Daily Blog - Tiger Software      December 7, 2011

   JAPANESE CRUELTY

     Remember the 300,000 Killed
   by the Japanese in The
   Nanking Massacre.

     Whale Screams of Pain

   Origins of German Fascism

   What Made The Japanese
   So Militaristic and Brutal
       from 1900 to 1945?

   Contemporary Japanese
   Leaders Deny
   Japanese War Guilt 

   Extreme Nationalism
   Is on The Rise Again..

__________________________________________________________________
    Index of All Tiger Blog Topics      www.tigersoft.com

        People have asked me to write a Daily Blog.  
    They seem to want  me to give them a thought
    or two each day.  About what?     Well,    we'll just
    have to wait and see.  As, I see it, a blog is a
    personal statement.  I will try to make it enter-
    taining and relate it mostly to the stock market. 

        to william_schmidt@hotmail.com

The Origins of Japanese Cruelty

                20 million people died as a result of Japan's brutal aggressions in World War II.
                Americans know much more about the consequences of German fascism.  Japan's
                murderous path should be studied more, especially by the Japanese who still refuse
                to take responsibility for their grandfathers' cruelty.  Japanese troops were carefully
                trained to become sadistic, psychopathic killers.  Who did this?  How?  Why?

                                                           
                                          http://www.pacificwar.org.au/WarCrimeIntro.html

               The evidence shows Japanese cruelty grew as their Empire did.  Is it more pronounced
               and widespread than in most other countries?  Yes, I would say, though I understand
               that prolonged war brings such behavior out in most military campaigns cruel treatment
               on all sides.  My sense is that it was the belief that the Japanese could not be trusted
               to really surrender that bred much of the American soldiers' hatred for them. Fair play
               was not reciprocated.  One cannot imagine fraternization between the the Americans
               and the Japanese armies, as happened in 1914 and 1915 in No Mans' Land between
               the Germans and the British.    http://www.axpow.org/peaceinnomansland.htm

               The Japanese especially believed in their own superiority and the non-humanity of
               their enemies.   Japanese Shintoism became the official State religion.  It was taught
               in schools and honored in all official gatherings.  The Emperor was divine.  The Japanese
               people were racially superior.  Nationalism like this was deliberately instilled to serve
               the purpose of the war-making élites.  Xenophobia and racism had to be carefully
               inculcated in the Japan people so that the introduction of American and then
               Western European technologies and thinking after the 1850s would not threaten
               the Japanese ruling elite's status and control.   Creating foreign enemies is a right-wing
               tactic, the world over.  What we Americans do not know is that Teddy Roosevelt
               secretly encouraged Japanese racism and viewing China and Manchuria as
               Japan's natural areas to conquer and colonize. See The Queasy Side of Theodore Roosevelt's ... - New York Times

               Japan society was authoritarian and rigidly and hierarchical before and after the onset of
               deliberate modernization in the 1870s.  It was a repressed society.  Males dominated.   
               Obedience, loyalty to one's superiors and ferocity were the most important and most
               inculcated values,   Compassion, charity, kindness were not taught or valued.  The
               Emperors did not urge these values.  Nor did the Shoguns or Samurai.  Nor did the
               civilian political leaders.  Nor did the intellectuals.  Vile, barbarous cruelty was not
               condemned.   Bullying, picking fights, cruelty and killing were, at first, ignored and
               not condemned.  Then they were condoned and rationalized away.  Eventually,
               they were honored by the Japanese military leadership at the peak of its rabid
               degeneration.  

               Some accounts claim that the Russian POWs of 1905 were treated humanely and that
               the Japanese Samurai inspired military code originally encouraged respect for one's
               military enemies and for prisoners.  It is argued in these accounts that the original
               Samurai code was perverted by the Emperor and the Imperial Staff as they had
               it taught throughout Japanese society, when it was made out that any compassion
               shown a defeated enemy weakened the new Japanese Samurai national spirit 

               I believe it is a mistake to attribute compassion to the Samurai.  One can easily
               find countless instances and citations of wonton Samurai cruelty.  Be that as it may,
               a brutalization occurred not far into the XXth Century.  I would suggest that the
               Japanese observed how savagely Western armies killed each other in World War I.             
               Seeing that, they might well have considered Western Christian missionaries
               who preached peace, charity, compassion and love for one's enemies to be really
               teaching others how to be slaves, while the armies of the countries that these
               missionaries came from built vast empires. 

               Certainly, as fascist, ultra-nationalist hubris became entrenched, the XXth century
               Japanese "Samurais" created pretexts for new wars, assassinated politicians and
               became ever bolder and more brashly violent.  Why kill civilians and bayonette babies?  
               Because, they felt exalted at the complete vanquishing of their enemy.  They combined
               Samurai violence, Shintu racism with Western Imperialism and technology.  They
               then simply carried out each to their logical and most extreme form.  

              Pecking order brutality was institutionalized.  As the cult of Japanese military savagery
              became dominant, violent abuse of subordinates became the norm and was EXPECTED:
                                 "In the 1930s, Japanese military recruits began to be subjected to intensive indoctrination
                                 in the tenets of bushido and Shinto. A culture of extreme brutality was also encouraged
                                 within the military itself. If a Japanese colonel was displeased with one of his majors,
                                 it would not be unusual for the colonel to strike the offending major a blow across
                                 the face to reinforce his reprimand. The major chastised in this way would be expected
                                 to strike one of his captains who had incurred his displeasure. This brutality would be
                                 passed down the line from the Japanese officers to their own enlisted men who would
                                 then be expected to beat each other up. At the end of this chain of brutality were the men
                                 perceived by the Japanese to be the lowest of the low, their enlisted Koreans and Taiwanese,
                                 who received the worst beatings. The disgruntled Korean and Taiwanese camp guards
                                 had no one but the prisoners of war to beat up, and they were viewed by many prisoners
                                 as being the most brutal of their guards." 
                                               http://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/Explaining_JapWarCrimes.html

               They did not heed the Geneva conventions or allow Red Cross aid or observers reach
               their Prison camps as the Germans did.  Their Bushido military code required their soldiers
               to fight to the death and never surrender.  They did not respect prisoners who surrendered.
               Whole regiments held be-heading contests, supposedly to make their soldiers
               obedient killers without conscience.

               But why were they cruel to civilians?  Why would they force women and children into
               a tall building and set it on fire?  Even NAZI observers protested this.  Why did Japanese
               generals encourage stories about their army's atrocities.  The Nazis and the German
               Generals concealed the concentration camps as much as possible from the general public. 
               I have found no evidence that  suggests American, British or ANZAC troops
               mistreated non-combatant civilians.
              
               That Japanese cruelty was so ferocious towards the Chinese in the 1930s makes
               it clear that it did not develop late, as a result of war weariness or as the Japanese
               started to lose battle after battle, when one might otherwise argue that they might
               have been more likely to vent frustration with aggressive violence and to suppress
               their inner self-doubts by being cruel towards those they could still control.  

                       "The depravity of the Japanese troops is not surprising having regard to their being
                        taught that Chinese were "chancorro", or sub-human, and that the killing of Chinese
                        was of no greater significance than the killing of vermin. Chinese civilians were
                        rounded up on the slightest pretext to provide Japanese troops with bayonet practice."
                            ( http://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/Explaining_JapWarCrimes.html   

            
            
              > Japanese Sneak Attack on Russians in 1904
             >   Japanese Sneak Attack on and US in 1941.
                      

              > Japanese Unprovoked Invasions of Korea, Manchuria, China, SE Asia, Phippines.
               > Japanese massacres:
                           Nanking  300,000 Chinese killed. 
                           Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign 250,000 Chinese killed.
               > Biological war experiments Unit 731
               > Atrocities in Philippines - Manilla Massacre 100,000 civilians in Philippines  killed. 
               > Bataan Death March
               > Burma - 250,000 civilians killed.

               I recommend viewing the movies Empire of the Sun and Bridge over the River Kwai
              Japanese war crimes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                           Remember the 300,000 Killed by the Japanese in The
                                                Nanking Massacre.
                                 300,000 Chinese were killed in the Nanking Massacre

                      This kind of monstrosity should not be ignored or ever forgotten.
                      The Japanese avoid admitting their guilt.  They should feel acutely shamed,
                      just as the Germans do and Turks should for their massacre of a million
                      Armenians in World War I. 

           "The Japanese did not just kill the Chinese civilians, they tortured them in any and
            every cruel way possible and enjoyed the power of doing so. The soldiers raped the
            women, set people on fire, ripped out beating hearts and took pictures as souvenirs…
            In most these pictures the Japanese monsters are smiling, surrounded by the bloody victims.
            In fact it was so horrific that there are even reports that some Nazi soldiers tried to help
            some of the innocent Chinese citizens. It’s a sad state when a culture is so sick and
            inhuman that make the Nazis look “warm” by comparison...

            The Japanese knew which form of torture would produce the most painful experience
            for the victim before they would die. The soldiers performed disembowelment,
            decapitation, crucifixion, carved out big pieces of human flesh, and there are incidents
            where the Chinese had their eyes gouged out and their noses and ears chopped off
            before setting them aflame. The Japanese troops gathered a group of about 200 people
            and “stripped naked, tied to columns and doors of a school, and then stabbed [them with]
            zhuizi -special needles with handles on them- in hundreds of points along their bodies,
            including their mouths, throats, and eyes.”

                                  

                

                                Have The Japanese Changed?  Where Is The Remorse?

              "Why should it matter any more?"
                     Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's response to criticism of his paying homage
                     to Japan's worst war criminals at the infamous Yasukuni Shinto Shrine in Tokyo (1996).

              Please go to http://www.pacificwar.org.au/WarCrimeIntro.html to see more evidence than I canb oresent.

               "The Pacific War was a war of liberation..."   Nagano Shigeto, Japan's Justice Minister (1994).

              "The Pacific War was a war to liberate colonised Asia."
                   A resolution moved in the Japanese Parliament (the Diet) in 1995 by 221 members
                   of Japan's long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

               "Japan was forced to go to war by American oil and other embargoes."
                     Hosei Norota, senior member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (2001).

               "Japan was forced into WW II to liberate Asia from the yoke of Western colonialism."
                       Hideaki Kase, producer of the controversial Japanese film "Merdeka" (2001).

               "The Nanjing Massacre is a lie made up by the Chinese."
                      Ishihara Shintaro, former Japanese Cabinet Minister, interviewed October 1990.

               ..the Nanjing Massacre is a fabrication.
                     Nagano Shigeto, Japan's Justice Minister (1994).

                    The right-wing fascist crime families (Yahuza) pressure the Japanese Government to resist
                    international demands that whale killing be altogether stopped.

                                     Yakuza: The Warlords of Japanese Organized Crime
                                   http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/eep/news/endspecies.html
                                   Sea Shepherd's Rosie Kunneke - Kidnap Attemot by Yakuza Gangsters

                     One in four consider the fascist Yakuza criminals "a necessary evil".
                                  BBC News - Exposing the world of Japan's yakuza mafia

                     The Japanese Government STILL refuses to require the real story of Japanese mass
                     murders of Chinese in the 1930s be made part of the required reading of young Japanese. 
                 
                      "In 2007, the Japanese government conducted a poll asking whether non-Japanese
                     people deserved the same human rights as Japanese people. 41% of Japanese people
                     answered in the negative."
                                            ( See http://www.globalization101.org/issu...sPerspectives/ )

                    Visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum.  There is only one wall panel given to the rise of
                    militarism in Japan in the 1920s and the 1930s.  Much more space is given to
                    American fire-bombing of Japan and post war scarcities.  More attention was
                    given to a display of the medals warded Japanese fighters at this time.
                    Source.

                    "Japan banned all japanese invasion films in their country and all their textbooks are revised.
                     Theirs wrote that they were there to liberate the people from their colonisation and
                     corrupted government. And that 'there's no cruelty involved'. It shows japanese soldiers
                     playing with children when throughout Asia, (China, korea, taiwan, singapore, manchuria, malaysia etc,
                     all our textbooks showed the same, consistent cruel methods of torture they used). And the japanese
                     government and people visit their war heroes shrine every year. 'War hero' meaning those who
                     died while trying to invade Asia."  Source.




                   
                                                     Whale Screams of Pain

                           Japanese Cruelty Continues towards Whales, despite their suffering.
                    Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0q2CqkdPFk    It takes these intelligent mamales
                    30 minutes to die when harpooned.   Japamese Whaling - Cruelty beyond Belief
                    Save the whales BOYCOTT JAPAN Petition
                                                        Boycott Japan | Facebook







        As a history major, I learned enough to understand intellectually what were the forces that led to Hitler
        and Germany's Attack on Russia, Jews and all of Europe.  Now it's high time to study the Japanese
        descent into similar levels of rabid mass cruelty and barbarity, all in the name of a divine Emperor,
        rejuvenating Japanese blood and national identity and building a far-flung imperial Japanese
        "Co-Prosperity Sphere".  As in Germany, ruthless violence against opponents and foreigners was
        encouraged to instill courage, character and selflessness before the all powerful State and to destroy
        Parliamentary Democracy, Tolerance, Labor parties, rationalism and truth.  

                             Lyrics from  NAZI Storm Trooper song:
                 "Blut muss fliessen, Blut muss fliessen! Blut muss fliessen Knuppelhageldick! Haut'se doch zusammen,
                  haut'se doch zusammen! Diese gotverdammte Juden Republik!"
                  Ttranslation: "Blood must flow, blood must flow! Blood must flow as cudgel thick as hail! Let's smash it up,
                  let's smash it up! That goddamned Jewish republic!" Source
                           
|                             From a Japanese soldier's diary in 1937

                  "Recently, when we were very bored, we had some fun killing Chinese. We caught some innocent
                   Chinese and either buried them alive, or pushed them into a fire, or beat them to death with clubs,
                   or killed them by other cruel means.”

                      

       
                                                  Origins of German Fascism


           We can learn about Japan and America, too,  by first considering the main factors that lead
           to German Cruelty, Expansionism and Fascism.

                      1) Prussian Militarism, Blind Obedience, Belief that Might makes Right ("Macht ist Recht")

                      2) World War's Humiliating Peace Treaty.  Specifically the Allied demands for huge reparations
                      which led directly to Weimar Germany's hyper-inflation and the destruction of the Middle Class.

                      3) The Failure of Capitalism for Millions.  Economic Depression radicalized and polarized
                      German Politics.   Hitler's NAZI Party got more votes in 1932 than any other German
                      political party.  Rich industrialists became afraid of the Political Left and gave more and
                      more money and political backing to the NAZIs.

                     4) Germany's workers had long been  socially, politically and economically separated from
                      middle class Germany and the Catholic Church.  See writings of Peter Gay about the
                      extreme social gragmentation of Germany before and after World War I.  As a result,
                      the Catholic and Protestant churches were mostly silent when unions were abolished and J
                      ews persecuted.  After the unions, socialists and Communists were squelched, the NAZIs could
                      suppress dissidence within the Churches.  the Nazis consciously pursued this "piecemeal strategy"
                      See   Gleichschaltung
.
                      5) Wealthy industrialists back the Nationalist and NAZI Parties out of fear of workers,
                      Socialists (SPD)and Communists (KPD). See http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_07.htm
                      http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-08-economic-mobilization-02.html
                      In particular, see the role of steel iindustrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who was a big backer of
                      Nazis after 1922  Thyssen pressured the elderly German President von Hindenburg to
                      name Hitler as Chancellor in 1932.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Thyssen

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    Academic America Protection of Big Business
                                                           Ivy League Suppression of Ideas

                      Princeton denied tenure to David Abraham for arguing in behalf of the role of Big Capital
                      behind Hiutler's rise.  Yale gave tenure to Henry Ashby Turner for disputing  their
                      key role.  A number of other historians - Arno J. Mayer, Carl Schorske, Thomas Bender,
                      and Natalie Zemon Davis, came to Abraham's defense.  (My own experience at Yale,
                      a history major, demonstrates that Department's unwillingness to see America's role in creating
                      Japanese imperialism, as will be discussed more below.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                      6) Widespread Anti-Semistism, German Racism and Sense of Superiority, which was fed by
                      the music of Wagner and then NAZI propaganda.. The National Imperialist demand
                      for Space to Expand Into, Foreign markets and "Lebensraum"

                      7) Hitler's Carisma and the Use of Mass Propaganda to Glorify Die Fuhrer.
 
                      8) Unbridled Terror: Gestapo (Secret Police) made a challenge of Hitler very difficult.
                       Arresting all potential opposition.

                      9) The German Army failed to resist Hitler's dictatorship successfully because as a
                       class they benefitted until the War by the actions of his regime.

                       10) France, UK and US did not want to get involved in another war like World War I, which was
                      believed to have been started to rapidly by rash mobilization and an arms race.As a result, they did
                      not stand up to Hitler when their opposition might have caused his over-throw:
                                      1935 - the remilitarization of the Rhineland and
                                      1938 - the Invasion of Czechoslovakia when key German generals were ready to stage a coup
                                      against Hitler.

                   
            
            THE ORIGINS OF JAPAN'S CRUELTY 
                           from 1900-2045

                It is not surprising how many similar forces were at work in Japan.   Fascism
                is Fascism.  The Japanese admired NAZI brutality and vice verse.   Fascism
                is the open terrorist dictatorship of the most brutal, violent, reactionary, chauvinistic
                and most imperialist."   


          
                 What Made The Japanese So Militaristic and Brutal 

                 But what may amaze some readers, is the degree to which the
                Japanese were initially ecouraged by, and simply doing what, their American
                mentors, like Teddy Roosevelt, were advising, as they tried to catch up
                with the Europeans and the US.
                 
                What exactly led to Japanese military aggression, expansion, racism
                and widespread cruelty everywhere they went: Korea, Manchuria, China,
                The Phlilipines, Burma?  Where did all this terrible energy come from?
                 I realize that war brings out the worst (and, maybe, the noblest and most
                 selfless

                Remarkably, until the late 19th century Japan had remained isolated, independent and
                never held territorial possessions either on the mainland of Asia or nearby islands,
                with the exception of some colonization of Korea in the 16th century. 

                 Imperialism in Japan was boosted not just by adopting European technologies,
                  but by its adaptation to itself of the same amoral Social Darwinian thinking that
                approved of Manifest Destiny,  the destruction of Native American people and culture
                and the wholesale plundering of limited natural resouces, all for selfish profit:
                And racism.  The Japanese sought to be the Aryans of the East. .
               
              
  
          

          In 1853, Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and demanded that Japan open
         its ports for trade.  Japan agreed.  "Most favored nation" trading privileges were soon
        granted the Europeon countries, too.    Incidents between the Japanese and the foreigners
        led to the British Naval ship firing its guns on a Japanese port.  Again, the Japanese
        yielded, but to avoid future humiliations began to copy the foreigners' technologies
        and imperialist world-view.

                                                      MEJII Modernization

         A 16-year old emperor, MEJII, took the throne.  His advisors sought to modernize Japan
         while adopting their foreign technologoes and adapting their ways of thinking, too.
        From the British, they patterned their new Navy.  Along Prussian line, their built
        a new conscript army. Banking, a legal system and a parliament were created. 
        The government set up key railroads, textiles, etc.and then turned them over to private
        interests.  Overseas colonies were sought, just as the Europeans had.  Social Darwinism,
        the survival of the fittest, "Macht ist Recht" philosophies rationalized the new
        Japanese Imperialism much like they had European imperialism.   Missing from Japan
        in these years was any sense of Yankee noblesse oblige,  British (As in Kipling)
        paternaism or French cultural egalitarianism. .

       In 1872 the U.S. military began training the Japanese in how to conquer other nations,
        with an eye on Taiwan.  Charles LeGendre, an American general training the Japanese
        in the ways of war, proposed that they adopt a Monroe Doctrine for Asia, that is a
        policy of dominating Asia in the way that the United States dominated its hemisphere. 
        Japan established a Bureau of Savage Affairs and invented new words like koronii (colony). 
        Talk in Japan began to focus on the responsibility of the Japanese to civilize the savages. 
        In 1873, Japan invaded Taiwan with U.S. military advisors.  And Korea was next.
       (See James Bradley's The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
           and the discussion on Amazon.)

                          TEDDY ROOSEVELT and JAPANESE IMPERIALISM
                 

                But what may amaze some readers, is the degree to which the
                Japanese were initially ecouraged by, and simply doing what, their American
                mentors, like Teddy Roosevelt, were advising, as they tried to catch up
                with the Europeans and the US.
                 
                What exactly led to Japanese military aggression, expansion, racism
                and widespread cruelty everywhere they went: Korea, Manchuria, China,
                The Phlilipines, Burma?  Where did all this terrible energy come from?

                Remarkably, until the late 19th century Japan had remained isolated, independent and
                never held territorial possessions either on the mainland of Asia or nearby islands,
                with the exception of some colonization of Korea in the 16th century. 

                 Imperialism in Japan was boosted not just by adopting European technologies,
                  but by its adaptation to itself of the same amoral Social Darwinian thinking that
                approved of Manifest Destiny,  the destruction of Native American people and culture
                and the wholesale plundering of limited natural resouces, all for selfish profit:
                And racism.  The Japanese sought to be the Aryans of the East. .
               
              
  
          

          In 1853, Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and demanded that Japan open
         its ports for trade.  Japan agreed.  "Most favored nation" trading privileges were soon
        granted the Europeon countries, too.    Incidents between the Japanese and the foreigners
        led to the British Naval ship firing its guns on a Japanese port.  Again, the Japanese
        yielded, but to avoid future humiliations began to copy the foreigners' technologies
        and imperialist world-view.

                                                      MEJII Modernization

         A 16-year old emperor, MEJII, took the throne.  His advisors sought to modernize Japan
         while adopting their foreign technologoes and adapting their ways of thinking, too.
        From the British, they patterned their new Navy.  Along Prussian line, they built
        a new conscript army. Banking, a legal system and a parliament were created. 
        The government set up key railroads, textiles, etc.and then turned them over to private
        interests.  Overseas colonies were sought, just as the Europeans had.  Social Darwinism,
        the survival of the fittest, "Macht ist Recht" philosophies rationalized the new
        Japanese Imperialism much like they had European imperialism.   Missing from Japan
        in these years was any sense of Yankee noblesse oblige,  British (As in Kipling)
        paternaism or French cultural egalitarianism. 

       In 1872 the U.S. military began training the Japanese in how to conquer other nations,
        with an eye on Taiwan.  Charles LeGendre, an American general training the Japanese
        in the ways of war, proposed that they adopt a Monroe Doctrine for Asia, that is a
        policy of dominating Asia in the way that the United States dominated its hemisphere. 
        Japan established a Bureau of Savage Affairs and invented new words like koronii (colony). 
        Talk in Japan began to focus on the responsibility of the Japanese to civilize the savages. 
        In 1873, Japan invaded Taiwan with U.S. military advisors.  And Korea was next.
       (See James Bradley's The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
           and the discussion on Amazon.)

           Japan Invades Taiwan with Samurai, 1873 -  This was Japan's first overseas
         military adventure.  "The rationale was to threaten China, thus allowing Japan to
         wrest the island of Okinawa from China's orbit, an idea cooked up by the
         Japanese foreign ministry's first foreign employee--a retired American Civil War
         general. The excuse was that the Taiwanese had abused Okinawan civilians. 
        The Japanese invaders sailed on American-made ships with U.S. Navy advisers."           
            http://www.jamesbradley.com/the-real-lesson-of-pearl-harbor.htm  

           "Domestically, the action also mollified those within the Meiji government
          who were pushing for a more aggressive foreign policy, and who were enraged
          by the government's refusal in 1873 to attack Korea.   It is significant that the
          expedition took place shortly after the Saga Rebellion, and was led by Saigo Judo
          (Saigo Takamori's younger brother) and consisted largely of former Satsuma
          and Saga samurai."      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Expedition_of_1874

            China's weakness sin this erved as an invitation to the French who invaded
         Taiwan in October 1884.
                                          
                                             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-French_War

           
                                                          1894. Japan versus China

                In 1895, Japan defeated China for control of Southern Korea.

                              "Korea and Japan had known nothing but peace for centuries. 
                          When the Japanese arrived with U.S. ships, wearing U.S. clothing,
                         talking about their divine emperor, and proposing a treaty of "friendship,"
                         the Koreans thought the Japanese had lost their minds, and told them
                         to get lost, knowing that China was there at Korea's back.  But the
                         Japanese talked China into allowing Korea to sign the treaty, without
                         explaining to either the Chinese or Koreans what the treaty meant
                         in its English translation.  In 1894 Japan declared war on China, a
                         war in which U.S. weapons carried the day.  China gave up Taiwan
                         and the Liaodong Peninsula, paid a large indemnity, declared
                         Korea independent, and gave Japan the same commercial rights in China
                         that the U.S. and European nations had". (Email from David Swanson)

                    
            In 1895, Japan defeated China for control of Southern Korea, but
         China persuaded Russia, France, and Germany to oppose a Japanese take-over od the
         Liaodong Penninsula. Japan gave it up and Russia grabbed it.   This led to the Japanese
         Sneak Attack on Russia and the Japanese colonization of parts of Korea.
         By 1910, Korea was a  Japanese colony, much like a British, French, German, Dutch
         or Portuguese colony of the time. A Western-like military was only part of the story. 
         Japan employed Samurai-taught suicidal charges, acting in the name of the divine
         Japanese Emperor who sought a wide Empire.

        Remember at this time, Britain and Germany were engaging in a Naval Arms' race
        and Teddy Roosevelt was leading a military incursion into Cuba against the Spanish
        to revenge the mysterious explosion on the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor.
        The weak Spanish Empire can be compared to the Chinese Empire.  In 1896,
        Republicans McKinley and Roosevelt campaigned successfully for an American Empire.
        Teddy Roosevelt cared little about the slaughter of Native Americans or the exploitation of
        Chinese immigrants.  He seems to have believed that only whites capable of self-rule.
        His display of Filipinos at the St. Louis World's Fair depicted them as "savages who
        could be tamed by white men".   He blocking Chinese immigration. 


                          Japanese Sneak Attack in 1904 Demolishes Russian Fleet
          
         The first Japanese sneak attack occurred in 1904.  Except for the fact that it
         was carried out by Japanese battleships instead of airplanes, it was similar
         to Pearl Harbor.  Without warning and while the Russian ships were anchored
         at Port Arthur, the Japanese Navy attacked. .

                  "On the evening of the 8th. of February, Togo sailed 10 Torpedo Boats with
                  orders to attack the Russian ships anchored at Port Arthur. No war had been declared
                  by Japan on Russia, it was the pre cursor to Pearl Harbor when on the 7th. of December 1941,
                  Japan cowardly attacked the US Fleet without any warning. The Torpedo Boats approached
                  with stealth to find the cruiser Pallada very conveniently illuminating the scene with her searchlights.
                 The Russian ships were silhouetted nicely, like sitting ducks awaiting their fate. In two groups
                 of five, the Japanese Boats unleashed their deadly torpedoes, to then escape seawards....
                 On the 9th. of February Vice Admiral Togo's larger ships poured fire into the Russian Fleet, the
                 Russians caught unawares were decimated, no word of war being declared."
                                 http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/RussiaversusJapan.TheBatt.html

                 Teddy Roosevelt approved:  He wrote secretly, "I was thoroughly well pleased
               with the Japanese victory, for Japan is playing our game." 
                   http://www.jamesbradley.com/the-real-lesson-of-pearl-harbor.htm

. 

           By defeating the Russians, the Japanese thereby took control of parts of
          Manchuria, including a new railroad, timber lands and its seaports.

                              Korea - A Colony within the Japanese Sphere of Influence.

                 "In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt secretly urged Japanese leaders to develop
        a "Japanese Monroe Doctrine for Asia." Roosevelt encouraged the Japanese navy to seize
        "a paramount interest in what surrounds the Yellow Sea, just as the United States has a paramount interest
         in what surrounds the Caribbean."    Unknown to Congress and his own State Department,
         Theodore Roosevelt agreed to a secret, unconstitutional treaty with Tokyo allowing the Japanese
         military to seize Korea and initiate their Japanese Monroe Doctrine for Asia." 
         ( http://www.jamesbradley.com/the-real-lesson-of-pearl-harbor.htm )

                            Teddy wrote to his son Kermit,
                     "I have of course concealed from everyone -- literally everyone -- the fact that I acted
                      in the first place on Japan's suggestion . . .I have kept the secret very successfully,
                      and my dealings with the Japanese in particular have been known to no one."
                      He was explaining that his moderation of peace negotiations between Japan and Russia had all
                       been previously worked out in secret with Japan . ."

                                        The Rise of Japanese FASCISM: 

            SAMURAI INFLUENCE
            1873   Nearly all leaders in Japanese society during the Meiji period were ex-samurai
         or descendants of Samurai, and shared a common set of values and outlooks.

                    The rise of universal military conscription, along with the proclamation of the
           Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors in 1882 enabled the military to indoctrinate thousands
           of men from various social backgrounds with military-patriotic values and the concept the
           unquestioning loyalty to the Emperor was the basis of the Japanese state (kokutai).

           Worship of The Emperor as a Divine Incarnation was taught by the Constitution and by the
         Army and Navy.

         The 1919 Treaty of Versailles did not grant Japan new territory.  The Washington
         and London Naval Treaities of the 1920s limited the size of the Japanese Navy to a
         level of 60% of that of the US and of Britain.   The Japanese military and the
         right-wing Samurai spawned ultra-Nationalist societies considered this a national insult
         that must be avenged.

          Intellectuals like Ikki Kita advocated a special Japanese Nationalism.
         The Parliament would be replaced by a military dictatorship which would end
         the corrupting political influences of business and private interests.
       . In the 1920s Shumei Okawa "helped popularize the concept of the inevitability
         of a clash of civilizations between Japan and the west. Japan needed
         to return to its traditional kokutai traditions in order to survive the increasing social
         tensions created by industrialization and foreign influences." 

          Ultra nationalist Nakano Seigo believe Japan could be reborn by reviving a blend
         of the samurai ethic, Neo-Confucianism, and populist nationalism modeled on
         European fascism.  Sadao Araki underscored the parallels between Prussian
         militarism and the old Samurai Bushido code. As minister of the Army
         and then Education in the 1930s, he brought Samurai Fascism into mainstream
         Japanese politics.  The son of an ex-Samurai, he rose quickly within
         the Army.  Later he went to the Army Staff College where he was
         head of his claff.  He was made a military attache in St. Petersburg
         during WWI.  He became a fierce anti-Communist and served in Japan's
         and Bolshevik intervention in Siberia in 1918-1919.  He was made a
         General in 1923.  In May 1932. a clique of young naval officers and army
         cadets assassinated the Japanese Prime Minister. Sadao Araki expressed
         strong sympathy with the assassins, who received only mild punishment.
          "The failure to severely punish the plotters in the May 15 Incident further
         eroded the rule of law and the power of the democratic government in
         Japan to confront the military."
                     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_15_Incident

                        
                   The modernizing Meiji oligarchy that ruled Japan in the late 19th century
       had set about to abolish the feudal Tokugawa class system which prescribed most
       social behavior until 1867.  With universal conscription, the Samurai class
       was abolished, but its ideals of "service" were kept alive by the new Japanese
      miliary elitesS ocial mobility before 1867 was strictly limited. 

                 The Japanese feudal social hierarchy before industrialization had included:

                     Emperor - Spiritual and ceremonial leader in Kyoto
                                       Theoretical owner of all lands
                     Imperial Court Aristocracy
                     Shoguns - hereditary military dictators from 1192-1867
                                     -Tokyo Shogun controlled foreign policy, military and patronage.
            
                                                             

                                              SAMURAI SWORDS FOR HIRE
                        
                     Samurai -  The Shogun's warrior class. Other classes were were prohibited
                                      from holding weapons.
                                      In theory, "A warrior's first loyalty was to his overlord; it was his duty to
                                       die for that lord if necessary-even if it's suicide to avoid being
                                       captured. In exchange for loyal service to the land owners
                                       who hired the men for their private armies, the warriors received
                                       grants of land or the right to be stewards of small estates.
                                       Their way of life-bushido-required a lot of physical hardship,

                                     "A man whose profession is the use of arms should think
                                     and then act upon not only his own fame, but also that of his
                                     descendants. He should not scandalize his name forever by
                                     holding his one and only life too dear....One's main purpose
                                     in throwing away his life is to do so either for the sake of the
                                     Emperor or in some great undertaking of a military general.
                                     It is that exactly that will be the great fame of one's descendants"
                                       absolute devotion to duty, and bravery in all things.  

                                    Samurai could kill commoners who showed them disrespect.
                                    It was "sadly common Japanese peasants to find themselves the
                                   playthings of samurai cruelty, caprice, or excess". The Japanese
                                    have word  "tsujigiri" which means "to try your sword out on a
                                   chance wayfarer".  When Peasant discontent became a concern to
                                    the Shogun, Samurai cruelty could be used to intimidate.  Read
                                    "The Fishmonger Sogoro" by Mokuami from the Meiji period.

                                   Bitter unemployed Samurai formed ultra-nationalist "patriotic"
                                   societies, such as the Gen'yosha (Black Ocean Society, est. 1881),
                                   the Kokuryukai (Black Dragon Society), or Amur River Society.
                                   They agitated for and promoted new wars and blamed domestic
                                   labor discontent on foreigners who were socialists and Communists.
                                   Western individualistic greed should be replaced by a restored,
                                   revived Empire and self-sacrifice in service to the nation of
                                   Japan and the Emperor.
                                  a missionary interpretation
                                  

                     Merchants - Artisans - Peasants  -  were all at the bottom of feudal
                    Japan's social/economic/political hierarchy.
=====================================================================

                    After 1874, the Emperor and his ruling nobility allowed constitutional
           government to grow in Japan.   At the same time, they outlawed criticism by the
           press of the government or its laws.  Civil servants were not allowed to participate
           in a public meeting, which itself could only be held after police approval.


                                             JAPAN - 1920s
                           http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-7084.html        
          
                The Japanese Diet (Legislature) had gained some budgetary authority from the
          Emperor's Council.  Hierarchy and privilege were spared: the right to vote was limited
          property owning males.   Socialists and Communists were banned, yet the labor
          movement grew.  Hara Takashi in 1918 became the first commoner to made Prime
          Minister.  His Seiyokai majority failed to cope with the growing demands for wider
          political suffrage and economic justice.  He was assassinated by an angry railroad
          worker in 1921.  The result was a Peace Preservation Law in 1925 which prohibited
          any change with the Japanese political structure or threat to private property.  The
          Rikken Minseito (Constitutional Democrats) ruled much of the time until 1932. 
          They were committed to a parliamentary system, fiscal austerity and a
          strengthening of the Police's infiltration of labor organizations. 

          "The Peace Preservation Law of 1925 gave police the authority to arrest people
          for "wrong thoughts." Special Higher Police were created to regulate the content
          of motion pictures, political meetings, and election campaigns.  But peace was
          not preserved.  In 1931, their PM, Hamaguchi Osachi was assassinated.

          Deadly violent military action abroad began in the late 1920s even while Japan
          had a parliamentary government.     Japanese troops were sent to China
          "to obstruct Chiang Kai-shek's unification campaign. In June 1928, adventurist
          officers of the Guandong Army, the Imperial Japanese Army unit stationed
          in Manchuria, embarked an unauthorized initiatives to protect Japanese interests,
          including the assassination of a former ally, Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin.
          The perpetrators hoped the Chinese would be prompted to take military action,
          forcing the Guandong Army to retaliate. The Japanese high command and the
          Chinese, however, both refused to mobilize. The incident turned out to be a
          striking example of unchecked terrorism... (P)ress censorship kept the
          Japanese public from knowing about these events "   Source. 

          Disappointed by the failure of civilian leadership to go to war, a secret society
          of Army officers, the Sakurakai (Cherry Society) plotted in 1931 to attack the
          Diet, various political party headquarters and assassinate the Prime Minister.
          The Army backed out of these plans, but the plotters were not punished.

                                          
                                                1931 Manchurian Incident

           Japanese Guandong Army officers persisted in finding a way to start a new
           war.  They blew up a short stretch of the South Manchurian Railway Company
           track and blamed it on Chinese saboteurs.  Then using this as excuse, the had
           the Japanese Army seize Mukden. 

           In January 1932, the Japanese forces attacked Shanghai using the pretext of
          Chinese attacks in Manchuria.   For three months, the Japanese waged a
          a three-month undeclared war there.   A truce was reached in March 1932,
          establishing Manchukuo as a Japanese puppet state headed by the last
          Chinese emperor.  "The civilian government in Tokyo was powerless to prevent
         these military" actions.    Meanwhile, the Japanese Guandong Army's actions
          enjoyed popular support back home despite widespread international condemnation.

          In May 1932, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi  was assassinated by a group of
          young army and navy officers.   They were put on trial and sentenced to 15 years'
          imprisonment, but were widely excused and praised for their "patriotism".  The
          political successors to Tsuyoshi all came from the military.  They recognized
          Manchukuo.  They treated Manchuria as new part of the Japanese empire.
          Japanese emigration there was encouraged.  Troops were sent there to prepare
          for a war with the Soviet Union.

         As in Europe and the US the business of Armaments was profitable in Japan.
         "Powerful government-supported companies called zaibatsu aided in creating
         an effective and modern war machine"
         (Source: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/bender4/eall131/EAHReadings/module02/m02japanese.html )


          In Japan different military factions sought to control the government.  Meanwhile
          dissent was suppressed brutally.   On February 26, 1936, 1500 troops went on
          a "rampage of assassination against the current and former prime ministers and
          other cabinet members, and even Saionji and members of the imperial court. The
          revolt was put down by other military units, and its leaders were executed after
          secret trials. Despite public dismay over these events and the discredit they brought
          to numerous military figures, Japan's civilian leadership capitulated to the army's
          demands in the hope of ending domestic violence."  Source.

          After that, Japan's moved rapidly towards a wartime economy.  In November 1936,
          the Anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Japan and Germany.  Collaboration
          in preventing communist activities was the declared intent of the treaty. 

          In July, 1937,  Japan attacked China after an incident at the Marco Polo Bridge.
          This full scale war lasted until 1945.

         In 1939, Japan invaded eastern Mongolia.   The Soviets defeated the Japanese
         Army in the Summer of 1939. The Japanese suffered 80,000 casualties.  The
         next year, the Japanese Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro assumed total control
         and declared Japan would heneceforth build a Greater East Asia Coprosperity
         Sphere with emphasis on Manchuko, China and Southwast Asia.  All political
         parties were ordered to be dissolved.   In September 1940, Japan joined the
         German-Italian Axis.  When the US embargoes war supplies and then oil, the
         die was cast, Japan prepared for war with   America.  Japan signed a Neutrality
         Pact in April 1941 with the Soviet Union to free its northern flank.  To cover
         up its plans for attacking Pearl Harbor, its diplomats sought out peace with
         Washington.   See http://motherearthtravel.com/history/japan/history-9.htm

                                                                Attack on America
         On December 7, 1941 Japan launched a surprise naval and aerial attack on the
         United States territory at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The immediate cause was
         Japan's reaction to the US embargos on oil and materials that were needed to
         maintain Japan’s war machine.