VE Day is a monumental day in history and should be remembered (not celebrated) by all the belligerents.

---

--------------------------
The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

There can't be many WWII veterans left. The youngest are over 90 now. As kids we didn't realize how recent the end of the war was. 1970 was closer to VE day than we are to the election of Clinton.

My dad was about as young as you could be for WWII. He got to Okinawa as they were finishing up the fighting on the island and spent a couple years there. He just turned 92. He still would never dream of buying a Toyota or Honda.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Just cars or all things Japanese?

Cars for the most part. Easier to point those out.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Just about all of Europe disagrees with you.

Greg

---

If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020

We had a VFW post right on the corner of our block (the neighborhood was still largely Polish-American and Hungarian-American in those days, and the VFW post was named in honor of a Polish-American soldier who'd died in WWII). I remember that every VE Day, the post's members, all of whom were WWII and Korean War veterans, had a remembrance ceremony out front, complete with color guard and wreath laying, with taps being played, and all the other minutiae that comes from such memorials. The first one I can recall was in 1966, before the Vietnam-era folks started coming back in large numbers and joining the VFW.

All those WWII and Korean vets back then were still young, relatively speaking, though as a boy I thought they were impossibly old. What I wouldn't give to have all of them back with us today. :-)

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

A couple of years ago, my son, my Dad, and I attended Airventure at Oshkosh. We have been seven times now and what happened in 2016 exemplifies why we all want to go every year even though my Dad will be 88 in two weeks. He is going with us again in July. In 2016, we were wandering around the warbird ramp watching the ground handlers position two B-25 bombers in front of the stands. Shortly, a very old guy wanders around to where we were standing in the shade under one of the wings and Dad struck up a conversation, you know, old guy to old guy. In about five minutes, it became clear that the setup of the bombers was part of an interview he was going to give. He introduced himself to the three of us and shook hands giving his name as Dick Cole. Hmmmm. No recollection. Didn't ask any more, but Dad mentioned that he had given instruction in B-25s and taught a lot of pilots in them. Said they were dangerous to fly on one engine, Dick agreed. They swapped stories and this humble guy never told us anything about himself. Soon, we were pointed over to the stands for a seat as a couple of people took the 'stage' between the two bombers and introduced Dick Cole as the guy that was Jimmy Doolittle's copilot on the famous Raid on Tokyo months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

We bought his book and talked again after the interview. So, he signed my copy of his book and we got pictures with him. The Greatest Generation.

No shit.

Greg

---

If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020

Awesome story! :-)

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Great story!

When I was a kid it seemed like most kids that I knew had dads that were either WWII (including my own) or Korean War vets. Sadly, not many of them left these days. The Greatest Generation.

---

"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

LOL, my grandfather was the same way. He was a Bataan Death March survivor and spent 3 years of forced labor in various Japanese concentration camps, mostly for Mitsubishi. He died in 1998, but in his adult life he refused to buy anything Japanese. Went to his grave with pure hate in his heart for them, can't say I blame him either. During my early Marine Corps career I spent 5 years stationed on Okinawa, got engaged to a Japanese gal, engagement fell through, but I'm sure he would've disowned me if I had married her. Now had I married a Philippina, he would have offered to be my best man. He loved Philippinos, fought side-by-side with them and had great admiration for them.

---

--------------------------
The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Well, there are other places where Germans didn't surrender. In Yugoslavia they fought on for another few weeks as they made their way West as they didn't want to surrender to communist partisans. Lots of those who did surrender were executed.

I know of a Vietnam vet who went back to Vietnam in 2012 to make his peace and he exorcised a lot of demons while there. He also had a chance to meet up with the local VC who shot his ass and they had a great old time together - old warrior to old warrior. It's too bad that your grandfather went to his grave like that but I do believe that there are some things you don't, or can't, forgive. I hope that most old warriors will find the time to either forgive their enemies or themselves.

My dad doesn't hold ill will to any individual Japanese person. And he talks fondly of the POW's he oversaw. He has a large piece of parachute silk that one of the POW's used to make a beautiful painting for him hanging on his living room wall.

But he also remembers what he saw and what their government did. And apparently he has a very long and good memory.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Yes, there were small German military units who knew what would happen if they immediately adhered to the instrument of surrender signed by the German army's chief of staff, General Alfred Jodl on May 7th, 1945. The communists were in no mood to treat any member of the German military with any sort of attention paid to the niceties attached to POW status.

---

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."