A Japanese sailor dropping out of an elite navy training program died in an unofficial farewell ritual requiring him to fight 15 classmates, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
The 25-year-old petty officer died of internal injuries on Sept. 25, nearly two weeks after being knocked unconscious in the 15-round kick boxing-style fight, the ministry said in an interim report from the investigation…
The sailor, whose name was withheld by the ministry, was two days away from leaving the two-year program for the navy’s elite Special Boarding Unit, which he joined in December. The victim, who was on submarine crew, was to return to his former unit.
Geez. In BUDS training, all you’ve got to do is ring a bell and you’re out. I guess things are different in the JMSDF.
Shades of the IJN…..
What a waste of resources!. It’s not like there is *ever* an oversupply of brave young men to join a demanding special services unit. As Lex says, if a SEAL in training decides he can’t cut it, all he has to do is ring out.
So which country would you say was more civilized…naive, brash U.S. or Japan, the Pride of the Pacific?
Marianne
Geo6, Indeed …the ancient hand of Bushido and the memory of the IJN trumps the best efforts of the ” enlightned ?” JMSDF… Best
Another example of poor leadership (we have plenty of our own). Where were the Officers?
I doubt they will change (unlike here I hope). They are so concerned with “losing face” that they miss the obvious. This same mentality could have been the reason they would never scrimmage CAG5 in dissimilar ACM.
Oh, it may be why they don’t scrimmage with CVW-5 anymore. I thought I had a post up about a debrief with some JASDF Eagles out of Hammamatsu that went terribly wrong for the home team. Couldn’t find in in Google. Must have held off, now that I think on it.
It would have been borderline classified. We never did get invited back, though.
I wouldn’t be so quick to make a judgement about which society is more “civilized”.
Japan has done rather well militarily in a few cases; ask Russia, China, Korea, Guam, PI, Thailand, Burma, …..
Come to think of it, we did not do very well against Japan in ’41 or most of ’42.
I was told that you didn’t have to ring the bell anymore. This back about ’96-’97. Supposedly it was too much of a hit on their self esteem.
Oh Waaaah! Don’t have to ring out? I guess they’re giving them a trophy for leaving, too. Right?
Well, Ron, considering the war started for us on Dec 7 of 1941, that would leave just 1942.
For 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy knocked us around a bit, but just six months later the “outperformed,” “beaten” United States Navy broke the back of IJN in a little place you might recall, name of Midway.
Considering the incredibly high quality of IJN pilots, fighters, dive-, and torpedo-bombers at that time, we did very well. I recall something called the “Thach Weave.”
As for “civilized,” I also recall the Bataan Death March, as well as Department 735. The latter is where “troublesome” POWs were sent. If you read up on what they did there, it reads like something out of Mengeles’ diary, although the Japanese were never really subject to a “de-Nazification” process.
Still, I don’t doubt the self-defense force is more civilized than the old Imperial units.
Casey, given the lack of resources that Japan had, it was only a matter of time before we beat them -and how expensive it would be. Also, we did it with one of our hands tied behind our back as the focus was on the ETO. I get it.
I’ve walked on many of the islands from the Mariannas over to Okinawa and wondered how the heck our guys took those islands back.
And yes, I know about the BDM, and Nanking, and many other actions the Japanese did that we defined as war crimes. Different culture, different rules. I would agree that the current JSDF plays more by our rules that the IJN did, but I hesitate to say that they are now more civilized.
There is a mindset that believes us dropping the two bombs on Japan was most uncivilized; I disagree on objective grounds and subjective ones since my Dad was on his way back from his fun tour of France, the Low Countries and Germany, to take part in the expected invasion of Japan. I’m rather glad he was able to come home.
In business I admire the Japanese in many ways.
Man for man they are samurai; individual competence is extraordinary. And they are honorable competitors – they will do what they agree to do.
But they are insular and struggle to integrate foreigners effectively beyond narrow roles. And they tend to fight over the wrong ground and stay in competitive battles where they are disadvantaged far too long.
Flatlander,
Uh, no. Ever read anything about the issue with Mitsubishi and their truck hub failures from a few years ago? How about the Lockheed scandal? Know what a kuromaku is? Followed the failure of Livedoor at all? What about the yakuza trolls hat show up at business meetings for the purposes of extortion by damning with praise or threatening to publish magazines filled with various salacious details of the executive life?
And man for man they are men, the notion of them all conforming to some archetype of “samurai” made me giggle. They’re people, and although some may make a slight comparison to parallels between the ideology of modern business and something out of a Kurosawa movie, they are not the same. My wife (who is Japanese) works at a company where foreigners have found themselves integrated quite well.
Maybe I’m a simpleton and completely missed the point of your post. Maybe you’re trolling for meatloaf here. Who knows. But I maintain you’re way off the mark here with this.
Your experience may vary, but my admiration is based on 20 years of working with Japanese professionals from many companies in the electronics industry, in comparision to their peers of other nationalities both within and outside of Asia in similar roles. My observations on both strengths and weakness are by nature generalizations, but they are generalizations built upon many specific cases.
Lex,
When will the statute of limitations pass for what will undoubtedly be yet another of your magnificent sea stories, this time regarding “JASDF Eagles out of Hamamatsu”?
Fridge, I second that request!!!
Thirded.