The Dark Side of Mazda and Subaru

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As the title states... I'd like to get some thoughts of Mazda and Subaru. Both of these companies participated in WWIII; however Subaru was formally Nakajima Aircraft which made aircraft for WWII. Please correct me if I'm wrong.... Something makes me what to think Mitsubishi was part of WWII. I am ?uncertain of Mazda's role in WIII because Mazda started off in the US with rotary powered scooters. Please elaborate everyone. Are these the only current Japanese companies that were involved in WWII?
 
Mitsubishi made the infamous A6M "Zero" aircraft during WWII.
Mazda made the Type 99 Rifles for Japan and some other weapons.
Dave
 
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Everyone was involved in WWII. Industry was basically drafted the same as manpower.

The war's over. I can't personally hold any company responsible for something they were compelled into doing by an emporer who later personally surrendered.

If Mitsubishi hadn't made airplanes their tooling would have been seized and run by the government anyway. It's probably semantics if they were or weren't anyway, with materials allocations etc.
 
I agree with eljefino. During the war, most, if not all Japanese companies were involved in the war effort, voluntary or not. I will not hold what happened 70 years ago, against them. I would rather buy a product made in Japan over China any day.

Dave
 
No different than Mercedes (Daimler Benz), BMW and VW. All made war vehicles for the Hitler regime. Germany, however, has the very dark side of companies that collaborated in the Holocaust. They dealt in human hair, gold from dental fillings, etc and they are still around today.

Google I. G. Farben and see what they were involved in.
 
Guys news flash, all countries operate this way. If a company has the assets to assist in the war effort they will be drafted. Germany, US, Japan, Britain, Canada and all other countries during WWII did it and in the event of all-out war today, the same strategy would be used as well.

If someone holds a grudge against certain companies, be it German, Japanese or Italian for their involvement in war effort, they should also hold US, British and French companies to the same standard as well.
 
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Originally Posted By: SkyActivG
As the title states... I'd like to get some thoughts of Mazda and Subaru. Both of these companies participated in WWIII; however Subaru was formally Nakajima Aircraft which made aircraft for WWII. Please correct me if I'm wrong.... Something makes me what to think Mitsubishi was part of WWII. I am ?uncertain of Mazda's role in WIII because Mazda started off in the US with rotary powered scooters. Please elaborate everyone. Are these the only current Japanese companies that were involved in WWII?


It's utterly meaningless in today's world. Henry Ford had some anti-Semitic views, but along with your Mazda and Subaru question, it isn't relevant in today's world. If you dig deep enough you can probably find "dirt" on any automotive company or it's management, especially ones that have been around for nearly a century.
 
Originally Posted By: Boomer
No different than Mercedes (Daimler Benz), BMW and VW. All made war vehicles for the Hitler regime. Germany, however, has the very dark side of companies that collaborated in the Holocaust. They dealt in human hair, gold from dental fillings, etc and they are still around today.

Google I. G. Farben and see what they were involved in.


Don't forget IBM and Bayer.
 
I heard they both killed babies......

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moving on
 
If we never moved on from past conflicts, there'd be no incentive to end them in the first place. Please don't go digging for century-old dirt on parties that are no longer doing anything wrong.
 
I'm not sure why such a question has to be asked here... when there's a internet full of information that is available on the topic.

We don't need to look elsewhere. Henry Ford was a tyrant in his own ways, and didn't see anything wrong with it.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
I'm not sure why such a question has to be asked here... when there's a internet full of information that is available on the topic.

We don't need to look elsewhere. Henry Ford was a tyrant in his own ways, and didn't see anything wrong with it.


So is our current "president" and he doesn't seem to see anything wrong with it either.
 
Thing is, how do you assign culpability? Consider a couple dozen engineers who made weapons deadlier. They could be considered the "officers" of the company. After their assignments they could be scattered all over the world. Maybe even making medical devices etc for the good of mankind, for the same "keritsu" umbrella conglomerate.
 
Originally Posted By: SkyActivG
As the title states... I'd like to get some thoughts of Mazda and Subaru. Both of these companies participated in WWIII; however Subaru was formally Nakajima Aircraft which made aircraft for WWII. Please correct me if I'm wrong.... Something makes me what to think Mitsubishi was part of WWII. I am ?uncertain of Mazda's role in WIII because Mazda started off in the US with rotary powered scooters. Please elaborate everyone. Are these the only current Japanese companies that were involved in WWII?


Ford made B-24 bombers, Chrysler made all kinds of armament engines, etc. It was an all out effort on our (U.S.) part as well. Every domestic company was pressed into service.

A couple of things I don't understand about the post: WWIII hasn't happened AFAIK and to my knowledge, Mazda never made a rotary powered scooter. Fact checking appears to be a lost art anymore.
 
I'm glad someone else brought up Ford.
Henry Ford and Adolph Hitler certainly had a sort of mutual appreciation society.

You'd be hard pressed to find any auto company today that didn't have some involvement in WWII

Even nice guy Soichiro Honda made airplane propellers during WWII. At one point Vespa was mounting a 75mm Recoiless gun on motorscooters (although I do not know if that was actually used in WWII)

You might be able to cite some obscure Swiss manufacturer (defunct...but I'm sure their cars ran like, well, a Swiss Watch
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But by being neutral, Switzerland played a role in WWII as well.

maybe VEB Sachsenring. It didn't come along until after the war. Probably the best anybody could do with the limited resources of Soviet occupied DDR. But then you are buying a communist East German Car
 
In Wich way, does The fact that a Company manufactorer weapons for it,s country,s war efford. In Wich way does that place them on what you call the dark side ?
 
When I clicked on the thread title, I was expecting this thread to be about how they still make interference engine, or Mazda'a lack of manufacturing in the US.
 
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