h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Other Side of the World - A823141
Author: Pinniped - U183682

ok, lets get the right workshop this time .

One of my favourites of Pin's writings, I looked for it a few weeks ago to read again and now it's particularly relevant this weekend.

I read it two and a half years ago and the impression it made is still there.

Waz

'...time to get back to the future' indeed!

This not only deserves to be read, it needs to be heard.

Thanks Pinn. And thanks Waz.

m

I've just read this too! For the first time.
Pin sets us all very high standards, as usual.

It is a wonderful insight into the thinking of a Japanese gentleman who grew up close, physically and mentally, to the tragedy and consequences of the second world war.
Bitter conflict and its legacy has gradually turned into close friendship and mutual respect between
the Americans and the Japanese, and the spirit of cooperation, in business, economic and political terms has forged a formidable partnership between these distinctively different cultures.

There is the old guilt and there is always sorrow; on both sides of the Pacific.

My father's brother, my uncle Jim, who died only 3 months ago aged 85, was one of those who walked down the gangplank from his troopship onto the dockside in Singapore harbour straight into captivity. not a shot was fired. He spent 4 years as a prisoner of war under the Japanese, mostly in the Malayan jungle, and worked on the construction gangs building the Burma railway.
My father did not know him when he went to meet him off the ship in Liverpool. Uncle Jim found him!
He never forgave the Japanese, and would never consider buying their products. He was in the RAMC, the medical corps, and saw a lot of terrible illnesses and injuries.

But we must now go on with the good work, and build mutually beneficial working relationships with as many countries as we possibly can.
We must continue to learn to trust and to forgive former foes.

We now have a hidden enemy at our door. This one is going to take a great deal longer to resolve, I'm sorry to say.

f.

By the way, thanks LLLWaz for bringing this Entry to our attention, as you say, at a significant moment in time.

f.

A very timely submission. Well written. Top notch.

-Phred

Wow, I didn't know Pin wrote this well

"A bus pulls up in the Honkawa-cho, emitting a pneumatic hiss. That sound is a trademark of Japan, and the part of my mind that resonates with the country imagines the retreat of ghosts." will stay with me.

Powerful.

"I spent too much time on the damn internet, typing up this and that... reading other people's stories and writing stories about other people, but never telling my own".

That'll stay with me too.

What? That wasn't me. That was the... miner fellow.

Yeah. I forgot. I just didn't know Ohio miners wrote that well.

Congratulations I Land Inept Sheep (they really are much better dropped you know) on this entry being selected for the <./>underguide</.>.

An UnderGuide Gem Polisher will be in touch ... you know the rest.

Congrats again, and thank you for another one for the UG.

Me me me! I'll be your polisher for this entry. Please do not be offended by any slight punctuation changes that your baby undergoes. All changes will be minor and no changes will be made to the actual piece...no matter how enthusiastic I get I promise

Congratulations on another brilliant piece Pin!

Your UG entry can be found at... A6694158

Kat

Thanks Kat.
Fine job.
The one thing I'm still unsure about is how much it loses without its original date. What do you think?

Perhaps we could put a date of writing at the top?
I'm not sure how important the date is, I have to say, personally. When I first read this piece I didn't even look at the date of writing and it still had a big effect on me.

What are general thoughts?

The original date of writing places it. Perhaps put it at the end, like a signing off. Think it might over-emphasise it to have it at the beginning.