" Watch some doofus in the purchasing department award the contract to fix it to a Japanese firm."
When we took the shuttle boat over to the USS Arizona, my wife and I were the only non Japanese tourists aboard. Talk about surreal.
Try the "peace museum" in Nagasaki. Nothing like being the only 6'3 Amerikajin in the room.
I know exactly what you mean. I have been to the Memorial eight times. Everytime we pulled in at Pearl Harbor, I went to pay my respects to my "brothers" who still lie entombed on her. The last time I was there the Memorial was crowded with Japs and to see them smiling and laughing in that sacred place provoked anger in me. It would be like me laughing at a place like Hiroshima. They smile and laugh real good until you remind them of where the Atomic Bombs were field tested at.
Were the Japanese tourists on your boat laughing holding videocameras like the ones on my boat?