Gonna run right out and buy a Japanese Car...

My dad died in the late eighties still hating the Japanese.

Small wonder...



And I thought my professors are wacked.

Nah...no justification for nuking the crap out of them. Nice folks.

When I proudly parked my first new car outside my In-Laws' house the neighbour, incarcerated in Changi after fall of Singapore came out wildly shouting that he would smash it up with a lump hammer if i didn't remove it sharpish.
Hastily had to point out to him that it was a Hyundai made in Korea, the first import of that marque to the UK in 1982.

A few years later this traumatised man was sacked from his employment and arrested for assault for pushing down steps the first Japanese executive he saw after his employer's company (Avery Scales) combined with a Nipponese organisation.

That video has popped up many times in my rec list but I can't bring myself to watch it.

War is hell. The Axis powers did some really messed up stuff during that time, and their governments and military officials should be held to account.

The U.S. and allied powers weren't saints either, but the atrocities committed by many of the Axis powers far out-weigh any temporary lack of moral standing that may have occurred by the Allies.

What the Tojo regime did during WWII was truly reprehensible and criminal but was every single Japanese at the time equally guilty of those atrocities? I'd say any reasonable person would say "No". I will further venture to say that someone who gets all bent out of shape over a Japanese car several decades after the war was over needs to think about taking some anger management classes.

Would you buy a car made by the Castro regime?

No because the quality would suck ass and besides Cuba doesn't even have industrial capacity to make any cars.

Wait, what? There are people here that refuse Japanese goods almost 80 years after WW2? German items as well?

Wow...

As an SL owner (from what I recall in one of his pics), here's something that Nixer can appreciate...

You guys remember Saturn? GM's answer to the imports, including a pleasant no-haggling buying experience. This brand had a loyal cult following, their Mecca being in Spring Hill, Tenn. I was hoping Saturn would revive Pontiac's Fiero with a plastic-paneled 2-seater mid-engine SC2.

Anyway, imagine how new Saturn Vue V6 owners felt when they found out that their 'import fighter' was powered by Honda (engine straight out of the Odyssey)...
The Shock of a Hondafied Vue

I remember being entertained by the controversy.

++++++++++

I received only slight flak for my new Mitsubishi Mirage as it was branded a Dodge Colt (you had to look for the "Imported for Dodge" label...pic in this thread)...
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4357978/2/the-fixx-fri-aug-18-8pm-varsity-theatre

++++++++++

I've driven several new rentals in the last 5 or so years and I'm impressed with 'Detroit' these days, especially the Chevy Malibu and a Dodge sedan (forget the model). There's so much globalization these days that I bet most cars are more international than we think, regardless of where most of the profits go.

Yup. Just think about this very common scenario:


What would matter more for an avid "Buy American" consumer?


A Mercedes Benz that is built at a manufacturing plant in South Carolina or a Ford Fiesta that is built in Mexico or Canada?

IMO, a couple of gems for your personal library...

Many new cars sold here now have a "% built in North America", Canada or the US, section on their window sticker.

Saw a new Jeep Trailhawk yesterday with one. 71% made in North America.

I was taking about my father, he's been dead over 20 years. I did chuckle to myself a few years back when I saw a mom loading her kids into a Mercedes wagon with Japanese tires. I don't think dad would have appreciated the irony...

International trade just keeps marching on. Vietnam is one our largest trading partners too.

All that was missing was Italian leather for the interior.

Judging by the current economic model which Vietnam has been using for a long time now, it can be argued that the US won the war. Ho Chi Minh would be turning in his grave if he knew what modern day Vietnam was like.

My Honda Odyssey was made in the US, but my Lexus LS430 was imported.

Dad would have considered that a good mistake.

The gentleman in question suffered great abuse at the hands of his captors, saw many of his comrades put to death or die of disease, exhaustion and malnutrition, as well of the violence and punishments dished out. This is from what I surmised admittedly, garnered from the history of Changi. Like many he didn't or wasn't encouraged to speak of his travail. Even in the early 1980s PTSD wasn't really acknowledged or treated. Especially when it surfaced many years after the trauma, as in the case of this man, my father and my wife's maternal Grandfather.

My wife's father, being a career soldier retiring as Major, played a small part in the organisation of the forces charity "Help for Heroes" formed to help those with consequences from the Gulf War, set up in 2007.

If our Government treated and looked after our veterans as they should, there would be no need for such charitable organisations here in Britain

My grandad was captured by the Japanese and spent time as a POW. They cut his tongue out.


Never talked about it.

Garbage...

Ran across this in my readings today and thought it should be here.


https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2...the-story-from-one-of-its-few-survivors/

Thanks OG, good, albeit horrible, read.