Today is one of the days (Memorial Day & his birthday are the others) when I fire up some incense for my great-uncle Satoru. After his older brother (my grandfather) was rounded up & “relocated” under the provisions of Executive Order 9066, Uncle Sat ducked the feds & joined the 442nd RCT. He was 17. I’ve seen pics of him at that age; he looked like he was 14 or 15. I know he didn’t fool anybody. He returned from Europe minus his left leg. I was tight with him as a kid, and he never talked about the war. After he died, we mobilized a caravan of pickups to move Aunty Shizu into a condo. I grabbed a cardboard box from the master bedroom and it broke open. Out spilled Uncle Sat’s war memorabilia, including his Purple Heart & Silver Star. Aunty Shizu walked in on me & said “You found the lucky charms!” She explained that Uncle Sat felt displaying them would have been “vulgar.” He saw them as tokens of his stupendous luck, and reminders of his brothers who never made it home. Aunty Shizu called them lucky charms; a private endearment between the two of them. Except for Aunty Shizu & their daughter, I am the first member of the family to have ever seen them. 祝福 to those who’ve volunteered to be the pointy end of the spear. You’re better than me, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Had an uncle who was interned as well; he was a German citizen living here in the U.S. with another of my uncles when the war broke out. He ended up joining the Army and going into Luzon and then Japan and got his citizenship after the war. He hated farming, and it got him out of Nebraska. lol Other Germans who served, but not interned of course, were Henry Kissinger, General Walter Kreuger. Dwight Eisenhower spoke German as a kid.
They are NOT! Most people were fooled into the rich man's wars of profit. I won't take too much issue with them depending on the war and how they conducted themselves, but the better people are those who say "To hell with your manufactured wars!" Saying NO is the real bravery! There is only one type of living vet whom I will thank for their service, and that is Allied WWII vets. Only they begin from a position of respect with me. The rest are in a deep hole, and good luck getting out. WWII had to be fought. That said though, it seems my grandfather was drafted for WWII but he got out as he felt necessary. I would be proud if he volunteered. But I am even more proud that when they tried to frog march him to war, he used their rules against them and got himself out of it. He never talked about it, and seemed embarassed when as a kid I did the math on his age and asked him what he did during the war and he waved it away. I wish he was still alive so I could tell him how proud I am of him for having the guts to make the kidnappers of death go pound sand! If a draft board ever tries to press you or yours into service, take as many sharp pencils with you as you can to the interview, and give them as presents. Practice your delivery before you go. Old men who pack young men and boys off to war are a waste of oxygen. They can go to Hell, go straight to Hell, do not pass Purgatory.
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.” ― John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy
Obviously one of my most favorite quotes of all time. And you gotta love the illogic of some individuals, as this is discussing WWII. So what exactly should have been the response of the wars of aggression going on? Germany and the Soviets invading Poland, and Japan invading China, Indochina, Burma, Philippines, and attacking Guam, Midway, and Hawaii? It is all well and nice to proclaim to be for peace. You are not going to find many who are more in favor of peace than those in the military. But how many who make those kinds of stupid statements would if somebody moved into their house and ordered them out simply leave? Would they not call the police, in order to not support the "Police State"? Would they refuse to contact a lawyer to try and get their property back because that would support the "Legal Industry"? I actually look upon individuals like that with complete disdain, as I see them as little more than slugs and leeches upon society. There is another quote I love, that I also have often repeated.
