Is the Bush Administration Similar to Imperial Japan?
Historian Herbert Bix, whose book “Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan” won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, seems to think so:
“The current American rampage in Iraq and elsewhere, not to mention the Bush administration’s threats of war against Iran, so clearly replicates Imperial Japan during the period when its leaders willfully disregarded international law and pursued the diplomacy of force,” Bix said during a visit to Tokyo.
Japan defied the Nine-Party Treaty guaranteeing China’s sovereignty, signed in 1922 in Washington, when imperial troops invaded Manchuria in 1931.
Bix compared Japan’s action to current US efforts to scuttle the Treaty of Rome establishing the International Criminal Court, which President George W. Bush argues could unfairly target Americans.
He also said that senior US leaders — not just rank-and-file soldiers — should have been held to account for the killings of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha.
“US war criminality is justice institutionalised, as Japan’s once was,” Bix said.
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This Bix guy is full of crap.
“Is the Bush Administration Similar to Imperial Japan?”
No.
Wait a moment – both Bush and Hirohito are/were men. They both had full use of their legs. Both Japan and the US are in the northern hemisphere. I’m sure I can find a lot of other similarities. That doesn’t mean that they are valid comparisons however. When you go about saying such-and-such a government is like [Insert Name of Infamous Regime eg Nazis, Imperial Japan, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc] the only reason to do so in public discourse like this is shock value. Is the defining aspect of Imperial Japan, the aspect that created the current historical awareness of it, its disregard for the Nine-Power Treaty? Or are there are a few other things that happened that might be seen as rather worse – and thus, using this comparison, to be implied to be happening or going to happen in the US? The US did not actually ever ratify the ICC, so ignoring it is not breaking its word, whereas Japan going into Manchuria was a direct violation. And if we get into the Iraq thing, there may be parallels with the protection of national interests, but the Department of Homeland Security is not (yet) quite the Kempeitai or the Special Higher Police: criticism of Bush is still frequent, elections are still generally open and fair (and political parties still exist, and have not been subsumed into some Bush Rule Promotion Organization or something), the media and academic fields are still quite free, and so on. Using regimes like Imperial Japan or the Nazis to critique modern governments is a cheap potshot and if done needs to be done very carefully indeed.
Incidentally, the “Treaty of Rome” was the foundation of the EU; the International Criminal Court was established by the “Rome Statute”.
This final paragraph of the linked article is misleading: “The book remains highly controversial in Japan, where most historians have portrayed Hirohito, who was never prosecuted and stayed on the throne until his death in 1989, as a figurehead detached from war planning.”
It neglects to note that most Western historians have portrayed him that way as well, and his position in the Japanese historiography is far from unassailable either.
Bix is desperate for attention. I kind of feel bad for him, having to slump so low.
Yet another sign that a good way to make a living and get attention is to sell books and give lectures that cash in on the Anti-Bush/Anti-American insanity.
Maybe I should do it too!
The above commenters are more astute than I, so I can’t add anything in that regard. I am, however, tired of JapanProbe’s constant and unnecessary anti-US attitude, which has finally (combined with the inexplicable lag time associated with this site on my comp) soured me on coming here altogether.
So long, JapanProbe! I’ll get my human tetris vids from youtube instead.
Can somebody point out the part of this post were I wrote that I agree with Bix?
Haven’t you learnt from the Halloween Train thing? To post an item about something on the news is, in the Blogoverse, to not only agree with it, but take full responsibility for it. And all comments made, for that matter. Sure, “mainstream” news sources can report on the facts without people saying they’re supporting terrorism (well, aside from Rush Windbag), but since blogs are “supposed” be just a list of “stuff you like” then we can expect a lesser level of discernment on the part of the casual reader.
Yeah, I can definitely see how defending the world from a country that wants nuclear arms and has called for the destruction of Isreal makes the Bush administration like imperial Japan. Much in the same way that a Big Mac is like a Taco Bell burrito. This guy is too smart for my blood.