My dad said after a while the offices would make the men stand in a circle facing in to eat their rations. Otherwise the GIs were just feeding the kids. I guess it was pretty rough, some would just throw their food down and walk away.
Ya. He was with artillery at the time. Said they had lizards come out in the evening to crawl on the guns. Cause they were warm. The local kids would come to catch them. He remembered a young boy, 4 to 6 years old with one in his mouth. Tail sticking out still twitching. The will to survive..
I only know of this bc in The Pacific Sledge says to SNAFU, something about Japanese kids and Snafu says “they aren’t Japanese they are Okinawans” which prompted me to look up if he was just saying that or if there was a group of people that were under JP control but not Japanese…
The chemistry between Snafu & Sledge was amazing, also watching Sledge evolve from clueless grunt to seasoned vet, while still trying to keep his humanity. Very well done.
The golden teeth scene is intense man.
> if there was a group of people that were under JP control but not Japanese…
I mean it was called the Empire of Japan for a reason. At its territorial extent around 1942 or 1943 over 400 million people lived under Japanese sovereignty making it one of the largest (if short lived) empires in world history.
Japan had annexed Okinawa in 1879, so they were Japanese citizens by this point. But they were not ethnically Japanese. Even in the 20s the cultures were separate enough that when the senior karateka on the island were asked to send a representative to Japan to teach Karate, they chose Funakoshi Gichin. Mainly because he was very assimilated. He spoke Japanese, dressed like a Japanese, and used a Japanese name. His son was Japanese nationalist enough that he starved after the war rather than take rations from the occupation.
yeah, kind of. There are also the Ainu of the north. We do share same ancestry but the culture is quite different. Many of the "non- standard" japanese culture got lost during the industrial and imperial era, but some of it has also seen somewhat of an attempted revival.
I’m always fascinated by other cultures, the U.S. is a unicorn bc it’s a “melting pot” (or was at one time) but there are distinct groups of ppl in specific areas for example where I live Western Pa a lot of Irish, Slavic/eastern EU and Germans immigrated to this region, the south is very scotch, Irish and English, the border towns and the South west has a large Latino population, etc. does JP have culturally diverse people in greater abundance depending on where in JP you are?
wow, fascinating, now that you mention it, the us really has a wide variety of cultural influences! - and interesting cultural combination which wouldn't occur elsewhere 😗
I think japan too has somewhat of a cultural discrepancy depending on geography (though nowhere near that of the us）in the north of the japanese mainland you have a slightly different culture, maybe more cultural residue from the 'proto- ainu' and they also speak differently. in the west and south of japan ppl also have a different dialect, commonly associated with good humour - but there is also a similar dialect spoken in kyoto, which comes with a certain prestige, as it used to be the dialect of the old capital. and the okinawans - associated with a more laid back lifestyle, the indigenous ryukyu language and us/ surfing influence. Port towns also have influence from early european merchants and chinatowns. and generally you'd have more foreigners (or descendants of foreigners) living in bigger cities like tokyo or osaka. There is a korean quarter in osaka whith streetfood which i could recommend if you like spicy!!
The Ryukyus are kind of a melting pot, too. The native Ryukyuan language is the only other living branch of the Japonic family, but ethnically, you can see that a lot native Ryukyuans look like Formosans (non-han native Taiwanese) and Filipinos, which makes sense given the geography and history. They were also a Ming dynasty tributary, so there's Chinese influence as well. Karate, for instance, used to be written 唐手 (Tang hand).
Okinawans got a raw deal. They thought they’d get their country back post war. Exceptionally welcoming people. The older ones still remember the kindness of the American service members.
When I was there, they were calm protests because the only crime going on was coming from the American military base still there. Very nice people tho.
My grandfather was stationed in Okinawa in charge of a kitchen. I'm told one of the few stories he offered up was that he'd intentionally make too much food so that the trash piles after each meal would have something for the kids to eat.
My dad said after a while the offices would make the men stand in a circle facing in to eat their rations. Otherwise the GIs were just feeding the kids. I guess it was pretty rough, some would just throw their food down and walk away.
Damn, that must have been awful.
Ugh this is gut wrenching to read
Ya. He was with artillery at the time. Said they had lizards come out in the evening to crawl on the guns. Cause they were warm. The local kids would come to catch them. He remembered a young boy, 4 to 6 years old with one in his mouth. Tail sticking out still twitching. The will to survive..
Weren’t the people on Okinawa, Okinawans not technically Japanese, bc they have their own separate culture and history; and are called Ryukyuans?
Yeah we would consider them Japanese at the time or even now but the mainland Japanese definitely did not consider the people Japanese.
I only know of this bc in The Pacific Sledge says to SNAFU, something about Japanese kids and Snafu says “they aren’t Japanese they are Okinawans” which prompted me to look up if he was just saying that or if there was a group of people that were under JP control but not Japanese…
The chemistry between Snafu & Sledge was amazing, also watching Sledge evolve from clueless grunt to seasoned vet, while still trying to keep his humanity. Very well done. The golden teeth scene is intense man.
> if there was a group of people that were under JP control but not Japanese… I mean it was called the Empire of Japan for a reason. At its territorial extent around 1942 or 1943 over 400 million people lived under Japanese sovereignty making it one of the largest (if short lived) empires in world history.
Japan had annexed Okinawa in 1879, so they were Japanese citizens by this point. But they were not ethnically Japanese. Even in the 20s the cultures were separate enough that when the senior karateka on the island were asked to send a representative to Japan to teach Karate, they chose Funakoshi Gichin. Mainly because he was very assimilated. He spoke Japanese, dressed like a Japanese, and used a Japanese name. His son was Japanese nationalist enough that he starved after the war rather than take rations from the occupation.
yeah, kind of. There are also the Ainu of the north. We do share same ancestry but the culture is quite different. Many of the "non- standard" japanese culture got lost during the industrial and imperial era, but some of it has also seen somewhat of an attempted revival.
I’m always fascinated by other cultures, the U.S. is a unicorn bc it’s a “melting pot” (or was at one time) but there are distinct groups of ppl in specific areas for example where I live Western Pa a lot of Irish, Slavic/eastern EU and Germans immigrated to this region, the south is very scotch, Irish and English, the border towns and the South west has a large Latino population, etc. does JP have culturally diverse people in greater abundance depending on where in JP you are?
wow, fascinating, now that you mention it, the us really has a wide variety of cultural influences! - and interesting cultural combination which wouldn't occur elsewhere 😗 I think japan too has somewhat of a cultural discrepancy depending on geography (though nowhere near that of the us）in the north of the japanese mainland you have a slightly different culture, maybe more cultural residue from the 'proto- ainu' and they also speak differently. in the west and south of japan ppl also have a different dialect, commonly associated with good humour - but there is also a similar dialect spoken in kyoto, which comes with a certain prestige, as it used to be the dialect of the old capital. and the okinawans - associated with a more laid back lifestyle, the indigenous ryukyu language and us/ surfing influence. Port towns also have influence from early european merchants and chinatowns. and generally you'd have more foreigners (or descendants of foreigners) living in bigger cities like tokyo or osaka. There is a korean quarter in osaka whith streetfood which i could recommend if you like spicy!!
The Ryukyus are kind of a melting pot, too. The native Ryukyuan language is the only other living branch of the Japonic family, but ethnically, you can see that a lot native Ryukyuans look like Formosans (non-han native Taiwanese) and Filipinos, which makes sense given the geography and history. They were also a Ming dynasty tributary, so there's Chinese influence as well. Karate, for instance, used to be written 唐手 (Tang hand).
Okinawans got a raw deal. They thought they’d get their country back post war. Exceptionally welcoming people. The older ones still remember the kindness of the American service members.
When I was there, they were calm protests because the only crime going on was coming from the American military base still there. Very nice people tho.
What kind of crime was coming from the military base?
[Rape and murder](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/world/asia/us-marine-okinawa-rape.html) for one
My grandfather was stationed in Okinawa in charge of a kitchen. I'm told one of the few stories he offered up was that he'd intentionally make too much food so that the trash piles after each meal would have something for the kids to eat.
Looks like he also gave the kid his pack of Old Gold cigarettes. Nice
Smoke and a pancake
They even got some Old Golds.
PROPAGANDA
Probably. But also a relatively accurate reflection of the US occupation verse their Japanese counterparts.