On Tue, 4 Jul 2000, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> I don't think Tim's making a claim that "we acted differently in
> Germany, and they boomed just fine." The US policy in Europe
> regarding Reds was the same as its policy in Japan; also, just as few
> militarists were executed or purged permanently from public life in
> Japan, few National Socialists suffered in West Germany after the war.
And the resulting democracy was just as lively? So you agree then with Brad, that the repression of 1947 had no lasting ill effects for Japanese political culture? West German democracy was about as lively as Western democracy ever got.
These aren't rhetorical questions, I'm asking honestly. I thought Tim was saying Japanese democracy was relatively stunted as a result. And I thought Japan was a de facto one party state for the first 40 post war years. But my knowledge of the details of the Japanese case is minimal.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com