> Oh, ok. Yes, it's very nice that he could be so calm, when I read that
> other British veterans claim they would kill Japanese on sight today.

Oh, he hadn't been imprisoned by the Japanese. There were others in the area
who had, and a number of them were quite a bit closer to the kill on sight
end of the spectrum. Not through wilful or vindictive hatred - I didn't come
across that - more a kind of resigned weariness, a sadness that such a thing
had blighted their lives. They were unable even to look at the young
Japanese who came to the language school where I worked. As one of them put
it to me in the pub one night, "I've had enough for one lifetime."

> Then the question is not yet answered. What was the reaction to *knowing*
> such things about the war, their country's history, or their countrymen,
> perhaps their own fathers or grandfathers?

I can't answer that, because I just don't know. They took the information on
board. They loved him for being kind enough to explain without judging.
That's about all I can say. How they used the information in their later
lives I couldn't say.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com