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I’ve never really wanted to go to Japan. Simply because I don’t like eating fish. Britney Spears
Japan was helped to industrialize, but the US maintained control over its energy supplies and oil-refining facilities. As late as 1973 ‘only 10 per cent of Japan’s oil supply was developed by Japanese companies’. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, citing George Kannan
Japan’s colonial policies were extremely brutal, but they laid a basis for economic development. These economic successes ... are no tribute either to democracy or to the wonders of the market; rather, to harsh labor conditions, efficient quasi-fascist political systems ... ibid.
In part, the dismissive assessment of Japan’s prospects was based on the failure of Japanese industrial recovery prior to the economic stimulus of military procurements for the Korean War. In part, there was doubtless an element of racism – illustrated, for example, in the reaction of the business community to the democratic labor laws introduced by the US military occupation. These laws were opposed by business generally. They were bitterly denounced by James Lee Kauffman, one of the influential members of the business lobby that worked to impede the democratization of Japan. ibid.
Militant labor action was barred, including some attempts to establish workers’ control over production. Even these partial steps towards democracy scandalized the State Department. ibid.
These pressures led to the ‘reverse course’ of 1947, which ensured that there would be no serious challenge to government-corporate domination over labor, the media and the political system. ibid.
Leftists who had been jailed under fascist rule were excluded, the normal pattern worldwide. Labor was suppressed with considerable police violence, and elimination of the right to strike and collective bargaining. The goal was to ensure business control over labor through conservative unions. ibid.
The Japanese business classes were reconstituted much as under the fascist regime, placed in power in close collaboration with the authorities of the centralized zone. ibid.
While Japanese corporate conglomerates were reinforced, labor was weakened and splintered, with the collaboration of US labor leaders, as elsewhere in the world. ibid.
Japan has perhaps the weakest labor movement in the industrial capitalist world, with the possible exception of the United States itself. It is a disciplined society, under the firm control of the traditional state capitalist management. ibid.
For two hundred years cut off from the rest of the world ... the Samurai have ruled Japan for six hundred years. A warrior class that lives and dies by the sword. Mankind: The Story of All of Us XI, History 2012
Mitsubishi becomes the world’s largest corporation. ibid.
The atom bomb: code name Little Boy. Target: Hiroshima, Japan ... The bomb kills more than 60,000 instantly. Mankind: The Story of All of Us XII
The Dogu a long time ago descended from the skies and taught the Japanese people. Giorgio A Tsoukalos
Japanese cult leader Shoko Asahara convinced his disciples he was Christ reincarnated and that they must surrender their will to his for ultimate salvation ... In blind obedience to their leader, cult members poured their resources into a deadly scheme. March 20th 1995, Monday morning rush hour: as millions of commuters board the Tokyo subways, members of Aum Shinriko release a deadly nerve agent on five different trains throughout the city. Decoding the Past s3e1: Cults: Dangerous Devotion, History 2007
In modern-day Japan there’s an ancient brotherhood of gangsters known as the Yakuza. Secretive organisations that control a criminal empire. Yakuza: Gangster Brotherhood
The Yakuza is one of the world’s biggest mafias. Over 80,000 mobsters control crime rackets, drug deals, human trafficking and protection. ibid.
Across Japan more than twenty crime syndicates compete for a piece of the action. ibid.
In Japan the Yakuza are legal organisations. ibid.
Some people take their problems directly to their local Yakuza. ibid.
Some estimates claim that up to a half of all Yakuza members have sacrificed a finger to their boss. ibid.
In recent years Yakuza turf wars have turned more vicious and deadly. ibid.
The Yakuza are survivors. ibid.
Japan suffered more than most countries from the great depression after the First World War. The World at War 6/26: Banzai, ITV 1973
Peking soon fell. And then it was Shanghai’s turn. ibid.
It was here at Nanking in December 1937 that the Japanese perpetrated what was until then one of the worst atrocities of this century when their troops massacred more than 200,000 Chinese in cold blood. Even the Nazis were shocked. ibid.
The sun had set on one imperial power; on another the sun was still rising. ibid.
By that Spring of 1942 the Japanese conquests were at their peak. The World at War 7/26: On Our Way
There was still Japan. The World at War 22/26: Japan
Many had heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack soberly. Even apprehensively. But then came victory after victory. ibid.
War had been with the Japanese people for ten years. Since 1931 their armies had been fighting an endlessly frustrating war in China. ibid.
The worship of Buddha had coexisted in Japan for centuries with the ancient Shinto worship of spirits and ancestors. ibid.
The main function of Japanese women was to bear sons. ibid.
Sacrifice was necessary for victory. And in final victory belief was still unshakable. None knew that by June 1942 the battle had already become one of simple survival. ibid.
The war had been fought to secure raw materials for a land where they were scarce, particularly oil. ibid.
The Americans invaded Okinawa. ibid.
Virtually unopposed they laid Japanese cities waste. ibid.
Japanese wooden cities burned easily, and their citizens in them. ibid.
In February 1942 Japanese bombers attacked the Australian mainland. The World at War 23/26: Pacific
Sickness and disease were obstacles as formidable as Japanese bullets. By the end of 1942 the threat to Australia had been removed. ibid.
Americans are in Japan to stay. The World at War 25/26: Reckoning
December 7 1941: Japan is about to attack the United States of America. World War II: The Apocalypse: American Allies aka Apocalypse: The Second World War: World Ablaze, France 2 2009
The attack would turn a European war into a World War. ibid.