
How a WWII fighter pilot learned to love his enemy - fern12
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/10/this-fighter-pilot-flew-the-last-mission-over-japan-in-wwii-then-he-learned-to-love-his-enemy/
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stcredzero
_“You know the black guys, they had to do three times as much work just to be
accepted because they were black,” Yellin said. “And I had to be three times
as good just to be accepted.”_

The entire time I was growing up in the 70's and 80's, my Korean parents told
me, again and again, that this was how it was going to be for me in this
country. This is how in-group/out-group psychology works. That's how people
are.

There is a huge difference between people who will make you work 3 times
harder, but will accept you in the end on merit, and people who won't, no
matter what you do. It's the same difference as between people who can listen
to and learn from their enemies, and people who can't listen no matter what.
Some people are subordinate to truth and beauty beyond themselves and their
particular world view, and some are not. It's the former who ultimately move
the world forward and the latter who unwittingly hold it back.

People who see you as a human being, regardless of your outward signifiers?
Those people are rare. They are geniuses of one sort or another.

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mulmen
The headline doesn't seem to fit the story but thank you for sharing anyway.
Yellin never seemed particularly hateful of the Japanese so I'm not sure that
he needed to "learn to love them". I guess the headline refers to his daughter
in law?

Based on the headline I was expecting this to be the story of Charlie Brown
and Franz Stigler [1].

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_and_Franz_Stigle...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_and_Franz_Stigler_incident)

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dogma1138
I thought the same was preparing to humm Sabaton’s no bullets fly....

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skookumchuck
What a great story!

