DeLong, Character assassination? 'A stooge looking for a Stalin'? You remember that? TS
DeLong writes: 'The regime and society that grew out of MacArthur's proconsulship is the closest thing to Utopia that exists in Asia.'
This is a stunning statement. From who's point of view? Thousands upon thousands of Japanese citizens demonstrated in the streets in 1960 and 1969 against the US-Japanese security treaty, the Vietnam War and their government's alliance with the US (the 1960 treaty was passed only when the government forcibly kept out the opposition parties from the Diet by the way). On the industrial front, ever hear of Minamata disease? The destruction of the Japan Sea and then large swaths of Indonesian forests by marauding Japanese corporations? The alliance between construction companies and the ruling party that in 1998 paved over the last free-flowing river on the island of Honshu? The use of gangsters, even today, against environmental protests, leftist demonstrations, corporate stockholders meetings? Utopia? Maybe for a white man sitting in Berkeley with several years of Treasury Department experience under his belt. But not to rank & file Japanese. TS
Brad DeLong writes: Do you actually believe the attempts at character assassination you are undertaking?