[lit-ideas] Re: China and Africa
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 17:19:07 -0700
Japan bombed (not invaded) Pearl Harbor. They did it to disable the U.S.
navy from getting in the way of their aspirations in the Pacific. They
never intended to conquer the U.S. They were interested in Manchuria
primarily. It doesn't matter that Japan lost. Many wars are started by
the loser. Germany started a second war after losing the first. What's
important is that an Asian country stood up to a Western superpower. You
say yourself that by the end of WWII Ho became head of a government opposed
to French rule. The Vietnamese lost 3 million people and were prepared to
fight to the last person to save their country. Japan was also a
superpower in its own right before WWII.
I won't confuse you further with the facts, but that Germany started
another war in Europe after losing the previous one is disanalogous with
the hypothesis you put forward, viz., that the Vietnamese (especially Ho
Chi Minh) were somehow inspired by Japan's 'standing up to' a Western
power. (In fact, the Japanese militarists believed that the US was by no
means as willing or able to win a war than was Japan. I really would
kindly suggest you read about the history of Japanese militarism from
the late 1920s on.)
What's important is not that Japan (by losing all its territories?)
inspired small East Asian countries to try to escape from Colonial
domination, but that indigenous, Communist-led movements did so without
the alleged inspiration of Japan.
Japan had already conquered Manchuria, i.e., had defeated the Chinese
there, by 1932. After that, Japan had far greater ambitions.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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