: "Oh, did you see the BAKA? Most visitors like to see it!"
I said something like "If anyone tried to put my little boy in a suicide plane and aim him into a ship, I would put them in first and see how they like it."
The sentiment sort of didn't translate, they just nodded.
(Just for comparison, I have uploaded a photo I took of a German V1 rocket bomb that I photographed at a museum in Virginia. This was unmanned. I was sort of surprised at how big the thing was. I always pictured it about the size of a small torpedo.)
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These are dead kamikaze pilots. There are thousands of photos, somewhat horrifying. I found it interesting that there were several American/Western looking kamikazes. These were the half-Japanese kids of ex-pats living in Japan who volunteered to die for the Emperor. They even had American sounding names.
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