Story here. In Pattaya, on our Eastern Seaboard. The sign in the photo says: “Hitler is not dead.”
Excerpt: “The operator of a waxworks museum in Pattaya has been forced to cover up a giant billboard of Adolf Hitler giving a Nazi salute after complaints from the Israeli and German ambassadors that it was ‘offensive’ and ‘utterly tasteless’.”
They’ve covered it up. We get LOTS of German and Israeli tourists, too.
This reminds me of one Nazi-themed bar and restaurant that opened here about the mid-1980s. Nazi memoribilia covering the walls, waiters in Gestapo or SS uniforms. The owner honestly could not understand why all these elderly farangs (Westerners) would keep appearing in the doorway, spit inside, then toddle off. Finally was forced to close down by all the negative international publicity.
And then there was the local American newspaper columnist who in the mid-1990s reported seeing a big-name Bangkok department store selling posters of Hitler. Asking the clerk why, he was told: “Because he was a funny man.” All he could reckon was they had mistaken Hitler for Charlie Chaplin.
Thailand largely sat out World War II, having been invaded early on by the Japanese and occupied for the duration, so they’re not really up on why such things may be offensive. The wife’s own nephew, in fact, was a huge Nazi fan growing up. Thought the uniforms looked cool as all get out. He always thought I would be impressed by his fervent idolation of Hitler, seing as we were both Westerners, and never could figure out why I didn’t much encourage him.
The British bombed Bangkok quite a lot IIRC. And Siam was invaded by them in the last two months of the war after they had chased the Japanese out of Burma.
Bangkok did receive some bombing, but not much. Jim Thompson, the “Legendary American,” did parachute in to work with a small underground movement, but they didn’t do much either. No, Thailand largely sat the war out. It’s known mostly for the Bridge over the River Kwai, which is in Kanchanaburi province, bordering Burma.
I’m not familiar with any invasion per se of Siam. The Allies did enter at some point at the end, but I think “invasion” is stretching it quite a bit.
BTW: Japanese HQ in Bangkok during the war is now the Blue Elephant Restaurant on Sathon Road, the beautiful old Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce Building, which they’ve restored nicely.
There’s an interesting story that appeared in Sunday’s newspaper: Aces High – The Last of the Flying Tiger Raiders. It mentions an air raid led by Maj-General Charles Bond Jr. – who just died in Texas a couple of months ago, one of the last of the WWII Flying Tiger pilots – against a Japanese airfield in Chiang Mai, up in our North. And of course, the real Bridge over the River Kwai was taken out by aerial bombing late in the war, not by any Alec Guinness-type character. Still, incidents like these were few and far between.
The British spent a lot of time attacking Bridges (not just the one on Kwai) and railyway yards and depots in Thailand often unsucessfully. The Allies entered with the British Twelfth Army in May or June of 1945 and there was some pretty ferocius fighting there, the aim being the destroy the Burma Area Army which had escaped from Burma.
Keith Park (of Battle of Britain fame) was head of Allied Air Forces in SE Asia, near the end of the war.
I
You’re not really contradicting me. Although I’ve never heard of much “ferocious fighting,” I suspect what there was did not affect the populace much. But May or June 1945? After 3-1/2 years? That was very close to the end of the war, and I suspect any fighting was off on the fringes. Certainly not any distance into Thailand and nothing at all in Bangkok. Yes, some railyards and lines were bombed, but that was about it, and that did not affect the average Thai very much at all. I maintain Thailand largely sat the war out, and the Thais will tell you the same thing. But suit yourself.
No, but I do recall crocodile on the menu. An do, we did not order it. We’ve been to the Blue Elephant one time, and the wife refuses to go again. Extremely expensive for very small portions. I thought the food okay, the wife didn’t. Definitely a place you go to “soak up the atmosphere,” but the wife says bollocks to that.
Just one more note on your hijack: The 12th Army’s Wikipedia entry says it wasn’t even formed until late May 1945 and doesn’t even bother to mention Thailand at all.
Good gad, man, if you can chat up a TBG you can get ingredients from a cook. It’s a cooking school, for crying out loud. Surely you are interested in what you eat, especially if your Wife doesn’t want to go back.
Full meals can be picked up in the market for a couple of bucks. There’s a restaurant in our complex that delivers for free and is only a dollar or so more. Eating out is cheap here.
