Saturday, June 19, 2004

Rape of Nanking Reloaded

By Reza Fiyouzat

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Posted 06/19 | Add a Comment

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  1. Folks interested in Japan/US relations may also visit Japan Focus or ZNET’s Japan Watch page which links to JF-- lot’s of other relevant critical info on Japan there. But thanks again to Reza for another insightful, highly relevant and fact studded article.

    I might add that I was re-reading the interview with Leuren Moret, the U of Cal geo-scientist who DU contamination and claims that Japan and Germany have now passed Russia in nuclear weapons development. She didn’t say whether that was in terms of numbers of weapons (I think not!) or the quality of the technology, but I assume it must be the latter since as far as I knew Japan does not have any nuclear weapons. If anyone would like to receive the Moret transcript I can email it to you:

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  06/19  at  08:54 PM

  2. Thanks to Reza for this informative article, with lots of historical perspective. One horrific trend that the author keeps referring to is the ‘cultural heritage’ of post-war Japan that is being lived to this day.
    As an inquiring American, I’d like to know more about the cultural-political trends that have persisted through all these years; how the ruling elites managed to give in to US occupation and adopt a ‘Liberal Oligarchy’ while keeping the Imperial flame alive? What sectors of today’s society is actively resisting these neo-fascist trends, and how we Americans participate in helping them democratising this old society?
    Again many thanks to reza for his insights.

    Posted by Miran from MA, USA  on  06/22  at  08:41 PM

  3. Dear Miran,

    You have asked good questions and opened a large sized can of worms. Again I would refer you to Japan Focus which has many good scholarly but readable articles. The classic Japan historians from the Left include Jon Halliday, A Political History of Japanese Capitalism, which takes you up to the mid 1970’s (this will answer many of your questions). Also see John Dower, Herbert Bix and see Gavan McCormack (sp.?) who writes for New Left Review.

    I have lived in Tokyo for some years, and just wrote my dissertation on the Japan grassroots enviro-movement. It is slowly chugging along, but not quickly enough I fear (actually stagnating in my opinion, but my understanding of the topic is not comprehensive). I am also interested in the US occupation issue as it relates to environmental problems in Japan.

    In a nutshell, the US did a great job of taking over the place after WWII, and have gradually forced major policies down Japan’s throat since that time. For example, instead of relying on greater public transport, the forced liberalization of the auto industry meant Japan had to build roads instead of trains. During the 1950’s the US led a campaign through the countryside to inform people that eating rice was bad for the brain in order to get Japanese to eat more wheat (for bread) so that the US could dump it’s exports. And so on.

    I am rather pessimistic about the future since most Japanese seem to be like the inhabitants of other capitalist countries: they are dumbed down by the onslaught of consumerism and pseudo news/education they recieve. Reza’s previous article talked about how organized labor is the mainstay in the antiwar “movement”, but it is tiny and extremely marginalized, and the biggest opposition party in Japan, the JCP (Japan Communist Party) recently lost a bunch of seats due to clever changes made in the proportional representation system (in order to make it more of a winner take all style, favorable to oligarchy). I am sorry if I am sounding pessimistic, we certainly need to do all we can to turn all this around.

    Most Americans are ignorant to the extent that the US bully abuses Japan by forcing it to accept our exports (rice from the deserts of water depleted California!?) and the US military bases which are a scourge to this land.

    Getting back to how the ruling elites have maintained power for so long: the CIA. The CIA funneled millions of dollars to the LDP ruling party at key times in post war history in order to insure no commie alternative (this was standard procedure throughout the cold war era). In spite of this, go and compare Hiroshima 1945 and Detroit 2004. It is amazing that Japan has fared so well considering the bruising and battering that it must accept due to Washington’s idiotic economic policies.

    Not to say that Japan is perfect, there is an ugly side which has nothing to do with US…

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  06/23  at  04:16 AM
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