FascistLibertarian

Action that the Canadian military and RCMP said was not needed?

Japan was our enemy. There is a difference. agreed. But you have to show that locking up the Japanese was needed to protect the people, and you have failed to do this.

Hey, I do not mean this to be insulting at all. I am agnostic, people who think they have the answer or truth scare me. I have hindu, muslim, jewish, and christian (among others) friends; I am respectful around them but I cant understand why they would believe. It seems like superstition to me. My question is, what rational reason do you have to believe in religion? Why do you believe? I will not ask for proof, as this is stupid..... But I have never seen any reason why I should believe in anything (which is why im agnostic). To be frank, it does not make any sense to me why people would not be agnostic.

Yeah, huntergatherers who predate religion didnt have marriage..... every society in the world did not have marriage...... So your assertion is that before the jews invented god about 3,000 years ago or whatever people were not marrying? Thats just foolish, before the Jews wrote down this stuff people were marrying. Read some ethnographic stuff about hunter-gathers, they invented marriage, the farmers and herders just adopted it for their society (which is why controling womens reproduction became so important). The ONLY way you could work this is by saying man created god and man told god to say we should restrict what women can do so we can pass on our $ to our male sons, but we still get to mess around because we have the power. Anyone who thinks god created marrige, do some research into hunter-gatherers.....

This devine thing has gotten way out of hand. My origional point was before 1867 most Japanese did not give a rats ass who the emperor was or what he said. Anyone who thinks the internment was not linked to racism needs to have their head examined. Germans are white people, like the people in charge of the govt. The Japanese are Asians.

I cant understand how more than 50% of people here can say it was an inside job. Wow. Thats really sad.

121 1846 to 1867 Emperor Kōmei Osahito Modern Japan 122 1867 to 1912 Emperor Meiji Mutsuhito 123 1912 to 1926 Emperor Taishō Yoshihito 124 1926 to 1989 Emperor Shōwa Hirohito Notice how no ones heard of Osahito. You should do a little more research and look at what happened to the emperor after that. Japan was never a static entity, Japanese history did not being in 1854 or 1868 and a state had existed at least since 660 CE so it is difficult to say when the modern period starts. By 1800 Japan had “reached advanced premodern development in comparison with other societies that were to become latecomers” (Black: 348). It is important to remember that Japan could be considered superior to the West at many times in its history in numerous ways before it was pulled into the developing world system. The UK’s defeat of China in the first Opium Wars (1839-42) their annexation of Burma (1885) and US’s annexation of Hawaii (1893) were watched by the Japanese with a mixture of interest and fear. A small elite in Japan believed they would have to modernize their country or it would be colonized by one western power or another. In 1875 a Japanese intellectual, Fukuzawa Yukichi, wrote that “in Japan there is a government but no nation” (Doak: 286). This paper will examine the importance of the emperor, the state, and invented tradition in the top down modernization of Japan specifically focusing on efforts to promote national consciousness. The reorganizing of the Japanese state, in order to first resist and later compete with the West during the 19th century, was directly linked to reinventing the role and status of the imperial system. The success of this modernization was completely compatible with the new emphasis on ancient legitimate power and rituals concerning the emperor. This was a crucial factor in the successful modernization of the country (Webster: 825). An early example of this in the historical record was the revival of the Shinto faith in late eighteenth century for political reasons with political and religious results, the most important of which was turning the Japanese population against the ruling Tokugawa dynasty (Dickins: 217). This reorganization reached its peak during the Meiji restoration and was legitimized by Japan’s first modern Constitution, but was a continual process without clearly defined boundaries. The personal power of the emperor varied throughout Japanese history depending on the period (Yamaguchi: 11). During some periods it is doubtful whether the emperor’s power even extended to all of his palace if even beyond this (Dickins: 231). Although all of the emperors powers fluctuated his military and political powers did so more than his religious power (Yamaguchi: 6). Originally the Japanese emperor had very different powers and responsibilities than he would come to occupy during Japans period of rapid modernization. The role of the emperor has always been that of a supreme priest who mediated between mortals and deities (Yamaguchi: 6). Before Meiji he was not considered a deity himself but rather a mortal who had extraordinary abilities. It is important to recognise that cultural meanings change over time in important ways. The emperor was originally considered a “shaman-cum-political leader whose ability to ensure a bountiful crop of rice was crucial for his political legitimacy”, this power was eroded over time (Ohnuki-Tierny: 199). The Imperial system reached its height in 8th century CE and declined after until the 1868 revolution. During two later periods in Japanese history, Medieval (1185-1603) and Tokugawa (1603-1868), imperial rituals were usually cancelled or preformed on a smaller scale due to political/economic reasons. (Ohnuki-Tierny: 204). During periods when Emperor was unimportant politically he did have some religious power although Japanese leaders were able to rule easily. After the Imperial system declined the Japanese state continued to function adequately. The Shoguns often punished emperors who displeased them without any negative repercussions (Ohnuki-Tierny: 210). Shoguns had ‘hard’ secular power, they were weary of attempting to gain ‘soft’ religious power and when they gained such power it was proved impossible to pass on to the their descendents (ibid). The forced opening of Japan, by a United States Naval armada under Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853, caused the country to be thrust into the world system. Although Japan’s isolation for the previous two centuries was more of a myth than reality after 1853 there was no choice but to interact with Western powers as the country was to weak to resist gunboat diplomacy. A small educated Japanese elite believed that the state must modernize or be colonized. They were aware of contemporary events in Asia and Africa as well as the history of Western colonialism in the Americas. Instead of submitting Europes divide and conquer paradigm they created their own pick and choose paradigm. By 1872 the Japanese government employed 214 foreign experts (Fisher: 352). Emperor Kōmei, who was born in 1831 and ruled from 1846 to 1867, did not interact with foreigners and knew very little about them. There is a definite progression towards more contact with foreigners and greater integration of the Japanese monarchy into world affairs. Over time the emperor gained important diplomatic power, Japanese emperors made visits abroad while European heads of state paid respectful visits to Japan. An attempt was made on the life of Czar Nicholas in the 1890’s on a state visit to Japan by a delusional policeman who believed proper respect was not being paid to the Emperor. In 1921, following the Great War, Crown Prince Hirohito travelled to Britain where he paid respects to and observed King George V, at a time when the British Monarchy still had serious political and nationalist power. He also visited European Battlefields with military experts while studying Western military history. After the death of Emperor Kōmei the Meiji emperor ascended the throne in 1868. This started a process of centralization, which there was violent opposition to, and is considered the start of the Meiji restoration. The cult of the Japanese emperor drew elements from the past, recently or ancient, which were inserted into the system during the Meiji years to suit current needs (Gluck: 39). For the creation of a centralized government and the elimination of previously semi-autonomous domains to be successful it was vital that the Japanese population transfer their loyalties from the local (the old domains) to the national (the new state) (Doak: 286). This lead directly to the Greater Japan Imperial Constitution of 1889 (also know as the Meiji Constitution) which was created specifically to centralized the state under the command of the emperor. In the 1870’s and 1880’s People’s Rights activists agitated for a progressive liberal or libertarian constitution (Ienaga: 242). Their efforts were a failure and the Meiji Constitution, which was conservative and authoritarian, was imposed from above (Ienaga: 21). The Meiji state copied and used Western constitutional theory (Doak: 297). The Japanese had studied the various Western constitutional systems. The most important parts of the Meiji Constitution were Chapter 1 Articles 3 and 11. Article 3 stated that the emperor was sacred and could not be intruded on (Ohnuki-Tierny: 204). He was defined as either a Manifest Deity or a Visible Deity (ibid).# There are similarities here, in the divine absolutist sense, to the Russian Czarist system as well as the Judeo-Christian God. Previously the Emperor had earlier not been considered a deity but rather as being able to communicate with deities, however with the Meiji restoration the emperor was lifted to the level of a god. Article 11 gave the emperor military power as commander in chief of the newly formed Japanese Imperial Navy and Army, this soon led to the emperor Meiji appearing in military uniform with numerous decorations (Ohnuki-Tierny: 205). There are superficial links which can be drawn to fascism, however this process is better linked to nationalism as the ultimate goal was to unite the population and make them feel a sense of patriotism and of being Japanese. Lastly, and arguably most importantly, the Japanese people were defined as subjects of the Emperor, with the era being defined based on which Emperor was ruling. This state of affairs existed until January 1, 1946 when the emperor made an announcement stating that he was human and not a deity. In the new American imposed Constitution of Japan (1946) there was a clear separation between church and state and the emperors official powers were mostly eliminated. If you are really intrested, and have access to JStor The Dual Structure of Japanese Emperorship Masao Yamaguchi Current Anthropology, Vol. 28, No. 4, Supplement: An Anthropological Profile of Japan. (Aug. - Oct., 1987), pp. S5-S11. The Making of an Emperor (in Narrative) Thomas Crump Anthropology Today, Vol. 7, No. 2. (Apr., 1991), pp. 14-15. The Origins of the Japanese State F. Victor Dickins The English Historical Review, Vol. 14, No. 54. (Apr., 1899), pp. 209-234. What Is a Nation and Who Belongs? National Narratives and the Ethnic Imagination in Twentieth-Century Japan Kevin M. Doak The American Historical Review, Vol. 102, No. 2. (Apr., 1997), pp. 283-309. Originally Shamans were human with the power to communicate with deities and get favours for humans. Discrete categories did not exist so much as a spectrum (Ohnuki-Tierny: 206). Many Japanese knew even during these periods the Emperors were humans, in the past there were many folktales emphasising the humanness of the emperor (Ohnuki-Tierny: 209). The dichotomies of magic/religion and primitive/modern do not work in this situation. “The emperor ... has been like an empty vessel, whose content can be assigned and reassigned meaning by historical actors” (Ohnuki-Tierny: 211).

The role of the Japanese monarchy has varied greatly over time and space. While it has beena round for a logn period it was not untilt he 1800's that the push came to bring it back. The idea of the monarch as 'divine' has more to do with centralizing the country and controling the population than any ancient tradition. The problem is we in Canada/US/UK knew this, yet assumed the Japanese were to stupid to figure it out.

Hetrosexuality is just as much an anomaly. As is monogamy. Why dont these people attack those things? Oh wait its because thats what they are and what they believe. And they are so stupid that they think that what feels natural for them is natural for everyone. Wow, I would laugh if these fools were not such a danger. Anyone that thinks there is anyhting wrong with homosexuality is in need of some education.

Really? The Japanese monarch was considered divine 1500 years ago? Wow thats news to me. I guess all the books and articles I have read have been wrong. Could you please cite your source, if you dotn have one I am sure you could make a lot of money by advancing this new theory.

Hey all Just wondering what your thoughts are on nuclear power. I personally can not understand how some people can be against it AND for reducing greenhouse gases. It seems to me these people want it both ways. If Canada wants to reduce greenhouse gases then nuclear is THE best chance we currently have.

The RCMP and the Canadian Military stated that the Japanese were not a threat. Germany let spies off in Canada on at least 2 occasions, and they were sinking our ships in the St. Larwence. You draw your own conclusions. The Japanses monarchy as a devine monarchy was a recent cultural construction. Sure some Japanese were loyal to Japan, some may have been planning to act, but to consider everyone guilty isnt Canadian. A few hicks in BC made a stink with the help of a few politicans got the ball rolling. King went along because he thought the BC politicians had their ears to the ground. Yes it was wrong and it was also not needed. I speak as someone who had a relative in Hong Kong who was subject to the worst possibly conditions for 4 years, I dont think what we did to the Japanese was right and I dont think the issue of how they treated Canadians is at all related. It was not done on the grounds of military stratigic nessecity (which I think you could argue would justify the deportation of the Acadians for example) and therefore should not have happened.

Could someone please explain what we would use as a fair baseline to figure out how much carbon Canada is going to produce? Until we answer that question this whole 'carbon tax' question is pointless because it is secondary. I see no reason to use 1991 baseline levels or 2004 baseline levels, they are arbitrarty and our current and future situation is complex. Although it is still better than carbon trading (which makes 0 sense).