Today is National Pearl Harbor today and while there are many articles written from a naturalistic approach (Pearl Harbor Veteran Recalls Bewilderment of Attack, Pearl Harbor Remembered: ‘That wasn’t war it was murder’, Remembered after 70 Years) to make you feel as if 70 years ago was just yesterday, few of them address causes other than seeming to blame ‘American isolationist policy’ of the era. Many writers of today seem to be impressing there ‘feelings’ about 9/11 on Pearl Harbor.
In the aforementioned linked article “Remembered After 70 Years” (and many more) the writers speak of how 9/11 was Pearl Harbor for a new century. However, Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor was not a religious act of terror (although terrible it was), but a preventative military attack on the United States with the intent of neutralizing the US’s Pacific Fleet. In fact, Japan had already invaded Manchuria in 1931, some ten years prior to Pearl Harbor which occurred 11 years later, today on December 7th of 1941. For time comparison, The World Trade Center was bombed in 1993 8 years prior to the multiple terrorist attacks 9/11.
But, let’s stay focused — the cause of Pearl Harbor was the end of a string of events. Too easy would it be to blame ‘American Isolationism’ or America’s support of Britain and other European allies. An oversimplification would be to say “Japanese Expansion” was the cause, but what about the cause of Japanese expansion?
In the lead up to World War II (even as early as the late 1800’s), statism was on the rise in Japan (or ‘right leaning socialism.’) A quick aside, whether its right socialism or left socialism, both are two sides of the same coin — that coin being collectivism. And while Adolf Hitler and his collectivist notions of “Lebensraum” (elbow room for the German people) helped fuel Nazi militarism, it was right-socialism in Japan, during the Showa Restoration, (and the Yuzonsha that served in uniting collectivists of all creeds) to help fuel the growth of militarism in Japan.
Had prewar Japan been committed to a more free market approach (as opposed to state capitalism) would Pearl Harbor have never been?
In the meanwhile, please enjoy this interesting article about State Capitalism in China Contrasted with State Capitalism in Post War Japan, AND while the article talks only of state capitalism in Post War Japan, think about the prewar implications in China; if we do not learn from the past, are we not doomed to repeat it?