Japan

[happy daze john in oz]

Some of these posts are getting away from the one started on Japan .While i do agree with John about the way Japan as gone .That is history and History is all about the Merchant Navy .There is no winners in a war

Whilst I agree with your comment Lou, the fact is that many now see the current situation as being like a war. Apart from all the conflicts in Mid East etc. many in UK, here in Oz and I think also in NZ consider that they are being taken over much as the manner of the fifth colum in the war.

[Capt Bill Davies]

Bill, no one is doubting their nautical skills, afterall they are an Island Nation.

Ivan,

Many thanks yours.

The emphasis on the word Actually was meant to import real experience as opposed to ‘hear say’ ‘transitory’ or ‘passing’.

Inferring ‘lesser mortals and Geisha houses’? Well if the hat fits…............ and as for Geisha houses I don’t know where you found that.

Having worked with people in dry docks and ships, having done business with them in there country and our own and sold them pieces of equipment is rather transitory and certainly does not qualify one to say ‘they know’ the people. Most of the membership have had this type of interface. You have to live with people to really understand them. Understand their emotions, which they will never show in the work place. I never once heard them discuss Wartime happenings. Its just not in there make-up
As for what they did in the War, like us, is best forgotten.

I was born just before outbreak of the War and have no experience of hostilities. Not interested!

To my mind they are a great nation and some of my best memories was sailing with a full Japanese crew. The professionalism and efficiency was quite awesome.

The personalization in your response is disappointing. The site is after all a nautical site and being a shipmaster is something I am proud to have been and my comments on the site are based on 50, yes 50 unbroken years at sea and not the pages of a book. And let me assure you the view from where I am standing is clear and not obscured in any way.

Brgds

Bill

[Gulliver]

That sounds similar to some of the guards excuses at the Jewish Death camps that some of the guards made, they were only obeying orders. Cheers John Sabourn

Yes ,most likely in fear of their own lives too ,John.I call it the human instinct for survival -kill or be killed,-rather than a desire to join in with the aggressors.
Regards
Gulliver

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan,


Having worked with people in dry docks and ships, having done business with them in there country and our own and sold them pieces of equipment is rather transitory

First Bill, I apologise if I have upset you, I certainly was NOT casting aspersions on your seagoing abilities and experiences, nor would I have the termerity to do so, the words used were meant as a simile and nothing more.

Whilst it would appear that I may not have the close proximity that you appear to have with the Japanese, I can assure you negotiating contracts over a two year period and selling them equipment worth millions of Dollars, equipment they manufactured and sold themselves (but I might add not to the quality we did on those particular products) I think qualifies for more than "pieces of equipment" and you cannot fail to get to know people, their attitudes and about their families and aspirations when on the level I was conducting business. Selling any equipment to the Japanese is a long hard road and you have to get to know your opponent, because in business that is what they are, until the contract is signed. Believe me the Japanese do not like importing things they make themselves, but as in all things "needs must". Also it is an expensive game travelling backwards and forwards to Japan, especially when you are spending your own hard earned money, your product has to be first class otherwise you are just wasting time and money

Kind regards

Ivan

[Errol Chandler]

I do not know anything about the Japanese post-war revival, but if you want to understand the German revival after 1945 you should read a book called 'Exorcising Hitler'. Written by Frederick Taylor and first published in 2011.
It gives a detailed account of how Germany so quickly rose again to political and financial dominance in Europe. Very good read.

Incidentally, I have been to Japan 6 or 7 times on business. Fascinating place and the cities are like churning any heaps...millions of people scurrying about. Smartly dressed and ultra polite. Tokyo has a population of 14 million, yet close to 25 million use the public transport system EVERY day as people pour in from surrounding cities. I spend a lot of time in Tokyo and Yokohama plus a few other cities. Technology wherever you look and amazing buildings that make ours look like stone-age throwbacks..... CLEAN........no litter at all.
It is really worthwhile buying something in one of their department stores.....such care in wrapping the simplest thing. ....you can hardly bring yourself to open the parcel when you get home. Not just shoved into a bag, as is the rule here.

[leratty]

Gulliver they are indeed the most racially prejudiced nation of any which I found amusing to listen to. We lived there for two years, loved the place, the food, the people, their art writing along with beautiful country. One of my uncles was shot down in PNG during W.W. 2, he got ashore with his crew mate but they both were executed by beheading. I had a healthy dislike for them prior to living there but don't now, was that my up bringing I don't know? Yes they were seriously cruel, however I wonder if that is not just their culture? Maybe even today, heaven help us should we be fighting them again it could be so too?

[j.sabourn]

They certainly dont seem to have any problems with the illegal boat people from ****** countries. John Sabourn

[Stuart Henderson]

I first visited Japan in 1952 and quite liked the place but do recall a much later visit in the Sixties to Kobe. I usually went ashore alone and got away from the usual dock bars. Was in nice area and entered a nice bar ,not very busy but the barman kept avoided my calls for service. After a while the manager ? came up to me and very politely informed me they did not serve white people or it might have been Europeans,forget exactly but was sober. I left and went on to enjoy other establishments nearby feeling slightly bemused.
Stuart

[j.sabourn]

Funnily enough such bars usually had a red light outside ( not for the usual means of ident.) but were japanese only. I gained admission to a few but was with Japanese people at the time. Cheers John Sabourn.

[leratty]

Stuart that may have been the case in the 50's, however we at no time had nor have any difficulty drinking or eating in any type of bar restaurant during our two years in Japan nor were we ever as we knew it subject to any prejudice in anyway. The prejudice we saw & heard was in regards the attitude to other races due to their, the Japanese extraordinary died in the wool belief they are a superior race & we are barbarians the former being something that many races-religions also think of themselves oft to my amusement. The Japanese will do almost anything to stop a foreigner becoming a permanent resident-citizen, the current case is Filipino-Indonesian nurses& medical staff there which they have to have due to a huge shortage & growing ageing of the population. They in the last year have put up akin to Australia way back when a literacy test where the nurses must know every Japanese word, some we are told even the Japanese do not know relating to medical terms, thus they fail & are deported after X years.

There are numerous other situations, impediments one knows about if they have lived-are living there to a foreigner gaining permanent residency. Mixing with everyday Japanese who know these as we did the general attitude can be discussed without rancour, even though they recognise the Japanese health sector difficulties. Other thing we know of as a No of friends of ours married Japanese ladies & they are positively indoctrinated in regards being & staying Japanese & as to the off spring being brought up Japanese in the Japanese schooling system etc, it is sad to observe, sad for the child. One friend has just returned to Aus with his Japanese wife & child, the child is in an Aus private school, however sadly due to her feeling of superiority is getting as only one can in Aus, apparently brought down to earth quick time which bemuses her as she has no friends because of it. The mother hates it, Aus, only as she did here because she mixes with other Japanese only occasionally & reluctantly with westerners, i.e. his friends. She watches Japanese TV only too Then you have the other side where another friend married the most beautiful Japanese lady, they have a son & daughter who are 'special' as they have been brought up in two cultures & lived in Asia they are a veritable delight to be with. Often Japanese ladies see marrying a westerner as a coup for them & has special significant to them in their circle?

All countries & peoples have prejudices some do not extrapolate them as heavily as others do though.

For all of these faults we still love Japan, enjoy the people & visit frequently as we have Japanese friends.

Happydaz, if I may the M/E situation & migrants-refugees whether in Aus or elsewhere is of our own making. These people are just zealously in the main religious take the dumb situation today over some bloody movie with someone dying due to their hatred of the west US particularly yet we will do zip about it...turn the other cheek! Interesting you rarely see them here in Asia, I wonder why & Thailand does not tolerate them at all their immigration gives them a serious hard time? When a country allows Mr X in, then all his relatives of any age automatically they get what they reap & Aus is sure reaping. A Norwegian friend whose mother & sister have residency in Aus yet he can only get a visitors visa, go figure? Irony of ironies the immigration personal he dealt with this year initially was a sub-continental party & the last a full kitted out ******, hilarious! I said if I could give him mine I would as we will not be living there again. No Happydaz not out of any animus, just prefer China-Hong Kong or US-France.
Praise the Lord & pass that ammunition (: Richard