Helmut Sohmen Quotes
Kagoshima is the first step in our plan to develop increased scheduled air links between Hong Kong and Japan, especially the southern islands of Kyushu and Okinawa.
Sohmen, Helmut. Quoted in "Dragonair Begins Kagoshima Service." South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd., 1988.
When the American troops invaded Okinawa, the individual Japanese soldiers and civilians would not surrender, even when completely surrounded and out numbered. Surrender was culturally dishonorable and the Japanese had been told by their leadership that if they did surrender the Americans would kill them anyway. Almost all the Japanese died and the United States forces had an astoundingly high casualty rate—37%. Truman was fearful that there might be hundreds of thousands American casualties in the subduing of the Japanese mainland. The atomic bomb solved that problem.
The Japanese have always been very race conscious seeing themselves as the racial pinnacle of Asian peoples and others as inferior. The peoples of Okinawa were not the racially pure Japanese and MacArthur turned out to be right that protection of Okinawan rights, prerogatives, and dignity was much less important than for ethnic Japanese. It would not be until the last decade of the 20th century that Japanese public opinion was seriously concerned about the Okinawans. Even then, Japan’s independence and dignity as a sovereign nation appeared more important than the rights and dignity of the native Okinawans.
Cayley developed the first gliders and envisioned air travel at the same time that Thomas Jefferson was President.
His father, Henry Ford, did not agree that the Airplane would be so important, but the son’s vision made Ford the largest airplane manufacturer in America.
Helmut Sohmen is an Austrian lawyer and businessman in Hong Kong. He was chairman of BW Group and a former Hong Kong legislator. He was formerly managing director of Dragon Air.
