Hello all:
Suppose that either (A) the British never allied with Japan but rather the U.S. did around the same time, or (B) the original Anglo/Japanese alliance happened as historical, but the U.S., rather than opposing this and working behind the scenes to terminate that alliance, either stepped into the UK's shoes after WWI or (probably more practically) decided to adopt a benign if not outright benevolent attitude towards Japan's ambitions in East Asia -- concerning themselves primarily with discouraging Japan from overstepping any "humanitarian" bounds that might make supporting Japan too embarrassing and making sure that Japan understands that we are at worst wink wink nudge nudge buddies and Japan will let us continue to make some money selling in its new empire.
At the root of this -- was there really any truly foundational philisophic incompatibility that would have precluded Japan and the United States working together? The Japanese comported themselves generally quite well in the Russo-Japanese war and WWI and we have been quite friendly since we beat them to their bushidos in WWII -- it appears to me that the barbarity we saw in WWII was a somewhat artificial construct and far from an inevitability. And it seems to me that, with but a few adjustments early on in the relationship, the U.S. and Japan could have assured each other that they would not work against each other's interests in the area (that is to say, Japan could assure the US that it would always treat the US favorably with regards to commercial access to its Empire, and the U.S. assure Japan that provided Japan at least kept up appearances with regard to civilized conduct, it would not oppose its unreasonable ambitions in East Asia and perhaps offer diplomatic support vis a vis Russia. A Japan that did not feel that it was being disrespected but treated as a proper member of "The Club" would likely be quite happy to moderate its treatment of its subjects to be more in accord with Club tastes, as it were. Would it be worse than the Chinese hegemony we see today?
So questions are -- can you imagine this historically coming about? If so, what might the butterflies have brought us by today?
Suppose that either (A) the British never allied with Japan but rather the U.S. did around the same time, or (B) the original Anglo/Japanese alliance happened as historical, but the U.S., rather than opposing this and working behind the scenes to terminate that alliance, either stepped into the UK's shoes after WWI or (probably more practically) decided to adopt a benign if not outright benevolent attitude towards Japan's ambitions in East Asia -- concerning themselves primarily with discouraging Japan from overstepping any "humanitarian" bounds that might make supporting Japan too embarrassing and making sure that Japan understands that we are at worst wink wink nudge nudge buddies and Japan will let us continue to make some money selling in its new empire.
At the root of this -- was there really any truly foundational philisophic incompatibility that would have precluded Japan and the United States working together? The Japanese comported themselves generally quite well in the Russo-Japanese war and WWI and we have been quite friendly since we beat them to their bushidos in WWII -- it appears to me that the barbarity we saw in WWII was a somewhat artificial construct and far from an inevitability. And it seems to me that, with but a few adjustments early on in the relationship, the U.S. and Japan could have assured each other that they would not work against each other's interests in the area (that is to say, Japan could assure the US that it would always treat the US favorably with regards to commercial access to its Empire, and the U.S. assure Japan that provided Japan at least kept up appearances with regard to civilized conduct, it would not oppose its unreasonable ambitions in East Asia and perhaps offer diplomatic support vis a vis Russia. A Japan that did not feel that it was being disrespected but treated as a proper member of "The Club" would likely be quite happy to moderate its treatment of its subjects to be more in accord with Club tastes, as it were. Would it be worse than the Chinese hegemony we see today?
So questions are -- can you imagine this historically coming about? If so, what might the butterflies have brought us by today?
statistics: Posted by Whwalls — 7:42 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 5 — Views 116