太田述正コラム#2027（2007.8.28）
＜退行する米国（その６）＞
　では、私の投稿に対し、或いは日本について、いかなる議論がその後なされたか、その概要をご紹介しましょう。
　さすが、ガーディアンの読者達と言うべきか、結構良識的な議論が展開されていますね。
　なお、日本のフィリピン占領については、コラム#201をご参照ください。
　（この際、もう一度URLを繰り返しておきます。
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matthew_yglesias/2007/08/dont_know_much_about_history.html
。但し、今回は８月28日アクセス。）
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　記
　＜P（インドネシア。ただし、インドネシア系米国人か））＞
　江戸時代以来の歴史の中で日本の人々は自分達自身で日本を民主主義化させた。
And as for Japan gaining democracy “because” of US occupation (i forgot what nitwit posted this) i can only say that you know very little history or even have very little knowledge of what the Japanese are like. Industrious people do not need to be set free by some other man in some far off country. They are far from perfect but with regards to forward thinking and industrious ingenuity you’ll find that it was the people in Japan (Read about the Taiko, the shogunate, Edo period, Meji period, etc) that made democracy possible and not America (LOAD OF B*****KS). I’d only go as far as to say that it was commodore Perry that allowed them to get in touch with the western world ( I think that they would’ve anyway, read up on Masamune Date’s expedition to Rome), but definitely not the American occupation bringing “democracy” (also you could read up on the protests of the existing American base in Okinawa and the crimes it has caused).
＜R（日本）＞
　米国等による1941年の石油禁輸が日本を追いつめた。
The 1941 oil embargo basically painted Japan into a corner. Any military strategist at the time could have expected the Japanese to react violently: they needed the East Indies oil even to survive domestically and the only way to get it was to cripple the US Navy. You probably dont believe the theory that FDR played this hand to bring the US into the European War, but it is a viable theory.
Even more viable is the view that US interventions from the Phillipines to Iraq are less about democracy and all about imperialism. ‘Democracy’, such as it is in the Phillipines, Japan or elsewhere, is just the US method of political influence, mainly because it goes hand in hand with free enterprise.
＜P（再登場。以下同じ）＞
　日本のフィリピン占領がインドネシアの占領と同じようなものであったなら、民主主義が確立されたわけがない。
　しかし、日本人の中にも良い人はいた。
　前田大佐はインドネシアが独立宣言をするのを助けてくれた。
If the occupation of the Philippines was anything like the occupation of Indonesia then I would beg to differ. Anything BUT democracy would have been created. You see once my Grandfather told me the story of how he had to eat the fesses of a Japanese soldier just so my Grandmother wouldn’t get raped (she was offered rape or murder of one of her children-the Japanese imperialist years have a long history of rape and prostitution through out Asia don’t they?) and how his family participated in Romusya (You do know about Romusya and it’s several other versions through out south east Asia don’t you?). But like all people even the Japanese aren’t all stereotypically the same. A certain Col. Maeda from the Japanese army helped with the proclamation for Indonesia’s independence and my grandfather has a half Japanese granddaughter (all legitimately through his line :->). But it is still too early for you to claim such Japanese supremacy.
＜C（？）＞
　大正デモクラシーはあったものの、関東大震災の時に、これを好機として日本政府の戦争好きの右翼はありとあらゆる不穏分子を根絶しようとした。どこかで聞いたことがあるような話だと思わないか。
・・Japan’s ‘Taisho democracy’ of the late teens and early 20s was better than no democracy at all, but then warmongering rightists in government used a great calamity (the 1923 Kanto earthquake) as an excuse to eradicate dissent, whipping up hatred against ‘subversive’ liberals, left-wingers and foreigners — hmm, sounds familiar doesn’t it?
＜J（米）＞
　米国が民主主義を与えたというのは傲慢な無知の表れだ。日本でもドイツでも1945年まで50年もの民主主義の歴史があった。日本では、戦時中も曲がりなりにも議会制が続いた。
The claim that “we” built democracy is a demonstration of arrogant ignorance of the democratic institutions that existed in BOTH nations for over half a century prior to 1945. In fact, the Japanese nation continued to have parliamentary institutions throughout World War Two. While these had been subverted, they remained extant. So, both nations had long-standing practices and arrangements that allowed them to revive their parliamentary that had developed out of their own history. And the arrangements that continue to exist in both countries owe far more to their own practices, dating back to the nineteenth century, than to anything that the United States “built”.
＜F（？）＞
　日本は高度に発展した教育水準の高い国であり、米国が占領していなければ、もっと早く復興していたかもしれない。
　米国が民主主義を支援したのは国益のために他ならない。
　問題は米国が、右翼的政府に対する反民主主義的介入を行った事例が多すぎることだ。
Japan succeeded because they were and are a highly developed and educated nation, and probably would have recovered a lot more quickly without US intervention within the country; though US nuclear deterrent proabably v. helpful. (b) Where the US has supported democracy it is for self-interest (nothing necesarily wrong with that but saintly it ain’t). There are just too many examples of anti-democratic interventions in support of awful right-wing governments – Greece, Africa, South America, even in the UK.
＜P（インドネシア）＞
　日本とドイツの民主主義がうまくいっているのは、大部分米国の慈悲深い占領と支援の賜なのだ。
The bottom line is that Japan’s successful democracy is due mostly to America. Our benevolent administration of the country and our support were the crucial elements. Same with Germany.
＜S（米）＞
　フィリピンについて言えば、慰安婦問題を忘れたのか。
　また、日本とナチスドイツの同盟は便宜的同盟であったかもしれないが、どちらも同類のファシスト国家だった。
　お前は、日本政府が検閲した歴史教科書しか読んでいないのか。
“If occupation of Philippines by Japan lasted for 10 odd years without the duress of war, then Philippines could have established a functioning democracy.
Study the Philippines occupation by Japan if you have time and curiosity.”
I’ll do you one better Oh-
“In 1992 when Henson was 65, she decided it was time to tell the world about her experience during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. Until 1992, only two people who knew of her secret, her late mother and her dead husband. After coming out publicly with her story, Lola Rosa decided to write about her war-time experience. The result was the book, Comfort Woman: A Slave of Destiny”. In Comfort Woman: A Slave of Destiny, Rosa provided an achingly straightforward voice to the erstwhile silent and invisible existence of Filipino comfort women. Almost 200 Filipino women soon followed Rosa’s example as they decided to reveal themselves and their pesonal stories for the first time, not only to the world but to their families as well. Other Filipino women victims joined together, including those from Korea and China, to file a class action lawsuit against Japan. Together they demanded justice in the form of a formal apology from the Japanese government; the inclusion of all the war-time atrocities committed by the Japanese into Japan’s school history books; and monetary reparations to compensate for all the abuses and violence committed against the women. However,the Japanese government denied legal responsibility and refused to pay the victims.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Henson
I guess they probably left that out of your history books, eh?
“The Alliance of liberal democratic Japan with Nazis Germany was an alliance of convenience,”
Yes it was. It was also an alliance of like-minded fascists.
You know Oh, I had heard a little about how the Japanese had been busy revising the history of WW2 for their public. But if you are any indication, the problem is much worse than I ever thought. Pick up a history book and read it, and make sure its not one censored by the Japanese government.
＜T（独)＞
　そもそものコラムでコラムニストは日本が米国領を攻撃したと記している。
　しかし、ハワイはカリフォルニアから数千マイルも離れていた。
Mr Yglesias mentions that the Japanese attacked U.S. soil. At that time Hawaii was a territory, several thousand miles off the Californias (Baja Cal. making it plural.)
＜M（英)＞
　ブッシュが真珠湾攻撃を持ち出したのは適切だと思うが、比喩の使い方は逆であるべきだ。米国はイラクに対し、当時の日本と同じことを、つまり怪しげな先制攻撃理論に基づいて攻撃したのだ。また、真珠湾は軍事目標で日本にとって脅威だったのに、米国はイラク社会全体に対し、仮想的な脅威に藉口して野蛮な攻撃をしかけたのだ。
Actually I think Bush was right to invoke the attack on Pearl Harbour by way of analogy, except he got it the wrong way round. America is now in the role of imperial Japan, justifying its acts of aggression with the spurious doctrine of “anticipatory self-defence” – except for of course the fact that Pearl Harbour was an attack on a military target and an actual threat, whilst Iraq was a savage attack on a whole society and a pretended threat.
＜P（インドネシア）＞
　憲法だけで民主主義にはならない。
　その社会が民主主義が機能する社会でなければダメだ。
　だから、米国が民主主義的憲法を与えたから日本が民主主義化したというのは誤りだ。
　それにマッカーサーは米国でなく、連合国を代表していたことをお忘れなく。
　
1.a DEMOCRACY is in essence GRASS ROOTS, a CONSTITUTION does NOT and can NOT denote whether or not a COUNTRY is democratic, the PEOPLE and SYSTEM OF GOVERNING DO (Theocrats have CONSTITUTIONS TOO). It is however a CRITERIA of GOVERNMENT to HAVE a CONSTITUTION but it DOES NOT MEAN IT IS DEMOCRATIC.
therefor
when YOU SAY :
AMERICANS GAVE DEMOCRACY
it is UNTRUE
since a CONSTITUTION cannot exist to GIVE democracy.
and since the CONSTITUTION is all you have for an argument on how AMERICA GAVE DEMOCRACY to JAPAN it becomes a MISNOMER.
2.MacArthur SUPERVISED as a COMMANDER OF THE ALLIED FORCES… emphasis on ALLIED FORCES.
（続く）