Bushido!The last (and perhaps first - nicht war?) Non Western nation/state that ever waged war the Western Way was Japan.
While totally hot for western style war making paraphernalia like blitzkrieg, submarines, air craft carriers and amphibious ops, Japan never really caught on to the other Western stuff at the time - like consensual gov, egalitarianism and unbridled free inquiry.
And during war, Nippon blew off being gallant or magnanimous in victory, actually being cruel and merciless to captured civilians and disarmed combatants alike.
Big mistake!
A pre emptive secret sneak attack at Pearl Harbor enraged Great Satan and filled her with a terrible resolve to literally bury Nippon under an avalanche of American war materiel.
Stuff like Wake Island, the horrific Bataan Death March and other assorted cruelties made Americans determined to do it - regardless of the cost.
After the fight to the death mentality Nippon displayed at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Great Satan obliged and deployed new clear weaponry - not once - but twice.
65 years ago today Japan finally screamed "God! Please! Stop!"
All the hot! deets were totally forced upon and accepted by Japan on 2 Sept 1945 on board USS Missouri
Great Satan xformed Nippon into a fun, functional free choice democrazy that hasn't bothered anybody since.
Happy Victory over Japan Day!
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ReplyDeleteJust lucky?
ReplyDeleteSeriously Old Rebel - you missed the point sir. Deep in the subtley is the fact that in the L!2d piece multi you what ism fails to be egalitarian when considered in light of a certain elements core beliefs - thus it becomes not unlike your commentary:
"Platitudinous stupidity."
Ah, you can't have it both ways. Either all peoples and cultures are equal, or they are not.
ReplyDeleteMulti culturalism is not egalitarian Old Rebel. That's the rub, sir.
ReplyDeleteMy father made that little walk through the lagoon at Tarawa and was later hit pretty hard. After the hospital he did some time training newbies and then went to Okinawa as a Sergeant with a company of replacements, luckily they didn't get there until the fight was almost over. There they trained and waited for the invasion of the Home Islands.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased that Harry Truman shocked Japan into surrendering. I am equally pleased that Doug MacArthur wasn't a multiculturalist and forcibally removed the worst of japan's culture, leading to the Pacific Rim we have today.
If only we'd managed to do something about Mao back then.
I didn't say they were the same thing; I said the multicults assume equality of peoples and cultures.
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of multiculturalism is that we should accept all as the same -- the post you quote from criticised the Great O for treating all religions as the same -- and they most certainly are not.
See if this helps -- it's a piece on how many Western countries are (finally!) beginning to question their previous commitments to multiculturalism:
Some years ago professor Nathan Glazer published a book titled "We are all Multiculturalists Now," and at the time it seemed a very apt title to describe the state of progressive Western thought: multiculturalism was the wave of the future: it extended the ideas of equality from the sphere of individuals to that of cultural groups and minorities; it denoted the end of white hegemony and patronage; it paid special attention to "the different other;" it was a revolt against colonialism in the old world and racial discimination in the new world. It was a lofty idea: to treat different cultures on an equal footing.
As the article says, all cultures are NOT equal. Islam is barbaric, to name just one example. To pretend all cultures are all the same is to deny the lessons of history.
Give me a traditional Western, Christian society any day.
Damn you folks are just a bit to edumacated for this here cabbie. Need to have my friggin dictionary out instead of my Playboy.
ReplyDeleteBut I agree with Old Reb. Islamic culture is not equal and really has no place in "western" society.
ReplyDeleteAlso Old Reb I looked at your profile. Is that a picture of a Confederate soldier? I think I have seen that somewhere.
ReplyDeleteBartender Cabbie,
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the dashing Confederate soldiers captured at Gettysburg.