4 ms·

What's really interesting is to the common Japanese person, their are two threats, China and the Japanese military itself. Clearly, they worry about China, but

by socrates1998 7y ago

What's really interesting is to the common Japanese person, their are two threats, China and the Japanese military itself. Clearly, they worry about China, but they really worry about how the Japanese military answered to no one in the last decade of Imperial Japan. This is what concerns a lot of Japanese people. The military wrote a check that the Japanese people had to cash.

mc32 7y ago
I’m not sure I get that impression from the Japanese I know. Maybe the older generation feel that way?
- Xixi 7y ago
  Most Japanese people seem very uneducated to me when it comes to politics/history, so I would not be surprised if they don't really have an opinion on the subject. [1] But I also know quite a few Japanese people in their early thirties, some of them very very very to the right of the political spectrum. Even to them Imperial Japan is sheer terror. Young kids being forced to commit suicide (kamikaze), endless suffering of the population, a crazy mentality, worshiping the emperor as a god, horrific experiments in the Chinese countryside, etc. My sample might be small, but I don't think there's much nostalgia of Imperial Japan anywhere in the Japanese population. [1] Extra points if you can't even recognize Abe doing giving an interview on TV. And yes, that one has never missed an election. That's the most terrifying part to me. If you want to opt out of caring about politics, it's completely fine by me, but at least do it completely...
  - kochikame 7y ago
    Of course all the wartime stuff like kamikaze was awful, but no one is expecting that to ever happen again You have this idea that the Japanese military will become a runaway juggernaut subjugating Japan under its will, and this is simply ridiculous. No signs point to it. I could almost accuse you of fear mongering Also, your accusation that most Japanese are "very uneducated when it comes to politics/history" is anecdotal and incomplete at best, comically reductive at worst. Do you even read Japanese? Do you not see the amount of considered, deep analysis and discussion on TV and in the newspapers? Do you not see the huge numbers of books on history in the bookshops? In any case, it is ridiculous to claim that "most" (or even some) Japanese people live in fear of the SDF. You'd be laughed out of the room for claiming that in front of anyone with even a passing knowledge of Japan.
corey_moncure 7y ago
It may be comforting to realize that when Japan entered World War 2, only 73 years had elapsed since the transition from a feudal system into a constitutional democracy. There were still people old enough to remember the old system. It's 78 years since 1941.
- drak0n1c 7y ago
  France experienced a similar trajectory. The sudden egalitarianism of the French Revolution allowed for a much larger and more dynamic military, which in turn enabled the Napoleonic Wars. Massive populations and political revolution are the common cause. Japan doesn't have the conditions for either, even if Abe achieved his relatively anodyne constitutional amendments. China is more susceptible to adopting that expansionary role, and it doesn't have a constitution binding its hands.
  - Tsubasachan 7y ago
    If you look at Chinese history they are remarkably non expansionist. Chinese power has always come from their culture and trade. Japan uses Chinese characters not because they were ever invaded by a Chinese army. Soft power isn't a modern American invention. The Chinese mastered it a thousand years ago!
    - scarmig 7y ago
      > Chinese history they are remarkably non expansionist That's a narrative story, not a history. "China" has never been a continuously consolidated political entity. The PRC (and the ROC, and previous imperial governments) find it a useful myth to equate its current geography of control with a tradition that hearkens back through millenia, but it's quite simply not. The Qin dynasty initially controlled the area of a small province, and conquered its neighboring state rivals one by one to establish a dominion over them; it fell, just as countless other empires fell, leading to centuries of alternating fragmentation and consolidation. Even in modern times, various political entities that position themselves in the history of China have engaged in expansionist colonial missions over a range of territories, from Xinjiang to Taiwan to Tibet. Even Inner Manchuria is only considered "part of China" because the Qing dynasty ruled it and China simultaneously. (As an interesting aside, contemporaneous Han historiography considered the Qing ruling class foreign usurpers; it was only in the 20th century that ROC/PRC historiography decided to incorporate the Qing Dynasty into China's lineage, for political reasons.)
kochikame 7y ago
This is ridiculous. No one in Japan is afraid of the Japanese military. Utter fiction

mc32 7y ago

I’m not sure I get that impression from the Japanese I know. Maybe the older generation feel that way?

Xixi 7y ago
Most Japanese people seem very uneducated to me when it comes to politics/history, so I would not be surprised if they don't really have an opinion on the subject. [1] But I also know quite a few Japanese people in their early thirties, some of them very very very to the right of the political spectrum. Even to them Imperial Japan is sheer terror. Young kids being forced to commit suicide (kamikaze), endless suffering of the population, a crazy mentality, worshiping the emperor as a god, horrific experiments in the Chinese countryside, etc. My sample might be small, but I don't think there's much nostalgia of Imperial Japan anywhere in the Japanese population. [1] Extra points if you can't even recognize Abe doing giving an interview on TV. And yes, that one has never missed an election. That's the most terrifying part to me. If you want to opt out of caring about politics, it's completely fine by me, but at least do it completely...
- kochikame 7y ago
  Of course all the wartime stuff like kamikaze was awful, but no one is expecting that to ever happen again You have this idea that the Japanese military will become a runaway juggernaut subjugating Japan under its will, and this is simply ridiculous. No signs point to it. I could almost accuse you of fear mongering Also, your accusation that most Japanese are "very uneducated when it comes to politics/history" is anecdotal and incomplete at best, comically reductive at worst. Do you even read Japanese? Do you not see the amount of considered, deep analysis and discussion on TV and in the newspapers? Do you not see the huge numbers of books on history in the bookshops? In any case, it is ridiculous to claim that "most" (or even some) Japanese people live in fear of the SDF. You'd be laughed out of the room for claiming that in front of anyone with even a passing knowledge of Japan.

corey_moncure 7y ago

It may be comforting to realize that when Japan entered World War 2, only 73 years had elapsed since the transition from a feudal system into a constitutional democracy. There were still people old enough to remember the old system. It's 78 years since 1941.

drak0n1c 7y ago
France experienced a similar trajectory. The sudden egalitarianism of the French Revolution allowed for a much larger and more dynamic military, which in turn enabled the Napoleonic Wars. Massive populations and political revolution are the common cause. Japan doesn't have the conditions for either, even if Abe achieved his relatively anodyne constitutional amendments. China is more susceptible to adopting that expansionary role, and it doesn't have a constitution binding its hands.
- Tsubasachan 7y ago
  If you look at Chinese history they are remarkably non expansionist. Chinese power has always come from their culture and trade. Japan uses Chinese characters not because they were ever invaded by a Chinese army. Soft power isn't a modern American invention. The Chinese mastered it a thousand years ago!
  - scarmig 7y ago
    > Chinese history they are remarkably non expansionist That's a narrative story, not a history. "China" has never been a continuously consolidated political entity. The PRC (and the ROC, and previous imperial governments) find it a useful myth to equate its current geography of control with a tradition that hearkens back through millenia, but it's quite simply not. The Qin dynasty initially controlled the area of a small province, and conquered its neighboring state rivals one by one to establish a dominion over them; it fell, just as countless other empires fell, leading to centuries of alternating fragmentation and consolidation. Even in modern times, various political entities that position themselves in the history of China have engaged in expansionist colonial missions over a range of territories, from Xinjiang to Taiwan to Tibet. Even Inner Manchuria is only considered "part of China" because the Qing dynasty ruled it and China simultaneously. (As an interesting aside, contemporaneous Han historiography considered the Qing ruling class foreign usurpers; it was only in the 20th century that ROC/PRC historiography decided to incorporate the Qing Dynasty into China's lineage, for political reasons.)

kochikame 7y ago

This is ridiculous. No one in Japan is afraid of the Japanese military. Utter fiction