Blog number 209 26 August 2008
When I was about 12 years old, living on the farm in Northern Iowa - that would be about 1943, the Good War still on, our John Deere tractor ran on a colorless fuel called "distillent." We pronounced it, "dis sill ent." I don't think it was diesel. Not oily enough. Had the consistency and look of water. But the tractor ran like a diesel engine, so I couldn't say for sure. I do know that in 1949, when I was stationed in northern Texas, they sold something called, "white gas" in the gas stations. It was much cheaper than the leaded gas, but I don't think many used it. Some must have, to be selling it like that. White gas looked like our "distillent."
Which reminds me. While still in Texas, I was driving down a two-lane road in 1949 in my 1937 Chevy and three brand new '49 Ford convertibles, a red one, a blue one and a white one, passed me on the right, in line, and off the road. I thought at the time that they were probably three sons of some rich oil men,
A man one farm north of us got killed when his B-17 got shot down in the Pacific, and a guy that lived on the farm across the street from us got killed in his tank in France. The one that was a tanker was the one that I overheard telling my Dad and Grandpa about a guy that brought in two prisoners and asked the commander what to do with them and he told the guy to "take them over the hill so's they don't stink up the place,"
My Dad and Grandad thought that a funny story, but I didn't. It shocked me because of how we were always told that Americans didn't do things like that - that only the Nazis and Japs did things like that.
2 comments:
You wrote: "he told the guy to "take them over the hill so's they don't stink up the place,"
MaryAnne here. I remember in finding out from my Mom (who went through the war in Japan as a child) similar stories that she had heard from the Japanese soldiers that had made it back from the battles on those little islands. The story alleged the Americans buried the Japanese up to their necks in the ground and then ran them over with tanks. I remember feeling sick and sad and disappointed. Like you I thought only the enemy did those kinds of things.
Hi Maryanne.
There was a book written a few years ago titled, "The Pacific War" Subtitled, "War Without Mercy." Both sides did some pretty bad things, Japs the worse, seems like. I am reading about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria now, same MO.
There was a bit of a bruhaha when a soldier sent back a Japanesse skull to his girlfriend for use as an ash tray and it got into the papers.
Funny thing too, because in the first world war, the Japanese were noted for the care they gave prisoners. Seems like the bad treatment of humans stemmed from the military arm that took over the government. I have noticed that behavior seems to run downhill, so the rabble behave like the leaders.
In that Abu Grav(something) debacle, those prisoners were treated so badly because our government looks upon Arabs as not quite human. They still do. Look upon most foreigners that way, actually. Especially non- Caucasians.
I read about three Japanese on Guam that hid from Americans and Guamanians for something like twenty years. They said that they felt like animals because the Guamanians used to hunt them down like "going hunting," years after the war.
Post a Comment