M1, sounds like you're working hard! If you put as much effort into your work as you do in your modeling, I'm sure your uncle must be very happy!
I'll look back and check out your carrier. I think I may have seen it in that state.
Work hard, and enjoy modeling when ya can!
Panzer iv, sure, I believe a lot of people use "Jap" with no malice at all as an innocent abbreviation of the word "Japanese, " but to the Japanese it
is an offensive word. What we personally believe to be offensive or not doesn't matter if the group that the word describes finds it offensive.
Some people say that words are only words, but words carry meaning, and that meaning can be very hurtful to the listener, regardless of the intent of the speaker.
Since this thread began, I have been asking my friends (Japanese) what their feelings are about it. All responded that yes, they would be offended by it. Japan as a nation and a people are very conscious of the role their country played in the war, and the way the world views that role. They have struggled for 60 years to put that behind them, move ahead, and become a bastion of freedom and hope in Asia. The word "Jap" throws them right back 60 years, when that word was used with hatred and malice. After the war, it was a term of hatred and prejudice.
Today, the meaning of the word is just too deep to dismiss it as simply a "word," and lightly ask people to not be "so sensitive" (nobody in this forum has asked that).
My intention when first responding to this post was simply to inform people who may not realize it that this word is indeed a very harsh term in the minds of the people it is intended to describe.
Anywaaaaaay, didn't mean to go off on a long essay again!
Since this forum deals with a lot of historical subject matter, and many races of peoples, maybe it'd be a good idea to start a "Modeling, History, and Modern Sensitivities" forum to address just these kinds of things?
Just a thought!
Brian