[lbo-talk] The Japanese Left Can Use Nationalism (was Japanese Right Wing Intimidation)

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Sun Aug 27 19:40:19 PDT 2006


On 8/27/06, Jean-Christophe Helary <fusion at mx6.tiki.ne.jp> wrote:
>
> On 28 août 06, at 08:59, joanna wrote:
>
> > Why does Japan need nationalism?
>
> I wish I knew, epecially since there seems to be plenty of it here
> already.

IMHO, what the Japanese Right have is only contempt for the Chinese, Koreans, and other Asians who used to be Japan's colonial subjects:

<blockquote>On Aug. 12, Yoshihisa Komori -- a Washington-based editorialist for the ultra-conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper -- attacked an article by Masaru Tamamoto, the editor of Commentary, an online journal run by the Japan Institute of International Affairs. The article expressed concern about the emergence of Japan's strident new "hawkish nationalism," exemplified by anti-China fear-mongering and official visits to a shrine honoring Japan's war dead. Komori branded the piece "anti-Japanese," and assailed the mainstream author as an "extreme leftist intellectual."

(Steven Clemons, "The Rise of Japan's Thought Police," 27 August 2006, B02, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082501176.html></blockquote>

That's merely racism. If the Japanese Right were really nationalists, they would seek to develop foreign policy independent of Washington's, but they don't.

Neither do the Japanese Left. Japan's (electoral) Left can be protectionist when it comes to protecting the domestic market from competition from China and elsewhere. But they aren't really nationalist either. They, too, lack foreign policy independent of Washington's, independent foreign policy that would serve Japanese workers, farmers, small business owners who mainly depend on the domestic market, etc., rather than Washington and Japan's ruling class. The reason why the Japanese Left can't develop such independent policy is that their knee-jerk pacifism and anti-militarism makes them virtually incapable of effectively challenging the security framework provided by Washington.

In my view, the Japanese Left had better drop knee-jerk pacifism and anti-militarism, come up with an integrated foreign and domestic policy that serves Japan's masses, make new military, political, and economic alliances with China and Russia, and bid farewell to Washington's nuclear umbrella. Such a new nationalism would serve the Left better, make better friends with Japan's neighbors, and help bring about a new multi-polar world order. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list