This photo has some personal interest for me because I served on BB62 as a Quarter Master in 1968. Sadly I never knew much about its history other than it was a WWII battleship. Every 16in round weigh and cost as much as a 1968 Cadillac.
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This photo has some personal interest for me because I served on BB62 as a Quarter Master in 1968. Sadly I never knew much about its history other than it was a WWII battleship. Every 16in round weigh and cost as much as a 1968 Cadillac.
'68 Caddy now there is a car
Mark, do you know if the Japanese POW definitely is a captured Kamikaze pilot? If he is, I have no sympathy for him if he feels humiliated but I do have sympathy for the crew of the ship for the awful experience that they must have just been through.
Non of the captions I have found indicate Kamikaze
here is another "Japanese POW is washing himself under the stare of dozens of crew members of USS New Jersey as soon as he and other Japanese have been transferred aboard ship the wash will be followed by delousing and the issue of navy fatigues. The whole scene is rather weird. December 1944"
One has to understand the mindset of the individual their cultural history their training to get to grips with what they were at that period of time Japanese culture was the way of the warrior for 000's of years the way of the Samurai and Bushido the male children were brought up that way death is a glorious act in battle bringing honor to your family and captives are weak they should not have surrendered as they dishonor their families so should die.
The SS same deal they went for a specific type of person that would follow orders to the letter with no thoughts about the morality of the act they are committing their training and indoctrination saw that they would carry on regardless despite losses and the heinous acts committed of which there are numerous stories of the murderous SS in WWII but highly trained and efficient killers they were.
The western allied side fought against what was deemed injustices committed by tyrannical forces that wanted to subjugate the worlds people for their own gain or misguided ideals they had been wronged by previous events in the worlds history like WWI a notion supported by their leaders or the others worshiped a man they thought was a god all of which we knew was shear idealism.
A just cause is the corner stone of our beliefs that a person has an equal rite to be on this rock they should have their share of peace and prosperity yet today the old wars still go on the only difference is technology has changed in a more efficient bomb and weapons systems the enemy has blended into the crowd, has many heads and cares not about losses nor the morality of how they kill or where they kill across the planet