PLAYING
BY THE RULES
Why
doesn't this qualify as British "mystical chauvinism"
– of a sort that energized the Empire's drive into virtually
every continent on earth? But naturally the "chauvinism" of
the Japanese is necessarily "mystical," being part of the
Mysterious Orient and all. God, those Brits are insufferable,
aren't they? I mean, get a load of this London Times
headline: JAPANESE LEADER'S WARTIME NOSTALGIA PROVOKES WRATH.
I am beginning to see some justice in Britain's draconian
libel laws, and if I were Mr. Mori I would immediately take
full advantage of them. For this is nothing but an outright
lie: Mori's comments have nothing to do with "wartime nostalgia,"
but with nostalgia for a culture that predates World War II
by a couple of thousand years. According to the unwritten
but strictly-interpreted New World Order Rule Book,
however, only Western nations are allowed to claim divine
sanction for their unique identity – and Japan is a special
case.
THE
JAPAN THAT CAN SAY "NO"
Defeated
in World War II, and completely remade in the image of its
conqueror, Japan today is showing signs that the Westernized
grafts implanted by MacArthur are wilting on the vine. Against
the universalist conceit of the Western democracies that one
size fits all, a new Japanese nationalism is on the rise,
best expressed in the title of a bestselling book by Shintaro
Ishihara, the colorful mayor of Tokyo: The
Japan That Can Say "No!". Ishihara decries the continuing
military occupation of Japan, and seeks to reclaim his country's
independence in
every sense. His is a critique of American hegemony not
only in world politics, but as the carrier of the global mono-culture
that seeks to overwhelm and assimilate everything in its path:
"There
is a chieftain in the Truk Islands, who speaks Japanese, and
who said that since the Japanese left, their children have
only learned to be lazy as the Americans give aid-money and
things which spoil human beings. If you give people lettuce
seeds, they will learn to grow lettuce, but if you give them
money they will simply import lettuce and learn nothing. America
is reluctant to recognize the importance and value of local
cultures. Christian missionaries do not permit the natives
to chant their charms and they prohibit the use of herbs as
medicine – herbs that have traditionally been used in healing
sicknesses, found in certain localities and used according
to local customs. Local festivals are banned so that traditional
songs and dances are forgotten. Tradition is dismantled. Americans
force other cultures to give up their traditional value and
impose American culture upon them. And they do not even recognize
that this is an atrocity – a barbaric act!"
HAIL
BRITANNIA!
But
London Times reporter Roberty Whymant simply cannot
understand why any Japanese would think to question their
subjugation, sixty years after their defeat. The arrogance
of the Anglo-Saxon world conquerors is, it seems, limitless,
and the Times is utterly appalled at Mori's outburst.
The furor erupted, we are informed "when he defended his use
of the emotive word kokutai,
which before 1945 referred to the supposed unique nature of
Japan under a divine emperor, who ruled his subjects as a
father over his children." Heaven forfend that a constitutional
monarch should be considered an object of veneration, while
having some role in the semi-official state religion –
unless that monarch be the Queen of England and we are talking
about the Church of England.
LINGUISTIC
ANALYSIS
The
Times goes on to assert that the term kokutai has "rarely
[been] heard since Japan's wartime defeat" – the implication
that this represents some sort of upsurge in ultra-nationalistic
(and implicitly dangerous) sentiment in Japanese politics.
But this is just a fabrication, for kokutai is the name of
one
of Japan's biggest national sports events, not to mention
that the Japanese
Air Force is organized into units known as "kokutai."
An "emotive term," perhaps – but one "rarely heard"?
I think not. To the ordinary Japanese, it signifies a sports
event, but the original concept is hidden in the mists
of Japanese history. As far as the Tokyo bureau of the Times
is concerned, however, the history of Japan does not extend
much beyond 1937, when the idea was used by the wartime regime
to justify a policy of expansionism.
THE
HAIDER OF THE ORIENT
Prime
Minister Mori, it seems, has become the Joerg Haider of the
Orient, at least in the eyes of Western journalists, and the
largely Socialist opposition quickly took up the cry of the
Westerners: the Prime Minister is trying to "turn back the
clock" they cried, and the demand went up: apologize or resign!
Mori apologized to his Liberal Democratic Party colleagues
at a party conference for "causing a nuisance" and embroiling
the whole party in the controversy. But he made it clear that
he wasn't apologizing to the Americans and their Japanese
fifth column: "It was not a slip of the tongue," he insisted,
"I didn't say I retracted it." The fix is in for Mori, who
in the eyes of the Western media and their Japanese echo chamber
has become a Japanese version of Pat Buchanan. The Associated
Press headline blared: JAPANESE
LEADER UNDER SIEGE, and the reader was treated to a morality
tale of what happens when one of those Japs gets out of line:
"Yoshiro
Mori is a leader under siege. Polls show public support plunging
fast. The opposition is hitting hard, accusing him of violating
the constitution and demanding his resignation. Even
his own party is having doubts. The rapid disintegration of
the prime minister's power base comes less than a month after
he swept into office to replace an ailing predecessor – and
just weeks before his mandate goes to the test in national
elections. The pressure kept up today, when ruling coalition
members defeated an opposition-sponsored censure motion against
Mori in the upper house calling on him to dissolve his Cabinet."
UNCHASTENED
NATIONALISM
The
reality is that Mori's Liberal Democratic Party, in alliance
with two other parties, is not about to lose control of the
government in the
upcoming elections: the biggest rebuke came from a ruling
party bigwig who said that the Prime Minister "should be more
careful when he speaks" – so as not to unduly alarm the
stupid foreigners, especially the arrogant Americans and their
British sidekicks, by impolitely saying out loud what everyone
believes to begin with. Although the LDP easily beat the opposition's
no-confidence motion, Mori boldly dissolved the legislature
and challenged his critics to face him at the polls –
not exactly the move of a chastened man. Let the foreigners
rant and rail all they like: their ravings will only increase
Japanese resentment and add up to an increased LDP margin
of victory. Make no mistake: Japanese nationalism is on the
rise, a development that could – but probably
won't – be a major plus for America.
NERVOUS
NELLIES
As
the Washington Post editorial put it, "when Japan's
prime minister describes his nation as 'a divine country with
an emperor at its center,' American policy makers need to
sit up and pay attention." Yes, but what kind of attention?
The Post is not so sure. On the one hand, we are told
that "the rise of some kind of nationalism in Japan is probably
inevitable, and the United States should not resist it," on
the other hand the editors are more than a little nervous
that
"Japan's
new assertiveness could also take an anti-American direction.
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's recent remarks are especially
striking, because they come at a time when he is anxious to
present himself as a good internationalist ahead of next month's
G8 summit, which Japan is hosting. Moreover, they follow calls
for a national holiday to honor Hirohito, the wartime emperor,
and last year's legalization of the flag and anthem that recall
the war effort. Three years ago a film glorifying Hideki Tojo,
the leader who was executed at the end of the war by the occupying
U.S. forces, attracted millions of moviegoers. The producers
are at work on sequels about kamikaze pilots and the shining
effort to 'liberate' Indonesia. Japan, in sum, is caught between
two nationalisms: one welcome and one threatening."
HOLIDAYS
AND HEGMONY
But
why shouldn't the Japanese have a national holiday
in honor of their late Emperor – and, more to the point,
why should Americans or foreigners of any sort have a say
in what holidays the Japanese celebrate? I don't recall anyone
consulting Tokyo when we decided to obliterate the memory
of Washington and Jefferson under the generic "Presidents'
Day," and elevate Martin Luther King in their place. It seem
no detail is too subtle to escape the notice of our would-be
global overlords, and the Post, as the voice of the
Imperial City, is posturing not only as the arbiter of political
correctness but of cultural hygiene – right down to what
movies are deemed "threatening." But to depict Tojo in a less
caricatured light than has been the wont of Western court
historians is not the same as "glorifying" him – and
one can only wonder how many Washington Post editors
actually saw (and understood) the
movie they are denouncing. Instead of a Japanese version
of Triumph of the Will, the movie, Pride, is
described
by the Japan Times
(not exactly a hotbed of rightwing revisionism and emperor-worship)
as a "fairly reasonable" study that "seems to reflect the
historical facts more or less faithfully. There is nothing
particularly incendiary about it. It comes across as a disinterested
portrayal of Tojo." But any depiction of Tojo as other than
a mustache-twirling villain is impermissible, along with any
reevaluation of the wartime – and especially the prewar
– era.
PEARL
HABOR, DAY OF DECEPTION
All
Americans want to know about the US war in the Pacific is
that those "Japs" bombed Pearl Harbor, didn't they, in what
is almost universally described as a "sneak attack." Never
mind that evidence
has long since been uncovered that FDR knew all about
the coming attack, and indeed had done his best to provoke
it – never mind that Japan was subjected to deadly economic
sanctions, an act of war that preceded the formal declaration,
at the instigation of the US and Great Britain – and
please forget the numerous entreaties of the Japanese Ambassador
and the government, including the Emperor himself, to secure
peace at almost any price. Down they go into the Memory Hole,
along with such outmoded ideas as kokutai (i.e. national
sovereignty and patriotism). These concepts have been practically
eradicated from elite circles in the West, whose members take
great pride in thinking of themselves as citizens of the world,
but tradition is not so easily defeated in a country where
it dates back at least two thousand years.
JAPAN
– A NORMAL NATION
The
Japanese economy is facing a series of shocks, particularly
in its dangerously weak banking sector, and the protectionist
and corporatist policies of the LDP are what made the economy
sick to begin with. The idea that the Japanese must eat only
Japanese rice, and that only native companies can be allowed
to compete in Japanese markets, is an aspect of kokutai
– the essence of Japan's unique national character –
that can only hurt Japan's already seriously weakened economy.
But the application of the concept to the geopolitical realm
is exactly what is needed in Asia – and is an answer
to the prayers of American opponents of overseas intervention.
The Japan That Can Say No must begin to defend and assert
itself, and in the process relieve the US of the responsibility
for Taiwan and South Korea. As the only possible counterweight
to the threat of Chinese expansionism in the region, Japan
must be allowed to develop as a normal nation, and the US
occupation must be ended. Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan,
but it is under effective military occupation as a forward
base for US troops in the Pacific – a
source of growing resentment among ordinary Japanese.
The rapes and other crimes committed by American soldiers
are notorious throughout Japan, and are the focus of a native
Okinawan movement to get the US off their island.
ENEMIES
OF PAX AMERICANA
Japanese
politicians like Mori are right to underscore and even celebrate
their country's unique character. Ishihara is to be applauded
for his courageous stand against the American hegemon –
and honored by Americans who recognize in him a fellow patriot.
For the builders of a New World Order do not discriminate
in their hatred of all nationalism, including especially
the American variety. Let any US politician raise the banner
of American nationalism, and declare that we need a foreign
policy that puts "America First," and all hell will break
loose: he will be denounced as a dastardly "isolationist,"
a political Neanderthal who must be forever banished to the
fever swamps of "extremism." Just ask Pat Buchanan. But the
point is that this principle also applies abroad: let anyone,
anywhere, propose that we start dismantling the trip-wires
set up in the wake of a devastating world war, and they are
immediately demonized, asked to apologize, and otherwise pilloried
and smeared until they are driven out of public life. Let
any head of state question or even subtly subvert the legitimacy
of the Pax Americana, and suddenly they are Hitler reincarnated,
sanctions are imposed, and the "humanitarians" of the 81st
Airborne are put on high alert. With the US State Department
and its "human rights" amen corner openly seeking the ouster
of Peru's Fujimori, how long before they go after Japan's
Mori?
A
STRANGE DISPARITY
It
is interesting to note the great disparity in the treatment
of America's former enemies among the Axis powers. We are
handing Europe over to Germany, which is achieving the war
aims of the Third Reich without a shot being fired, but Japan
must continue to live a stunted existence, held in place and
frozen in time, captive in the moment of its greatest defeat.
Apparently the Japanese have yet to work off the weight of
their war guilt. Yet the attempt to assign war-guilt to Japan
and Japan alone, and the hysterical reaction to films like
Pride in the West, can only create a dangerous backlash
that we will live to regret. The Post avers that Japanese
nationalism can play a positive role only if it arises
in the context of the Japanese-American "allliance." "But
if the Japanese feel ignored, old resentments of the West
may be revived; and Japan may start to doubt the wisdom of
relying on the United States for its security." The obvious
question, now that the cold war is ended, has to be asked:
why shouldn't they start providing for their own security?
The policy of collective security in the Pacific means, in
effect, that the US stands as the guarantor of regional stability:
our official defense policy is to be able to run a two-front
war, in the Pacific and European theaters, as well as a low-level
insurgency somewhere in the Third World. This is why our "defense"
budget is more than the military outlays of all other nations
in the world combined – a crushing burden on the US taxpayers
that cannot be sustained.
THE
GLOBALISTS VERSUS THE HERMIT KINGDOM
In
treasure – and human lives – the price of Empire
is too high, and our rulers know it. That is why the policy
of "Japan First" expounded by Mori and Ishihara frightens
the internationalists at the Washington Post as much
as "America First" sends a chill down their collective spine
when we "isolationists" utter it here at home. Ishihara and
Mori in the East, and Buchanan and others in the West, are
the first line of resistance to the global governance project
embarked on by our transnational corporate and bureaucratic
elites. It was inevitable that the sophisticated and in many
ways superior culture of ancient Nippon would come under attack
by the globalizers, who see it as one of the last bastions
of stubborn resistance to the corporate mono-culture of MTV,
McDonald's, and multiculturalism. Japan is under increasing
pressure from international agencies to relax its strict immigration
controls, including from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
Ms.
Sadako Ogata. So far they have resisted, but the political
and economic pressures are bound to increase. In the context
of continuing economic problems, this could produce an upsurge
in nationalist sentiment – and a boost for Mori and his
fellow Japan-Firsters.
END
THE OCCUPATION – US TROOPS OUT
It
is time for the American occupation of Japan – and the
entire Far East – to end: the string of US military bases
that make up our Pacific empire are a blight on the countries
forced to host them, and promote social instability, economic
distortions, and grotesque
cultural distortions, generating considerable anti-American
feeling. This military presence is not only costly in terms
of tax dollars – and no longer justified (if it ever
was) by the cold war – but also outright dangerous: for
it ensures that the US will be dragged into every local conflict,
no matter how minor. Do we really want to oversee and police
the dissolution of Indonesia? Why risk a nuclear missile attack
by a "rogue" nation like North Korea by stationing tens of
thousands of troops on their border and threatening them (as
Clinton did) with war – why not let the Japanese
take care of them? Surely what happens on the Korean peninsula
is a vital national interest of Japan's – just as surely
as it is none of our business. It is time to let Japan take
her rightful place among the world's nations – or else
the Japanese will have no choice but to take it themselves.
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