D-Day

When I was in high school in 1989, I used to look down on soldiers of war. It was kind of fashionable to say, “President Bush is an idiot. Why is he sending all those men to the Middle East to die?”

Then, I went to a party at a friend’s house. It was her birthday and she had invited all her cousins, one of which was my friend Jose. Some of my high school friends were there also, and talk turned to the war and “how stupid it is”. Jose was angry at me. He told me, “I’m in the ROTC. Am I stupid?”

It made me think for a long while, and I realized, all the boys in my high school who were so fashionably against the war were also jobless and living off their parents’ money. Jose was a nice guy, very responsible, and furthermore, his parents were Philippino.

I hear a lot of criticism of America being made up of rich white elitists. I grant there are certainly some of those. But there are a lot of people who aren’t white, and a heck of a lot of people who aren’t rich. And many of them are not so far distant from being citizens of another country.

When my aunt became a naturalized citizen, my mom and I went to see the ceremony. I held her baby boy while my aunt joined hundreds of people in this huge room in downtown Los Angeles. There were young kids, old men and women, different races, different accents. They all had to swear that when the time came, they would defend their new country and keep it free, forsaking their old country. Old men had to swear in also, and I didn’t see how some of those frail old men could even defend themselves, much less their country. And yet, the look on all these people’s faces really touched me. They believed in America enough to come here and swear those words.

I rarely watch television anymore because most of what’s on these days doesn’t interest me. I really see no need to watch people acting out heroism when there is much everyday heroism around me that never gets acknowledged by the persnickety media.

Working at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, I’ve seen men who have seen things no other man ever will. And they are often traumatized about it, having seen fellow soldiers and friends die, and killing in return. But, my own family was saved by the actions of American soldiers.

Not so very long ago, my grandmother and grandfather hid in a ditch in a field from Japanese soldiers who were trying to kill them. If the Americans had not gone to Philippines to save them, who would have? Probably no one. Could the Philippino guerilla fighters have kicked the Japanese out on their own? Probably not. Philippines was not a warring nation at that time, so they were not prepared to fight the highly organized Japanese army, in spite of what nationalistic Philippinos may think.

I am really saddened when I see Philippinos criticize our American soldiers. I guess they don’t remember the Bataan Death March. Most of us weren’t born when it happened. How quickly they forget how American men and women died to save them, when they really didn’t have to.

I met a old man at the hospital who was injured when his plane was shot down over Philippines. He survived the crash, but as he stepped out of his plane, a Japanese soldier shot him in the head. He survived even that, and came home to the U.S. paralyzed forever on his left side. I wondered if he’d ever thought to himself, “Fuck Philippinos. They can save themselves!” (As I probably would have done.) No. When I talked to him about it, he seemed content to know that he did help save people in Philippines. The loss of his left leg? Just the price one has to pay.

How anyone can mock a man who gave the best years of his life to save others, I don’t know. I guess those people don’t believe in God, either. And I don’t want to know them.

I hear people rant and rave about what the U.S. did in Japan. How horrible that we killed so many innocent civilians. It is indeed horrible. I wonder why no one ever talks about the civilians who died in China (The Rape of Nanjing), Philippines, and Thailand. There is much talk about the Holocaust, but not much in the way of what went on in Asia. If one goes to Singapore, there is some history remaining of Japanese occupation. Otherwise, Western media ignores the whole thing. Maybe it’s because the Jews are more vocal about what happened to them. Most Asian religions practice to forgive, but not to forget. Anyone who’s ever sat in on a Seder supper though can relive animosity that goes back for centuries. You don’t want to invite an Egyptian to a Seder supper.

And yet when I went to Japan, I felt no animosity towards me even though I was American. As a second generation away from World War II, I feel no hatred for Japanese, the way my grandparents do. To me, World War II resulted in two nations creating a healthy respect for each other.

Civilians die. That’s the way of life. Death doesn’t care what one’s status is. He takes us all in the end. It’s what one does with one’s life that matters. I truly admire all those men and women who died in WWII to save others on both the European and the Asian continents.

Turn Turtle

I like reading stories about boat disasters, probably because I feel I can learn something from them. It’s the same feeling I had reading the obituaries section of a skydiving magazine before I did my first jump.

Many people think there are no places to sail in America aside from the East Coast or the West Coast. However, the Great Lakes can prove to be very dangerous, especially as winds near shorelines can be surprisingly strong and shifty. Here’s a capsize story about a trimaran competing in the Mackinac Race.