[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Tomoyuki Kono]

Dear Dan,

On 9 Oct 2005, at 08:42, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
>
>>
>> So the embargos and trade restrictions imposed by the West on the  
>> Japanese
>> during the inter-war years played no part in precipitating  
>> hostilities ?
>>
>
> Of course! A direct result of the embargo was the invasion of  
> Manchuria, the
> Rape of Nanjing, the subjugation of the Pacific Islands, the  
> torture of
> Korea, and every other evil of the 20th century.

Oh dear. Are you seriously claiming that those things which you  
enumerate *directly resulted* from the embargo and trade  
restrictions? That's simply bad history.

As far as I am aware, they resulted in various diplomatic and  
military manoeuvres leading to Pearl Harbor. But today, even the  
popularly accepted version of events regarding Pearl Harbor has been  
shown to be erroneous, as Robert Stinnett's well-researched book, Day  
of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor, has shown. He has  
convincingly argued on the basis of the previously classified  
documents that FDR was fully aware of the coming attack but allowed  
it to take place in order to push Japan into war.

That facts of history are more nuanced than people present them to be  
is shown in another anecdote. The Japanese embassy's delay in  
preparing the final ultimatum just hours before Pearl Harbor has been  
known as one of the biggest blunders in Japanese diplomatic history.  
We have long been told that this was due to the sheer incompetence of  
the officials in decoding, translating and typing the script that was  
sent in fourteen parts from Japan. However, it recently emerged that  
the shortage of staff was caused by an inevitable, though no less  
embarrassing, event. Many members of the embassy were attending the  
funeral of a navy spy called Major Shinjo on the crucial morning of 7  
December. It was meant to be a short service held in a baptist church  
in Washington DC, but the priest there kept on praising the spiritual  
virtue of the deceased, accompanied by a lengthy recitation of many  
English poems he had composed. A newly discovered memoir of someone  
who was present at the funeral details how the priest went on to  
describe Shinjo's spiritual progress age by age, delivered from a  
well-prepared note. Several officials wanted to end the service  
delicately, but was overruled by the high officials. While this  
anecdote does not exonerate the officials of their incompetence, it  
also shows ironically how Japanese politeness contributed to one of  
the most acrimonious beginnings of war :)

Digression aside, my point is that, while I am well aware of the  
atrocities committed by the Japanese, there are often unreported or  
unnoticed events which played important roles in the dynamic of  
history. So I agree with Stephen's argument. They may compromise,  
complicate or even contradict the simplified and accepted version of  
history in school textbooks or popular books, but that's what I find  
fascinating about history. Unlike your other posts on the end of the  
war and the A-bombs, you seem to have indulged in sheer rhetoric and  
no historical discourse.

> Grow up.
Come on, was it necessary?

Best wishes,
Tomo