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Post by artraveler on Mar 9, 2020 9:32:06 GMT -8
We have often talked about how traditions seem to have lost meaning. This commissioning ceremony dates to the commissioning of the first navy ship almost 250 years ago. Every ship enters service in the same way, war or peace. If you have never attended or seen a commissioning ceremony then this is a rare opportunity. The ships namesake Cpl. Woody Williams is present. He was awarded the CMH on Iwo Jima and is the last living CMH holder from WWII. Also present are CMH holders from Vietnam, Gulf Wars I and II. Traditions and honor have not died in this country. news.usni.org/2020/03/09/video-navy-commissions-uss-hershel-woody-williams
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 9, 2020 9:43:10 GMT -8
Some years ago, I saw a program either about the Battle of Iwo Jima or about CMH recipients. I recall the story about Williams' exploits. They were amazing. He knocked out a bunch of Japanese machine-gun nests with a flame thrower. What heroism!
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 9, 2020 12:55:06 GMT -8
I’ve never been to a commissioning ceremony. It’s likely my father went to one or two of those. I was standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri during the 50th anniversary ceremony of the end of WWII. Given that my father was a VIP for that, I was standing in a far more senior position than I deserved and I was actually a little uncomfortable about that. But it was pretty cool all the same.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 9, 2020 12:56:08 GMT -8
It's pronounced "Jap," but you'll get the hang of it.
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Post by artraveler on Mar 9, 2020 13:07:44 GMT -8
U.S.S. Missouri during the 50th anniversary ceremony of the end of WWII. I too have stood on that deck, back in about 1983/4 fleet week still was a positive event in San Francisco and BB 63 was the star attraction. The line to visit the ship was long-------very long and the folks who were waiting were patient and friendly. A far cry from what we could expect in SF today,
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 9, 2020 13:12:21 GMT -8
Ah so desu ka? Bansai!
I wonder where we got the words Japan and Japanese? The Japanese use Nihon and Nippon for Japan (I blv Nihon is a bit more PC) I see no similarity between these and Japan.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 9, 2020 13:25:51 GMT -8
It's an impressive ship. I wish I had visited her more often. But she became a fixture and became just a backdrop. Taken for granted.
She was decommissioned in 1955 and then entered mothball at PSNS (technically the "Pacific Reserve Fleet," but no one ever used those words).
She was in Bremerton until Lehman reactivated her in 1984. She later returned to her home (Bremerton) in 1992 and was there until 1998 (not open to the public as she had been from 1957 to 1984).
She is now in Pearl Harbor and will likely be there until Hawaii sinks into the sea. If I ever make it to Hawaii, that will be my first stop.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 9, 2020 13:28:24 GMT -8
It's okay to say "Nips" instead. Like I said, you'll get the hang of it, young whippersnapper.
I don't know where the name, "Japan," came from. There's a whole Wiki article to sort through for that. I don't offhand see the short answer for that.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 9, 2020 13:38:57 GMT -8
I think I've shown this before. My father knew a local artisan who somehow got a piece of the teak off of the deck (when repairs were made at one time or another) of the Missouri and made souvenirs.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 9, 2020 13:56:34 GMT -8
As I thought, "Japan" comes from Chinese words for the country, such as the "Cipangu" that made it into Marco Polo's memoirs. (I believe Columbus thought one of his landings was on Cipangu. His reference to the natives as Indians probably referred to the East Indies, which were probably known about, rather than India itself.) Apparently Nihon and Nippon are different ways of pronouncing the characters used to spell the name (which actually come from China, whence the Japanese got the characters used in writing their language).
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 9, 2020 14:11:23 GMT -8
I found this interesting info on a Wiki page about "Names of Japan."
History is so interesting and complex. I don't know how anyone could not be interested in it.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 9, 2020 16:28:40 GMT -8
Very interesting etymology, Mr. Kung.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 9, 2020 18:33:16 GMT -8
I thought so. Of course, I might be more fascinated by this than many others since I lived 12 years in Singapore and have visited Malacca. I might even have some photos of the place, but they are too deeply buried in boxes for me to look for them. One thing I can say is Malacca was an extremely hot and humid place. And that says something, as the whole coast of the Malay Peninsula is hot and humid, but Malacca was about the worst I can recall. No breeze at all.
The Strait of Malacca is one of, if not the busiest sea lanes in the world. It is something of a choke point for shipping to the Far East from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 9, 2020 18:56:59 GMT -8
I remember reading something as a kid about the importance of the Strait of Malacca. The word malaka (that's how it's pronounced, anyway) is some sort of Greek obscenity (I never learned exactly what it means), so discussing the Strait of Malacca in the presence of, say, the school bus driver was amusing in a juvenile way (hey, I was in grade school then).
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 9, 2020 20:07:20 GMT -8
Of course, I had to look it up and it means something like wanker in English. It is interesting how a perfectly acceptable word in one language can be rude in another. I think I mentioned that Vicks has to use the name Vick in Germany, Austria and Switzerland because Vicks sounds like the German slang for masturbate.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 9, 2020 20:48:14 GMT -8
Yes, I checked it out and was surprised to find it in wikipedia, just as I was surprised to find that brief reference to my father. But this was a whole article. It appears that the word is actually malakas, but using it without the "s" worked well enough. Maybe it was different in the Attic dialect presumably used where we lived.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 10, 2020 7:39:08 GMT -8
I’ve watched about 10 minutes of 1952’s Outpost in Malaya, the main attraction being Jack Hawkins. I love his British stiff-upper-lipness. The problem is, this movie seems to be about little more than the attacks of rebels, revolutionaries, and such on British rubber plantations. It intersects that bit of history. The Communists were eventually put down, apparently. I’m all for killing Communists by the dozens. But I’m not sure I want to watch a movie where the primitives (such as our own AOC) which try to take down modern civilization. Here’s a map of the Strait of Malacca. Situated as it is between Malaysia and Sumatra, you can definitely see why that would be so crowded. It must be a paradise for ship-spotters.
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Post by artraveler on Mar 10, 2020 7:45:54 GMT -8
Jack Hawkins. I wonder if it was possible to make a movie about an Englishman between 1930 and 1970 without Jack Hawkins. He played every kind of hero and villain and did it with style and substance. Hats off to the wonderful Englishman Jack Hawkins 1910-1973.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 10, 2020 8:08:16 GMT -8
I definitely don’t think so. Throw in Stanley Holloway, Kenneth More, Robert Morley, Stanley Baker, Richard Attenborough, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle, Nigel Patrick, James Donald, John Leyton, Trevor Howard, and perhaps Gordon Jackson as well. Michael Caine and even David Niven add to the wartime British talent as well.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 10, 2020 8:11:06 GMT -8
Malaya was considered one of the great success stories in the struggle against Communist guerrilla warfare, and the British commander became an expert on the subject. Of course, that was much later than 1952. At that point, the outcome was still very much in doubt.
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