This thread will probably get me shot.......

[mrs_overall]

I have an uncle who was a P.O.W. and was tortured & left disabled by the Japanese. He is 90 and still has screaming nightmares.
I cannot feel a great deal of sympathy for the Japanese at the moment. Does anyone else feel remotely like this?

[mrs_overall]

Alba - stale garibaldi that needed eating up.

Headwreck - I could never flounce in these heels - I'd look like Dick Emery in drag lol

[anneasquith]

mrs o, i think you have been very brave to be so open on this thread, and sadly you now feel sad.................... i dont quite agree with you ,but im not in your position .

[mrs_overall]

I'm more sad that some swine has eaten all my custard creams and left the empty wrapper in the biccie tin

[mrs_overall]

School run time.

This has been an interesting one.

[Zeuhl]

mrs o

if you do feel sad and not sure why - here's a radical idea ....

make a donation to a reputable charity for relief work in japan - and do it in tribute to all the young men like your uncle who suffered in the last war.
.

[Mosaic]

yeh but, no but.....
These Japanese now didn't do that.
These Germans now didn't invade Poland.
We can be responsible for the present and influence a little bit of the future, but we can't re-write the past.

[mrs_overall]

No probs headwreck.

Zeuhl - I already donate to (amongst others) Save the Children so I guess I am indirectly donating to Japan

Have to dash xx

[China Doll]

Not exactly but I will confess to not feeling at all emotional about it. I'm the sort of person who can find a story/situation/event sad, horrifying, disgusting etc... But that doesn't necessarily make me feel emotional about them. I think this even is horrible, very sad and terrible but I'm unlikely to cry about it, I will probably donate some money to help as it looks like they need it and I'm happy to do that. If I had loved ones living out there, I would probably feel very emotional about it, but this lack of empathy/sympathy/whatever you want to call it is just a quirk of my nature and I'm pretty confident I'm a good person so it doesn't bother me but can see how some people might think I was heartless.

[tiggerblue10]

I haven't read the whole thread but, I can understand how you feel to a certain extent Mrs O. At the end of the day we are all human beings and I personally hate to see anyone suffer whether it be inflicted by humans or by force of nature.

I read a story on MSN the other day about a Japanese man who saved many Jews from the Germans during the war.

[moonraker558]

I think the Americans did much more to them in the blink of an eye.

[ttfn]

mrs_o, of course you are entitled to your feelings and to express them. Individual experiences are bound to affect our perceptions and emotions. It is very easy for any one to say they wouldn't agree with you, but they would not have the same personal point of view as do you. At times, I can see life as a struggle between good and evil. Mankind is like the horizon - it covers the earth in every direction. There are people who do good and those who do bad all over the world, some do evil too. At every Remberance Day I think of the fallen who have fought for the future. Sometimes though, I think that those who 'survived' have suffered the greatest. I also try and remember that all scars are not necessarily visible. I, too, applaud your candidness.

[mrs_overall]

Thank you ttfn xx

[wilkesneil]

mrs o , i don't really have any feelings towards this as all over the world there is stuff happening (mostly bad). i wrote a joke on here about the japs and it got took and and i got a thread full of abuse hurled towards me. (the joke related to the war), i don't hate the japs but i don't like them either. i believe things happen for a reason and this is 1 of those things that happens. the way i see it is, would they be bothered if it happened here!!! i doubt it.