[whiteperil] Sean: Means to an end

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Posted by Sean:
Means to an end
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1183517787.shtml


   At Pajamas Media, Jules Crittenden [1]reacts to Minister of Defense
   Kyuma's resignation:

     Japanese Defense Minister forced to resign for pointing out that
     Japan was [2]asking for it.
     Quick back story. Fumio Kyuma, native of Nagasaki, was in Chiba the
     other day addressing university students when he pointed out that
     the A-bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima "couldn't be helped" and
     was "inevitable." He noted it had the desireable efffect of
     preventing Japan from suffering the kind of decades-long Soviet
     nightmare suffered by Germany, Eastern Europe and Korea.

   In my experience, rank-and-file Japanese people acknowledge that, too,
   when the topic comes up in one-on-one conversation. They don't affect
   gratitude at having their countrymen incinerated, no, but they
   acknowledge that a swift end to the war was probably preferable to a
   protracted one and that the Allied occupation helped set the stage for
   Japan's economic hypergrowth, with its drastic improvements in quality
   of life for Japanese citizens.
   Several of my Japanese friends do maintain that we Westerners are
   hypocritical to moralize about the Japanese occupation of Korea and
   China. The democracies of Western Europe built their economic and
   geopolitical might through colonization; the United States and
   Australia, among other Allies, owe their existence to colonization.
   But when Japan decided that colonization was the way to become a
   world-class power (my friends argue), the West flipped out and said,
   "No, you're not supposed to do that anymore. No more resources for you
   until you learn to behave!" (Atsushi and Jun'ichiro, if you think I'm
   misrepresenting you, feel free to let me know here.)
   I don't think that's an invalid point. But Japan's high-minded talk
   about an "Asian Co-prosperity Sphere" was malarkey--every bit as
   disingenuous as any Westerner's contention that colonization was no
   longer something a nice, civilized people did.
   BTW, along those lines, it may interest readers to know that Prime
   Minister Tojo's granddaughter is [3]running for a Diet seat:

     The granddaughter of wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo said
     Tuesday if she wins election later this month for a seat in the
     Diet she will push to strengthen the military, rewrite the history
     of the Rape of Nanking and move to censure the United States for
     dropping atomic bombs on Japan.
     ...
     On Japan's mobilization of tens to hundreds of thousands of
     "comfort women" to serve in front-line brothels, Tojo said the
     government was not directly involved, a commonly held belief among
     Japanese conservatives despite evidence to the contrary.
     ...
     Tojo said the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went
     "beyond all the savage acts that occurred in history up until that
     time," and accused the United States of being racially motivated.
     She claimed the U.S. would not have dropped such bombs on other
     "white" nations.
     Japan, meanwhile, went to war to "liberate people of color from the
     white nations in the world" who were colonizing Asia at the time,
     she said.

   Now, before anyone starts bloviating about how this shows what "the
   Japanese" think of World War II, let me just point out that Ms. Tojo
   is regarded as a far-right nutcase, albeit one who appears to have
   learned well the PC locutions that can be used to guilt-trip
   Westerners. (About that: One must acknowledge that there was plenty of
   racism abroad in the world back then, though my opinion is that the
   bombing of Dresden, say, casts considerable doubt on her specific
   contention about what violence the Allies would have been willing to
   commit against whom in order to win.) Most Japanese think of World War
   II what they think of all thorny subjects: they wish it would go away.
   Why, they wonder, do the Chinese and Koreans and Japan's own
   ultra-nationalists have to keep bringing it up when it's over and done
   with? I don't condone that attitude, understand, but it is the
   prevailing one.
   In any case, Japan went to war to compete for resources. It lost. It
   had the great good fortune to lose to honorable enemies, ruthlessly
   committed to victory in wartime but willing to set it on the path to
   renewed sovereignty and unprecedented economic recovery within a
   decade after peace had been achieved.
   Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans.

References

   1. http://www.julescrittenden.com/2007/07/03/truth-hurts/
   2. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4939791.html
   3. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4939791.html