Conference back40::soapbox

    
    
    VJ Day is an affront to those in Japan who are continually re-writing
    the history of that time....
    
      How dare we celebrate something so politically incorrect as "VJ Day"?

    re: .2 (mine)
    
    "celebrate" is certainly the wrong word to use here (my apologies)...
    
     The Allies were right to celebrate when the events actually occured..
    
    Ours should be more a rememberance. 
    
    If they don't like the term "VJ" then that's just too bad...
    

    .3
    
    We didn't defeat the godless bastards in the 1861-1865 war.  We lost,
    and they kept us from exercising our God-given right to remove
    ourselves from an oppressive government.

    Dick, I admire your consistency!
    
    -Jack

    .7
    
    Remember, Jack, that slavery was on its way out anyway.  It would have
    died a natural death before the turn of the century.  The Second
    American Revolution, as it was styled in the Confederate States, was
    fought for the same reasons that motivated the First American
    Revolution in 1776.  Slavery was NOT an issue for which the South
    fought; Lincoln made it one in order to get the North to fight.  And in
    so doing, he did what amounts to aborting the birth of blacks'
    legitimate freedom and substituted a compelled "freedom" that still
    today has repercussions.  He screwed up, Jack.
    
    If you like good novels, find a copy of Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of
    the South."  It's based on the premise that people from the year 2014
    come back in time and give AK-47 rifles to the South.  It doesn't turn
    out the way you'd expect, and for surprising reasons.  It's worth a
    read on its merits as a cracking good story and on its weight as a
    serious look at the real attitudes of the time.

    re: .6
    
    You beat me to that one, Dick.  
    
    According to definitions being thrown around in the OKC bombing topic, 
    those in the Southern states were all terrorists. 
    
    
    -steve

Nothing wrong with calling it VJ Day.  They started it, we ended it.  Period.

And let's not get into hand-wringing over our use of nuclear weapons to bring
the fighting to an end.  Without them, chances are my dad (and a lot of other
people's dads, American and Japanese) would have been among the millions of
casualties in the invasion.  Watching the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay was a
far better outcome.

  -Jerry

So why is it VJ and not VP?  Or VE and not VG?

    
    <------
    
    You may want to ask whoever coined the terms...
    

Which of the Axis powers were left by VE day?  What about North Africa?

    And what about Bob?

    
    re: .7
    
    binder, i picked up "the guns of the south" on your recommendation
    in another topic, and it is, indeed, a good read.  turtledove respects
    the intelligence of the reader by presenting events of the time as
    they happened, opinions as they were felt - by both sides - and allows
    one to draw his own conclusions.  of course, he also presents events
    that didn't happen, but it is very easy to suspend disbelief and go
    along for the ride.  thanks for the tip!  oh, he has a new book in
    hardcover about WWII, another alternate history, which i plan to read
    asap.
    
    
    bill

    VJ day is never going to bring back as much memories for me as BJ day.

    
    re: .17
    
    >VJ day is never going to bring back as much memories for me as BJ day.
    
    
    Evidently.....
    
     That's why you seem to be able to only Talk "Hard"
        

    ... and in tenor

    Reading through all the stuff about experiences and jobs people had to
    do for the war effort,I was most impressed at what responsbilities
    people had at such young ages.
    
    You couldn`t imagine to snotty nosed brats of today making such an
    effort.
    

    If Japan cannot acknowledge and apologize for the countless atrocities they
    committed throughout Asia and the Pacific on the civilians and
    prisoners of war during World War II then I have no regrets or apologies 
    for celebrating VJ day and the use of the Atom bomb to save the many 
    American and allied lives it might have taken to bring VJ day to reality. 
    
    Japan has never shown any remorse for their actions in the war and now
    they want us to feel badly about celebrating Victory over Japan. It
    appears they are very busy now denying that events like the rape of
    Nanking in China ever occurred and convincing everyone that the pleasure 
    women they transported to their troops in Korea were really just 
    prostitutes. Next I expect them to deny that it was the Japanese who 
    bombed Pearl Harbor while their envoys were negotiating in Washington. The 
    word may be a little out of place but I believe that is the epitomy of 
    "chutzpa". 
    
    I think they should reflect a bit more on the notion that if they
    hadn't started the war there would have been no VJ day for anyone to
    celebrate. Despite bill clinton's attempt to adopt a more politically
    correct reference to the event to avoid upsetting the Japanese I will
    continue to exercise my freedom of speech by referring to it as VJ day.
    
    JLB
    
    

    simple... let's see. we were victorious over an aggressive, warring,
    and criminal country. VJ Day? how inappropriate... NOT.
    
    Chip

    Are ya'll SURE that Japan was requesting the change or down-
    playing the date?  I interpreted the entire thing as just another
    situation where sliq is taking political correctness to an extreme.