DANG NAZIS er...J@PS!

[sbl]

"G&oumltz von Berlichingen"¡¡
17.SS Panzergrenadierdivision¡¡

WWII Reenactors.....in Japan



http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl...3DpxV%26sa%3DN

[tompritchett]

I wonder how many 100th INf Bn and 442 Regimental Combat team WW II units they have over there.

[flattop32355]

You have got to be kidding me.

Next, we'll be seeing Japanese Vikings.

[huntdaw]

They look better than a lot of American WWII German reenactors I 've seen.

[AZReenactor]

They really do look better than many US German reenactors, don't they...

Reminded me of a fellow who came over from Japan to Arizona in 2005 to reenact with a WWII Japanese Reenacting Unit. He ended up falling in with a confederate outfit as a flag bearer during some of the CW skirmishes.



It was a little sureal hearing him shouting across the field "Yankee, you go home now or you die." in his very heavy Japanese accent.

[FloridaBummer]

Yeah I have to agree they look alot better than some of the World War 2 German reenactors. I wonder how high their authenticity is for portraying World War 2 Japanese soldiers. I imagine it would be quite high.
And its got me wondering if they used Japanese soldier reenactors in any of the latest World War 2 movies.I do know they use them for some of the History Channel documentaries. Sometime I saw a site for ACW in Japan. Can't seem to find it though. I'll post it if I find it.
Fascinating!
Regards

[bob 125th nysvi]

considering the Japanese officially don't talk about WWII, I'd be surprised if there were many reenactor groups portraying Japanese WWII soldiers outside the hard right nationalists.

My nephew spent a year in Japan as an exchange student. beleive me he is no genius when it comes to history (pick anytype) and even his knowledge was massively above and beyond what the Japanese students knew about WWII.

About all they know is we unjustly ended the war by blasting two cities with A-bombs. If they ask much of anything else they are greeted with silence.

[flattop32355]

About all they know is we unjustly ended the war by blasting two cities with A-bombs. If they ask much of anything else they are greeted with silence.

Funny how we (USA) always end up being the bad guy.

[tompritchett]

Actually
considering the Japanese officially don't talk about WWII, I'd be surprised if there were many reenactor groups portraying Japanese WWII soldiers outside the hard right nationalists.

My nephew spent a year in Japan as an exchange student. beleive me he is no genius when it comes to history (pick anytype) and even his knowledge was massively above and beyond what the Japanese students knew about WWII.

I suspect that it may have something to do with the shame associated with their part in the war - shame on multiple levels. Based upon certain actions involving a particular war memorial, some could argue that even the highest levels of the current adminstration have yet fully acknowledged 1) the role that Japan's imperialist policies played in bringing about the war in the Pacific and 2) the war crimes that they commited both against allied prisoners of war and against many citizens of mainland China. Then of course, there is the shame of their military in starting a war in which they were ultimately forced to an unconditional surrender. I suspect that it will take at least one more generation before the Japanesse can fully come to grips with their role in WWII.

[Robert A Mosher]

It was a little sureal hearing him shouting across the field "Yankee, you go home now or you die." in his very heavy Japanese accent.

Reminds me of my old National Guard unit. I was in the Recon platoon with another guy and we were the M-60 gunners on our two jeeps. He was a German refugee from the old Soviet zone whose father disappeared near Leningrad during the war. His grandmother got the two of them out of the Soviet zone to the west and he eventually got to the States.

Once our two jeeps came back from a patrol during an exercise at AP Hill to find some of the leg infantry guys guarding a group of "prisoners." Wolf gets out of his jeep and walks over to take a look at them - after a minute or two he glances around at them one more time and asks in his heavy German accent, "Does anyone here haf any gold teeth?" I glanced at the prisoners and realized that for them this military exercise had taken on a whole new level of 'reality.'

Every once and a while, Wolf would get on the battalion radio net and was almost always followed on the net by someone from battalion HQ demanding to know who the comedian was!

Robert A. Mosher
'Scouts Out!"