Ghost of a flea: Not nuked enough

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May 27, 2010

Not nuked enough

Clinton offers China proof the North Koreans attacked and sank South Korea's warship. I would ask "why bother" but that would not cover the mind rending futility of the gesture. You will understand why momentarily.

Mrs Clinton said a 400-page technical report on the sinking by an international team, including experts from the US, led to the “inescapable” conclusion North Korea was to blame and that action had to be taken. Should the Chinese need more information, she said the US would offer it.

Meanwhile, my point. That being this Japan Today poll: Who do you think was behind the sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26?

From the most recent comment:

How in the world did the US get 37% of the vote! What would have possibly been the benefit from such an action? The US is stuck in two wars, a massive debt, 20 million people out of work, A war on the border with Mexico and a major environmental disaster growing by the day. A major confrontation with Korea is certainly not on their list of priories at the moment.

And this from a guy who thinks the U.S. government knew in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at May 27, 2010 07:17 PM

Comments

I'm not entirely surprised.

Paraphrasing Japanese history as taught today, they were busy doing Asia a favour dragging it into a modern economy, then greedy America decided to starve them into submission, they fought back with Pearl Harbour, and then America barged in and nuked the hell out of the peaceful shores of Nippon. More nukes would just have aggravated today's victim complex.

Beyond Japan, Asian history of WW2 in general is not cast in the same sort of "democracy vs. autocracy" frames of reference we understand. Over there it is framed as a contest between competing Euro imperial powers, with Asians as the guys who inevitably get the boot in the face from either side.

Because the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal was such a bloody bungled incompetent mess, Japanese don't have that German shame complex. They see Allied war crimes charges as basically innocent Asian guys being railroaded by the victors with trumped-up evidence, as opposed to being a factual account of Japanese atrocities.

There's no easy way to fix that now, except maybe to go home and let them figure out who are (and are not) the friendly powers in their neighborhood. Once they get a good dose of Chinese persuasion, they will realise the US was not the bad guy all those years.

Posted by: Chris Taylor at May 28, 2010 09:07 AM