[LauraleeBraswell]

"If Hirohito was responsible for the war that terrorized East Asia in the 1930s and 1940s, why would we as the occupying power let him continue as Emperor?"


ummm Actually, we didn't let him continue. We made him renounce his divine position. He became a figurehead.

"Are you suggesting that religion was central to Japan's Pacific War?"

No actually. I never once asserted that. I'll just disregard your further comments.


" de facto control was in the hands of a cabal of militaristic nationalists"

Whoever was behind the emperor pulling the strings is irrelevent. The fact is that the state and the divine religiouse figureheard were one in the same for the Japanese people. And when immigrants left Japan (the state) for the US, they still retained their religion which as I established before, was inseperable from the state.

Read what I wrote again. Your lack of reading comprehension is repugnant. As for your personal attacks, You don't know me. You don't know anything about my relationships with all types of people.

Claiming that I have an aversion to foreigners certainly suits you. It's a strawman and it enables you to justify your small mindedness and write me off as a prejuduced party. Why don't you argue the issue at hand instead of calling people untrue names and deviating from the point?

[zimdog]

ummm Actually, we didn't let him continue. We made him renounce his divine position. He became a figurehead.

Ummm, actually, he continued as Emperor. He never was a god in the first place, so while renoucing his alleged divinity redefined the relationship between the Emperor and his subjects, it changed very little in the real world.

Whoever was behind the emperor pulling the strings is irrelevent.

MacArthur disagreed. Tojo et al were tried for war crimes, convicted, and executed.

The fact is that the state and the divine religiouse figureheard were one in the same for the Japanese people. And when immigrants left Japan (the state) for the US, they still retained their religion which as I established before, was inseperable from the state.

So the fact that they left Japan and became US citizens disproves either of your two assumtions (these are not "established", BTW): 1) that they retained a religious devotion to the Emperor, or 2) that religion and the state were inextricably linked.

Your lack of reading comprehension is repugnant.

Then why is it that between us, I am the only one who seems capable of making a distinction between "Japanese immigrants" and "people of Japanese descent"?

As for your personal attacks, You don't know me.

Says Ms. "Your lack of reading comprehension is repugnant".

Claiming that I have an aversion to foreigners certainly suits you.

It seems quite clear from your statement that people of Japanese descent are necessarily loyal to the Emperor of Japan, regardless of their actual beliefs. You questioned the loyalty of immigrants simply because they were immigrants and raised the specter of the "inscrutable Asian" stereotype.

It's a strawman and it enables you to justify your small mindedness and write me off as a prejuduced party.

If you are willing to clarify or repudiate your statements, I will happily listen.