By Thorsten J. Pattberg for the Saker Blog
You have to know this before you come to study in Japan or East Asia. Short lecture from Tokyo University on the stagnation and decline of Japan under US total rule. Blatant parallels to the US vassal state Germany. 2022/04/02
[Transcript]
Hello! Dr. Pattberg here, from the ‘Todai‘ – also known internationally as the University of Tokyo.
Today I want to talk about Japan as a US satellite state and what US hegemony means for the situation in Japan, the Japanese economy, culture and language.
I had been studying here at Tokyo University for my doctoral studies – namely here, at the Historiographic Institute… I had worked on and researched the translation history of Buddhist terms.
The Historiographic Institute, The University of Tokyo
The Institute is not far from the Akamon Gate, the “Red Gate”, the famous sight often seen on postcards.
The Historiographic Institute protects historical writings; it’s some kind of super-secret library. It’s all underground, of course, and you can only get in there with an ID.
I don’t think many people know this, but most elite universities have underground passages and catacombs for miles. Ancient writings are stored there, often dating back to the 16th century.
Tokyo University Huge Secret Underground Library System
A few years later I was again working as a researcher at Tokyo University; this time at the Institute for Advanced East Asian Studies.
Here, too, the focus was on the history of translation.
Now many will probably think: “Translation history, that’s boring!” No! A study of history in general always gives us insights into the present.
When the European powers successively discovered East Asia in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and fell in here like barbarians, they copied everything. They had learned new ideas, concepts, and terms, and instead of meeting the Asians on an equal footing, they had simply scooped up all the Asian names, terms, and concepts and translated them into European terminologies. Mostly into Latin of course, initially… [then] Biblical concepts and Hellenic-Greek concepts.
It’s something like this: let’s imagine the Japanese come to Europe and take a look at what we have in Germany. Well, we have Volkswagen and BAYER there, and the city of Cologne and Goethe – and what do we do with them then? Well, all terms, names and brands are now immediately “Asianized.” We call them Toyota and Suzuki, and Yokohama and Ikeda! Everything is renamed.
And then we turn our backs on the Germans and say: “You see, they had no originality at all! They had no creativity or inventiveness at all! They didn’t discover anything!”
Then, in practice, the Japanese could have claimed that the Germans had no “bunko” [small paperbacks] at all. “They didn’t know about it, but we gave it to them!” Well, then that will be the official history.
Bunkos are Japanese small paperbacks
Now you might protest: That wouldn’t be possible at all. Something like that could never happen to us in Europe. It would be unimaginable robbery, misinformation and historical distortion! But that’s exactly what happened here in East Asia. The Europeans, and later the Americans, turned everything inside out here.
We can also say that the West completely took the Asian concepts and names and rebranded them.
Confucius was at one time a Christian “saint” who supposedly knew about the Flood. The Taoists were all [Hellenic] “philosophers”. The Buddhas, or Fojia, also became “saints,” and their wisdom was declared a “religion.”
Confucius is a Western installed religious leader
The methodology is almost entirely western. As is well known, Christianity was named after Jesus Christ. So in China, the old Katai, they desperately sought out a miracle figure from the Ruxue.
Ruxue is a Chinese wisdom school; a school of thought much like Plato’s school of thought. Actually, the real name is ‘Ru’ – but of course the missionaries really wanted to find a Christ figure somewhere. And then they came up with the well-known Kong Fu-Tze, he became the namesake. ‘Ru’ flew out; ‘Kong’ came in – and became Kong-Fu-cianism.
With such a brutal translation strategy, the Europeans flattened and westernized all the stories of Asia. That is why George Hegel postulated the ‘end of history’ even then. He believed that nothing and nobody could stop the Europeans.
George Hegel wrote The End of History
For example, Gottfried Leibniz, long before Hegel, had seen through English language imperialism very well. That’s why Leibniz called for the Germans not to adopt foreign words under any circumstances, but to rename everything in German abroad. This is the only way the German Reich – the German Empire – could expand. Which then happened. After all, the Germans got a colony in north-eastern China.
Gottfried Leibniz called for pasting over Asia
So now back to the present. I am here in 2022 at Tokyo University speaking about Japan as a US satellite state.
The US burned Tokyo to the ground during World War II and dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Since then, Japan has been a vassal of the world power USA, and had lived so relatively well because: important colony in Asia.
There was a veritable economic miracle here in Japan; just as we were allowed to experience in defeated Germany. A bombed-out country needs be rebuilt? A lot has to be invested, a lot of work and sweat, and of course the economy is booming as a result. Unfortunately, the main beneficiary was not Japan, or Germany, but the victorious and occupying power USA.
Japan got pretty strong in the 80’s and got a little cocky. The USA sanctioned all areas of life, cultural exports, goods and Japan’s energy supply. Everything collapsed here and Japan lost 40 years of development, they say. They have been more or less standing still for 40 years.
But since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States had suddenly become the undisputed sole world power. And since then Japan has been really tortured, harassed, and the country kept small on all levels. Today, in 2022, we have reached a new low.
The US has become an empire of sanctions and punishments. The Japanese are not allowed to work with China; they are not allowed to work with Russia; they’re not really allowed to work with Europe, or India, or South America. And if they do, on a small scale, then only under American supervision.
So what has been going on here in Japan for the past 3 years with this Corona hoax is starting to look ridiculous. And although Japan is not actually experiencing a deadly pandemic, Tokyo has been forced for three years to walk around with ridiculous paper masks on its face and hassled the population into being vaccinated three times with Jewish gene–injections from US Pfizer – a scandal!
The Japanese could have developed their own vaccine if they were allowed to. Unfortunately, Tokyo has no choice. It has to go along with any madness. Now the US is planning total war against Russia and China, and preferably Iran at the same time. But let’s remember that Russia and China are two important neighbors of Japan.
You could return the favour. We could work together here. Japan could have gotten rich from China long ago, but no – the US held it back. Japan must not be sovereign and must not meet and trade with other sovereign Asian partners.
Now Japan – by order of the US, which commands the UN, the WHO and NATO – had to lock down its population for 3 years; So stay in your apartment, work from home – “remote office” – including all companies and schools and of course the universities: Everything closed!
So what do people do when they have to sit at home in isolation for 3 years, 127 million Japanese? That’s right, the Japanese sit at home and log on to the Internet. They use US Google, US Amazon, US Youtube, US Twitter, US UberEats (to order food). They use US Zoom to hold conferences. All email traffic here in Japan is handled through US corporations: US Hotmail, US Google, US Yahoo… all American.
We may be facing the greatest US imperialist prank in world history. In contrast, the opening of Japan by American gunboats in the past was just a puppet show or trivial offense.
Of course, the world rulers do not call this “imperialism” or “foreign rule” – no; they call this great rape of the earth’s population ‘The Great Reset’ or ‘The Globalism’.
But that’s all nonsense, it only goes in one direction: from the USA to the whole world, and nothing goes back. Japan, but also Germany, don’t even have 1% of the funds that America has at its disposal to snap [break] the other countries.
There are countless military bases around Tokyo – all American. The consulate is a district in itself. There are also 86,000 US troops stationed here, complete with nuclear submarines and aircraft. “Only” 53,000 soldiers are stationed in Germany, but still.
US Army Area in Aoyama Central Tokyo
Neither Germany nor Japan should dare to send and station their soldiers in the USA. And neither should Germany and Japan dare to utter any threats, demands or even sanctions against the USA. Can you imagine what would happen to us then!
So it’s a total one-way street. The US can do whatever it wants; and we are only receivers, never the senders.
Conclusion: The Japanese are currently being paralyzed. They’re being completely Americanized right now. And these [face] masks are a sign of submission. The countless MacDonald’s, Starbucks, UberEats, iPhones and [Apple] MacComputers… And the universities have also been infiltrated. If you want to become a professor here, at Todai, you have to have studied in the USA.
One of two Starbucks in Tokyo University
Basically, Japanese words – or Asian words in general – are undesirable in world science and are suppressed. They are either translated straight away (into European languages) or they are marked with special formats, special characters and warning labels – something foreign!
Japan is more dependent than ever, and under American total domination – especially under the global financiers, the dollar system, the sanctions, the extreme propaganda -; it is very difficult to establish bilateral relations with other states, and this also applies to Germany.
Oh yes, I almost forgot: As in Germany, all top Japanese politicians and companies are screened.
There is no more reciprocity. Americans are actually naked. They don’t even bother to hide their secret work anymore. It’s about total control. The Japanese cannot even feed themselves. That is forbidden. They have to import massively from America, or from American partners, and live under fear, as they did before World War II, that if Tokyo steps out of line even once, food supplies, energy supplies, bank transfers and trade will be immediately halted. Just look at what the Americans are doing to Russia right now.
I’ll tell you the truth: All Japanese professors who wanted to become somebody had to go to the USA for screening and baptism of attitude. All German professors who wanted to become somebody had to go to the USA to show their loyalty. That’s how it is.
That means any American here can just walk into Tokyo University and is treated like a God. We Germans or Europeans stack way below in the hierarchy. And also Japanese who went to the US and were trained there can come back and are then treated better than the native Japanese. Yes, the overseas Japanese (who bothered to return) get the big jobs. This is very reminiscent of a military hierarchy.
So is it worthwhile for Europeans to study or do research in Japan? The spontaneous answer has to be ‘no’, because they have to learn Japanese first, which is actually almost impossible if they haven’t started from childhood. But the Americans don’t need to learn a word of Japanese. Even the US diplomats here in Tokyo give a sh*** about Japanese. It really is like that. The Japanese must all learn American – in their own country! – [American] to be able to communicate with the American occupiers.
Fewer and fewer Japanese are learning German. Don’t believe the figures from the DAAD or the Federal Republic of Germany government. They lie so that the funds requested are approved every year. In truth, the number of German courses in Japan, but also in other countries such as China, has halved in the last 10 years.
We Germans share a fate with the Japanese: we withdrew and became autistic. We became more specialized and hoped that our goods and ideas would be taken up by the world rulers overseas, discovered and then, ultimately, approved. So, the Americans determine our success. Our own countries can no longer do anything about it.
Can we fight back? Can we pick ourselves up again? Well, first off, it doesn’t look like it. Not with those [face] masks in your face. And these are just the visible punishments for us: the chains in people’s minds and the pincers on their testicles are very real. Sometimes I think Japanese universities are just zombie institutes. Almost like the German universities, they are no longer good either. It really only counts – America.
At that time I made the voluntary decision to study far away from Germany in Asia, China and Japan. It became clear very quickly that this is a world conspiracy here. I’ve been told over and over again that I have to show myself in America in order to even exist (to be on the safe side, you know). So I went to Harvard for a year, even though I didn’t have any money. I read and scanned thousands of books and documents at Harvard University in a “Kamikaze action” for 4 weeks for my work on the translation history of the Shengren – my doctoral thesis.
Without an affiliation with America, there are hardly any careers in the world. So if you study in Asia, be prepared that you will have to score in American journals or universities anyway.
If there is a future, then only a future of geopolitical unrest on this planet, where the Asians and Europeans can finally push back and crush the US empire and really build a multipolar world order here, in which every state and culture and language has its own chances.
I’m deadly serious. We live in enslavement and most people don’t understand it. They might not see it. They have been at home under lockdown and severe punishment for 3 years and only deal with their iPhones.
Think carefully about whether you really want to live without Japan and without Germany, without sovereignty and self-respect.
Colonialism and foreign rule will not end by themselves. And human history can be reduced to a single formula:
If you don’t fight back, you’re worthless.
Thanks for listening. See you later!
The author is a German writer and cultural critic.
Academia is the worst, most politicized and politically correct corrupt institution in the world.
I wasted years discovering this time and time again.
You can learn whatever you want or need to learn on your own far easier with a few books and the internet.
Credentials are only important to those who also have nothing else but academic credentials, and no skills.
Credentials and credibility are inversely proportional in an inverted world. The fact that so few see this axiom being demonstrated live all around them is the best example of just how inverted our world has become. A world where those who create no value control the most resources, and those that create the most value, receive the minimum amount possible to keep the “free” energy machine funneling life force energy to the parasite misleaders at the top.
I’m an engineer so I was spared the worst of academic corruption, but corporate america is exactly the same. BS artists creating believable lies are valued far far more than problem solvers and innovators creating true win-win solutions. BS artists are so good, they even believe it themselves, and anyone who actually is what they pretend to be are loathed and only tolerated as necessary, lest the illusion be exposed to those creating and believing it.
aplausos !!
Jjapanese paradigm shift ?
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/03/31/national/japan-russia-sakhalin-no-withdrawal/
Great article.
“So what has been going on here in Japan for the past 3 years with this Corona hoax is starting to look ridiculous. And although Japan is not actually experiencing a deadly pandemic, Tokyo has been forced for three years to walk around with ridiculous paper masks on its face and hassled the population into being vaccinated three times with Jewish gene–injections from US Pfizer – a scandal!”
Yes indeed. The biggest hoax this century by far.
Meh, dear andrey or rather mods, no offense but what’s the purpose of this article? We all know the political state about Japan or Germany. And the details here are not even correct (I won’t even start about the „covid = hoax“ bullshit), in Germany most of the CEO‘s of big companies are normal capitalists, nothing to do with USA and if you meant politicians well, sadly many of the „new guys“ don’t even have a regular graduation from any university in Germany, and you’re talking about USA? Sorry but that’s just some random rant
The purpose is to understand firsthand the damage that this empire has done to our world as a whole and is still in the process of attempting. And perhaps, to get a glimpse of what we would need to repair once we are fully into multi-polarity.
Yes, agreed, but how does Pattberg expect to find or point to solutions without even a clear and factual statement of the problem? As Sascha says, this is just a rant, as all his pieces more or less are, with a few nuggets buried.
pasha, if you do not understand what you are reading, I suggest click to another place.
I cannot help this lack of comprehension. Alternatively, write us your brilliant exposition of a clear and factual statement. On the right-hand side of the page, you will find a guideline for article submission.
I’ll be waiting for it.
Pasha, It doesn’t matter if you are in Japan, Germany, any other vassal of the empire, or in the empire itself… trusting false authority only happens when you can’t trust yourself. Because you lie to yourself, and cant be trusted. Its hard to face yourself, but that is the solution. The problem is misleaders can only mislead people who mislead themselves. The solution is to learn to lead yourself.
Making the reality plain like this article does is a first step, to realizing it must be done(you are the savior you’ve been waiting for), because there is no other option except taking your own power back. While you will make mistakes they will be learned from (valuable) and so minor in magnitude compared to what the false authority of stolen power achieves, you/we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
…excellent analysis. Perfectly agree that Japan belongs to Asia. Japan’s real problem is access to resources which it could simply import from the B zone. It could gladly get along with the rise of China, Russia and others, without any issues. This is not early 20th century anymore. Other than that, Tokyo doesn’t give a damn about the US and the West. Also, the world remembers all the crimes and sexual harassment of Japanese youth by the US military personnel at the Okinawa airbase over the past several decades. US soldiers and high ranking officials have been committing untold crimes on local inhabitants of Okinawa without ever being prosecuted, that’s a shame. The US must be prosecuted for these and other crimes against humanity.
“Japan’s real problem is access to resources ”
This is EVERYONES real problem.
So the US and a few select hangers on have been sucking up all of the cheap and easy resources the world has while all along suppressing/destroying the demand for those resources for much of the “developing world” for over a hundred years now. Not to mention the monumental waste stream flow into the biosphere that is slowly (and not so slowly) killing everything and everyone. And now that there are real physical constraints to both inputs and wastestream we are to believe that several billion people are going to enter the global economy and start consuming on an ever greater level?
First off it ain’t gunna happen…physically impossible. Second it would take a massive everyone against everyone war to even secure a fraction of what is left for themselves.
Its LESS of everything from here on down and that means people too.
Jef,
The same people who started this mass production – consumer driven culture societies ala Henry Ford, i.e. the Americans and their partners (UK. France, …) always disguised behind democratic freedom loving societies, where they kept showing off their big V8 and the happy American way of life to those Poor Soviets, are today promoting the Green Woke narrative balderdash.
If people in the West really care about nature and atmosphere (which I think they don’t) why not just throwaway their automobiles and start using bicycles? especially now that they have huge oil and gas problems. But here in Tehran and most likely there in Moscow we have lots of cheap gasoline, therefore have no problem spending time in traffic jams inhaling CO2.
Essentially, the new multi-polar world order which is gradually taking shape, will be all about intelligent/scientific management/distribution of resources amongst all the people on this planet. Somehow like socialist democratic system of the countries of Scandinavia.
Japan is an utterly resource poor island. However its main strength is the highly skilled human resources. Other countries have lower skilled labor force but vast natural resources. The new world order must somehow introduce measures that principally balance things out and at the same time provide enough leeway for individual entrepreneurial motivation. No need to kill each other just yet like what is being promoted by people such as Charles Schwab of WEF. These western-zionist cabals would like to maintain their hold on all the wealth of this world to themselves but impose their stupid Green agenda, health passport, digital money, insects food menu etc. upon %99 of people worldwide.
sleigh out of topic, but maybe not jfr this comment.
please correct me. tematic is co2, and the west, and the east in whole.
IF the vast hydrocarbon reserves was deposited via the carbon cyclys of nature. that gives, by nature, that it was o lot of co2 the time the reserves was deposited. if the planet had been a barren desert then, from the high co2 content, the deposisiones could not have been done via natures carbon cycle. so by logic, if you want to green sahara, you need more co2. its what the plants want. not brawndo.
i understand it as the crown corporations want to turn alls life process, to income. un agenda 2030, as the fractional reserve ponzi runs it course.
so have good discussions, but keep co2 out of other good talk of pollution. and this is the crown corporations attemt to keep zone b in the cash flow grasp globally. the f…… great reset.
desillusioned norwegian
desillusioned norwegian,
….good point. The problem is the cream of the crop of the West comprising UK, France, US, and their Zio partners (WEF) want to say that if the West (like before) cannot freely steal other country’s resources, particularly in pristine Siberia which they have their eyes upon nowadays, then it means the end of humanity and everyone should start killing everyone else as in a new world war. Except in order to divert global attentions, they pretend they are doing things because of a divine moral duty towards Nature, that’s why they utilize Green/Woke narrative. Just, like their hero, Alfred Nobel, who took dynamite for war purposes then arrogantly introduce a peace prize to those like Barack Obama, the EU..!! They’re accustomed to setting their own standards from a position of strength. Sorry, but this time around they’ve got to lose. If there’s someone who deserves history’s greatest peace prize it would be the Russian President V.Putin.
ah good to get a reply. long time lurker, have been taken tp cource by better men here, before. my furst time was in 14 with the film… a friendly reminder from russia. we are ready for war. are you. it has been totally tcrubbed from net. in the propaganda realm, it should be harken out. ceep co2 out.
That is what I love about this site, always something fresh, a new perspective. Never resting on laurels.
What has the US that others don’t, compliant sheep who value their status and comply to keep it. Oh other countries do, but here it is our religion.
If Julian Assange is not released we are all prisoners too!
“If Julian Assange is not released we are all prisoners too! ”
Untill Assange’s captors are not jailed, we will not be free.
Your message is Not correct, as Russian advisor Glazyev, in his article here at The Saker shows.
The US FED, actually part of the City of London, is UTTERLY and IRREDEEMABLY bankrupt.
The 2008 crash showed everyone there is no escape except by massive looting of, first, Russia.
Since 2014 Ukraine was geared up for a frontal attack on Russia, not just Donbass, not defensive. That is why Russia upended them – their posture was obvious, and a mistake.
The complete panic of finance is driving the crisis never before seen even with the LTCM, DotCom, S&L crises before.
Glayev knows full well the weakness of the adversary. Note his actions carefully – they are based on an impending implosion of the so-called Unipolar Rules-bsed-Order.
See
https://wallstreetonparade.com/
how the FED since Sep 2019 has gone ape – pumping liquidity at levels never before imaginable.
For sure the EU ECB and Japan (after the Plaza Accords) know full well and can be easily held hostage as bankers do. Even Russia’s Central Bank (before Chubais just jumped ship) was held hostage. No more.
The core Petrodollar has been put on notice by Russia, China, India, even Saudia, Iran – the whiff of collapse is in every nose.
So basically voters must know time is on their side, hyperinflations is already sprouting, and a collapse is on. And more importantly voter must know as Glazyev shows, what to do – break up the banks (Glass-Steagall), openly admit total bankruptcy, and demand productive credit to rebuild the global economy.
All of this is in Glazyev’s work.
So fight, yes, not merely protest, but with IDEAS that finance fears worse than death!
In Germany, USA :
https://schillerinstitute.nationbuilder.com/convoke_an_international_conference_to_establish_a_new_security_and_development_architecture_for_all_nations
These ideas here are also Glazyev’s !
A few more interesting things about Japan:
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE JAPANESE ECONOMIC MIRACLE OF THE 1980s?
Prof. Hudson claims the United States simply told the Japanese to stop competing:
Prof Michael HUDSON – De-Dollarization – Toward the End of U.S. Monetary Hegemony?
https://youtu.be/IbWaNPAS39s?t=2281
Hudson sounds a little crazy there, however, his story is backed up here:
Princes of the Yen | Documentary Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Ac7ap_MAY&t=3016s
Princes of Yen never explains why the Bank of Japan did what it did, but Hudson does: Japan is a US vassal state.
Having known this I completely expected Japan to follow the United States line on Russia. However,
there is a lot of resentment built up in Japan over this… so, over the years they have been pushing
back against the US Climate Change agenda and it seems now they may not be willing to close down
all of their projects in Russia?
I think this is why the US/Ukraine propaganda war is so absurd. They are using it to keep other nations
around the world in line. If they can project the image that the US is winning, then they will be less likely to jump ship, even though they may want to get free from the US / Empire of Lies.
And as far as the US and Western populations are concerned, they are not worthy of the truth, but just pawns/dupes in the real struggle going on behind the scenes.
“Strategic success in the 21st century is not about a physical land grab of territory; that’s what Putin has done. In this century, strategic power is increasingly measured and exercised by economic strength, by technological sophistication and your story…” – US Deputy National Security Advisor, Daleep Singh
So, all of the fake news/ propaganda out there is to keep the Ukrainian troops fighting and to keep other countries from defecting from the US side… and the fact they need to feed the American public a pack of lies is incidental, as they see their own population as ignorant dupes/pawns and not worthy of the truth.
IMHO
“they see their own population as ignorant dupes/pawns and not worthy of the truth.”
Just look at who they stick us with as prez after their coup!
Princes of the Yen is a must-see documentary, more relevant in 2022 than ever – especially for EU citizens. IN 1985, Japan allowed its economy to be killed in public with no public opposition whatsoever. Young American-trained Japanese “economists” were given control of the central bank and they immediately threw away core principles of the money supply. 1985-1989, Japan had a real-estate boom as corporations found buying real estate was more profitable than investing in their own businesses. Good times for all !?! Then came the crash. The documentary explains the “what” and “how” in detail. It didn’t discuss the “why”, which came from the American empire; of course not, as there are limits to free speech. More importantly, the documentary did not discuss “How could the Japanese people have allowed this to happen?” I worked in Japan briefly 20 years ago, not knowing about the 1985 Plaza Accord. By then Japan was closing the bankrupt banks and the economy had been doing poorly for many years. There were beggars living by the train stations. In Tokyo, the spacious Ueno pedestrian overpass had homeless people living on both sides of the walkway, wall-to-wall you might say. This may be “sampling error”, but when I talked with middle-class Japanese, they had no interest in politics, thought their politicians were irrelevant and worthless, and felt the same for their news media. But they never said their news media were lying and they didn’t think it was a threat to their happiness. So it was about like America back then. No democracy whatsoever for the big issues, and corrupt democracy for the small stuff.
Japan is a precedent; the elite can destroy economic prosperity without a backlash. I hope that will not repeat in 2022.
Do yourself a favor and carve out 45 minutes to watch Princes of the Yen.
Yes but who is really in control of the US in all this ?
Is it elites in London & Frankfurt ?
There are inter-linkages you are missing in this.
And because of the relatively small geographical size of Germany and Japan and their limited material resources they need a big brother to lend a hand. The England originally was the same pre-1600, when Spain was the superpower followed by Italy and Germany (HRE). England wasnt a power at all much in the 1500s or before.
But as you say the US has too much influence.
But it is imploding now and will collapse under Biden and this NWO
Another important thing that happened to the Japanese economy was that just like the US, they offshored almost all their manufacturing in the 1980s. It wasn’t just sanctions.
Yes started by shipping some mfg plants to Korea then China and Thailand & Vietnam.
To reduce costs. These were the low level mass produced products and things whose life was beyond the peak.
TEAC for example had their video cassette mfg in Korea in the mid 1980s.
Then SONY in the 1990s. Then base level VCR and DVD were being assembled there but most of the chips and components usually came from Japan.
The top level low volume high priced products remain being made in Japan and Germany.
And US UK & EU. Mass production products in Asia.
I worked for the W. Japanese railroad, Nishitetsu Koku in the early 90s and setting up the logistics for companies like Samsung, Sangyo, Kubota and others in China was a major part of our business. BTW I agree with the author and the premise of the article.
Also I have never been to Japan but knew and were friends with Japanese boys at school who were quite smart. I even took one fishing on a boat on the bay one school holidays and we had a fun time.
Everyone says Japan particularly cities like Tokyo are amazing – like entering a magical world.
I concur. Even photos and films of it in the 1960s were the same.
The entire western world is also under US control to some extent not just Germany and Japan.
So its not the only gripe.
As long as Germany and Japan and others get the material resources they need it should be too much of problem.
“As long as [they] get the material resources they need it should [not] be too much of problem.”
It’s not only about material resources, is it. Ever learnt a foreign language? A foreign culture? What do you think the article was all about?
“If you don’t fight back, you’re worthless”. So true. But how?
Awareness of our true history and roots, and to try the best to plant a truth-seeking seed in our children.
This awareness of our true unpleasant state at the moment and that something much nicer exist in our true roots, is sufficient as the psychological change can/will do the rest.
Correct grammatical language is another of God’s fantastic gifts. Semantic manipulation of words and concepts is an elite tool and the root to a confused and manipulated mind.
But awareness that our language is deliberately manipulated is the key to grow intellectual and fight against it.
This article by Thorsten J. Pattberg is too fine – to pass by without a lauditory comment.
“Colonialism and foreign rule will not end by themselves. And human history can be reduced to a single formula:
If you don’t fight back, you’re worthless.” The conclusion is tremendous. It is Revolutionary!
I must say it again! “If you don’t fight back, you’re worthless.” Hello! Are you listening?
Ahh! Russia, Syria, Iran, Houthis, “La gente de Playa Girón han dicho basta.” Lexington & Concord. Did I mention? Lexington & Concord? For our sleeping & intimidated & brainwashed & ignorant – Americans. We, us, our, “Rabble in Arms,” (Kenneth Roberts) That was us. That could be us. Nice book.
Freedom is not free! It must be paid for! That is what he is saying!
Let us Restore our Republic! Avenge 11/22/1963, & 9/11, the Liberty, the Plannedemic. and all the other crimes!
God Bless America & Russia!
Durruti
People think they know Japan, or that they know Europe, when all they know is occupied Japan, occupied Europe. It is merely that they have lived their whole life under occupation, and think this is normal.
We will see the USA withdraw, mainly because the cost of occupation becomes higher, and the moneys that can be extracted become smaller.
The picture, as portrayed in this article, is so bleak that it cannot be true. Whatever the case, I think the Japanese have extremely deep roots that can weather any storm.
Deep roots
The Japan that “reveres Nature” let Fukushima happen and has done nothing to punish corporate greed after
Every article published by Andrei is extraordinary, and yours is certainly no exception dear Thorsten. It moves me, infact. Because I am an Italian, and the same pattern you described: defeat, colony and welfare, subsequent annihilation, was identical in Italy to that of Germany and Japan, maybe even worse. I hope in a short future of geopolitical unrest, I thank (heartily) Russia and President Putin, and in general I count a lot first of all on Asia. USA and EU are lost (at this point unconsciously they are looking for suicide, even those who are in charge are so alien to Life that they are no exception). But Russia must not be left alone, it must be supported in every way. There is a great opportunity first of all for all Asia, from the Middle east to Japan, to find again its wonderful Soul, to free itself from sterile materialism, to start again to perceive its country with pride. Russia has made a great opportunity possible, now it must be seized all together. Thank you for your piece.
Thanks for the excellent rant! But what’s needed are rants by Japanese and other “colonials.” Japan has pushed back against its master by refusing to abandon its Russian energy investments. But as with South Korea, Japan must expel the occupiers if it wants to benefit from the rapid changes globally.
The Geo-Political-Economic goal of the wise men of powerful states should be stability and a modus vivendi between the New World and the Classical World.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the free trade agreement effective January 1, 2022, may give Japan and South Korea viable alternatives
I would love to see more Japanese participation here. If I get some time, I’ll do a quick translation of key points in the analyses of the on-going conflict and launder them via contacts for anonymous posting in Japan’s social networks.
You answered your own observation.
As long as Japan is occupied, the Japanese can’t rant about western colonialism.
Not even anonymously.
They can’t even think about it.
And it’s going to be hard to organize the overthrow of something they can’t even discuss or mention.
That sort of revolution is going to have to start elsewhere and then spread to Asia.
We have an experiment under way as the Bank of Japan holds its cool.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=49505
Japan has more sovereignty than Hungary.
Hungary is throwing it all away.
Tangential to the continuing US occupation of Japan, an episode of a 2019 Japanese anime about seven high school prodigies who die in a plan crash and end up in another world, “Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku you desu!”.
The episode had a scene involving a preemptive nuclear strike by the teens. While observing the artificial sun on the horizon, the lead teenager, serving as prime minister, observes “this means we no longer have to work for gold coins, we can print our own money!”
I thought about where this could have come from, and figured that it was a uniquely Japanese perspective based on WW2’s fire bombings and the atomic bombs, the postwar period of continuous occupation by US military, the Bretton Woods Agreement, and the subsequent closing of the Gold Window, when the US became free to print USD to infinity.
Nuke indoctrination in Japan seems similar to Holo indoctrination in Germany. To each his hoax. Check out Anders Björkman’s pages on how the atomic bomb is just another scam from the Empire of Lies.
https://heiwaco.tripod.com/bomb.htm
Excellent rant but I wanted to add that the Japanese were also to blame for their own withering on the vine.
You can’t really collaborate with any other Asian nation ,even if the US allowed you to, as the former hate you due to your behaviour in WW II . Yes, I know Japanese language and manga is loved by the Korean and Thai youth but race memory still exists , and those nations will not collaborate with Japan for a very long time, especially China.
Your corruption in the zaibatsu business and political conglomerates is also well known , and has killed off real initiative or enterprise. Only the connected can flower.
The hellacious work hours and forced socialising with bosses of the salaryman have sapped the masculinity and virility/ joie de vivre of the Japanese men , and now most young men are reclusive “grass-eaters” or incels as they say in America. Japanese women like European men , and find Japanese men too passive or traditional ,which I know sounds like a contradiction, but there it is.
I was in Japan for business and was pleasantly surprised. I only went because I had to but would gladly keep going but you are on your way to extinction, with increased proportion of elders and sexless youth.
These two countries, japan and germany, wanted to conquer and slave the world brutally.
However, they met their fate which is to stay vassals of a superior power for their entire existence.
And it was the desire of the Anglo-British Empire to enslave and destroy Russian that caused said Empire to build up and support support Japan And Germany in their attempts at brutal conquests.
We seriously doubt that the Billionaires in Germany and Japan feel entrapped. After all, it’s that class of Ultra Wealthy, who are are making untold riches from the US Financial Hegemon.
Whether it’s the Japanese, German or US citizens, we no longer count. This is where Capitalism is at the moment. We have all been enslaved by this Demon.
Nice to read from the begning until the end.
You could put Brazil on this text. We are in the same situation, the empire here is very strong and influent.
But now we have a window of oportunity in the world. The conflict RUS X UKR has changed the world, starting with falling of dolar. Thats the best moment for who wanna be free.
Oh! The rest of the world will live without Germany, Japan and Zion owned USA,and the other fools that will go into depression. It will boil down to who has resources and manufacturing. Germany has manufacturing but little resources as is most of Europe. America has little manufacturing, for it is all outsourced.
Their main exports are weapons which is shown to be inferior and dollar Fiat currency which is coming to an end. They can sell their agricultural products to their Allies in the future, for the South can buy it elsewhere.
Academics: A Chinese Harvard student was asked why she was studying there. Her reply was “only the top 5 students make it into the Chinese universities”. Go check out Silicon valley where most of the scientists are from china and India.
Now you might think that all of them that are still running to Russia to “talk” is a sign of western strength, and that lies and propaganda will somehow win the day. It is what Russia does on the ground is all that matters, and minimizing civilian casualties is a priority; for if they did like USA/ NATO always do, Ukraine would already have been smashed to the ground.
A witch hunt against Chinese-origin scholars and any US scientists with the most minimal connection with China is under way in USA – FBI, trials, careers destroyed etc.
Chinese Global Times hopes this newest wave of McCarthyism will end the brain drain once and for all.
The open Russophobia may have the same unintended consequence
The level of submission is too great. Do they deserve any respect from any people?
Susanowo’s symbol is a lightning bolt and according to some accounts in the Kojiki and Nihongi he later became King of the Underworld. I thought it best to be a secret agent. A month later I was recruited by the CIA to figure out Japan’s Industrial policy and to improve US Japan relations. The WW2 generation was in power and the propaganda line on both sides during WW2 was fanatical.
In 1983 I found Jesus and he baptized me, I was john the baptist in a previous life. In June I walked into the Honnoji Temple at the esact moment the Shinto Priest intoned “let the spirit of Odaa Nobunaga enter”. After a discussion with a Buddhist lady youcan only have been a famous person if you had a famous ancestor Which I have, my great great uncle was Lazarus Spengler the second name on the papal Bull excommunicating Marin Luthor and my uncle I did not want to talk to the press.
Thanks for your impressions.
The Washington Empire wants complete control of the entire planet and beyond. It will accept nothing short of that at present due to the long dreamt fantasy of a new Rome. Foreign policy types have a little mantra–it’s called “it’s either the Chinese of us.” While there is a realist faction within the Security establishment mainly in the military the rest are just intoxicted with power. The fall of the Soviet Union caused a dramatic change in those people.
It would be a good thing if there was a strong interest in multi-polarity in Japan–it would help the cause of peace which Japan used to be really interested in and maybe still are.
To make a long story short, the Good Guys won and Armaggedon was fought and won on August 2nd 1990. The ghosts of the Imperial Army and Navy at Yasukuni Shrine were very important. I was badly wounded and only thru the Lord’s faith healing abilities survived. I communicated this info via ESP with a Shinto Priest to Emperor Akihito.On August 11th I had a vision of a huge beast with 8 heads and 10 horns at Tottori beach I ran under it and stabbed its heart, killing it. Had to run fast so the weight of the dying beast did not crush me. These was in Kyoto a Buddhist Temple usually closed to public that was open, dedicated to Hideyoshi, Nobunaga’s lieutenant so me and my Japanese girlfriend entered. Well I figured out that I had been Napoleon, Cyrus the great, Alexander, and Juluis Caesar. I was thinking wtf/ since in 1980s I was very familiar with Japanese history but kind of rusty on Western. GHW Bush had been Geo Washington and Gen powell the Duke of Wellington. On August 15th I walked into the US Embassy and had a 2 hour chat with the Cia.
And just as “German Aggression” of WW1 and WW2 was instilled and exploited by Anglo-British powers as an anti-Russian policy, so was the “Japanese Aggression” of the Japanese-Russian war of 1905 and of WW2 also instilled and exploited by the same Anglo-British powers as part of the anti-Russian policy. Except, it seems, both powers didn’t quite stay in the assigned lane by going to war against their Anglo-British benefactors requiring the Anglo-British to temporarily ally with their main target Russia to get the Germans and Japanese back in line.
The man who had been Jesus in a previous life thought the cause would be better if I returned to the US. I said “Ho Dono” and returned to the US.
The japanese establishment has been pouring over the Book of Revelation. Since the federal reserve was formed in 1913 starting with wilson and ending with trump there have been 8 Democratic presidents and 10 Republicans. Seven mountain ranges in the USA and many rivers, so yes Washington D.C> is the Whore of Babylon. I think the bank of Japan took its executive action in 1990 to pop the Japanese Stock marker and real Estate bubble. After GHW Bush’s “New World Order” speech of september 11th 1990 I believe the Japanese decided to joun it and keep a very low profile in International affairs while the beast is killed and the USA Empire implodes. 3 times a week in 1991-92my spirit went to planet Venus and had sex with my wife, the Divine and August Amaterasu. She appeared blond haired and blue eyed. Later when i rewatched the movie Excalibur, she was doing her Lady of the Lake impersonation, so no military career for me .
I applaud this speaker’s bravery because he will never be employed at any academic institution after saying these things.
So true…
I got out of the belly of the ( american) monster four decades ago . I can’t understand how some critics of this empire can still live there.
>>>I can’t understand how some critics of this empire can still live there.
It’s usually family ties. I’m in my 70’s and dying in some other country greatly appeals; however I still have a sister and son in the USA…
«So it’s a total one-way street. The US can do whatever it wants; and we are only receivers, never the senders.»
That’s what happens when you lose very badly a total war with a much more powerful empire…
The USA built, between 1941 and 1945, 151 [one hundred and fifty one] aircraft carriers). In both 1943 and 1944 it came close to producing 100,000 fighter airplanes a year; during the war the USA sold/gave/lent 13,000 fighter airplanes to the UK and 10,000 to the USSR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_production_during_World_War_II
After that what do you do? You wait a few centuries for the much more powerful empire to fade (see Greece vs. Ottoman Empire, India. vs. English Empire, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.).
So we all have to suck it up.
“The USA can do whatever it wants and everyone else can do what they are told” – Sorry but I’m already married LOL. I don’t think I can handle 2 dictatorial control freaks in my life and my spouse has great redeeming qualities.
«I don’t think I can handle 2 dictatorial control freaks in my life and my spouse has great redeeming qualities.»
But the USA also have some redeeming qualities, at least for developed countries without natural resources (“operetta kingdoms”) like the european countries, and Japan, Singapore, Korea-south, China-TW, etc.:
* As long as the USA keep control of foreign and military policy.
* As long as USA corporates get a chunk of the internal market.
* The USA don’t bother much as to what else happens.
* The USA allow regular supplies of fuels and cereals.
* The USA accepts a significant amount of imports, especially from USA subsidiaries, also because their corporates want to export jobs abroad to keep wages and labor unions down in trhe USA.
The relationship is far more “hands on” and brutal with backwards countries with significant natural resources (“banana republics”), where the USA corporates as a rules like nasty regimes rewarded with a cut of the profits from the natural resources, and the USA largely ignore backwards countries without natural resources (“shitholes”).
So for countries like Italy or Korea-south it is mostly a reasonable trade-off, even if it is not by choice: external subordination to USA strategy and a cut to USA businesses in exchange for USA market access and some internal autonomy.
That’s why I am pro-american, as least for european countries, as long as the subordination to USA strategy is not too hard.
China-mainland wanted USA market access without subordination to USA strategy and that’s expecting too much.
This was a very good and interesting read. Thank you. I have often wondered why Germany and Japan do not have close bilateral working relationships to coordinate their agenda on international issues and promote their interests mutually. Of course, the answer is that this is seen as undesirable by the US. Both countries are high-quality performers and innovators, scammed and exploited by the US as so-called “export nations”, just another lie spread by the US to hide their parasitic $ existence in the world economy.
This is a very enlightening article. I am regularly asking myself why Germany and Japan don’t act independently from the US? The second World War has ended a long time ago. What are US troops doing in Germany and Japan? Is the spirit of those people gone? I would find it very sad to live in a world dominated by a single culture. It would be almost as if all species had disappeared from planet Earth except for just one form of Homo Americanus remaining.
Actually I like it very much to see countries like Iran, Venezuela, Chili, Cuba, China, India, Pakistan, Serbia, Hungary and Russia stand up and break away from the US/EU agenda and act independently. That is fresh air for the mind. The EU in its current form doesn’t seem attractive. The UK has broken the shackles in some way although they seem locked in an Anglo-Saxon type of subworld with Australia, Canada, NZ and the US. I hope Germany and Japan will eventually take the difficult road to freedom. That should be easier after the US dollar looses its dominance.
“I hope Germany and Japan will eventually take the difficult road to freedom.”
We all know the exact word that will be used against them when that happens: “fascism”.
And let’s not forget S. Korea. I’ve been saying for years that Japan, Germany and S. Korea are occupied terratories, not free soveriegn states. Just maybe, Russia’s SMO in Ukraine will awaken the so called free world to the fact they are not so free.
Wow! Didn’t know it was SO bad. As for Germany, look at them committing economic hara-kiri right now with the Ukrainian knife handed them by Uncle Sam. Same for France, which has a US agent in the presidency. Uncle Sam certainly knows how to corrupt and blackmail politicians.
Complete dossier on Macron and Brigitte and Jean-Michel Trogneux:
Le dossier le plus complet sur le cas Jean-Brichel Macron :
http://pressibus.org/gen/trogneux/index.html
I follow Pattberg a long time and he is one of the few who speaks the truth. The question of the rebellion in the Empire’s satrapies against the Empire core and the fight for freedom has an internal and an external component. Though the external is less complex (nuclear war – the Empire destroys what it cannot keep), the internal is most difficult and painful. As with i.e. South America the Empire has install a class of traitors and compradores in both Europe (it is not only Germany) and the PacRim (here also not only Japan). And that class, rather small and selective, has all the symbols, priviledges and benefits of compradores. And then there is a larger class of acolytes and disciples, placed throughout society, corporations, and the state who do the traitorous dirty work for mere breadcrumbs w/o even knowing what they are doing. So getting rid of them would be the first task. A task which would mean civil war and literally rivers of blood in the streets. With the European population’s median age at 44 (too lazy to look up WestPac) that is out of question. So all those who see can do is to create structures outside the official society, in Europe those that exist are in rural areas, more driven by a feeling than knowledge of what is really going on and what the nature of the EU is. And so we wait for the clan based structure of the Empire to collaps the Empire from within. Afterwards we (I won’t be alive by then) can pick up the pieces and start anew, like the German tribes did after the Huns. Same in Japan; even though Japan has the benefit of racial and cultural homogeny, something which is lost in Europe and will only be solved by more blood. That is why the Russian war now is so important. Russia is fighting for us, for our freedom, for our future, for our soul. And if I am critical at times about the Russian war effort, it is only because I understand and pray for with every fibre of my being the absolute need for Russia to succeed. Which is of course a bit strange for a German who took a long time to forget 45. So, Mr. Saker – I wonder whether you publish that.
One thing about living in the Belly of the Beast is that you can not ignore it. I know I would prefer living in Japan and have a more enjoyable life, but living here I can not avoid all the ugliness and evil of the US government
In order for the Japanese and or Germans (peoples) to want to fight back, their “good life” has to be taken away. Their standards of living have to be diminished significantly in order for them to want to shake the leash. Barring that, why should they resist/fight back? Just like the vassals of Rome, if life was okay, people won’t revolt. You gotta CAUSE or TRIGGER the pain first – Russia, China, I’m talking about you two.
you are so right. USA is the cancer of the world.
A long while back, I was an unwitting beneficiary of this system. I am not American. But I was working for a notorious American company as a project manager. My customers were all airlines.
I found myself in Manila, the Philippines. I had a great time. I was able to save my modest salary as all my expenses were paid for. I lived in a large house with 4 bedrooms in Bel Air Village II. I had two maids who cooked and cleaned all day long. When I rented the house, the representative of the Chinese/Filipino owner asked me which of the two sisters I wanted to keep. I asked him how much they cost. I worked out that it made more sense to keep both of them. They were naturally delighted. My car was washed inside and out every single day – despite my protestations. They only left the house empty on Sundays when they went to mass.
It was great to work for an American company. A company whose products are mentioned regularly on this website. :-)
Oh dear. Where to start with this article.
As an American living in Japan for almost 2 decades I have quite a few opinions about the state of affairs here, however it is probably most useful to stick to facts and let others decide for themselves how things truly are. Before doing that I think it very important to acknowledge that Mr Pattberg is dealing with life inside the ivory tower which is a system that cuts both ways. If one is to experience the tower, then I cannot think of a better place to do so then in Todai, so congratulations to him for finding himself in such an institution.
The Japanese language is very challenging on the best of days and the culture tends to err on the side of caution, vagueness, the cliche and obscurity. They are an indirect people and the language is often used in the passive tense. Japan is a disconnected society with feet in 2 separate eras. The traditional and the modern. This increases the noise level when attempting to gain some “understanding” of the situation. Its profound and unyielding which often causes foreigners to give up and leave, but for those who choose to swim in the ocean it can be a truly amazing experience. I learn something new everyday and for that I am most thankful.
Simply put the country lacks a goal. In order to remain productive as a people the culture here requires a purpose which is now missing. They had one before and built up such global leaders as Sony, Toyota and Mitsubishi, but those days are now in the rear view mirror. Instead they have immersed themselves a complex series of rules and regulations which results in the “proper” way to act, say and do in most situations. Its a maze of things to remember. A word to say when you come home, another word to say when you enter someone elses house, still another when you arrive at work or the office. Words for superiors, for those underneath us, still others for politeness and yet more for a more relaxed atmosphere. Not to mention the use of slang and regional dialects.
Japan is a country in decline. Demographics scare politicians and women here are not getting married nor are they having children. Salaries are down across the board, while the quality of living is slowly deteriorating. Yet due to their cultural and language barrier they truly live in a bubble and essentially unaware of the state of things in their country.
The majority party was founded by reformed “Nazis” and remains in power today. Some might challenge or dismiss this statement but looking into the history clearly indicates this to be true.
My opinion is that the future of Japan lies in China, not the West. I believe most people here believe that, but there is quite a lot of generational momentum in favor of the West. The Japanese resist change preferring to gradually “steer” things over decades of careful consideration. It may take 100 years but eventually this country will choose to move closer to China. While the spoken language is very different the use of Kanji does create a mutual understanding. Sadly within 100 years the Chinese will have little need for Japanese professionals so by waiting I believe Japan is unfortunately slowing killing itself. yet the Chinese a wise and prosperous people so perhaps they will find a way to make the union a binding one.
I want to thank the Saker for hosting the site and sharing these kinds of stories with us.
I lived in Japan back during their cocky period of the 80s.
One Japanese businessman I met in the Osaka area took me out to dinner at an obscenely overpriced sushi restaurant. He wanted to show off his English and his great understanding of world politics and economics.
He gave me a copy of a speech he had given at some sort of big international business congress in Singapore. The gist of the speech was that although the allies had indeed won WW2 militarily, the Japanese had continued the battle in the world of business and had eventually triumphed as masters of the world.
Of course this was prior to the collapse of the Japanese bubble.
It’s just an example of the kind of delusional mindset that inevitably accompanies economic success (whether real or imagined). Similar to the stock brokers who thought that Wall Street would never crash.
“If you don’t fight back, you’re worthless.”
That looks like a typical Alternativ fuer Deutschland, AfD, Party motto.
The problem is, no concept whatsoever what the problem is, nor the tools to give voters to really fight – never mind rioting.
This Party was founded by Lucky Luke , Prof. Lucke, no kidding – that was his nickname, since dumped.
This economics professor is extreme Austrian School of the London School of Economics” Prof. Hayek, absolutely adored in the US.
Germany already had National Socialism, and that policy can only be described as National Monetarism.
So when one proposes a direct intervention to actually split the banks with Glass-Steagall as FDR did in 1934, the London School of Economics has conniptions, and all their entourage. Just check which EU notables graduated at the LSE. The free-market of banking speculation with the invisible hand, in you wallet pocket of course, is untouchable!
Many disenfranchised mainstream parties gravitate to this with numerous complaints, but no direction. So we get to today, a collapsing financial system, and a war drive – just do not mention the collapse!
(German-British whisper when visitors arrived – Do not mention the War).
American social influence stems from their military might, and their military might now comes mainly from petro dollar and dollar-as-reserve currency (there was a time when America was a manufacturing giant, but now gone). So, when their economic might collapses, their military might will also collapse, and they will go home and work for their living.
Both America and Soviet Union captured many countries during the WWII, and held them; but while Soviet Union freed its East European vassals in 1989, and even Soviet vassals in 1991, America is still occupying Germany, Japan and Italy. Now, who is the occupier?
I recommend the book “Blowback” by Chalmers Johnson.
I read it when it was popular just after 9-11. I expected it to be for the obvious reason of dark ops overseas blowing back on the sender. But no, Chalmers Johnson is an economist, from the conservative university of Stanford. And his specialty was in Asia, so the book was much more post-Hiroshima economics in Japan and USA. It was a very interesting book, and not only did I enjoy it but I bought his later books.
It was the first to open my eyes to the notion that the following statement is true …. Japan is to the USA, as East Gernany was to the USSR.
I was growing up in the age when the Great Yellow Peril used to frighten Americans was not China, but Japan. The Japanese were growing and were a threat. And then they were not. After reading Mr. Johnson’s book, I decided that Uncle Sam had pulled the leash on Japan in the 1980’s, and stopped their economic growth. Mainly by withdrawing favorable treatments that had been granted to post-Hiroshima Japan to aid its growth.
Its been a long while since I read his books. So, I may very likely have some key bits wrong …. but his books did make quite an impression on me after I’d grown up in an era of neither the first nor last “Yellow Peril” in the Land of the Free.
I read 3 or Chalmers Johnson’s four post-1990 books and they provide the basis for understanding the world today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalmers_Johnson I need to read his last one, Dismantling The Empire which Wikipedia says is required reading at the CIA. Jim Moor, you will like Princes Of The Yen because it will likely strengthen and extend your knowledge.
Actually, the book Dismantling The Empire was a disappointment. Chalmers Johnson was very competent at understanding history, but it seems politics is harder. He did not climb out of the hole that centrist thinks digs, and did not get any original or useful insights. Very sorry to say this.
Pasha and Cosimo
I agree with you. I lived in Japan for four years, in two different ventures, many years ago, and to the best of my ability and time immersed myself in the culture, which I loved.
I did not learn as much as Dr. Pattberg, but I did learn enough to know that several of the assertions he makes here are simply nonsense. I won’t go into detailed refutations, but will simply suggest that readers view his writing with very skeptical eyes.
Very interesting article. In terms of social status it’s really no different here in New Zealand. Except shamefully we we are part of the empire, or at least most of the people and the government want to be.
I’ve worked in governance and academia most of my career, for years I’ve watched Americans and Brits hired over New Zealanders for no other reason than their nationality. We always get told they were by far the best candidates, yet they are always a flop with the locals having to fix or live with the messes they make. I’ve come to the conclusion that American and British qualifications really aren’t worth the paper they written on.
Dr. Pattburg, thank you for your article. I have so much I wanted to say it took me all night to try to organize my thoughts. First off, what a fascinating insight into Japan’s university libraries! I knew their stacks were closed, with staff retrieving requested materials, and from my own experience at the national library at the Diet, it hampers research not to be able to pick out books and leaf through them; but catacombs! Okay I can see why they are closed. If those were constructed prior to WWII, they would have helped save a lot of valuable old documents from the firebombing.
You are right, too, that Japan has been forced into dependency on food imports. That was covert, whereas military dependency was overt and accepted for clear reasons. A lot of people try to raise the issue but are ignored. The rationalization is that Japan will specialize in technology as part of the global system, and the true believers in technological advancement, including transhumanism, have the upper hand in Japan as they seem to in other western countries (Japan has considered itself “Western” since the Meiji era, a case of “if you can’t beat them, join them), with Big Tech companies a law unto themselves now. Farming is so dull a topic people just dismiss it with a wave of the hand and “oh they’ll think of something,” the same way energy issues are dismissed.
Those of us who have attempted to become farmers in Japan can see first-hand how agriculture is in fact being suppressed. Japan has one agricultural cooperative that engages in monopolistic pricing, “company store” contracts and predatory lending. Farmers in Japan have been forced to disown their children so that their debts don’t transfer down to them upon their death. Anyone outside the coop system raising crops may find their crops stolen. In at least one case the thieves were associated with the coop, which would provide a handy fence for perishable loot.
In our case, we picked up some skills first by working an abandoned field (find the owner and get permission, but they are not allowed to charge you for it or their taxes go way up retroactively), then we went for qualification, which meant working a fair-sized area, cobbled together from several owners, for three years and documenting it all. At the end of that we were told we had gained the qualification but given nothing in writing. We were told we could buy farmland, but no one would sell to us. Two years ago when we moved to a different prefecture, we asked if we could have the qualification transfered, and they said they’d never given us the qualification. They found some petty excuse, but never told us until it came time for us to try to exercise our rights.
What happens is as farmland is abandoned with no heirs or none that can be located to deal with an onerous burden, the cooperative gains title to the lands, and is motivated to change the designation and sell it at a profit for industrial or other purposes. So it is a huge predatory racket.
We are still working land, but just enough for our own purposes. The only hope I see in this for Japan going forward is that there are still a lot of people hanging onto their fields, doing the bare minimum legally, which is to cut the weeds once a year. It is easy for anyone wanting to work land to find something nearby if they leave the cities and telecommute for paying work, and learn valuable skills while increasing the value of the soil they are working, thus encouraging more people to hang onto their land. Lots of retirees are doing this, so there is a body of knowledge that may help buffer a very rough time ahead for Japan.
I have one question. It has seemed to me for a while that what gets passed around on Japanese SNS is tightly controlled at some point. After the 2014 Maidan coup, I had one student, a retired fireman who had long had lots of time for social media, and when I brought up the Nazi elements involved in the coup, the next week he came back and told that had been “proven” to be disinformation. He never gave me any specific links. He always said, “Everybody is saying this” about whatever talk was going around. I have never had time to see what is actually going on in Japan’s SNS. I know at least some Japanese using SNS think Putin is part of the WEF, and it also seems to me that tales of Russian atrocities in Ukraine appeared first on the SNS and then were picked up by the MSM. Do you have any insights about what is going on there?
I will disagree with you on one point. Prior to COVID, ubiquitous face masks were a sign of pollen allergies or asthma driven by air pollution, or simply a cold. The first time I saw someone outside a hospital with a face mask was in 1983 in Ann Arbor, Michigan on a Japanese friend, who in response to my gasp of concern mumbled “I have a cold.” In a scrapbook I have a comic dating back to 1989, where a bride and groom are both wearing face masks at their wedding. Throughout Asia, face masks seem to have been accepted quite well for a long time.
However, constantly seeing them on TV or everywhere we go, does begin to wear on me. It is a statement that we are in the midst of a dread pandemic, one in which I actually know someone whose daughter had been exposed and had to isolate but was fine, meanwhile I know quite a large number who died of something or other else in complete isolation. You are right that it is a hoax–not in the sense that it is not a dangerous disease and easily communicable–but in the sense that it has been grossly abused for political purposes, including here in Japan, where I have been unable to meet with victims with electromagnetic illness to organize resistance to 5G or refuges away from it. A large group of us met with governmental officials in Tokyo in January 2020, but since them have been unable to do any follow up.
You are really worship Satan Klaus Schwab and the New World Order. https://odysee.com/@corbettreport:0/davis-newworldorder:9.
Multipolar World Order with Iain Davis
https://odysee.com/@UnlimitedHangout:a/Ep-32–Iain-Davis:0
NATO has nothing to do with the Atlantic ocean.
It really stands for the North American Take Over.
And it’s coming soon to a theater near you.
anglosaxons are unable to understand western philosophy, they are limited to plato. the sinthesis about hegel and leibnitz is shameful, and put out the british-usa role in the ww2. it’s a kind of anglo saxon propaganda indeed, that pictures the germans as the only guilties, a thing that remembers a lot our days…
3 years?!
The Japanese already wore masks before the pandemic.
And Jewish genes injections?! After reading that, the article was already kind of ruined for me as it implies certain things about the author.
Yes, we all know the US is given way too much attention. We know the country is the biggest parasite and killer on the planet. Time to do something about it. Like, much of the world getting together and developing a parallel civilization, replacing English with Mandarin as the language of science, business etc., severely limiting the exposure to Western TV, Radio, movies and music, replacing institutions with alternative ones (which is already happening thanks to China, BRICS etc.), no longer using the dollar and euro (without those currencies as a weapon, the West starts to crumble), focusing on native history and culture at school, etc.
The Philippines are another example of a country that has been culturally eradicated, more so than Japan. They are like a lost country…
In addition to the American disease, Japan also suffers from bad demographics, which is their own fault, though.
I wish Japan would stop its petty differences with China and instead team up with it.
There is far more than meets the eye in Japan. Far more.
They would tilt East at a second’s opportunity.
No, Sponge
Japan might eventually tilt East perhaps.
But NOTHING happens at a second’s opportunity in Japan.
Or anywhere in Asia for that matter.
If rapid change seems to occur, it’s only because it was hidden and we couldn’t see it before.
But it was there.
Decisions are made at high levels and groundwork is laid in secret.
Change is not allowed to start anywhere but at the top.
But the top is not the government. Nor even the occupying forces.
> If you want to become a professor here, at Todai, you have to have studied in the USA.
Sorry, this is nonsense. There are many Japanese and Asian scholars at Todai who have no degrees from a U.S. university. The author also misrepresents the research mission of IASA.
Feel free to check and decide for yourself: https://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index.html
What a grest article. My wife is Asian and when she came to America her fine accountingbefuxation couldn’t get recognized as ststus quo until she took free courses paid for by the Obama’ regime. Now it all makes sense.
These observations are hardly new or novel. Having myself studied postwar Japanese political economics at UC Berkeley and Waseda University in the 1970s as an American scholar, it was even more vividly obvious at that time that “scholarship” in Japanese universities was almost entirely dependent upon US sponsors, grants and post-doctoral fellowships in the US. The important question is, why is this so? The reason, plain and simple, is that Japan (and Germany) both waged classic imperial wars under their respective fascist states, and both lost. Definitively lost. As a result, its “victor’s rules”. The tragedy is that neither Japan nor Germany could figure out a way to successfully govern and manage neither their own countries nor their colonies, which led directly to the advancement of communist leaders in Stalin and Mao, and to the destruction not only of the ersatz German and Japanese empires, but of the entire world order. In short, the abject failure of Japan and Germany led directly to the strengthening of communism worldwide. Conversely, if Japan and Germany had been capable of governing their colonies in some way, those colonies, especially Eastern Europe and China could have eventually become self-ruling countries like the former colonies of Britain. So I personally have little sympathy for the arguments advanced by this scholar, as unfortunate as they are with respect to the conduct of legitimate research. The bottom line is, don’t lose an imperial war! When you do lose, then expect to be subjugated economically, intellectually, politically, morally, and physically.
“Japan is more dependent than ever, and under American total domination – especially under the global financiers, the dollar system, the sanctions, the extreme propaganda -; it is very difficult to establish bilateral relations with other states….”
Thank you for your insightful article.
A few months ago, we read a book by Edward S. Miller, “Bankrupting The Enemy” how “the US financial siege of Japan before Pearl Harbor.” The author details how FDR’s government started putting “the screws” against Japan, especially as WWII starting ramping up.
The Japanese economist/govt. tried several ways to keep from being swallowed up by the US in terms of trade & $$ exchange. But one-by-one the US govt. destroyed Japan’s economy and its outreach to other nations, until Japan was financially bankrupt…so to speak.
A once thriving economy that slowly emerged, was basically destroyed by the US.
Anyone interested in the subject should read this book.
down with CIA-MOSSAD-MI6 babilonian imperialism !
I lived in Japan back during their cocky period of the 80s.
One Japanese businessman I met in the Osaka area took me out to dinner at an obscenely overpriced sushi restaurant. He wanted to show off his English and his great understanding of world politics and economics.
He gave me a copy of a speech he had given at some sort of big international business congress in Singapore. The gist of the speech was that although the allies had indeed won WW2 militarily, the Japanese had continued the battle in the world of business and had eventually triumphed as masters of the world.
Of course this was prior to the collapse of the Japanese bubble.
It’s just an example of the kind of delusional mindset that inevitably accompanies economic success (whether real or imagined). Similar to the stock brokers who thought that Wall Street would never crash.
Thorsten Pattberg’s grand over-arching cultural criticism sits uneasily with elementary mistakes over language. The sacred mountain is not “Mount Fujiyama”: “yama” means “hill” or “mountain”, so Fujiyama should be translated as “Mount Fuji”. In fact Japanese add the routine honorific “san” to the name and refer to “Fuji-san”
A real howler is the reference to “Emperor Tenno”. “Tenno” follows the reign-name of the Japanese emperor, so Hirohito is politely referred to as Showa Tenno. A historically important case (the Biwa incident) established that “Tenno” only applied to the Japanese emperor. After their night in the Gijon, the pleasure quarter of Kyoto, Prince Michael of Greece and Tsarevich Nikolai (later Tsar Nikolai II) were riding in a rickshaw when they were attacked by a disaffected policeman wielding a samurai sword. They were injured but not killed, largely due to the rickshaw-puller’s skill and bravery. Japanese law at the time prescribed death for attacks on the Tenno or his heir, and the government of the time wanted the attacker executed, arguing that the word “Tenno” applied to all emperors. The judge held his ground, and the situation was resolved by a telegram from St Petersburg asking for clemency for the attacker.
“Gaijin” can be the word for “foreigner, outsider” but in other contexts is the equivalent of the British “wog”.
The reluctance of Germans to engage with Japanese culture may partly be due to their difficulty with the sounds of the spoken language. I spent some sabbatical months in Kyoto and noticed the trouble “Chujoshima” presented, the ch, j, and sh being pronounced as in English. Like other Turanian languages, Japanese places the stress on the first syllable of a word (rather than the second, as in the Germanic languages) and has double vowels and double consonants – the two k’s in Hokkaido have a slight pause between them.