Good point. I saw a pretty wretched video of some
divers at Kwaj waving around human bones. Every
community has its share of insensitive morons, and
some of them even shoot videos of their moronic
behavior...

David H.

--- Bjorn Vang Jensen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Strike!
>
> I agree with nearly everything you say, but feel
> that you chose one
> particular example poorly: That of Truk Lagoon. To
> my way of thinking, the
> wrecks in Truk are NOT respected as war graves, and
> it sickens me. I have
> had two opportunities to go, and have turned them
> down, because I considered
> the risk of coming to blows with divemasters and/or
> passengers too high.
>
> I find it disgusting in the extreme to see pictures
> of divers in Truk
> holding skulls and other human remains, sometimes
> even on the front page of
> dive magazines. I have been told that some
> divemasters there have even
> collected bones and stored them in one convenient
> location in some wrecks,
> so they can lead their charges straight to them,
> thus maximizing bottom time
> available for this morbid practice!
>
> At least in Palau, the Japanese were allowed in
> after the war to remove the
> remains of their sailors, and everything else left
> untouched. You could
> argue that, following the removal of human remains,
> the vessels are,
> logically, no longer war graves, but of course that
> would only be the case
> if they recovered all hands.
>
> In any event, I agree with you that, given the
> proper attitude, there is
> nothing wrong with diving wrecks, no matter how they
> sank. But Truk is, to
> my mind, an example of a highly undesirable turn of
> events.
>
> Bjorn





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