When you actually do write somebody’s constitution for them, you never, never, never say you did.
“...neither he [MacArthur] nor his superiors in Washington intended to impose a new political system on Japan unilaterally. Instead, they wished to encourage Japan’s new leaders to initiate democratic reforms on their own. But by early 1946, MacArthur’s staff and Japanese officials were at odds…”
“Much of the drafting was done by two senior army officers…”
“The MacArthur draft, which proposed a unicameral legislature, was changed at the insistence of the Japanese to allow a bicameral one, with both houses being elected. In most other important respects, the government adopted the ideas embodied in the 13 February document in its own draft proposal of 6 March. These included the constitution’s most distinctive features: the symbolic role of the Emperor, the prominence of guarantees of civil and human rights, and the renunciation of war.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan
>OUR goal was a liberal, democratic form of government, with the Emperor reduced to a Constitutional monarch, and with the guarantee of certain rights such as equal rights of women.
THEY introduced the renunciation of war (as we in the west have read it, but which they now say means only the renunciation of offensive war), which we included in the draft.
SO, BOTTOM LINE, yes we did write, in the sense of draft their constitution, THEY amended the draft in several important ways. IN PARTICULAR, the renunciation of war was THEIR idea, not something we originated, when we wrote the draft.
Biden was wrong on most accounts.
Good analysis; thanks for bringing it up.
The stupidity of it all is that Biden didn't have to say anything. He was there in his capacity as Vice President to support Hillary for President, not talk about Japan's connection to its postwar Constitution. He should have been talking about how wonderful her achievements are...except we all know she hasn't achieved anything, so he had to think of something else to talk about.
Moreover, you, me, and everyone else here knows that he's madder than hell on the inside that is isn't BIDEN who is the candidate and Hillary giving the "I support him" speech, and that will occasionally spill over into what he says.