Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:15 AM 2/26/2000 +0000, Mike Johnston wrote: >You have an indomnitably Leica-centric view of the world. This sort of >prejudicial filter is not a happy characteristic in an historian. > >You can believe what you want based on what the Germans said, but many >of the photographers are on the record. Actually, Mike, your paranoia becomes a bit off-setting after a while. To the contrary of your skewed interpretation, I happen to have the highest regard for the Japanese camera industry of the 1940's -- it takes a quality operation to turn out precise copies of the German lenses. After all, the Soviets only managed to do this with a lot of slave-labor help from the Germans themselves. After all, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". And the Japanese went on from this base to build a tremendous photographic industry by employing great marketing skill, tremendous industrial ability, and a sound common sense generally lacking in European and US circles. But the thefts which began it all are too much a matter of the historical record to ignore. And, yes, the memoirs of a number of photographers of that era are of record. Hell, I have interviewed a number of them. And this is why your persistent spreading of distorted falsehoods is such a sad commentary on a fine journalist such as yourself. You might consider taking a leaf from Paul Harvey and learning "the rest of the story". The facile surface tale is frequently the wrong one, and a good journalist digs out the full saga. Or, in any event, so I was taught both as a journalist and as an historian. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!