It’s time for conservatives of Japan to get over the war

Japan Times ^ | 07/30/2013 | Shaun O'Dwyer

[TexGrill]

“And why shouldn’t we?”

With a thumping Upper House election victory behind them, this question is likely on the minds of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his political allies as they contemplate a visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, the day Japan commemorates the end of World War II.

If they do visit the shrine, they will probably insist that they are doing what politicians do in every other country with military conflicts in its past — proudly commemorating their war dead, with an utterance seemingly indifferent to the rights and wrongs of that past: “They sacrificed their precious lives for their country.”

There is nothing wrong with this, they will say, however much it angers the Koreans or Chinese.

What they say about other countries’ remembrance is obviously correct. For instance, at an April 25 remembrance service in my home country, New Zealand, the governor-general spoke of those New Zealanders who had “paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.”

Luckily for New Zealand, no other country disputes its politicians’ right to express this truism, and none claims to be a victim of New Zealand’s wartime actions. Unluckily for Japan, its politicians voice this truism in an East Asia where stories of national wartime victimization abound.

These stories answer to the 19th-century French philosopher Ernst Renan’s principle that “where national memories are concerned, griefs are of more value than triumphs, for they impose duties, and require a common effort.”

[TexGrill]

Global business tip

[Zeneta]

There is no love left to be lost between Japan and China.

China, for the last 60 years had been an economic basket case and it has only been in the past 10 to 15 years that they have regained their confidence and are now flexing a sense of Nationalism both economically and militarily.

They are buying assets all over the world, primarily natural resources, in an effort to become both self sufficient and “Masters” in the countries they establish an economic presence.

The Chinese are currently involved in a chess match with Japan over long disputed territory.

Japan, is completely screwed.

They sell more “Adult” diapers than those for infants. About 3% of their population is Non-Native, and they are the most xenophobic country on earth. The country is basically insolvent financially and their only out may be a full fledged war with China.

This may sound crazy, but it wouldn’t be the first time such a war occurred.

Over 90% of the buyers of Japanese Gov’t bonds are or have been Japanese institutions that have obligations to an aging population and have reached a tipping point where the contributions are less than their obligations and are forced to sell bonds as opposed to being a buyer. The Central Bank of Japan, has vowed to buy all the debt issued in order to keep interest rates at “near zero”. This is exactly what the Fed is doing here in the US.

This entire game depends on one thing, “confidence”.

When cracks start to appear the Governments and politicians trot out any and all series of lies to maintain the illusion that everything is under control and this is really complicated stuff that “you” don’t understand.

Japan is toast.

Whether they blow up economically, or defer that disaster by engaging in or provoking the Chinese into a conflict in order to secure an internationally supported “reset” is only a matter of time.

Pride comes before the fall.