Re: Japan to Lead the World?

I'm not a great expert on Japanese history, but I remember reading, rather 
quickly, a traveller's history guide of Japan.  In it, I remember reading 
something about Japan not wanting to have any contacts whatsoever with the 
'West', and the British and US forcing them to for commercial interests.  I 
remember reading that the Japanese had a quite stable, althought isolated, 
society,  and had little imperialist adventures until the British and the 
Americans forced them to open their markets.  I remember reading how the 
Japanese were rather worried as they witnessed all of the colonisation of 
Asia.  I remember reading something about how the Japanese decided that the 
only way to resist Western occupation was to become a Western power itself.  I 
remember reading something about the Japanese efforts to have a A Western-like 
army, paying Western officials to tell them how to do it.  Japan's incredible 
process of modernisation and industrialisation, which inclined Japan to be 
sensitive to the very same problems that could be identified as the causes of 
Imperialism in western countries.   I'm not sure why Japan should admit its 
wrongs more than any other modern power.  I'm not sure I ever heard the Yanks 
apologiozing for dropping nukes on it, I have not heard the British apologise 
about concentration camps during the Boer Wars, somehow, it is only ever 
defeated powers that have to apologize.  What the Japanese should do, quite 
simply, is stop finincing US debt by not buying their bonds anymore, get 
themselves a decent army and probably go nuclear.  And as far as I am 
concerned, I would trust them much more with nukes that I now trust ther US 
(historical record), India, Pakistan and Israel.  That is what the New World 
order needs: a healthy competition between the Euro and the Dollar shall 
happen if the US does not take advantage of other people's trade surplus in 
order to finance their deficits.  And if security is the threat, Japan should 
provide for its own security.

>===== Original Message From 50168529 <50168529@alumni.cityu.edu.hk> =====
>Dear MS, and WSN
>
>Would a leopard ever change its spot?  No.
>Would people learn from their mistakes?  Not if they do not admit they have
>made one.
>Would history be repeated? Sure, if history text books are altered.
>Would the Sun set on the Empire of the Sun? For the sake of humankind, I sure
>hope so.
>
>Be brave, get it out of the system.  "It" being denial, conceit and
>priggishness.  "System" being the cocoon - "the Emperor System that some like
>to abolish (so as) to restore the military system" system, not the
>world-system. (Ref: Conclusion No.2 of the article "A Vision for World and
>Japan in 2020").  Didn't the Great Nippon Military control the Emperor before
>and during WWII?  Is that still official Japanese history?
>
>That "others have also done it" is not a good reason Nippon could or should
>also do it.  Certainly not a good reason to ever do it again. Perhaps the
>single most notable exception between Washington and others who chopped off
>cherry trees is that Washington ADMITTED that he chopped off the cherry tree.
>He then went on to lead the building of Core as we know it to-day.
>
>Tso.
>
>>===== Original Message From Trichur Ganesh <tganesh@stlawu.edu> =====
>>I am not clear what is the point here.  The way I see it, it is not only
>Japan,
>>but also any of the other "core" spaces that falls within the ambit of your
>>strictures.  Why this mania for singling out Nippon?  "Minamata Shigeru"
>(MS).
>>
>>50168529 wrote:
>>
>>> Dear WSN
>>>
>>> Can a Nation be trusted to be a World citizen when people from the Nation
>>> still uses words like "the Manchurian INCIDENT"?  By simply admitting the
>>> wrongs of the Nation in history, there is a future. Keep hiding behind the
>>> facets of imperialism, feudalism or shogunism will not make Japan great.
>>> Certainly it will not make Japan the leader of the NEW World Order, 
whether
>it
>>> is hiding behind the facet of World Government or not.
>>>
>>> Remember the "Great Asia Coexistence" banner hoisted for the bloody
>invasion
>>> of Asian countries during  WWII.  Remember the invasion of Manchuria.
>>> Remember the gem warfare.  Remember the war crimes not prosecuted. 
Remember
>>> the history text-books.  Remember the "Comfort Women". Remember Pearl
>Harbor.
>>>
>>> Can Japan be trusted as a leader of the "World Party" controlling the
>"World
>>> Government" by the year 2020?  Over my dead body, and that of millions of
>>> peace loving citizens of the world.
>>>
>>> Beware of the true nature of  Japan - that of an Island country, and the
>need
>>> thereof to go out and conquer for resources and for its own survival.
>Beware
>>> of the need to rein in the ambitions of a multi-trillion land and bond
>owner
>>> of world assets - the trillions that Japanese imperialist, feudalist and
>>> shoguns have amassed through economic expansion into all corners of the
>world.
>>>  Beware of the need for foreign energy and oil, and fish and whales.
>Beware
>>> of the excuses for war - behind the talk for peace.
>>>
>>> Can Japan be trusted?  Perhaps it is time to come out of the closet and
>admit
>>> the wrongs, make it right and move on as a proud Nation, and not as one
>always
>>> living under the dark clouds of shame and guilt.
>>>
>>> Just like incarcerations of criminals in maximum security facilities, the
>US
>>> arm forces is necessary to guard the not so rehabilitated shoguns, perhaps
>>> even beyond 2020, not the year, but the vision - the clear vision of the
>true
>>> character of Japan - which at one point in time has been identified as the
>>> next potential Core in the World-system.  God willing, and in the interest
>of
>>> the peace loving citizens of the world,  perhaps it never will.
>>>
>>> Tso.
>>>
>>> T-Suzuki wrote:
>>> Thank your for an information.  There is a different opinion on long
>recession
>>> of Japanese economy.
>>>
>>> Suzuki
>>>
>>> Dear Sir,
>>>
>>> The true reason of long recession of Japanese economy is not written in 
any
>>> magazine.  The true reason is written in an article
>>> 2020 http://www.w-g.jp/bbs/c-board.cgi?cmd=one;no=5;id=wp
>>> This article is a forecast of 2020. The cause of recession is written in
>>> the section of Japanese economy.
>>>
>>> Yours sincerely
>>> Toshio Suzuki
>>>
>>> World Government Institute, World Party, & World Citizen Network
>>> Institute, Party, and Network to establish the World Government
>>> http://www.w-g.jp/
>>> mailto:wg@w-g.jp
>>>
>>> Elson Boles wrote:
>>>
>>> Will it take ten more years?  Or "so much for Dore's 'Flexible
>>> Rigidities' thesis"
>>>
>>> January 29, 2003
>>> Japan's Phoenix Economy
>>> By RICHARD KATZ
>>>
>>> From Foreign Affairs, January/February 2003 issue
>>> Richard Katz is Senior Editor of The Oriental Economist Report, a
>>> monthly newsletter on Japan. This article is adapted from his recent
>>> book, Japanese Phoenix: The Long Road to Economic Revival.
>>>
>>> TEN YEARS TO RECOVERY
>>> A half-century ago, Japan picked itself up from the ashes of war and,
>>>

Damian Popolo
PhD candidate
Newcastle University
Department of Politics
Room 301