Iwo Jima Mustangs

[John Beaman]

Some of these have been seen before, but the majority are new. Mustangs and B-29s as well as some invasion shots.

http://picasaweb.google.com/7thfight...63150448181842

[Leendert]

John,

Interesting pictures, and not only for those who want to look up all the pilots and aircraft involved in the actions and accidents...!

Regards,

Leendert

[Dénes Bernád]

I noticed the repeated usage of 'Jap', when referring to the Japanese. I thought this derogatory wartime slang is long over...

[Graham Boak]

The abbreviation of "jap" for "japanese" appears to be little different from the abbreviation of "brit" for "british" or "scot" for "scottish", neither of which is normally taken as insulting. It is a normal feature of the English language, as also seen in the abbreviation of common names. William becomes Will, Robert Rob, Peter Pete, and Dennis Den. Although less commonly, Graham becomes Gray. Any insult will lie in the emphasis and associated adjectives, rather than the abbreviation itself.

[JoeB]

I disagree. The appellation 'Jap' is considered derogatory and insulting in American usage, especially by Americans of Japanese descent.

It might be said it's all in the eye/ear of the beholder, but that's just as true of any other word which is considered a racial/ethnic slur, and similarly if American or British English speakers claim that a particular word is not sensitive in their version of the language, so they needn't concern themselves about it: they are unlikely to feel that way when the shoe is on the other foot.

It's a historical term when used in original quotations from the WWII era and should not be censored out in such cases if the quote has overall historical value, but if those captions were written recently, then I agree with Dénes.

Joe

[Graham Boak]

You don't think that intent is of any importance in such matters?

In certain quarters of the US, "liberal" is considered insulting and derogatory, but it has a very different meaning in Britain. The term is the name of the third largest political party in Britain, currently in a coalition government with the Conservatives. Are we in Britain to stop using it because some Americans use it as an insult? I think not.

[JoeB]

'Liberal' is a very poor analogy, a label some leftish Americans no longer prefer but hardly comparable to an 'abbreviation' which has often or usually been meant as a racial slur. 'Paki' would be a better analogy. People of Pakistani extraction are seldom referred to as a group in the United States because they aren't that numerous relatively, and/or usually identified with some larger group (Muslim, South Asian, etc), so Americans might ignorantly and parochially say 'Paki' is just a keystroke saver and its offensive implications to people of Pakistani origin in Britain is not their problem. But that's what it would be, ignorant and parochial, or perhaps the common kind of passive-aggressive behavior nowadays where people use disparaging terms on purpose (under some pretext of 'good intentions') to prove they are immune from 'political correctness'.

Joe

[Graham Boak]

US usage should not automatically be taken as universally dominant over UK usage, other than in the US.

I'm not sure what "passive-aggressive" means, if anything, but the more extreme attitudes of "political correctness" should be resisted as strongly as any other attempt to constrain language to a specific political viewpoint.

Declaring a specific word as unusable on the grounds of unacceptable abuse requires the creation of another term to fill the lexical gap, and this then becomes used as a term of abuse by those who think that way. Then it, in turn, becomes"unacceptable" and a new term is taken up, only for that in turn.....

The problem is in the minds of the people who abuse others, not in the language used, and a solution will not be found by ineffectual manipulation of the symptoms.

[Ruy Horta]

Great stuff John, thanks for sharing.

As for the follow debate.

It wouldn't surprise me if the captions are based on original wartime text.

Jap (or Nip) might be offensive to some, but it is within the same context as Jerry, Hun or Nazi albeit with the added possibility of being a racial slur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

I can imagine that a lot of Germans take offense by the blanket Nazi statement.

Scratch one Jap / Nip vs "scratch one Japanese aircraft"