Posted on 08/28/2006 3:18:10 PM PDT by Flavius
There's nothing inherently wrong with nationalism, its the scapegoating often inserted by politicians thats dangerous.
Nail on the head.
Prevailing?? Since when?
Mr Abes advisers say the would-be prime minister is merely trying to draw a line under six decades of self-flagellation under which, they say, schools have taught successive generations that Japan was uniquely wicked in the war.
Ending the "self-flagellation" would be a good thing for Japan, if there ever was any to begin with. And since when have Japanese schools ever taught students the true wickedness of Imperial Japan??
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
Japan's form of nationalism was absolutely insane. I think it's a remote threat at best (worst).
They know that this kind of rhetoric can bring the US into the debate. That way, Japanese leftists whose ideology comitts them to telling that Japanese nationalists nationalists to shut up can instead just sit on their hands while noisy Americans do their work for them.
No.
The US can profit from a well-armed and confident Japan against CHINA.
That kind of real cooperation is what they're trying to head off, here.
Turn 'em loose on China.
Complete bull. Nationalist Japanese number as many as Neo-nazi's in America. They have black trucks with megaphones...oooooh.
There. Fixed it.
"The attack on Mr Katos home by a suspected right-wing fanatic followed repeated warnings by the veteran Liberal Democratic party politician against the wisdom of prime ministerial visits to the Yasukuni shrine."
Which AP writer is moonlighting as a Japanese stringer?
Looks like they are getting ready for the North Korea threat..
Yep, that about sums it up!
I agree.
Reverse throttle, and FULL STEAM AHEAD.
Getting over their national, post-war heiwa bokkei funk and aversion of geopolitical or even military conflict to stand up for their democracy is good, and about time. For it to go too far, however, is not.
Often we have to be careful what we wish for. We just may get it some day.
I agree with skeeter that there is nothing inherently wrong with nationalism. Japan's nationalism has a unique character we do not begin to get. I have read a lot of books on Japan, but David Bergamini in "Japan's Imperial Conspiracy" seems to come closest. Also, it helps to try to figure out Kokutai, which is a spiritual combination of Emperor, citizen, land, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion woven together into a several thousand-year heritage. Western societies are driven by election cycles, but Japan is not. In Bergamini's book you get the best sense I have seen of a force driving this society through the millennia that is never revealed to the West, but is understood by Korea and China. At the present moment Japan may quietly pave the way to move publicly away from our military protection. I think a lot of Japanese are asking why the U.S. would risk a nuclear strike on their country, just because a Japanese city was incinerated.
I personally would welcome a rearmed Japan. It would have the Chicoms and that fuzzy little nut salad in North Korea doing kaa kaa in their undies.
l8r read
A re-armed Japan would likely be a good thing for the region, and they would likely enjoy a more "equal" relationship with the US. Doubtful that any of the militarism from yesteryear would ever catch hold in current Japan, unless NK were to shoot first.
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