Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Homer_J_Simpson
There are a hundred messages I could post, and I wish we could just hang around for another month or so, not making HJS post any more, just tying up all the loose ends of things in the papers. I'm going to stick to two, because I have about 12 minutes before going back to work after the late lunch.

The first is on #12, about the surrender of the remaining Bonins, the islands including Iwo. Their head was Lt. Gen. Yoshio Tachibana, who was an evil bastard among evil bastards. Among other things, he had two Americans prisoners executed, flayed, and eaten, for which he was eventually hanged as a war criminal; cf here. But for me, that's not all...he grew up in Ehime Prefecture, meaning the Imabari/Matsuyama area of Shikoku where I worked in '97 and visited a number of times since, with Imabari being the sister city of nearby Lakeland, FL. Tachibana is a common name in Imabari (there are a few others, such as Yano), and the Tachibanas are an extended family-clan of sorts. One of the men who was instrumental in bringing together the Lakeland/Imabari sister city connection was a Mr. Tachibana, who was born in the 1920s and was in his 70s when I knew him. Look at any picture of Yoshio Tachibana, and the Tachibana-san I knew was the spitting image of the evil bastard Lt. Gen. I have no doubt they were related; my Mr. T may very well have been his nephew. That is how strange Japanese relationships are.

The second is on #3, about the baka bomb factory on Yokosuka NB. Further down, it talked about the tunnels that were excavated for the sake of factory production underground if necessary. When I was in Yokosuka in the late 60s, the tunnels were still there, an object of exploration for Boy Scouts (I was Senior Patrol Leader of Troup 33 for my first year there, before getting Eagle and forming the Explorer post I mentioned a few days ago), and also for those wishing to engage in teenage illicit activities--and it was quite possible to get lost inside the tunnels, it happened to a few people while I was there.

28 posted on 09/01/2015 1:07:31 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: chajin
Teenage Illicit Activities

Good name for a rock band.

30 posted on 09/01/2015 1:14:24 PM PDT by Hebrews 11:6 (Do you REALLY believe that (1) God IS, and (2) God IS GOOD?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson