Japanese disrespect on-board the USS Arizona today
As a docent in a World War II museum, I talk every day to tourists that have visited the USS Arizona. For weeks, I hear stories of their visits to the deck of our sunked ship memorial at Pearl Harbor, a relic of the Japanese sneak-attack December 7th, 1941.
I grow tired of hearing stories of Americans telling me that every time they visited the Arizona, Japanese tourists sharing the deck with them, act as if they are at a party - laughing, singing, pointing at the sky tracing the flight paths of their fighters.
In a movie theatre close by, they show film clips of Tora, Tora, Tora, and during the sequence of the air attacks, I am told the Japanese audience CHEERS when the Zeros strike American ships anchored at Pearl.
Discussions with American visitors to my museum have pondered on the idea of when they visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, whether it would be appropriate to cheer or laugh, or snap pictures of themselves over the destruction wearing party hats and the like.
One wonders how the natives would view that?
I must remember to remind our Japanese visitors who speak good English that decorum is in order when we visit Nagasaki, and when they visit the Arizona.
Or else.
###
I grow tired of hearing stories of Americans telling me that every time they visited the Arizona, Japanese tourists sharing the deck with them, act as if they are at a party - laughing, singing, pointing at the sky tracing the flight paths of their fighters.
In a movie theatre close by, they show film clips of Tora, Tora, Tora, and during the sequence of the air attacks, I am told the Japanese audience CHEERS when the Zeros strike American ships anchored at Pearl.
Discussions with American visitors to my museum have pondered on the idea of when they visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, whether it would be appropriate to cheer or laugh, or snap pictures of themselves over the destruction wearing party hats and the like.
One wonders how the natives would view that?
I must remember to remind our Japanese visitors who speak good English that decorum is in order when we visit Nagasaki, and when they visit the Arizona.
Or else.
###
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