Posted on 06/11/2007 2:21:42 PM PDT by james500
Every morning for the last three months, Yuko Tojo has prayed at a war shrine for Japan's fallen soldiers including her grandfather, Gen. Hideki Tojo, the executed World War II premier who ordered the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Yuko, 68, will fight her own battle in July, when she competes as an independent in elections for parliament's upper house. An ultra-nationalist, her mission is to restore Japan's honor by scrapping its pacifist constitution and enacting a full-fledged military, giving the country the clout she says it deserves.
"I was born as Hideki Tojo's granddaughter, and as a Japanese national. I cannot see Japan go on like this, with no confidence or pride," Tojo told The Associated Press. "I do not think the war dead gave their lives for a country like this."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Japan SHOULD be remilitarized.
Japan may not have a choice. If a dimmycrat is elected to the White House the US may just pull out of Asia and let the Chinese have it, least the shipment of Walmart products stop. Japan may need to re-arm to keep her independence. Signs to watch out for: 1) They re-name their navy to the “Imperial Navy” rather than the Maritime self defence force. Or 2) When they launch a carrier.
As the second largest economic power in the world, it shall be their course to politely part ways with the Americans and have the US remove its troops. They then, like a "normal nation" will go about engaing in the work to be completely responsible for their own defense.
Since they respect power, they will embark on this course when they see less and less power by the United States in Asia, they see an ascendent China, and they will decide for themselves at the end of the day they are not a vassal state of the USA, and hence will rearm to the fullest.
It will surprise a lot of people.
But it is coming.
Five it five years.
We should’ve remilitarized Japan as soon as Mao took absolute control of Mainland China. For whatever atrocities the Japanese committed upwards of 70 years ago, the Red Chinese have already outpaced them in their sheer oppression and untold murders we’ll never know about.
P.S. Before you start sending nasty replies, you should know that I lived under Japanese occupation!
It needs to be noted that it was Japan’s warmongering which paved the way for the communist takeovers that followed the war.
There's more than a bit of truth to that. Yes there were evils in Japan but Japan was not committing crimes or attacking citizens of the respective states. Unless China was annexed as part of the US without anyone saying anything.
They’ve been on about it for awhile haven’t they? Saw something about two years ago the Japanese were trying to change something, had to do with airspace or airports and sovereignty. Sorry it was awhile back so not sure on the specifics.
A lot of Americans, left and right, will tell you the same thing.
When I was a young-un people were convinced the lessons of WWII would never be forgotten. How wrong they were. You listen to people these days spew about the "greatest generation" and the next day listen to them preach appeasement, isolationism and defeatism.
My dad remembered China as the Japanese took more and more territory, driving out all western influence and institutions well before the US cut off oil and scrap steel sales. He was a pilot for China National Airline Company, owned by American Airlines at the time. Many old CNAC pilots ended up in the China-Burma-India Campaign, as dad did. He knew what the Japanese were capable of from first-hand experience.
In that portrait, Tojo sort of resembles The Honorable John Conyers. I’m just sayin’.....
I agree that Japan will become increasingly independent. However, I can’t imagine them cozying up with communist china. The threat of Red Chinese Nationalism and retribution is too great for the Japanese to kick us out completely.
I salute him!
That is correct. The last thing we need as anyone attempting to reinstate the dark era the likes of Tojo.
Not a big expert on pre-war Pacific political geography, and was always skeptical of these kind of claims but ... General Marshall was called to a post-war Congressional inquiry -seven- times and always had to disappear abroad on urgent business of high import to United States foreign policy. He never appeared. Clearly, he was not going to answer any questions about the run-up to war and it is likely that the war with Japan was precipitated.
There was nothing wrong with that as an aim (unless our own interests were not at risk) but it does mitigate Japanese guilt for unprovoked aggression or other non-Convention ‘moral equivalency’ charge.
As far at the future goes, I do not think Japanese re-militarization would be of any significance, any more than German re-militarization. It is much much cheaper to purchase the land than it is conquer it. East Prussia would be like East Germany in that it is cost-center and not a profit-center. Economically it is worthless - to the German state. To those who lost their ancestral lands, it is priceless. But that is another matter.
Japan’s only remaining territorial claims are the Kuriles and this is not going to be settled militarily.
They will be allied with us, but policy differences between us and Japan will increase in nature and in intensity. They will not rely on us any more against the PRC, but will fully take matters into their own hands.
I dunno. Yokosuka and Okinawa will likely be American bases for another 25 years, from my observation. NK is the primary reason.
General Marshall did testify before Congress concerning the run-up to Pearl Harbor and the role of the Chief of Staff's office has been thoroughly researched. The vast majority of the focus has been on the question of whether warnings were adequate to the commands in Hawaii or whether action could have been taken to defend against the attack.
The argument over the embargo strikes me as classic appeasement reasoning. The embargo only came after years of Japanese war against China and clear threats against Southeast Asia. A policy to supply Japan's war effort against China and possibly others might have avoided the 1941 attack on Pearl and delayed a general war in Asia, but when it came Japan would have been stronger.
GUILTY!
I agree. Re-militarization could help, actually, to deter the threats from China and a nuclear North Korea.
It is troubling, however, that the Japanese largely refuse to recognize the fact that their unjustified aggression caused the Pacific War, while in contrast Germany has faced its past and is determined not to repeat it. The situation in Asia today, however, is vastly different than in 1941 - Japan could never dominate Korea and China today as it could before WWII, even if became inclined to do so again.
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