From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Jan 27 2003 - 20:09:40 MST
Kai writes
> [Mike Lorrey wrote]
> > We kicked Japan's asses so hard that they realized that their
> > militaristic regime was inferior to the American system of
> > freedom and rule of law.
>
> I beg to differ: They realized that the US military was
> superior to their military.
I want to expand on Mitch's answer (Spudboy100@aol.com).
No, Kai, Mike had it exactly right. If you talk to most
Japanese today, they will readily agree that their prior
to WWII way of doing things was wrong. They'll readily
agree that rule by law and democracy is better than their
former militarism.
Of course, there are a few die-hards even today, who would
much rather that Japan had prevailed in the war and who
still sulk over that defeat. Perhaps as about as many
as the southerners in the U.S. who still resent the northern
victory, or Germans who wish that Hitler had won. No, the
vast majority of Japanese, Germans, and U.S. southerners
underwent what Mike called "a state of cognitive shock
occurring in the minds of the populace that allows the
dislodging of a belief system from their minds", to paraphrase
slightly.
Suppose that Nazi Germany had won the war, and that I was
bi-lingual in English and German. There is little doubt
that Americans today would see the "folly" of representative
government and the correctness of Nazi beliefs, and a version
of you would be writing this letter to a version of me, instead
of the other way around. (And hopefully, I'd have the insight
to understand that yes, this is how history works.)
Lee
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