2 Japanses soldiers from WWII found on island.

[Jazzmoose]

Just take their swords away before you do...

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Hell no! Let 'em keep all weapons and drop 'em off in Redmond!

[Adam]

I was out for a long walk and started to make a mental list of all things these guys have never seen and are probably unaware of. Starting with tv, antibiotics, mass use of plastic, lps, record players,jets, large airports.missiles, napalm, atomic weapons, computers,nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons,pocket tissues. blue jeans,transistor radios, printed circuits, satellites. sputnik, Vanguard. Apollo Moon landings, Mars landing, after a while I started getting a headache and I hadn't even scatched the surface or got anywhere even approaching the digital era.

Please feel free to add things to the endless list.

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It is incredible, ain't it? I can't help but think it's a hoax, or a misunderstanding. There's a very nice faux doc about a jungle people discovered in New Guinea who had had no contact with society before their discovery in the early 1970s. A very well-done hoax.

But blue jeans have been around since the California Gold rush. I don't know if they had them in Japan, but I would think they've seen someone wearing them in the Philippines. Probably also seen jets overhead at some point. Chemical weapons go back at least to mustard gas in WWI, and Japan did know about those. Record players - well, they would have had 78s in Japan before the war. Weren't transistor radios also around by WWII?

But I believe microwave ovens would be new to them. Also plastic wrap (the greatest invention of the last 2000 years, according to at least one source.) And American Idol.

They would think that there is only one Korea. And that most of Africa, and India, was still ruled from Europe.

[kinuta]

I doubt blue jeans were common back then except in America. I remember buying my first pair of Levis when they first went on sale in UK around 1964.

Transistors didn't exist in 1944, maybe in an experimental lab somewhere. in the late 50's in UK most radios were valve type. Gramophone players that were wound up manually existed, my grandfather had a beauty , but I don't think electricity powered models were common outside America. Maybe someone else can elaborate on that. Chemical weapons was my mistake, they were, of course , extensively used in The First World War. Overhead jets is possible but I don't think it would lessen the impact of seeing one close up, let alone getting on one.

As you say, the sociological and historical changes must be completely mind boggling.

Edited May 29, 2005 by kinuta

[Quincy]

But I believe microwave ovens would be new to them.  Also plastic wrap (the greatest invention of the last 2000 years, according to at least one source.)

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And don't forget clumping kitty litter. Oh boy, they're going to be so pleased!

[Claude]

Not to forget

[BERIGAN]

Not to forget

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He would rather have never been born if it had not been created.

[maren]

I was out for a long walk and started to make a mental list of all things these guys have never seen and are probably unaware of...

Please feel free to add things to the endless list.

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Ubiquitous air-conditioning!

See all the electric fans in this police precinct? (from Kurosawa's Stray Dog, 1949, with Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura)

[Although maybe by the time they get back to Japan, it'll be reverting to fans in an effort to curtail AC: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...n20050525a3.htm]

[kinuta]

Maren

' Many a true word is said in jest '.

Tokyo suffers from the so called heat sink syndrome in summer. The high day time temperatures , compounded by massive use of airconditioning mean that heat is stored in the concrete building and roads causing the phenomenom know here as tropical night. This is when the minimum night time temperature stays above 26c. This in turn causes many people to leave their air conditioners running 24 hours a day and further worsens the heat sink problem, superheating the upper atmosphere above Tokyo and producing thunder and lightning storms of amazing ferocity.

Real Blade Runner stuff.

Anyhow, in an attempt to try to do something about this, the govt have ordered all govt offices to set the thermostats at 28C , which many would consider pretty warm, and ordered that all male employees shall henceforth come to work in no tie and short sleeves. Private companies are being urged to follow suit.

The result will probably be a huge surge in fan sales and a huge increase in traumatized office workers who can't adjust tobeing unable to hide behind a business suit and tie.

Totally trivial information but it will be interesting to see what happens this summer.

ps I've just noticed the Japan Times link !

Edited May 29, 2005 by kinuta