PADDY_M
Well-Known Member
I've just re-read the VLJ topic on the Japanese book "Full Gear" (an expensive low print run coffee table book on American flight jackets - text in Japanese ).
It just brought to mind the irony of how there is such a huge Jap following of vintage WW2 Americana flight wear (& also later stuff into the 50s regarding the rockabilly leather , boots & jeans look). And this extends to books being written about the stuff in Japanese.
Anyone else wonder why a country that waged such an aggressive and nasty war against the US now loves to dress up as a WWII flyer?
Or is this somehow the backlash of a new generation Japanese youth against the old warmonger order of 20th C imperialism and expansion? The leather jacket becomes a symbol greater than itself somehow. ..? (Abit like a cloth flag does ).
There's an irony to the Japanese embracing this vintage American image... but there's some reason to it I guess as the vintage A-2 wearing culture seems so strong there.
It just brought to mind the irony of how there is such a huge Jap following of vintage WW2 Americana flight wear (& also later stuff into the 50s regarding the rockabilly leather , boots & jeans look). And this extends to books being written about the stuff in Japanese.
Anyone else wonder why a country that waged such an aggressive and nasty war against the US now loves to dress up as a WWII flyer?
Or is this somehow the backlash of a new generation Japanese youth against the old warmonger order of 20th C imperialism and expansion? The leather jacket becomes a symbol greater than itself somehow. ..? (Abit like a cloth flag does ).
There's an irony to the Japanese embracing this vintage American image... but there's some reason to it I guess as the vintage A-2 wearing culture seems so strong there.