We recently visited the Pima Air Space
Museum in Tuscon Arizona. At first glance, it appeared as big and
impressive as it's much larger cousin down the road known as “The Bone Yard.” We were
very excited to be there until the moment we stepped inside to see
there in the front of the gift shop a t-shirt set picturing a nuclear explosion
over Hiroshima with some distasteful slogan we won't bother to repeat
here. As my host tried to argue in defense of the place that people
have their reasons there. We'll we have not met any living Pearl
Harbor survivors in the last twenty years but we do know Hibakusha and unlike the defenders of
this left over war time resentment, the aging Hibakusha do not hold a
grudge. But moving on, we thought ok this is just one tacky t-shirt I wouldn't wipe my ass with much less let ruin my visit to this otherwise impressive air museum.
Stepping foot into the museum, the first
thing that caught my eye was an unexpected model display of the IJN
Battleship Yamato. While I was happy to see her I was not happy to
see a model of an American sea plane mounted in a way to suggest it
was making an attack run. We would find two more Japanese displays
each being depicted attacked by American forces. Sure these are only
models and most people would likely not see anything wrong with
seeing depictions of former adversaries but once we stepped over to
see German displays flying the Swastika of Nazi Germany's murderous
regime we could see a clear bias.
In not one of the German displays
did we see depictions of Americans attacking them. Nor did we see
such in the Korean War displays. In fact, The Nazi displays of their
V-1 Buzzbomb and Kriegsmarine was not only sans American attacks,
they were listed with a degree of detail and information about the
displays where in the Japanese displays we were left with not one
shred of detail. But the best and worst was yet to come.
We were both delighted and saddened by
the lone display of a perfectly restored Nakajime KI-43 Haybusa. I
think I had to be the only person there happy to see her as people
stayed clear of the lone vintage Imperial Japanese Army warplane. She
was in pristine condition presumably on loan from somewhere else. We
say this due to the following part that pissed us off. While the
“Peregrine Falcon” sat in a lone corner of the WWII hanger
surrounded by walls of details about every bomb group and bomb run
made against Japan in anger, not one shred of detail or information
was given about this remarkable rare plane.
Not one mention of her role in the war,
her development, not one Sentai listed or famous pilot who flew her
mentioned, only Nakajima Ki-43 “Oscar.” Wow! That's it? As you can see from our photos the place is littered with information about every bomb group and every mission over Japan but not one mission or shred of technical or historical tid-bits that would tell us something other than this was the enemy's plane. It became
quite clear that Arizona's questionable politics extends to its air museums. To
me I had to ask “Why do the Nazi's get respect here and not the
Japanese?” The prevailing attitude seemed like “Well the
Nazi's were White like us but the Japs bombed Pear Harbor.” Are
you freaking kidding me? We won the war did we not? So what's with
the ancient grudges?
We're not trying to say Japan's Army did not commit atrocities in China and elsewhere nor are we going to uphold this distorted saintly vision of our own country during that war. We're just pointing out the obvious. While some "Americans" couldn't give a rats ass about this plane, those of us who love history and surviving warbirds would want to know about the other guys planes as well. To not educate is to waste an opportunity. Had I not known so much about the Ki-43 Hayabusa, I would have felt utterly cheated.
Call it a perceived
lack of interest or perceived prejudice, or just plain out laziness.
Pima on the surface has an awesome A+ collection of Jet fighters and
bombers from the cold war and some rare WWII planes from all sides of
the conflict including Fascist Italy, But when it came to Japanese
displays they get a grade D from us. It's not that they couldn't find
any information about the Japanese forces of Imperial Japan, they
just chose not to. Such war museums are meant to preserve and
educate. Seattle's Air Space museum also has a Hayabusa but unlike
Pima, they chose to give the visitor information about the plane and
respectfully displayed her in her own corner in a manner that befit
her remarkable history. We hope that Pima get's over the war or sends
their lone Hayabusa somewhere else where it can be appreciated.
We'll that is our two cents worth and I will stick
to my opinions. It seems everyone has one and whether you agree with mine is not really all that important. But this lingering rancor over the war from our side baffles me particularly from some (not all) ex-US Navy personnel born years
after WWII who choose to hold a grudge for wartime events they
themselves did not suffer from or participated in but what few people
left from that era on the other side bear them no malice. Just display the airplanes and give the visitor an chance to learn about them for what they are not for events or the policies of their wartime nations. How hard is that?
There is
something to be learned from the eyes of an elderly Hibakusha who
watched their families die in the ashes of Hiroshima, that in war
there are no winners. Only death. It's important for for future generations to learn the lessons of those wars so that future wars are not fought again. But we know we won't change any
opinions and that's not our job to do so but for those out there that
still want to re-fight WWII I will end this with my favorite and most
poignant moment of the Viet-Nam War: At the end of the Paris Peace
Talks in 1972, The last sitting American General still sitting at the
table sat across from his North Vietnamese counterpart and waited to
get one last word in. He leaned forward and said with a degree of
spite “You know we beat you in every land battle on the field.”
The Vietnamese General smiled and and curtly replied: “Well none of
that matters now.” And then he walked away. If you feel like you need to re-fight these old wars and not as a reenactor (which is fine in my book) but for merely for the sake of fighting, remember that Vietnamese General, think about the logic of his statement. Then when you come to your senses, walk away.
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