"Japanese Pearl Harbour aircrew dies aged 106" Topic

Masamitsu Yoshioka was a crew member of a Kate that sank the USS Utah on 7th December 1941. He went on to attack Wake and served in the Indian Ocean raids by Kido Butai. But he made it up to 29th August 2024….aged 106.

MSN: link

Wow!

Holy cow! Some real twists of fate allowed him survive the war.

Thanks!!

Armand

He fought for his nation and lived a long time. RIP

Talk about survivor guilt.

Wow. Imagine thinking back to the sight of six carriers, and the escorts at sea, on the way to Pearl Harbor, and thinking, "I'm it. Of all those men, I'm the last one." Talk about the tail of the bell curve.

We are getting down to the last ones, you know, of the WWII generation. I can remember when I was a kid, they did some kind of commemoration in my hometown for the fiftieth anniversary of VJ Day, and it seemed so strange to see these pictures of all those older men I was used to seeing around town, running businesses, going to church- my grandfather, my friends' grandfathers- except they all seemed unrecognizably, improbably young. And now they are almost all gone.

That kind of thing makes you feel old.

Yes, they have mainly passed and now Vietnam Vets are getting quite old as well. They're in their 70s and 80s.

The last WW1 veteran who served in the trenches dies in July 2009, nearly 91 years after the end of the war. He was 111. If you were 20 years old in the armed forces in 1945 and you lived until a similar age it would 2046 before we could see the last WW2 vet pass away.

Fred, 2036

@Tacitus
Yes you are right.

I'll be happy if I make it to 2036 :)

As long as I know it is 2036, I will aim for that too. The Bible only gives us three score years and ten, but I guess that is meant as a mean, mode or median (surely not the last!)

The Bible only gives us three score years and ten

And here I thought that particular number of years came from a poem -- that I learned as a child, as it was enshrined in a framed plaque in our family room when I was growing up:

The horse and mule live thirty years,
and nothing know of wines and beers.

The goat and sheep at twenty die,
without the aid of bourbon or rye.

The cow drinks water by the ton,
and at eighteen is mostly done.

The dog at fifteen cashes in,
without the aid of rum or gin.

The cat in milk and water soaks,
and then in twelve short years it croaks.

The honest, sober, bone-dry hen,
lays eggs for nogs, then dies at ten.

All animals are strictly dry,
they sinless live, and swiftly die.
But sinful, ginful, rum-soaked men
survive for three score years and ten!

(and some of us, though mighty few,
stay pickled 'til we're ninety-two.)

When you pass it each day is a gift.

I much prefer Mark I's version as it is more upbeat than;

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger?