Franc0
Purple Belt
I work as an administrator at a facility that houses and rehabs homeless U.S. military veterans. Last night I was having a martial arts related conversation with one of the vets who studied Shotokan, and he came up with a pretty stupid statement. He said something to the tune of "I studied under a real Japanese Sensei, and if a martial art style can't trace it's roots back to Japan, then it's not legit." Seeing as how my studies are based on Chinese, Indonesian & Russian systems, I pretty much blew it off as plain ignorance. Then, a 2nd older (way older) vet from WW2 who was standing nearby came up and said to the 1st vet "Your grandfather must be turning in his grave the way you stick your nose up Japanese ***!!" They knew each other and the 1st vets grandfather served in the Pacific in WW2. He went on to say "Don't you realise the atrocities that the Japanese did to American soldiers? Why would you, as an American military veteran cowtow and kiss *** to the Japs with this karate s**t?" The 1st vet's reply to this was something like "Well, that was WW2, which was a long time ago. We've learned to move on and not hold a grudge."
This reply made the older vet really mad, and he shot back with "Oh yeah?!? Well if your so willing to move on and not hold a grudge, then why don't you just go full circle and take up Nazi martial arts too?!?" I thought that comment was kinda funny, but the old guy was so pissed off his face turned red, so I told the other guy to go back to his room before he makes the old vet suffer a heart attack.
Another one of the administrators was there with me when this happened, and he looked at me and said "you know why old Joe got so upset don't you? He's a Japanese POW survivor, who saw alot of his friends die at the hands of the Japs". It kinda made me wonder about the difference between how most people view the following of a different countries history and culture. Neo Nazis' are basically looked down upon by the American public, yet no one thinks twice about someone who embraces the culture of their former allies. Now don't get me wrong, I don't follow or embrace either one, but it does make one wonder. Any thoughts?
Franco
This reply made the older vet really mad, and he shot back with "Oh yeah?!? Well if your so willing to move on and not hold a grudge, then why don't you just go full circle and take up Nazi martial arts too?!?" I thought that comment was kinda funny, but the old guy was so pissed off his face turned red, so I told the other guy to go back to his room before he makes the old vet suffer a heart attack.
Another one of the administrators was there with me when this happened, and he looked at me and said "you know why old Joe got so upset don't you? He's a Japanese POW survivor, who saw alot of his friends die at the hands of the Japs". It kinda made me wonder about the difference between how most people view the following of a different countries history and culture. Neo Nazis' are basically looked down upon by the American public, yet no one thinks twice about someone who embraces the culture of their former allies. Now don't get me wrong, I don't follow or embrace either one, but it does make one wonder. Any thoughts?
Franco