How Asians Views American War Vets

[AbsoluteArmorer]

I'd like to read comments by all Asian members here in DU who wish to share how they feel about American war veterans. I ask for honest comments. Even if there are some ill feelings toward veterans, please let us know just how you feel toward veterans who were sent to fight on 'your' Asian soil.

For American war veterans, how do 'you' think American war veterans are viewed by Asians for the wars we brought to their soil? Please try to specify which Asian land/population per war/conflict that you make such comments.


http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=28

War has defined much of the relationship of the U.S. to Asia during the 20th century: from the colonization of the Philippines to Japan and World War II to Korea and the Cold War with China in the 1950's to war in Southeast Asia in the 1960's and 1970's. Even economic competition with Japan during the 1980's and 1990's is defined as a "trade war."

Whenever the United States has been at war with Asia, Asian Americans have paid a heavy price. The Japanese internment is an obvious example, but it is also no coincidence that Japan-bashing in Congress and Rambo's Hollywood revenge for the Vietnam War have accompanied a sharp rise in racial violence against Asian Americans locally and nationally during the past decade. In 1982 amidst the recession in Detroit, for example, a Chinese American engineer named Vincent Chin was brutally beaten to death by an unemployed auto worker who cursed him, saying "it's because of you Japs that we're out of work."

By examining the relationship between Asian Americans and U.S.-Asia relations with a focus on the Japanese internment, students can explore how issues of race and power have defined the conduct of U.S. involvement in Asia, shaping both popular attitudes and government policies. This process also enables students to develop important critical thinking and citizenship skills, perhaps enabling them to draw contemporary parallels with 9/11 and the rise in violence against Muslims and South Asians.

[FreakinDJ]

1. I hope that is not your blog. It’s almost laughable.

We’ve treated Asians like shit and continue to do so to this day. Oh so you though State sanctioned bigotry was dead – think again my friend.

Exclusionist laws were signed by Bush January 5th 2006

We have a long history of State sponsored persecution

[AbsoluteArmorer]

2. this is no blog......

...this is a thread about what Asians think about American war vets. Are you Asian or Asian American? A veteran? Which war if so? Or a civie just weighing in?

When you say "we've" are you referring to yourself and others or our US govt?

[Acebass]

3. The girls in Thailand thought highly of us GIs, troop!...

specially round payday...

[AbsoluteArmorer]

4. RA servicemen with money

Amazing what money will buy isn't it? Power over others. Even some affection. By the previous comment added to this thread, it appears that Asians like us for our money. Based on that previous comment, when troops are on one's foreign soil, those indigenous people would temporarily accommodate such troop's presence for their money until such troops pulled out. Then one has to wonder as I ask this now, what ever lasting sentiment is left behind. Are those Thai call girls still appreciative for one's 'dropping' in long after one 'spent' his pleasure there? It would be interesting to hear from those Thai ladies as to what they now think about US RA servicemen who lavished about their country. Any Thai ladies here that could chime in on this one?

[Acebass]

5. Friend that wound won't ever heal if you keep picking at it...n/t

[AbsoluteArmorer]

6. Free Speech to all is a healing process

Well I'm not sure if you're speaking about your Thai call girl's wounds or you are referring to the Asian wounds. If concerning your Thai call girls, well I'm sure you have put that wound to rest as it appears. As far as the Asian wounds, I have to believe that many Asians are still hurting and suffering from US military actions, past and present, on their soil while many stateside Americans trys to avoid such issues. Much like how Republicans calls for us to keep moving forward and forget about it. I'm afraid I'm not one who'll forget what Republicans or NeoCons do to disrupt and destroy other's lives for their own personal agendas and not reflect on the past. I bet many Asians and Middle Easterners will always hold certain feelings, both good and bad, for us war veterans. This thread is an attempt to learn what their feelings are toward us. Isn't that the learning process that we should examine? Doesn't the past shows us how to avoid those same mistakes in the future? Much like how the Vietnam War was to prevent us from being in 'another' Vietnam. Looks like those Republicans fooled us.

I feel Asians could teach us a thing or to about our military behavior. I hope some Asians really makes it here to share that with us. You see it as picking wounds for I see it as a healing process. I see it as facing responsibility and being held accountable. Something that real war vets picked up during their time inside war zones. That's where real war vets witnessed and experienced what destruction does to humans and minds up close and personal. That's why it's the honorable thing to do with reading what other's have to share with us rather than suppressing them. I extend free speech to those who are American, Asian and other nationalities. That's not picking open wounds. That's embracing everyone's rights to say what they want, good or bad. Even Vietnam veterans and Asians should have their say. Wouldn't you say?

[Acebass]

7. Good Luck...you'll need it!...n/t

[Lowell]

8. I'm not real sure what you're trying to evoke here

But I will tell you, as a viet vet, not an asian what I've come to find out personally.

I'm a vet and a member of a veteran's motorcycle club. Often in the morning I walk my dogs through the neighborhood wearing my leather vest with all the patches and pins that identify me as well as the ribbons on an active duty soldiers chest. One morning several years ago I was walking by a neighbor's home. An extended family of Vietnamese live there. An ancient Vietnamese man I've seen often, but never stopped to talk to, came up to me and pointed to a patch on the back of my vest and said, "you fought in Vietnam?" I told him yes.

I have to make it clear before I go on that I made my peace with that war a long time ago. I also want to say that I came to respect my enemy over there. Where I was in Quang Tri Provence we saw a lot of NVA activity. They were tough and not afraid to fight. If you thought they were inferior you stood a good chance of getting your arrogant ass shot off.

Anyway, the old, weathered Vietnamese guy stuck out his hand and said thank you. I took it and said I had only been doing my duty. He began telling me what he and what was left of his family had been through after we left. He lost most of his family and endured several years of hardship before being able to take a few relatives with him to the United States. He voiced no bitterness, only gratitude at our attempt to salvage his country. He said that he was now an American too and was very proud of his new status. He invited me into his home to show me his citizenship papers and introduce me to his wife, son and daughter.

After that I would always make a point of stopping when I saw Nguyen working in his garden and ask him how he was doing. He would usually smile and say that every day above ground was a good day. I got to know his family and would often wave or stop and talk with his son or wife.

Then about a year or so ago I noticed that I hadn't seen old Nguyen in a few days. I stopped the bike and went up and knocked on his door. His wife answered and she burst into tears and said that her husband had died. Her English was pretty awful, so her son came to the rescue and told me the story. I felt as though I had lost a good friend too.

Now when I was in country I lived and fought along side the Hmong tribesmen. I learned to respect not only my enemy, but also my allies. I think that the gist of the whole matter here is respect. Too many times I've heard vets refer to their Asian allies in derogatory terms. They carried a lot of prejudices with them and still live them today. That is their loss.

[Acebass]

9. Great story!...n/t

[Lowell]

10. No Story, Just the facts

I was determined to come out of that war having learned something. What I learned while I was there was the respect I talked about. I came back with the realization that we are all human beings. As long as we look at our enemies, or allies, in stereotypical ways we will find ourselves loosing out.

You cannot defeat your enemies unless you are fully aware of their capabilities and why they think the way they do. One of the things that bothers me about the present conflict we find ourselves in is that we have resorted to old stereotypes again. We think that the arab people are backward and ignorant. But we have to realize that mesopatamia is the cradle of civilization. These people have a highly devloped sense of who they are and what they are fighting for. To think of them as a bunch of stupid rag heads is dangerous. They are very sophisticated people from an ancient society.

Americans have an arrogance that blinds them sometimes. We have this aire of superiority and think that just because someone lives under what we consider primative circumstances that they are less human. That is not the truth. There is a lot that we can learn from these older civilizations. If we don't learn then we are doomed to defeat.

I have gone out of my way to make friends in the Vietnamese and Cambodian community here in my home town. I realize that we are not only human, but we are equals. That is what I think America is all about. Diverse peoples learning to live together as one nation.

[Acebass]

11. Thats what I was refering to...been there, I knew your story was fact.n/t

[Acebass]

12. we all have to deal with...

[AbsoluteArmorer]

13. "Reflections on Asian Wars"

Appears much work is still left to mend military actions against Asian countries and it's people. This thread asks Asian/Muslims to share their own feelings about US soldiers who were involved.

I too not only respected the enemy in my war, but now also work for better understanding of the repercussions inflicted upon the indigenous people by our presence there even as we tried to save them whenever possible. One has to only imagine the overall general consensus that most Asians feels toward our military.


http://www.aasianst.org/Viewpoints/selden.htm

The United States, by contrast, has faced no comparable demands for apology and restitution for major atrocities committed during its wars in Asia or elsewhere: indeed, the U.S. continues to maintain the high ground as the arbiter and chief prosecutor of major international war crimes tribunals, emblematic of its continued hegemonic reign. For example, despite widespread if episodic international criticisms of the United States for its World War II firebombing of German and Japanese cities and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for wide ranging atrocities including most famously the killing of noncombatants at Nogunri in Korea and My Lai in Vietnam, its use of Agent Orange and other life-threatening defoliants, no significant international movement presently targets the U.S. for its war crimes or demands apology and restitution for the victims. A powerful anti-war movement in the U.S. and worldwide contributed to withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970s but not before two to three million Vietnamese had died. With the end of the war, however, that movement virtually disappeared, and with it international calls for reparation and reconciliation.

The U.S. government and the American people have yet to come to terms with the suffering that the U.S. inflicted in major Asian wars, or to provide restitution to its victims, most notably in Korea and Vietnam. In this the U.S. shares much with the Japanese government in its failure to accept the legitimacy of the cries of anguish and demands for justice from Asian war victims. Yet not only is there no international movement pressing Americans to accept responsibility and compensate victims, but there appears to be much wider recognition among many Japanese than among Americans of the wrongs their nation committed against Asian peoples.