Fury

[Big J]

Very sentient points. There comes a time when the public realizes that they have been lied to and all of the fight and sacrifice has been for nothing. That is when they do not have the will to fight back. Throwing more lives onto the fire of deception ends right there.

Absolutely, and sadly, true.

 

[Big J]

I met a kamikaze pilot many years ago. He was indeed, "voluntold" for the duty. He said he got full flight training and actually went out several times but never found anything until his final mission. He said his last flight was the day before VJ day and the pilots knew that was coming very soon. They communicated with hand signals and they saw some ships off the coast. The flight lead made the hand signal for 'No joy, return to base,' and he said though they never talked about it, the other pilots had to have seen those ships yet nobody was angry at all for not attacking them. He also said they all threw their (pressed steel copy) samurai swords into a creek next to the runway after they landed, all knowing it was all over anyway. One apparently taxied his plane into the creek, ripping off the landing gear and damaging the engine and props, on purpose, as apparently they knew the allies were very close by that point and he couldn't handle the idea of 'his' plane being taken intact. Sort of reminded me of what Rudel did with his Stuka when he surrendered...

That's a really interesting story!
It's a sad fact that very little real research has been done on Kamikaze, the voices of survivors has been drowned out by the narrative of 'they were brave volunteers', you know the rest.
One of my friends married a lady who's father is a suicide torpedo veteran. He was lucky, the war ended before they could get him killed. But for me the most surprising thing was when I found out he went to kamikaze reunions! It seems like such an oxymoron. But I think that by August 45 pretty much every soldier in mainland Japan had been assigned some sort of suicide mission.

In our house, nobody has any time for glorification of the war. My Father-in-Laws family was resettled forcibly from Tokyo to China to farm conquered lands. My Father-in-Law was born in China just a couple of months before the end of the war. When the Russians broke thier peace treaty and invaded, the Japanese army pulled out, but Japanese civilians weren't told anything; the army didn't want refugees blocking the roads.
He was lucky, his family was able to return to Japan, but many others were left behind, and the Japanese government refused to acknowledge them as Japanese citizens for over 50 years.

 

[Story]

I had an opportunity to hear Don Evans speak at the Valley Forge Baptist Church. Evans was a recon company tanker in the 2nd Armor and a consultant for FURY. He became a born-again Christian after the war and listening to him talk, it was obvious where his experiences were integrated into the movie and particularly where Shia Lebeouf's character was shaped.

Evans has written a book ($10), well worth reading. Follow the link below -

http://community.thecaringchurch.com/veterans-story-told/

 

[hatguy1]

"Fury" should be taken in the context of almost everything in the movie probably did happen to someone, somewhere, but surely not the same crew in such a tight timeframe.

You're probably right. One thing that bothers me about Hollywierd putting such scenes in movies is how they have a tendency to be taken as more widespread policy than isolated incidents.

 

[hatguy1]

I met a kamikaze pilot many years ago.

Something seems lmost a contradiction in terms in those words, but after reading the rest of your comment, I can see how those who quietly knew the war was lost [or had cold feet] could avoid fulfilling the mission with their suicide.