The private Chinese arms company Beijing Lingkong Tianxing unveiled a new low-cost YKJ-1000 hypersonic missile with a promotional video that illustrated an airstrike on Japan. The missile has a…
I had a guy try to tell me that actually it’s the US that’s a colony of Japan because “they could stop exporting electronics to us and cripple our economy”
Post-war Japan fought a 20-year trade war with US and won each time. By 1980, Japanese cars were cheaper and more energy efficient and had already overtaken American car manufacturers. The same went for their shipbuilding, electronics and various high-tech industries that handily beat their American counterparts in the world market.
And this was a time when the American industries were nowhere near as dilapidated as they are today. Japan really was the OG China before today’s China. And there is no way that the Americans don’t understand the lessons during their long struggle against Japan 40 years ago.
What did the Japanese in was their hubris during the Plaza Accord, which resulted in the poor handling of the crisis in the 1990s.
And to understand this, you need to understand the post-war political situation of Japan. Even though Japanese economy was soaring, on the international stage, they were not part of the permanent members of the UNSC, and their constitution actively forbade the formation of a conventional military (they are only allowed self defense force that is used for defensive purpose only - any other country with a conventional military are allowed for both offensive and defensive purposes). This constricts their ability to power project as a global power.
So when Japan began to overtake the US economy in the 1980s, they were not satisfied with just becoming an economic powerhouse. Japan wanted to own America. Hence, by 1989, Mitsubishi bought the majority stake of Rockefeller Group with $1 billion as though it was nothing. Japanese businessmen spent lavishly in America as though it was nothing. This tells you how much Japan yearned to become the master to the Americans.
So it is wrong to say that Japan has merely been a colony of the US. Yes, it appeared subservient to the US, but if you look throughout history, most vassals are ready to rebel against their hegemon when the opportunity comes. Abe, and now Takaichi (who was Abe’s protege) are doing whatever they’re doing precisely because of this. These are all calculated moves. Of course Takaichi knew that her words about Taiwan would cause fury from the Chinese side. Of course she knew how the Chinese would react on the international stage. They’re not stupid, these are all calculated. They wanted to use this opportunity to amend the constitution such that Japan can begin to form its conventional military again. And you can see that her popularity soared to 69.9% after her speech that veers on reviving the Imperial Japan militarism. None of this is a coincidence.
There has been a whole lot of non-historical analysis that pervaded even the Western online leftist spaces that only see the EU and Japan as some sort of mindless vassals that simply obey what the US tells them to. The EU are stupid! Japan is stupid! This would assume that these countries don’t know what they’re doing, and such superficial understanding of the world often comes from people who don’t think deeply about how material forces (i.e. capital) shape global geopolitical tensions (plenty of them on Twitter). The EU’s economy is being destroyed not because they are stupid, it’s because they lost in their maneuvers against the Americans.
People need to look into history to learn how most vassal states operated. Because vassalage doesnt function like in paradox games, nor does it erase factions inside the vassal state that operate on their own interests, in fact vassal actually do often had to work hard for the imperial center not to drop them.
The American Empire is not that different from Macedon which was the hegemon of the leauge of corinth or athens or Hittite empire and their associated vassal states.
Yup. Look at the gulf states. To simply call them vassals is oversimplifying it. The Saud family used Britain and the US to maintain their control over the area and the surrounding trade routes. They profited greatly from the imperial powers backing them.
Since the end of 1945 there has no longer been Japan just a U.S. colonial archipelago in the Pacific
the japanese are more than capable of being satanicly evil racists on their own, actually
Doesn’t mean they aren’t in effect a US colony
I had a guy try to tell me that actually it’s the US that’s a colony of Japan because “they could stop exporting electronics to us and cripple our economy”
They have to be at least 50 and had the state of their neurons frozen sometime in the 90s.
what 0 materialism does to a mf
You’re missing a lot of steps here.
Post-war Japan fought a 20-year trade war with US and won each time. By 1980, Japanese cars were cheaper and more energy efficient and had already overtaken American car manufacturers. The same went for their shipbuilding, electronics and various high-tech industries that handily beat their American counterparts in the world market.
And this was a time when the American industries were nowhere near as dilapidated as they are today. Japan really was the OG China before today’s China. And there is no way that the Americans don’t understand the lessons during their long struggle against Japan 40 years ago.
What did the Japanese in was their hubris during the Plaza Accord, which resulted in the poor handling of the crisis in the 1990s.
And to understand this, you need to understand the post-war political situation of Japan. Even though Japanese economy was soaring, on the international stage, they were not part of the permanent members of the UNSC, and their constitution actively forbade the formation of a conventional military (they are only allowed self defense force that is used for defensive purpose only - any other country with a conventional military are allowed for both offensive and defensive purposes). This constricts their ability to power project as a global power.
So when Japan began to overtake the US economy in the 1980s, they were not satisfied with just becoming an economic powerhouse. Japan wanted to own America. Hence, by 1989, Mitsubishi bought the majority stake of Rockefeller Group with $1 billion as though it was nothing. Japanese businessmen spent lavishly in America as though it was nothing. This tells you how much Japan yearned to become the master to the Americans.
So it is wrong to say that Japan has merely been a colony of the US. Yes, it appeared subservient to the US, but if you look throughout history, most vassals are ready to rebel against their hegemon when the opportunity comes. Abe, and now Takaichi (who was Abe’s protege) are doing whatever they’re doing precisely because of this. These are all calculated moves. Of course Takaichi knew that her words about Taiwan would cause fury from the Chinese side. Of course she knew how the Chinese would react on the international stage. They’re not stupid, these are all calculated. They wanted to use this opportunity to amend the constitution such that Japan can begin to form its conventional military again. And you can see that her popularity soared to 69.9% after her speech that veers on reviving the Imperial Japan militarism. None of this is a coincidence.
There has been a whole lot of non-historical analysis that pervaded even the Western online leftist spaces that only see the EU and Japan as some sort of mindless vassals that simply obey what the US tells them to. The EU are stupid! Japan is stupid! This would assume that these countries don’t know what they’re doing, and such superficial understanding of the world often comes from people who don’t think deeply about how material forces (i.e. capital) shape global geopolitical tensions (plenty of them on Twitter). The EU’s economy is being destroyed not because they are stupid, it’s because they lost in their maneuvers against the Americans.
People need to look into history to learn how most vassal states operated. Because vassalage doesnt function like in paradox games, nor does it erase factions inside the vassal state that operate on their own interests, in fact vassal actually do often had to work hard for the imperial center not to drop them.
The American Empire is not that different from Macedon which was the hegemon of the leauge of corinth or athens or Hittite empire and their associated vassal states.
Yup. Look at the gulf states. To simply call them vassals is oversimplifying it. The Saud family used Britain and the US to maintain their control over the area and the surrounding trade routes. They profited greatly from the imperial powers backing them.
People have a misunderstanding of how vassalage works. Its a fluid dynamic.
Which should be obvious with a cursory understanding of dialectical materialism.
Jup. But that is lacking all around.
I really appreciate the effort you put into your comments, and how thought-provoking they are