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Post by David on Oct 2, 2005 20:58:51 GMT -5
Hello, I am a Japanese fanatic, I wanna play a part in a reenactment as a Japanese soldier, are there any other players here who do that? ALso I am in Texas if you guys could come here to COrpus Christi for a big event then I Would actually be able to play. Also I am lookingfor a Japanese uniform, helmet, and airsoft rifle/SMG. Thanks bye.
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Post by schmitty on Oct 5, 2005 10:58:19 GMT -5
Are you Japanese? It's rare to find people doing japanese impressions for a few reasons. 1) lack of reproduction (or original) uniforms and gear. 2) lack of airsoft weapons (I think you can get a nambu pistol and that's it). 3)most Americans (and Europeons) just don't look right in a Japanese uniform. It's funny that airsoft comes from Japan but there is more interest in German and American WWII weapons than Japanese.
Schmitty
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Post by CPL. Mills 2nd Rangers on Oct 5, 2005 13:30:13 GMT -5
thats cause the Japanese try to forget what happened. they don't really teach anything in school about WWII except the nukes that were dropped on them.
When I was in high school, there was this Japanese exchange student, and in history class, when the teacher was talking of both German and Japanese atrocities during the war, Taru(the exchange student) refused to believe any of the jap atrocities, and called the teacher a lier, and walked out of class.
it wasn't until the German exchange student showed him a German history site, on japan during WWII did Taru believe some of it.
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Post by ScreamEagles on Nov 10, 2005 9:55:27 GMT -5
Try contacting "Chuck McCarty" <ddayjsu@hotmail.com> here in Texas. He does 1st ID MP impression as well as Japanese impression. He will guide u to the right place for Japanese gears.
Nowaday, in a few Japanese schools, they are making students to sing the WWII "Army" songs. One teacher refuse and they fired him. It was on the Asia news early this year. If they don't learn from the mistake or History, they are doom to repeat it again.
You will be amazed how many German and Japanese nowaday think that the US and the rest of the world exaggerate the atrocities committed by Nazi and Japanese Army.
Anyway, Good luck in your impression. I am doing 502 and 506 PIR impression myself here in Amarillo, Tx. There are a big airsoft in Austin, Dallas and Houston areas but they mainly do modern impression not WWII airsoft. Hopefully, we could get something going here in Texas as well.
ScreamingEagle
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Mar 19, 2006 4:20:21 GMT -5
In many ways the Pacific is better suited to airsoft then Europe. The combat was generally close quarters with few vehicles and minimal armor Like airsoft it was very likely to go down to the "Last man" (especially for the Japanese)
As with all of airsoft currently, weapons limitations effect the ability to do it. I was surprised to learn recently that for most of the battle of Guadalcanal US forces were armed with springfield rifles. The Garand hadn't been issued to Marines during that campaign. Supporting GIs had them. The Japanese weapons were quite interesting. Most were armed with a bolt action rifles.
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Post by indy on Mar 19, 2006 10:50:28 GMT -5
Omoshiiroi! Watashi wa nihongo o benkyoo shimasu! Anata wa nihonjin desu ne?
I would do a Japanese impression if I wasn't so tall...I am 6'1" and you don't find many uniforms that would fit me (ATF only had small sizes). I'd have a lot of fun with it because I am studying Japanese.
From what I've seen recently...things are beginning to shift in a new direction, I've noticed there's more Japanese and German public war crimes admitance. Wasn't there a German politican thrown in prison recently for denying the holocaust happend?
Cheers Thomas
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Post by smokeythebear on Mar 19, 2006 14:16:08 GMT -5
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Post by mauser98k on Mar 22, 2006 17:29:47 GMT -5
Whoah, is that place an actual retailer, and are those all custom?
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Post by smokeythebear on Mar 24, 2006 21:47:44 GMT -5
retailer
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Post by aircarb on Apr 1, 2006 17:16:06 GMT -5
I was just in Japan, I didn't see one Military or Police Man, it is true that they try to forget what happened because they are deeply shamed.
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Post by fallout11 on Apr 10, 2006 8:08:14 GMT -5
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Post by spitfire740 on Apr 10, 2006 18:39:38 GMT -5
That's becuase they are required by law to not organize an army more than like 20,000 troops. They can never invade a country again. In the japanese constitution, if japan gets into an armed dispute with another country, America is forced to protect them. Now, in preent day, with all the disputes between china and japan, if a war starts US troops are going.
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Post by howitzer on Apr 20, 2006 18:14:57 GMT -5
Great! Now I can start a Japanese impression!
Are the KTW rifles any good?
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Post by Sascha Gusdorf on May 16, 2006 0:11:54 GMT -5
Hi David, Ben Bernard here. How much were you lookin' into spending on the total "Jap" uniform? I just might have something for you; something brand new that is, and has NEVER been worn to an event.
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Post by magic8ball on May 16, 2006 15:15:47 GMT -5
filipino americans generally do allied or german impressions because even to this day stories of japanese atrocities continue to evoke fear and pain. There were stories handed down from my grandparents about the japanese soldiers indiscriminately torturing and killing civilians, raping young women and taking filipino babies, hurling them up in the air and having them land on their bayonets and then later laughing about it. It's a shame they don't teach this stuff in Japan.
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Post by mauser98k on May 16, 2006 18:28:44 GMT -5
Its a shame they dont teach us here either
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Post by rbx6jm7man on Jun 5, 2006 23:09:24 GMT -5
what's also a shame is that the US doesn't talk about the attrocities AGAINST filpinos during the Filipino american war. we're talking systematic massacring of villages, internment camps a thousand times worse than the japanese americans, and mass rapes. it was on par with the treatment of american indians, mind you.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jun 6, 2006 0:01:28 GMT -5
A thousand times worse? Read your history and check your sources. There were horrors during what was known as the Phillipine resurection and certainly the US was no saint in that guerrila insurgency. What country was at the turn of the century when involved in armed conflicts? Black Jack Persing was a warrior who did what his job required him to do. During WW2 the treatment by the Japanese of their occupied territories and it's citizens as well as the treatment of it's prisoners of war was horrifically barabaric by mid 20th century standards. Their martial code was of another time and their expectations both for themselves and others was quite alien to the western world.
War is a barbaric and horrible thing. There is no innocence and by it's very nature defys human standards of acceptability. Men who would never hurt anything or anyone are expected to kill another human being face to face. The steps required to get a person into that kind of mindset are unimaginable by those who have never experienced it. I defy those who would judge others to share your first hand insight and comprehension of what is right and what is wrong or what you would do with certainty given the right (terribly wrong) set of circumstances.
Systematic massacering of villages and mass rapes happened in the American Indians Wars which was genocide clear and simple (mostly accomplished through disease and starvation) but little documentation or proof of it in the Phillipines by US forces. Your source? A thousand times worse? Think before you write. rbx6jm7man
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Post by rbx6jm7man on Jun 6, 2006 13:26:09 GMT -5
Ok, maybe the "thousands times worse" was an overstatement. but I did do my research. oh, and buddy, it's not the "Phillipine resurrection." it's the Philippine Insurrection.
As far as sources go, it depends on whose account you read. For instance, if you go into the records of the Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, you'll find hundreds of accounts of murders and rapes. For instance, Manuel Arellano Remondo's book, General Geography of the Philippine Island, states, "he population decreased due to the wars, in the five-year period from 1895 to 1900, since, at the start of the first insurrection, the population was estimated at 9,000,000, and at present (1908), the inhabitants of the Archipelago do not exceed 8,000,000 in number." The US official account states that Philippine casualties lay around the 275,000 mark. How do we account for nearly 1,000,000 people missing?
The reason is because of the War Department's employment of General Otis. During the war, letters sent back to the US revealed numerous war crimes. General Otis' job was to contact these soldiers' commanding officers and make them demand that the soldiers formally retract their statements. One account that was not silenced was that of the Balangiga massacre. Gen. Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith ordered for the SYSTEMATIC execution of all inhabitants ten and older. Likewise he set General Order 100 in action that allowed for the shooting on sight of civilians. According, to Smith, the soldiers were to turn the island to a "howling wilderness." Another such person was Col Funston who bragged in a 1902 war rally, "I personally strung up thirty-five Filipinos without trial, so what was all the fuss over Waller's 'dispatching' a few 'treacherous savages'? If there had been more Smiths and Wallers, the war would have been over long ago. Impromptu domestic hanging might also hasten the end of the war. For starters, all Americans who had recently petitioned Congress to sue for peace in the Philippines should be dragged out of their homes and lynched." (Waller was another participant of the Balangiga Massacre) Need a source? Try Hang the Dogs, The True and Tragic History of the Balangiga Massacre by Bob Couttie.
I have more sources if you like, 2nd Bat, if you really do want to read up on this subject
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Russian
Corporal
Magician
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Post by Russian on Jun 6, 2006 17:47:58 GMT -5
Guys, guys, lets get this topic back on track, to Japanese reenactments. No need to flame each other. *Insert Gordak's hilarious flaming pic*
Russian
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Post by TastesLikeChicken on Jun 10, 2006 23:18:54 GMT -5
you guys give me even more reason to hate (correcting myself) dislike in every shape and form Teddy Roosevelt ;D, since it was under his direct orders that the US navy entered the Philipines in the first place.
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Post by mauser98k on Jun 11, 2006 10:50:22 GMT -5
I'm jealous of his mustache.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jun 11, 2006 12:46:50 GMT -5
A fascination with history with it insurrections and resurections is near and dear to many of us so I don't take rbx6s response as a flame at all and it sounds like he has done extensive research. It is remarkable to me how distant 100 years ago seems and yet how recent it truly is. If even 1 / 10th of the things asserted in the sources listed are true about the conduct of American soldiers in what for all intents and purposes are fairly recent times it bears exposure and awareness. If not by we who are students of history who? WAR is a horrible horrible thing and any on these boards who think you are celebrating war through your activities need to rethink your involvement in living history.
This thread has taken a major departure from discussions about Japanese Reenacting but is not without it's virtue. Thanks rbx6 for your response. All nations are capable of acts during wartime that are beyond the sensibilities of humankind. I'm delighted that we continue to be shocked that Americans are capable of it but not at all surprised by the reality of it. There is such a fine balance between a warrior spirit and lollipops ial unjustified acts. It takes great leadership to maintain that balance as a mindset within an organization.
Only those who have known combat can fully apreciate the challenges. We in the privacy of our civil day to day lives during the 21st century can easily convict belligerents of another time and place as they are so foreign to most of us.
I have a feeling this discussion is going to get very contemporary very soon. Knowingly and willing killing another human being is unnatural for the vast vast majority of most humans on this planet (thank God!) Training otherwise normal human beings to do it is very hard. Training them to know when and how to throw the violence switch is impossible in all circumstances and all engagments. That does not condone unethical acts it simply stands of something of an explanation.
Having a reminder about how horrible war can be on these boards is very worthwhile.
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Post by rbx6jm7man on Jun 11, 2006 15:29:30 GMT -5
I'm glad 2nd Bat didn't take my response as a flame. It was intended to be a pseudo rebuttle to the questions he raised based on my original response. My original intention was to help readers understand that the Japanese are not the only persons who attempt to "erase" their past. No one wants to remember the bad. And even those of us in the US have to recognize that we are not inncoent of war crimes and what not. I often remember a history seminar I once participated in. We had to discuss the validity of a statement that went something like, "only the winners of war are the authors of history." I wanted readers here to see that all winners should not be the priviledged writers of history. Likewise, any person can be guilty of the omission of truth.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jun 11, 2006 19:02:59 GMT -5
Getting back to Japanese reenactment if we suggest we shouldn't wear uniforms depicting them as they were too horrific we lose sight of what reenactment is all about. It is NOT to glorify or revere the warrior. It is to "reenact history" Depict it artificialy to assist others and ourselves in the comprehension and appreciation of the challenges, drama and suspense of the time or event. Without the belligerent side you are only depicting half of the event. I don't for one minute beleive the fellow depicting the SS soldier harbors those same loyalties or beliefs. If I did I wouldn't have anything to do wityh them. By the same token a Japanese reeanctor is just that an actor in a role. I'd hate to think if at the end of the event if his side lost he'd commit sepuku!
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Post by Sascha Gusdorf on Jun 11, 2006 22:11:14 GMT -5
Hey 2nd Bat! Ben here. I couldn't agree with you more, man! Besides, somebody's gotta' be the opposition.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jun 12, 2006 16:41:05 GMT -5
I have nothing but respect for the opposition at a reenactment event (especially a ww2 game) especially when their impressions are well executed. It so cool having a wide disparity between the uniforms of both sides regardless of the period played. Here locally we seem to manage to get a good number of "bad guys" at every event in fact at the recent Caranetan game there were more Krauts then GIs which was very cool.
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