Quo vadis, Iaponia?

[LowPost]

So I came across two blog entries from Hidden Harmonies and a somewhat emotional op-ed piece by investigative journalist Andre Vltchek on TeleSur which I want to show to you lot here and include in this thread.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mirage that is Japan …

I came across an article in Asia Times on Japan’s WWII surrender that I thought was very well written. It is important because within that surrender lay the seeds of today’s historical revisionism. But more important than that, it is a good case study on what Japan is NOT.

Too often, many in the West think of Japan as this enlightened, modern, forward-looking, peace-loving society. But when the West seems to have misunderstood Japan’s nuanced and conditional surrender for a real unconditional one akin to Germany, then perhaps it is time re-evaluate to what Japan is in reality, and what Japan is headed to be.

Here I offer two articles, first as a context, and second as a case study.

First is that article in Asia Times on Japan’s WWII surrender.

August 1945: Japan’s Hirohito conceded, he did not surrender

By George Koo on August 4, 2015

Recently, Japan’s Imperial Household released a DVD set containing a re-mastered and digitized version of Emperor Hirohito’s speech that was recorded for national broadcast on the eve of Japan’s surrender thus ending WWII. The actual broadcast was made on Aug. 15, 1945 marking the official end of the war.

While the release of the improved quality of Hirohito’s speech was widely reported, I could not find any official explanation as to the reason for making this version available now. Presumably, it is part of Japan’s contribution to celebrate or commemorate or memorialize the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, depending on one’s personal perspective.

Having now read the text of the Emperor’s speech, I have a better understanding of why the self-image of post-war Japan can be so vastly different from the view of Japan by others. I was a child in China during the war. If I grew up in Japan and heard the Emperor’s speech, I could easily have concluded that Japan was a victim of WWII. Nothing in his speech would suggest that Japan was the aggressor and guilty of provoking the devastating conflict.

The Japanese language is characterized by nuanced, indirect expressions. I recall reading one the old popular business books written to educate gaijins (foreigners) on the subtleties of communicating with the Japanese. The title was something like “Japanese have 16 ways of saying “no,”—none as simple as a straightforward no. Interacting with my Japanese friends, I found that they have many ways of expressing apology and regret but never with seamless candor.

Indeed, we can see by deconstructing the Emperor’s speech that “telling it like it is” is not in the Japanese make-up.

First, Hirohito said: “We have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.” What he meant was, “We have to surrender unconditionally.”

Next, he said, “We have ordered Our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that Our Empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration.”

The Western powers interpret this statement to mean that the Emperor accepted the terms of unconditional surrender as outlined in the Potsdam Declaration. Yet can anyone expect the ordinary people in Japan to make the same connection from his speech, a speech where “surrender” and “Potsdam” were conspicuously absent? Thanks to the way post-war textbooks are written, most people in Japan have not even heard of Potsdam Declaration.

Then he said, “It being far from our thought either to infringe upon sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.” He obviously was not referring to Japan’s invasion and occupation of Manchuria as early as 1931 and certainly not the occupation of Korea since the latter part of 19th century.

And he said, “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.” Certainly a masterful understatement under the trying circumstances he was facing.

Approaching the end of his speech, he said, “We cannot but express the deepest sense of regret to Our Allied nations of East Asia, who have consistently cooperated with the Empire towards the emancipation of East Asia.” This statement neatly encapsulated the myth of co-prosperity Japan used to justify invading and occupying East Asia countries.

The raping and pillaging as the Japanese troops moved into each country was for their own good, to free them from the shackles of white man domination. Politicians in Japan today continues to perpetuate the idea that Japan invaded rest of Asia for their own good, that the Japanese soldiers snatched the possessions from the local people in order to share the wealth with them.

The media simply adored the statement the Emperor made toward the end of his speech, “… to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable.” The poetic meter of the enduring and suffering tugged their heart strings and was often quoted and repeated in documentaries and films about the war.

Unfortunately, the context of that quote was to portray the hapless Japanese people as having to endure and suffer the post war trauma of a defeated nation — in others words, another reminder of Japan as a victim of WWII. The Emperor was certainly not referring to the Chinese people having to endure and suffer the eight years of the brutal occupation by the imperial troops before the war ended.

It’s customary for victors to write the history. Japan is proving to be the exception to the rule. Whether deliberate or simply inhibited by his cultural upbringing, the ambiguity of Emperor’s concession speech –certainly not a legitimate surrender proclamation — has allowed Japan to begin revising history. It’s as if denying all the brutalities committed in the past can exonerate the present from any collective guilt. Just the opposite is true. The people of Asia will continue to remind Japan until there is only one version of the tragic history of World War II.

August 1945: Japan’s Hirohito conceded, he did not surrender | Asia Times

With the stage set on how the West can mistaken a nuanced and conditional surrender for an unconditional one, here is a letter from a former Financial Times editor on how Japan is not the democracy and peace-maker that many deems it. The following is an excerpt of the letter the editor – who has lived 27 years in Japan – to the current chief editor at Financial Times in the wake of Nikkei’s recent announced takeover of Financial Times opposing the deal:

Dear Lionel:

I refer to your public assurances that the Financial Times’s independence will not be compromised by the Nikkei takeover. You are misinformed. Frankly, I concur with the BBC’s economics editor Robert Peston who has tweeted that this is a “desperately sad” moment.

As you know, I have spent 27 years covering finance and economics from a base in Tokyo. It took a few years to get my bearings but eventually I began to piece together the real story. The truth has turned out in many crucial respects to be the opposite of what my previous reading of the Anglophone press had led me to expect.

For a start, Japan is not a pro-Western democracy. On the contrary it remains a bizarrely authoritarian society that in many respects is tacitly anti-Western. Much of what is presented in the West as democratic activity is merely Gilbertian theatrics. Indeed for an introductory guide to latter-day Japan’s age-old tradition of cast-of-thousands make-believe, you might usefully consult the libretto of W.S. Gilbert’s Mikado.

Critically for the future of the FT, in few areas of life is Japan’s otherness so pronounced as in the media. As the prominent British commentator Alex Brummer has pointedly asked, “do we really think that the editors and managers of Nikkei understand the values of independence of thought that distinguish British financial journalism?”

Not only is the Japanese press not free, but Japanese editors quietly rejoice in a role as principal apologists for the Japanese establishment, and in particular for an all-powerful, if virtually invisible, higher bureaucracy. When such editors attack Japanese companies, they are typically not acting autonomously but are merely performing their appointed role as pit bulls settling scores for the bureaucracy.

The “special” nature of Japanese journalistic ethics is readily appreciated if you ask yourself a few questions. When, for instance, did Nikkei last publish a serious account of Japan’s mercantilist trade policies? I am not aware that it has ever done so.

And where was Nikkei on the “ comfort women” sex slavery issue? Nowhere, of course. The issue was first raised in the Dutch press, which focused on the brutalization of brave Dutch women captured in the early 1940s in the then Dutch East Indies. The Dutch women were the tip of an iceberg but their allegations inspired East Asian victims (principally Koreans) finally to find their voice in pressing for an apology and compensation. The Japanese press was eventually embarrassed into breaking its silence but only after the story had become a cause célèbre in the West.

All this is the more piquant for the fact that the FT’s coverage of Japanese economics in recent decades has been remarkably naive. The FT has led the global press in presenting Japan as a basket case. In reality given its demographics, Japan has done remarkably well (more on the counterintuitive truth of Japan’s demographics in a moment).

In publicizing the basket-case story the FT has fallen for a characteristically brilliant Japanese propaganda initiative. Japanese officials see major advantages in pretending their nation is weak and dysfunctional. Certainly in the 1980s they learned the hard way that clear evidence of Japan’s success created a hornet’s nest of diplomatic problems. Most notably trade tensions with the United States became so explosive that a trade war seemed imminent. Meanwhile victims of imperial Japan’s World War II atrocities – and their families – began pushing in earnest for compensation (they had previously been fobbed off by claims that Japan was too poor to make amends). Then there were countless Third World nations begging for a share of Japan’s foreign aid budget. Finally there was the matter of the rising Japanese yen. As an exporting nation, Japan – like Germany – has consistently sought to keep its currency as undervalued as possible.

All these problems were quickly neutralized when, with the stock and real-estate crashes of the early 1990s, the basket case story took hold. For a nation noted for its capacity for make-believe, the message was clear: act out various routines that emphasized Japan’s weaknesses, real or imagined, and hid its strengths.

The strategy has proved spectacularly successful, not least in reining in American pressure for market opening. A chivalrous United States, faithful to the principle that you should not kick a man when he’s down, has not pressed Japan on trade in more than two decades. Yet the Japanese market remains as closed as ever. In the car industry, for instance, even Volkswagen, which is a match for Toyota in any other market, has yet to achieve more than a token presence. (No wonder therefore that with the benefit of big profits in a large sheltered home market, Japanese carmakers have out-invested most foreign competitors during the lost decades – so much so that the Japanese industry has almost doubled its unit output since 1989.)

All the doom notwithstanding, Japan is not only one of the world’s most prosperous nations but has made remarkable strides in recent decades. The point is obvious to foreign visitors the moment they arrive. For a start Japanese airports are state-of-the-art and invariably these days enjoy fast public transport links to downtown areas. Meanwhile the Japanese people are among the world’s best dressed and they drive some of the world’s best cars – in particular Lexuses and Infinitis that are a world away from the tinny little three-wheelers of the 1980s.

…

Japan’s continuing success in exporting is rarely alluded to in the Anglophone press. For details of how the Japanese have highly effectively targeted a host of “chokehold” industries (in advanced materials, key components, leading-edge production machinery), I commend you to my books, particularly Blindside and In Praise of Hard Industries.

What is not in doubt is that all through the lost decades Japan’s trade success – and consequent preeminence as a capital exporter – has financed an impressive array of foreign acquisitions. In the United Kingdom alone in the last few years we have seen such mega-deals as Hitachi’s $1.2 billion purchase of Horizon Nuclear Power and Olympus’s $2.2 billion purchase of Gyrus. Then there has been Sompo’s takeover of Canopius, Toshiba’s of NuGeneration, Dentsu’s of Aegis, and Brother’s of Domino. For a fuller list click here.

In many ways Nikkei’s $1.3 billion purchase of the FT is likely to be remembered as the most consequential of them all. The deal values the FT at a remarkable premium to earnings even by the highly inflated standards that have become common in recent years on the London stock market (particularly given that the FT’s headquarters building in central London is not included). Commentators have suggested that Nikkei is paying far too much. Actually from a Tokyo point of view, the deal is a steal. What the commentators fail to understand is that for Nikkei this is not about profits. Rather it is about power. Nikkei is fronting for the entire Japanese economic system in seeking to control one of the world’s most influential Anglophone news organizations.

There is much, much more that could be said. I hope at least I have convinced you that you need to take a closer a look at what a critical geopolitical development you are leading the United Kingdom into.

If on reflection you still feel confident you are doing the right thing, I would be happy to invite you to a public discussion in a prominent forum. The Royal Institute of International Affairs in London might be appropriate or perhaps the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. As an inducement for you to come forward (and as an earnest of my confidence in my analysis), I will be happy to make a donation of $10,000 to your favorite good cause.

All the best,

Eamonn

This is a bold letter, and it contains many truths. Far from being a meek nation with an open vibrant civil society, Japan is more a conniving, scheming, powerful oligarchy that needs to be watched, if not feared.

In my own research on “freedom of speech” in Japan, I have come to learn that all is not what it appears to be Japan. For example, despite legal rhetoric, “freedom” in Japan is limited by its byzantine regulations and suffocating cultural norms. Just because you may be “free” to say what you please under the law (which in fact don’t mean much as the Japanese courts have never struck down any laws limiting freedom of speech in its post-war history – for more see e.g. link to “Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan” book below) doesn’t mean you have “freedom” of speech in Japan.

In my recent research, I am amazed to find how contrary to popular misbelief, modern Japan (post WWII) has always arrested reporters for publishing or digging too deep into sensitive political topics (see e.g. this article from Japan Times on a reporter’s experience relating to Okinawa’s recent “handover,” or a small excerpt from this book on contemporary Japan issues.) Its museums routinely shies away from displaying political art it disdains (see e.g. this Asahi article titled Fearing controversy, museums shy away from political art). Japan – as scholars have pointed out – is at most a “pseudo democracy.” Draconian control has always been an art in Japan (see also Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan).

Even if one chose to blindly believe that post-war Japan is a shiny beacon of Asian democracy, it appears to be but a historical aberration made possible by a nation at peace, undergoing an unprecedented economic growth, with no external enemy, and whose security is 100% guaranteed by the world’s biggest military hegemony in history. As soon as it feels threatened – however indirectly and slightly – as it seems to have with the continuing rise of China and become more “normal,” it seems to be reverting to its innate authoritarian ways (see e.g. this Guardian article or this article in the Diplomat or this article in Japan Times or this or this article in the New York Times or this slightly older Asia Times article).

The world has been wrong about Japan for so long. It is time for the world to do a complete rethink on Japan – especially as Japan continues to vie to gain a leadership role in Asia. Purchases like Financial Times may not merely be just another corporate transaction where an asset is bid to astronomical level,s but in reality an important tool for Japan to expand its power – in this case by seizing a platform to bend people’s norms and views.

The Mirage that is Japan … | Hidden Harmonies China Blog

 

[LowPost]

Case Study on Democracy and Rule of Law: Japan and the World at a Crossroad?

Recently, the Japanese Parliament passed controversial legislation pushed by Abe to allow Japanese forces to fight abroad for the first time since 1945. Here is how Reuters reported it:

Japan’s parliament voted into law on Saturday a defense policy shift that could let troops fight overseas for the first time since 1945, a milestone in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to loosen the limits of the pacifist constitution on the military.

Abe says the shift, the biggest change in Japan’s defense policy since the creation of its post-war military in 1954, is vital to meet new challenges such as from a rising China.

But the legislation has triggered massive protests from ordinary citizens and others who say it violates the pacifist constitution and could ensnare Japan in U.S.-led conflicts after 70 years of post-war peace. Abe’s ratings have also taken a hit.

The legislation “is necessary to protect the people’s lives and peaceful way of living and is for the purpose of preventing wars,” Abe told reporters after the bills were approved by the upper house. “I want to keep explaining the laws tenaciously and courteously.”

Japan’s ally the United States has welcomed the changes but China, where bitter memories of Japan’s wartime aggression run deep, has repeatedly expressed concern about the legislation.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the move was “unprecedented”.

“We solemnly urge Japan to learn the lessons of history … uphold the path of peaceful development and act cautiously in the areas of the military and security, and do more to help push regional peace and stability rather than the opposite,” it said.

Not surprisingly, this has incensed a large number of average people in China … and both Koreas … but also (take note!) the people of Japan.

Abe’s controversial security law was passed despite massive protests, organized at grassroots. One protest on August 30 numbered over 120,000! Yet despite opposition from almost every segment of Japanese society, including students and business leaders, the country appears hapless to stop Abe’s re-militarization of Japan.

Emotions have run high, with even scuffles occurring in the parliament after the passage of the bill. Many scholars have opined Abe’s law to be unconstitutional (see also, e.g., this wsj article, or this Japan Times article). A politician considered to be a leading successor to Abe has broken ranks to publicly question the merits of the bill.

A poll by the daily Asahi Shimbun from Sept. 12-13 found that of the 1,994 respondents only 29 percent supported the new security laws. Paul Craig Roberts – a well-respected political commentator – has noted that the law passed despite “strong opposition of 80 percent of the Japanese population”

What should one make of Japan when its leaders choose to pursue an act that is a major depart from current policies – if not unconstitutional – with the support of only a small segment of the population?

Imagine if something similar happened in China (where the leaders decided to militarize itself against a neighboring country with strong opposition across the populace), people in the West would be up in arms – clamoring how China is another Nazi Germany in the making … how dangerous nations are that are not democratic and that do not uphold the rule of law are. Yet when it happens in Japan, not a flinch…

It’s not just that Abe has rammed the law through the legislature with hardball politics antics, but that in the last few years, Abe has pulled all levers of powers to enact other draconian laws – such as the recent controversial state secrecy act – to stifle criticisms about him and the government (see e.g. this Guardian article or this article in the Diplomat or this article in Japan Times or this or this article in the New York Times or this slightly older Asia Times article).

Many observers wonder if Japan has abandoned its postwar path of peace.

China – together with S. Korea – appears to be taking a calm and calculating wait-and-see attitude toward the politics unfolding in Japan, saying only that they are “concerned.”

“Concern” is by all measures an understatement!

To all peace-loving people of N.E. Asia, we should be more than concerned. Japan should learn to come to its senses regarding its role in WWII. But even if it can’t in the foreseeable future, I believe the future can still be peaceful if Japan is sufficiently committed to a peaceful future. A cornerstone of the security order in the Pacific in the last 70 years post WWII is Japan’s pacifism. But that cornerstone seems to be eroding … fast!

Abe is taking Japan – and Asia – down a dangerous path. Will this be the “battle of the bulge” of Japan’s right before they settle into the dustbin of history … or will this be the start of the path to more wars and suffering in N.E. Asia?

More importantly for the whole world: will people begin to wake up to the fact that notions of Democracy and Rule of Law are fickle … just like ordinary politics … and that citizens everywhere need to get more in tune with basic notions of humanitarianism, and not blind worship of ideological rhetoric such as human rights, rule of law, freedom, or democracy?

Fascism arose in Germany from the bowels of democracy. Can the same thing happen again, except this time in Japan?

Only time can tell…

Case Study on Democracy and Rule of Law: Japan and the World at a Crossroad? | Hidden Harmonies China Blog

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abe's Japan - Fascist and Falling

How fast can a country deteriorate? How promptly can it lose its culture, its soul?
Long lines at the Japanese airport

Japan was my home for many years. I was running there from countless war zones, to get some rest, to enjoy beautiful nature and its ancient, deep culture.

I learned all about its legends and fairytales, I knew its creeks and peaks, villages lost in time.

I came here to think and to write, on board those marvelous high-speed trains, Shinkansens.

But in just a few years, things have gone to the dogs: first slowly, gradually, and then more and more rapidly.

Several “care-free” generations, obsessed with pleasure, entertainment, individualism – generations fully influenced by the West – have finally broken the Japanese spirit, turning it into a bizarre hybrid.

The surface still remains intact, but there is hardly any depth underneath: A train conductor bows humbly to the passengers when leaving the car, but an old lady with heavy shopping bags will not get her seat from an aggressive-looking high school girl, yelling “kuso” (shit!) after every second word.

*

Japan of the right wing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is bellicose, racist, discriminative but also confused and full of complexes.

It is suddenly not such a great place to be, particularly if you are looking for harmony and social justice.

Only recently, Japan had the most equal distribution of wealth on earth, much better than Europe or Australia. It was easy to spot an MP eating in the same ramen noodle shop as a cleaning lady, if the ramen was good.

Now North American bad habits are infiltrating Japan: life-time employment guarantee is melting away, day by day, and unprotected millions are joining workforce as part-time or contract workers.

There are tens of thousand of homeless people in all major cities – something unthinkable in mainland China or Vietnam.

Just recently, Abe managed to pass a law allowing Japan to participate in combats abroad.

Of course, Abe’s so-called “nationalism” has nothing to do with the aristocratic patriotism of people like Yukio Mishima (one of the greatest modern writers, who publicly committed hara-kiri as a protest against the shameful Japanese collaboration with the United States).

The nationalism of Abe is nothing less than collaboration: a betrayal of both his own nation and his own continent – Asia.

Japan is now firmly on the side of oppressors.

It is openly antagonistic to both Russia and China, and it is tightening cooperation with all right wing, oppressive regimes in Asia, from Indonesia to the Philippines and Thailand.

A legendary Australian historian, Geoffrey Gunn, told me recently in Nagasaki: “Well, the fact of the matter is that China is indignant at its encirclement. China is indignant that Washington backs Japan, that Washington is ready to support Japan’s non-negotiation policy over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. So we see, in this situation, a clearly indignant China, and Japan that is taking a basically aggressive position in relation to so-called territorial integrity. So Pacific Asia is increasingly becoming more belligerent, more conflict-prone East Asia.”

Japan has gone mad. It has sacrificed its pride; and it has thrown its might behind the Western aggressors. In the past, its Western handlers allowed it to get rich through the blood spilled by Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian people – during the U.S. beastly invasions and carpet-bombing campaigns. Japan supported all of these genocides, and it was making huge amount of money.

But still, it lost! Korea now has higher Human Development Index (HDI) than Japan, while communist China has bigger economy, faster running trains and greater cultural centers.

All this selling itself to the Westerners did not pay off.

And so comes hate! So came wounded pride.

“Most Japanese people now feel antagonistic towards both Chinese and Korean people,” my film editor in Osaka told me.

Instead of changing course, Japan is plunging deeper and deeper, in fact all the way, into unsavory annals of collaboration.

It discriminates. It treats foreigners like shit. It does not even pretend to be polite, anymore.

Come to Abe’s Japan! Land at Kansai Airport and if you are a foreigner, you will be humiliated. Yesterday, I stood 63 minutes in line and observed how some deranged senior citizens armed with bit of power were yelling and bossing shocked passengers. From landing to collecting my luggage it took a full 90 minutes. Including time to be fingerprinted and photographed. It used to take 20 minutes before bloody Abe.

Today I went to Travelex, to pick up some cash sent to me by a magazine in Moscow. Again, humiliation, tons of papers, refusal, by some rude, little aggressive individual called Maki Sekiguchi ... I wrote to Russia and received a prompt reply from the Chief Editor: “I have the impression that they have some secret instruction in place to make all transfers from Russia to be as painful as they could possibly be, authors are complaining about that.”

*

Instead of turning its back on the West, Japan is now subverting young Asian intellectuals, through grants it is giving, and through the brainwashing it calls “education”.

Japan does not have any independent media. I worked for their newspapers, and I know, precisely, that everything that is printed has to be approved. Quality of the Japanese media outlets is disgusting.

As one of the leading mainstream Western journalists based in Tokyo recently confirmed: “The NHK or any other Japanese channel would never dare to air any idea that was not previously broadcasted by the CNN, BBC or FOX TV.”

But Japan “educates” tens of thousands of Southeast Asians, and “communications” is one of the most popular subjects.

“Japan does not have its own foreign policy”, David McNeill, Professor at prestigious Sofia University in Tokyo, told me.

But it feels fit to educate Southeast Asian students in such fields as political science! One wonders, what exactly would those students learn? How to collaborate, how to bend forward, and how to kiss backsides of the West?

*

It is all truly shameful, pathetic end of Japan’s “glory”.

Ruling elites and their nationalism ... Not Japanese nationalism, but Western!

No wonder, the U.S. occupation was based on the scrubbing and polishing of the old Japanese imperialist, fascist cadres, and putting them back to the top of the hierarchy. After all, the U.S. and Japanese imperialism have always had plenty in common.

But could any country survive, stand for decades on such disgraceful foundations!

*

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/bloggers/Abes-Japan---Fascist-and-Falling-20150925-0001.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. teleSUR English

 

[Jacob Martin]

So I came across two blog entries from Hidden Harmonies and a somewhat emotional op-ed piece by investigative journalist Andre Vltchek on TeleSur which I want to show to you lot here and include in this thread.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mirage that is Japan …

I came across an article in Asia Times on Japan’s WWII surrender that I thought was very well written. It is important because within that surrender lay the seeds of today’s historical revisionism. But more important than that, it is a good case study on what Japan is NOT.

Too often, many in the West think of Japan as this enlightened, modern, forward-looking, peace-loving society. But when the West seems to have misunderstood Japan’s nuanced and conditional surrender for a real unconditional one akin to Germany, then perhaps it is time re-evaluate to what Japan is in reality, and what Japan is headed to be.

Here I offer two articles, first as a context, and second as a case study.

First is that article in Asia Times on Japan’s WWII surrender.
..............................................

The world has been wrong about Japan for so long. It is time for the world to do a complete rethink on Japan – especially as Japan continues to vie to gain a leadership role in Asia. Purchases like Financial Times may not merely be just another corporate transaction where an asset is bid to astronomical level,s but in reality an important tool for Japan to expand its power – in this case by seizing a platform to bend people’s norms and views.

It's been 70 years. A lot of water under the bridge. China is the aggressor and expansionist power in Asia now.

Case Study on Democracy and Rule of Law: Japan and the World at a Crossroad?

Recently, the Japanese Parliament passed controversial legislation pushed by Abe to allow Japanese forces to fight abroad for the first time since 1945. .....

You have to make up your mind. Japan should not forsake an exclusively defensive military because:
a) they were the aggressors during WWII
b) they are now friends with their former enemies in WWII
c) they treat foreigners badly.

While none of these are sufficient reasons, at least settle on the most convincing one. Please do not confuse everyone any further...

 

[Keel]

@Arryn

To my surprise, Arryn, very nice compilation when I glanced through it quickly

It's been 70 years. A lot of water under the bridge. China is the aggressor and expansionist power in Asia now.

These are deep issues that Indians can find them too profound to understand; not after the war when your judge messed up with the verdicts .. and not now, of course, after 70 years of memory dilution plus their vigorous and proactive image correction during the time. I am afraid you people are scratching the surfaces all the time when reading Japan

 

[Jacob Martin]

@Arryn

To my surprise, Sir, very nice compilation when I glance through it quickly



These are deep issues that Indians can find them too profound to understand; not after the war when your judge messed up with the verdicts .. and not now, of course after 70 years of memory dilution. I am afraid you people are scratching the surfaces all the time when reading Japan

That judge simply gave what in his opinion was the correct verdict. He had not been on the tribunal to simply sing along with the victorious allies. People may disagree on a point of law. But trying to isolate Japan even 70 years later on these old pretexts is lame and no one really buys it anymore.

 

[Keel]

That judge simply gave what in his opinion was the correct verdict. He had not been on the tribunal to simply sing along with the victorious allies. People may disagree on a point of law. But trying to isolate Japan even 70 years later on these old pretexts is lame and no one really buys it anymore.

The indian judge is a disgrace to mankind
The mountains of atrocities that the facists japanese have done to the world, to the tens of millions of suffering and perished people like the Chinese, Koreans, Russians, Brits, Australians, Americans, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Filippinos ...were vivid and conclusive evidence of the most serious crimes against humanity ever happened to mankind. Only Nazi-Germans had done the same, ever.
I feel disgusted you are still protecting the indian judge!

Read this for the time being to get yourself a reflection on WW2 Japanese imperialism
Images: the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression | Page 12

 

[Jacob Martin]

The indian judge is a disgrace to mankind
The mountains of atrocities that the facists japanese have done to the world, to the tens of millions of suffering and perished people like the Chinese, Koreans, Russians, Brits, Australians, Americans, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Filippinos ...were vivid and conclusive evidence of the most serious crimes against humanity ever happened to mankind. Only Nazi-Germans had done the same, ever.
I feel disgusted you are still protecting the indian judge!

Read this for the time being to get yourself a reflection on WW2 Japanese imperialism
Images: the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression | Page 12

Radhabinod Pal held that the Tribunal had been set up for retributive justice, thereby undermining its legitimacy. He did not say that there was no evidence about Japanese atrocities. Judgement upon the vanquished by the victor offends natural justice. I am no apologist for Japan's role in the War. About Dr. Pal's verdict, I could argue it both ways - I see merits to his arguments as well as the criticisms thereof. So kindly do not assume that I am blindly defending Dr. Pal on grounds of kinship.

Please, I am aware of the war, I am a student of history. I just think history should be treated as that, and not as the present. Unless, of course, there are valid reasons to do so.

 

[Keel]

Radhabinod Pal held that the Tribunal had been set up for retributive justice, thereby undermining its legitimacy. He did not say that there was no evidence about Japanese atrocities. Judgement upon the vanquished by the victor offends natural justice. I am no apologist for Japan's role in the War. About Dr. Pal's verdict, I could argue it both ways - I see merits to his arguments as well as the criticisms thereof. So kindly do not assume that I am blindly defending Dr. Pal on grounds of kinship.

Please, I am aware of the war, I am a student of history. I just think history should be treated as that, and not as the present. Unless, of course, there are valid reasons to do so.

What a load of bull*****
If the rest of the judges on the bench were giving the same verdicts as the indian, the war criminals were clean and freed by virtue of gross injustice and stupidity

 

[ahojunk]

Imagine if something similar happened in China (where the leaders decided to militarize itself against a neighboring country with strong opposition across the populace), people in the West would be up in arms – clamoring how China is another Nazi Germany in the making … how dangerous nations are that are not democratic and that do not uphold the rule of law are. Yet when it happens in Japan, not a flinch…

I am an Aussie and I understand how the press spin news and they don't know what double-standards mean.

Fascism arose in Germany from the bowels of democracy. Can the same thing happen again, except this time in Japan?

Hitler was democratically elected. Looks like there is no perfect democratic system to prevent tyrants from being elected.

It [Japan] discriminates. It [Japan] treats foreigners like shit. It does not even pretend to be polite, anymore.

I hope this is not true, at least when I was there many years ago. I think the author of this piece is a bit emotional.

“Japan does not have its own foreign policy”, David McNeill, Professor at prestigious Sofia University in Tokyo, told me.

Isn't this obvious to everyone?

 

[Jacob Martin]

What a load of bull*****
If the rest of the judges on the bench were giving the same verdicts as the indian, the war criminals were clean and freed by virtue of gross injustice and stupidity

The war criminals should have been tried at an international forum where other nationalities apart from the victorious allies were represented. You would be shocked at how many jurists worldwide held the same opinion.

 

[LowPost]

@Arryn
To my surprise, Arryn, very nice compilation when I glanced through it quickly

Hidden Harmonies and Global Security (from which I got Vltchek's article) do offer enlightening and readworthy comments, essays and scientific papers more often than not.

Hitler was democratically elected. Looks like there is no perfect democratic system to prevent tyrants from being elected.

The Great Depression, violent fighting among extremist parties through paramilitaries and the Weimar Republic's contentious relations with the victorious powers of WWI greatly contributed to the ascension of the NSDAP.

I hope this is not true, at least when I was there many years ago. I think the author of this piece is a bit emotional.

Same here. Vltchek tends to be emotional in his style of writing but he makes good points at times. Chinese keep flocking to Japan but unlike in Turkey I haven't heard of a xenophobic attack here as yet.

 

[Aepsilons]

Hidden Harmonies and Global Security (from which I got Vltchek's article) do offer enlightening and readworthy comments, essays and scientific papers more often than not.



The Great Depression, violent fighting among extremist parties through paramilitaries and the Weimar Republic's contentious relations with the victorious powers of WWI greatly contributed to the ascension of the NSDAP.



Same here. Vltchek tends to be emotional in his style of writing but he makes good points at times. Chinese keep flocking to Japan but unlike in Turkey I haven't heard of a xenophobic attack here as yet.

Politically Japan be be at odds with CPC, but on the people to people level, Japanese nationals are quite fond of Chinese nationals. We have more similarities than we do differences.

 

[Keel]

Politically Japan be be at odds with CPC, but on the people to people level, Japanese nationals are quite fond of Chinese nationals. We have more similarities than we do differences.

China is ranked consistently as the most hated country by Japan for many years in polls
Anyone who visits Japan, try to go to their bookstores to confirm if there is a large number of display of books that talk about the negatives and collapse of China
Politicians hold the directions of the country. Japanese have voted Abe into office for the third time. Despite China strong oppositions against Japanese' policies with China, Japanese lawmakers are them carrying out according to their own agenda steadfastly.

Where is Japan in AIIB? and in the wake of AIIB's creation, what has Japan done is this:
Japan just took a $110 billion shot a China's new infrastructure bank - Business Insider
and there are numerous cases that Japan is sitting prominently at the wrong ends of China's core interests: SCS, Taiwan, Tibet, Uyghurs, territorial disputes, military alliances with China's unfriendly neighbours ... I dont want to repeat Jpn's post-war attitudes as there are threads that lead to more in depth discussion about that

My 2 cents

The war criminals should have been tried at an international forum where other nationalities apart from the victorious allies were represented. You would be shocked at how many jurists worldwide held the same opinion.

NOnsense!
I am again disgusted at your reckless protection of the indian judge and the war criminals

There are mountains of evidences and witnesses who have testified against the Japanese war crimes. Those alone served as the core foundations for the judges in making their verdicts. This is irrepective of who the judges were and where the cases were tried. Many of the victim / witnesses are still alive and there are numerous locations in China and elsewhere which are identified as the crime scenes

 

[Aepsilons]

China is ranked consistently as the most hated country by Japan for many years in polls
Anyone who visits Japan, try to go to their bookstores to confirm if there is a large number of display of books that talk about the negatives and collapse of China
Politicians hold the directions of the country. Japanese have voted Abe into office for the third time. Despite China stronge oppositions against Japanese' policies with China, Japanese lawmakers are carrying out according to their own agenda steadfastly.

Where is Japan in AIIB? and in the wake of AIIB's creation, what has Japan done is this:
Japan just took a $110 billion shot a China's new infrastructure bank - Business Insider
and there are numerous cases that Japan is sitting prominently at the wrong ends of China's core interests: SCS, Taiwan, Tibet, Uyghurs, territorial disputes, military alliances with China's unfriendly neighbours ... I dont want to repeat Jpn's post-war attitudes as there are threads that lead to more in depth discussion about that

My 2 cents

Thanks for sharing your two cents, I have shared my disagreement to your views on more than one occasion. Thanks, for sharing your views, tho, my darling @Keel . I appreciate your views, even tho it may not be similar to my own.

 

[Jacob Martin]

There are mountains of evidences and witnesses who have testified against the Japanese war crimes. Those alone served as the core foundations for the judges in making their verdicts. This is irrepective of who the judges were and where the cases were tried. Many of the victim / witnesses are still alive and there are numerous locations in China and elsewhere which are identified as the crime scenes

Then I am afraid you do not understand the fundamentals of jurisprudence.

I have already stated that there was no doubt on the fact that these atrocities had been committed. The question was about the legality of the Tribunal itself. A Tribunal set up by those who win a war to try those who have lost is unjust, and against the foundations of Natural Justice: one must not be a judge in one's own cause. The War Tribunal should have been under the aegis of an international non-partisan forum, such as the ICJ.

I have not said that the atrocities were not committed, so stop wasting your own effort in pointing out the obvious.

China's core interests: SCS, Taiwan, Tibet, Uyghurs, territorial disputes, military alliances with China's unfriendly neighbours ...

Ergo, China is the belligerent, expansionist power in Asia at present. The Japanese have friendly relations with all other countries apart from China. They are held in high regard for their non-belligerent, non-expansionist diplomacy. Instead of criticizing, the Chinese regime would be well-advised to learn from the Japanese as to how friendly relations ought to be maintained with neighbours.