Over at Far Ouliers, Joel has provided a pretty interesting read for history buffs concerning pre-war Japanese fantasies about invading the United States. As Joel explains:
Japanese scenarios of a Hawaii invasion were generally episodes within books about imaginary wars with the United States. Such scenarios surfaced in 1913 and appeared from time to time until 1941. Japanese fantasies about a Pacific War, like analogous works appearing in the United States, grew out of deepening tensions and distrust between the two countries after 1905. Offended by anti-Japanese prejudice in California, frustrated by American obstacles to peaceful expansion in the Pacific, writers conjured up consoling victories in the realm of fantasy.
Anyway, there are some examples of the “consoling victories” dreamt up that are well worth your time reading.
5 Comments
Yes, good link.
Interesting thought on Marcus Garvey. Although his Black Nationalism possibly had the ideology, I’m not really sure it had the backing among its intended constituency to lead an uprising in such a national emergency.
If the Japanese occupations of “Indochina” and Indonesia proved anything, they showed that “liberation” by the Japanese did not mean freedom from oppression. The Japanese simply cut off the European ‘head’ of the colonial apparatus and maintained the apparatus of the colonial state under Japanese supervision, even keeping many of the Europeans in their employ. (Kind of like what the US did in Korea in 1945).
It seems some Japanese, like a lot of us, liked to think about what group would “rise up” and come to the aid of the invading force (Bay of Pigs, Czechoslovakia in 1968, etc)
mark, that not like what happened in Korea in 1945. What the US did to Korea in 1945 is actually closer to what the US did in Iraq in 2003.
America repartiated ALL the Japanese in Korea (over 100,000) by springtime 1946. This decision to completely get rid of all Japanese led to problems similar to what is happening in Iraq right now. So about 1 month after the under-qualified, under-funded, under-manned US government took over, it made the decision to recruit the Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese to be the new police and military. Their Japanese training made them brutal human rights violators, but the bigger problem at hand was the lawlessness, looting, rule of gangs in vast parts of the country, minor rebellions, and so forth. Sound familiar?
Very similar to how the USA eliminated the Baathist army and banned all Baathists from gov’t jobs and then had a deficit of skilled, experienced people to run day-to-day things. Very similar results too. Major difference is that the Korean police were extremely brutal and effective so they put a very abrupt end to the lawlessness and rebellions. I only wish the Iraqi police were the same!
Well actually there wasnt an abrupt end to the violence. It was only about April 1950 when law and order was restored, only to be destoryed by the North’s invasion 2 months later.
But think about how if those brutal Korean police took several years to put Korea in order, how long will it take the far less qualified Iraqi police?
I can always count on you to cheer me up.
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