Live Dispatch from China - Tensions Escalate - Japanese Militarization, Refusal to Acknowledge War Crimes, Whale Hunting, and Over fishing are a disgrace to the "Land of the Setting Sun"

The news from Japan is foreboding. Japan is  increasing substantially its military. The Prime Minister is paying respects to the Japanese war dead (from World War II). The former is an offensive measure and should be received with alarm. The later is just one in a long line of insults, but proves the Japanese haven’t changed and are unrepentant. The pretense of Japanese increased militarization is to counter increased Chinese military capability. This is a facade. It is the same type of specious propaganda asserted by Hitler (as his justification for the militarization of Nazi Germany prior to World War II.)

The instant dispute involves a bunch or rocks in the ocean somewhere between Japan and China referred to as the Diaoyu Islands. No one lives there. No one will ever want to live there. But these islands may be located near some natural resources (under the ocean). Fishing rights are involved. Japan needs natural resources. That was a major reason they [Japan] waged World War II in the first place (lack of natural resources). Here they go again. Lack of natural resources is not a justification for aggression and provocation, except to the Japanese, whose sense of superiority leads them to believe it is Japan’s destiny given by God. More war in the name of God.

Let’s talk about fishing rights. The Japanese are singularly the biggest contributor to the overfishing of the oceans. When there are no more fish left to eat, we can look to the “Land of the Setting Sun.” Japan is the only country to continue to slaughter endangered, highly intelligent, and very social whales in the protected area of Antarctica. This must also stop. It is all part and parcel of the same psychological sickness epidemic in Japan. A sense of entitlement and superiority.

Let’s look at Japan’s sentiments towards their war crimes. They have none. This most recent insult is further evidence. But one need look only to seven decades of suppression in Japan of the truth of their most horrific atrocities and aggression. One need look to seven years of denial and refusal to repent and apologize.

We would assume that all countries have people with diverse beliefs. So there must be some protestors against the whaling industry in Japan, right? There must be some people who recognize Japanese aggression in World War II, and again toward China involving the most recent dispute. Not so. I have travelled several times to Japan recently, including last month. The only voices and protests (I have heard them almost daily while in Japan) are the fanatical right wing fascists who protest Japan’s right to eat whale meat, right to the disputed islands. Absent are the voices of peace. Silent are the voices of contrition.

Any teacher, professor, or other person in Japan who tries to teach the truth about Japanese atrocities committed in World War II will have their careers destroyed and their lives threatened. There are simply too few people of knowledge and conscience in Japan compared to the great number of nationalistic fascist right wing Japanese. The government of Japan is likewise complicit in this.

Japan needs increased militarization like the world needs another plague. Let’s recall history.

Most wars arise from “gray” areas, ancient controversies, and misunderstandings. Never in history did two countries like Japan and Germany combine forces to wage a more unprovoked  and less justified war then World War II. Most probably, never did two countries attack and invade more countries and territories and threaten the entire world. More significantly, no countries ever committed the most heinous and most numerous war crimes committed by the Germans and Japanese during World War II.

The Japanese invaded/attacked Korea, China, USA, the Philippines (and the list goes on and on). These invasions were entirely and absolutely unprovoked and unjustified. They were followed by the most unimaginable atrocities in the most incomprehensible numerical scale.

The war crimes committed by Japan against the Chinese, Koreans, and others [including American Prisoners of War] were not measured in the hundreds, or thousands, but numbered in the millions. They included: (1) the most heinous evil medical experiments conceivable; (2) forced prostitution; (3) rape. They included the needless and senseless murder of civilians, children, women, with deaths numbering in the millions. Murder for sport. Murder for Genocide. In Nanking (Nanjing) and elsewhere, officers would line up innocent civilians to see how many people they could kill with a single bullet. This was a game for them. Something to relieve the boredom of war.

By the Grace of God, and the combined efforts of the  Chinese and American people and others, Japan was defeated.

Japan was given a Constitution by the victors, led by General Douglas McArthur of the USA. That constitution forbade a military. The USA agreed to defend Japan, not because the USA wanted to be allied with Japan, but to keep Japan from ever again being able to wage future wars. A few prescient and influential Japanese saw the destruction Japan had brought on the world and on itself, and urged McArthur to make sure Japan was never again a military power. These few people knew that the same nationalism, racism, and that the same Japanese military industrial complex, would arise again in Japan (absent a prohibition against Japanese militarization) to threaten Japan’s neighbors. That same racism and nationalism still exists and never disappeared. Hence, the threat from Japan remains.

Japan’s lack of a military has nothing to do with a desire for peace by the Japanese. Instead, it is a recognition by the rest of the world (and a few Japanese) of the fact that Japan forfeited its right to an offensive military. Moreover, like a child with a gun, the world deemed that a militarized Japan was simply too dangerous, unnecessary, and undesirable. Any misunderstandings arising from the “Cold War” have become moot as the Cold War has disappeared.

Now, Japan created and was the aggressor in the instant conflict. It attempted to alter the status quo of the Diaoyu Islands of China in 2012. I use this name because in fact these islands do, and should, belong to China. Japan claims that the USA gave them these islands. But clearly, the USA had no right to give to Japan what it does not own, and was not thinking of the real value of these rocks. In the post-war confusion, the USA made a mistake and did not carefully consider what appeared to be a bunch of rocks. But that mistake was not binding on China. China never agreed that Japan had any rights to the Diaoyu islands.

China is a country of 1.6 billion people, and is the second largest economy in the world. Along with its economic growth, it has naturally increased its military capability. Unlike Japan, however, China, in thousands of years of history, has virtually no history of aggression towards other countries. A country of China’s size, with China’s history of restraint, should have and is entitled to have a military. The PLA has never threatened Japan. But the most recent announcement of increased militarization by Japan is a direct threat, and act of aggression, towards China. It is an unwarranted provocation and escalation.

Japan needs to “stand down” from its aggression and provocation with regards to the Diaoyu islands. Japan needs to clearly, loudly and publicly acknowledge and apologize for its aggressions and atrocities (both their numerical scale and the extent of the evil perpetuated) towards China, Korea, American POW’s, and other victims of World War II. Japan needs to cease overfishing the oceans, and absolutely stop the slaughter of whales. Most importantly, Japan needs to rewrite its text books and curriculum so that Japanese students learn the truth about Japan’s actions in World War II. Only then will there be some hope that Japan will move away from its racist nationalism and aggression.

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