Originally posted by: Lemon law
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Originally posted by: Lemon law
a pygmy like Japan
Their nation suffered a huge defeat in the 1940s, was occupied by a foreign power for a few years and still managed to bounce back to become the 2nd largest economy in the world even with relatively few natural resources. I would hardly call Japan or its people pygmy.
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You make a very valid point Schradenfroh, but still, numerically Japan is a pygmy.
When the US and the Europeans arrived in Asia in a big way circa 1850, Japan was almost the lone exception nation in Asia to embrace and copy Western methods.
As the tensions between WWI and WW2 distracted European from the Asian region, its allowed Japan with its technological superiority to totally and brutally dominate the Asian region, and in the immediate post pearl harbor attack period, the entire East Pacific Ocean was a de facto Japanese lake as Japan militarily dominated Asian nations 100X bigger in population.
That was then and now is now, you are right that Japan has done quite well thank you, but the rest of Asia has now embraced Western methods, and they still resent the sins of the Japanese past. And right now, the biggest Asian success story is China, who in 30 years or so has gone from a Mao vision of an isolationist agricultural model, to the industrial giant its has become. And a China looking outward is something new in the last 500 years of world history. Thus far China is spending little to increase its military strength, but sadly, for ever dime Japan spends in building up its military will likely inspire a far bigger Chinese reponse.
Hence my comments about a Japanese pygmy and the dangers of an Asian arms race.
A century ago, a similarly sized Island nation has a better position, and it could be said that the sun never set on the British empire. We all only occupy and live in a limited slice in time,
but still, we should be looking at the longer sweep of History.