never forget WW2

[Cotty]

unclegrouch said:

My late father was your typical old school business man (haulage contractor) & most of his life refused to buy a Japanese car because of "what those ***** did to our soldiers in WW2"

Fair comment, his choice & he lived through the war years so who am I to make it right or wrong.

Not really, the people building the cars are not the same people who "did to our soldiers in WW2". At 70+ they would be a bit old to be working in a car factory.

[xRIEx]

Moonhawk said:

grumbledoak said:

Presumably some get something out of keeping these grudges alive; otherwise they would die out naturally.

It's just another example of tribalism IMO.

I was just thinking the same.

[P-Jay]

Cotty said:

unclegrouch said:

My late father was your typical old school business man (haulage contractor) & most of his life refused to buy a Japanese car because of "what those ***** did to our soldiers in WW2"

Fair comment, his choice & he lived through the war years so who am I to make it right or wrong.

Not really, the people building the cars are not the same people who "did to our soldiers in WW2". At 70+ they would be a bit old to be working in a car factory.

I think we're way, way, way past the point where we can let is pass. As many have said, almost everyone in power in the 1940's a long dead now.

and Shirley, if you're thinking about atrocities committed in WW2....



The US can't really be going for the moral high ground?

[Vocal Minority]

Could the American company policy re Japanese cars be as much to do with the damage done to the American motor trade by Japanese cars post war, and the wish to discourage it? Just a thought, could well be wrong...


I can understand those who were soldiers or their contemporaries at the time not wanting Japanese products, and maybe their offspring too. However there comes a point where people must let go, lest it all just get very messy

[Hoofy]

LordGrover said:

Some Jews wear beards.
We need a Venn diagram to sort this out.

That's what I was thinking when I read the comment about beards and Volvos.

[xRIEx]

Vocal Minority said:

However there comes a point where people must let go, lest it all just get very messy

Tell that to Catholics and Protestants.

[stuartmmcfc]

P-Jay said:

and Shirley, if you're thinking about atrocities committed in WW2....

You have a point, but please don't call me Shirley.

[trashbat]

LordGrover said:

The company I worked for in the eighties only allowed British company cars, although Ford and Vauxhall were allowed too. Lots of Rovers and Austins in the car park then. This was more a pro Buy British than anti-anyone else though.
I wonder what they would have done if Honda, Nissan, Toyota, etc had begun manufacturing here back then.

Slightly off-topic, but apparently Fiat have started doing this with non-Italian cars. Dunno what would happen if you turned up in a Lambo or something.

http://www.autoedizione.com/fca-wraps-strange-cars...

[bimsb6]

Blue62 said:

bimsb6 said:

Strange about the jewish company , i thought most jews with cash drove mercs or am i just stereotyping the ones i know ?

You're thinking of Sikhs. It is an indisputable fact that most Jewish people drive JRG Volvo's.

Lol no i'm not i don't know any sikhs ! The jewish people i know drive mercs , have done for as long as i can remember along with a honda nsx . I don't live in a hugely jewish area so only going by what i see .and never seen them in a volvo !

[Cotty]

Vocal Minority said:

I can understand those who were soldiers or their contemporaries at the time not wanting Japanese products, and maybe their offspring too. However there comes a point where people must let go, lest it all just get very messy

Its a bit I don't like you, because my dad didn't like your dad.

[Chipchap]

Cotty said:

Not really, the people building the cars are not the same people who "did to our soldiers in WW2". At 70+ they would be a bit old to be working in a car factory.

Considering that the conflict started in 1939 so in order to have taken part legally your birth year would have been 1922 or thereabouts. A person who survived the conflict and worked in any car plant would have retired at 65 in around 1987. If they were still working today that would make them 92 ! Assuming that they were involved from 1939 that is. Deduct 6 years if they only took part from the latter stages.

If you were alive but not involved i.e. a newborn in 1939 that would still make you around 75 years old +- today so we have a diminshing populace that will actually have any memory of those events

The actual events took place a long time ago, however we as gentiles were involved in the fighting and not in the persecurion and exterminations, so this makes it more difficult I suppose for us to apply the policy of shunning those goods. My own father was born in 1923 and involved for most of WW2. He rarely discussed it so myself and my siblings had no real understanding and my children less so and theirs less so etc.

So as you can see it naturally dilutes. Perhaps to a lesser extent for those who suffered as a race/religion etc.

I was in Tel Aviv recently and was astounded at just how many German cars were there. My fiancee had been there almost 20yrs earlier and at that time she said that it was mostly Jag's, Rovers and Volvo's !

Anyway one more generation and it will all be consigned to the history books as no one will be alive that actually had first hand experience of any of it.

Edited by Chipchap on Thursday 17th April 13:40

[wildcat45]

I remember my late Dad - 1927 born to technically did national service during the last week of WWII had a varying attitude towards this.

We had a VW for a time in the 1970s - a car certainly built by people who served in WWII. As an evacuee his ship was attacked and sunk by a U boat. He despised a lot for German culture from the time, Nazis killing millions etc - but not German people or their cars.

He blamed the Germans for letting Hitler. get to power, but there was no hatred there.

He would not buy a Japanese car and was intolerant of things Japanese.

Quite an odd set of beliefs from a man who had a lot of brains and who worked all over the world.

I think the war should be remembered. The terrible things done by German and Japan should not be erased from our memoriy - even though it is a second hand memory.

However, it is more something to note as having happened than to base relationships/attitudes/values on now.

I always think it is odd how Stalin gets and easy ride in history.....But then again, would you buy a Lada anyway?

[Lost soul]

Hoofy said:

LordGrover said:

Some Jews wear beards.
We need a Venn diagram to sort this out.

That's what I was thinking when I read the comment about beards and Volvos.

[Cotty]

wildcat45 said:

I think the war should be remembered. The terrible things done by German and Japan should not be erased from our memoriy

Not the Americans? Cough... Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[P-Jay]

wildcat45 said:

I remember my late Dad - 1927 born to technically did national service during the last week of WWII had a varying attitude towards this.

We had a VW for a time in the 1970s - a car certainly built by people who served in WWII. As an evacuee his ship was attacked and sunk by a U boat. He despised a lot for German culture from the time, Nazis killing millions etc - but not German people or their cars.

He blamed the Germans for letting Hitler. get to power, but there was no hatred there.

He would not buy a Japanese car and was intolerant of things Japanese.

Quite an odd set of beliefs from a man who had a lot of brains and who worked all over the world.

I think the war should be remembered. The terrible things done by German and Japan should not be erased from our memoriy - even though it is a second hand memory.

However, it is more something to note as having happened than to base relationships/attitudes/values on now.

I always think it is odd how Stalin gets and easy ride in history.....But then again, would you buy a Lada anyway?

VW usually get a free ride in this sort of thing, well their post war cars anyway - despite their dubious start, their post war existence is owned to a British Officer who started them back up after the war, I think largely to create industry and not repeat the mistakes of the period between the Wars, but it's been a long time since I read that.

[Oldred_V8S]

Eric Mc said:

I thought Ford was an American company.

And Vauxhall is owned by General Motors - also an American company.[/b]

My very "British" Caterham 7 has an engine that was built by Ford - in South Africa.

Eric

I think that is why he wrote although Ford and Vauxhall were allowed too

Mind you, very rare to see a Vauxhall in RoI, mostly Opels. Is that as a result of a desire to not buy British (or should that be American) or just that Opel give such a good deal.

Edited by Oldred_V8S on Thursday 17th April 14:28

[Lost soul]

wildcat45 said:

I think the war should be remembered. The terrible things done by German and Japan should not be erased from our memoriy - even though it is a second hand memory.

Lets not forget the terrible things done by USA Russia , and the UK

[fido]

wildcat45 said:

I always think it is odd how Stalin gets and easy ride in history.....But then again, would you buy a Lada anyway?

I feel a lot of this is to do with the lefty media. Lefty person kills millions then it's just a 'revolution'. Righty person does it then it's genocide. Both as wrong as each other IMHO.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

The Beaver King said:

I was watching something the other day and there was a cracking line that went something like:

The greatest piece of marketing the Austrians ever pulled off was convincing the world that Hitler was a German.

Following the Anschluss in 1938, the 2 nations were effectively unified anyway.

[wildcat45]

Lost soul said:

Lets not forget the terrible things done by USA Russia , and the UK

I take that point, but I assume you are glad that WWII ended as it did, with Germany and Japan defeated.

I assume you think WWII was a just war?

It was a war, and horrible things happen in war. The acts of violence by the allies were conducted with the intention of winning the war, of stopping the UK being invaded or preventing nations being over run by an evil of the worst kind.

For Britain, WWII was a fight for survival. It is hard to imagine where we live being under threat today.


How long would the war in the East have continued without the use of nuclear weapons? How many more allied troops would have died? How many more Japanese civvies would have been killed in say 5 more years of air raids etc?

The nuclear bomb oddly saved lives. It ened the conflict instantly. It also put the sts up the world, and created an uneasy peace, but none the less peace. The fact that up until today, no nation has used a nuclear weapon in anger shows the true impact of those two bombs on Japan.

Not having a go at you, but could you put forward a way to conclude WWII without dropping nuclear bombs and killing loads of people?

I think by September 1939 any chance of talking it through to sort things out was exhausted.