Thread: Japanese Flag On Anzac Day 2015?

A little off topic but of some relevance...

Banjo Paterson wrote as an open letter to the troops in 1915 a poem he titled "We're All Australians Now":

Australia takes her pen in hand,

To write a line to you,

To let you fellows understand,

How proud we are of you.




From shearing shed and cattle run,

From Broome to Hobsons Bay,

Each native-born Australian son,

stands straighter up today.




The man who used to "hump his drum",

On far-out Queensland runs,

Is fighting side by side with some

Tasmanian farmer's sons.




The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar

To grimly stand the test,

Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,

With miners from the west.

The old state jealousies of yore

Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,

We're not State children any more

We're all Australians now!




Our six-starred flag that used to fly,

Half-shyly to the breeze,

Unknown where older nations ply

Their trade on foreign seas,




Flies out to meet the morning blue

With Vict'ry at the prow;

For that's the flag the Sydney flew,

The wide seas know it now!




The mettle that a race can show

Is proved with shot and steel,

And now we know what nations know

And feel what nations feel.




The honoured graves beneath the crest

Of Gaba Tepe hill,

May hold our bravest and our best,

But we have brave men still.




With all our petty quarrels done,

Dissensions overthrown,

We have, through what you boys have done,

A history of our own.




Our old world diff'rences are dead,

Like weeds beneath the plough,

For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,

They're all Australians now!




So now we'll toast the Third Brigade,

That led Australia's van,

For never shall their glory fade

In minds Australian.




Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,

Till right and justice reign.

Fight on, fight on, till Victory

Shall send you home again.




And with Australia's flag shall fly

A spray of wattle bough,

To symbolise our unity,

We're all Australians now.

Don't carry hate, but never forget. Lest we forget, Bob


Sandakan


Behind the Wire

Originally Posted by bob10

Don't carry hate, but never forget. Lest we forget, Bob


Sandakan


Behind the Wire

Agreed Bob, I don't hate them at all. I find the modern Japanese person very polite and easy to get along with.It is a different era now in Japan.

But in WW2 under the influence of the "dying for the Emperor" line of thought what they did was unforgiveable.

They have not changed from what they have always been.
At the moment they have just been forced to pull their head in.

There are quite a large number of Australians who are of Japanese descent, usually because they married Australians. For example, a friend has a wife from Japan, but she and their two children are both Australian and Japanese citizens.

Suppose an Australian citizen with a Japanese background wants to mourn Japanese relatives who died in the war? I don't see any need to fly a Japanese flag, but I think its fine for them, as Australian citizens, to participate in Anzac Day and use it as an opportunity to mourn the lost in their Japanese family.

I also have new Australian friends who have had family members die in conflicts in countries such as Myanmar and Afghanistan. On Anzac Day they remember the people they knew in their countries of origin. As they are now Australians, I think that's fine.

I guess its an example of the way the diversifying makeup of our population is expanding our mental horizons. I remember how there was a struggle to get Anzac Day extended to include people involved in other wars, particularly the Vietnam vets.

The suggestion about Remembrance Day is a good one except that Remembrance Day is specifically about the end of WWI (in which the Japanese were our allies).

Incidentally, I was in London on Remembrance Day two years ago and, quite by accident, stumbled into the ceremony near Trafalgar Square, with the Queen and others. It was very solemn and moving - they can teach us a thing or two about how to run a memorial ceremony.

I dont have any problem with people from countries that were our enemy's holding ceremonies to mourn their dead. That is a basic human need common to all races. What they do in their countries and anywhere else in private in this regard is none of my business but flying flags and making their presence felt on our days of national mourning is not on. No way.

I have different thoughts on this subject when it comes to those dead Turks that fought us. I think we can just as easily and rightfully honor them together with ours.

Originally Posted by olbod

They have not changed from what they have always been.
At the moment they have just been forced to pull their head in.

My uncle, who fought the Japanese in New Guinea would agree with you and I can understand (very much) his hardline view.He has told me that Leopards don't change their spots. However, times are moving on and even though I absolutely detest what the Japanese did to their prisoners of war and I have absolutely no respect for the Japanese of that era.

We can't lower ourselves to be like certain other nationalties/religions where feuds go on for centuries. We are better than that.

I have absolutely nothing against the Japanese people nowadays. I treat them the same as any other country we are not at war with.

Originally Posted by olbod

I dont have any problem with people from countries that were our enemy's holding ceremonies to mourn their dead. That is a basic human need common to all races. What they do in their countries and anywhere else in private in this regard is none of my business but flying flags and making their presence felt on our days of national mourning is not on. No way.

I have different thoughts on this subject when it comes to those dead Turks that fought us. I think we can just as easily and rightfully honor them together with ours.

Agree 100%