From: wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re:  HOW JAPANESE CARTEL DESTROYED U.S. ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY(PBS-TV)
Date: 15 Apr 1992 14:18:26 -0500
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Over and over we read and hear how the Japanese have trade barriers that
prevented US industry from competing inside Japan as freely as Japanese
companies compete within the US. But the origin of these barriers is never
addressed.

I say that the fact these barriers exist is our own fault.  We in the US
had complete and utter control over Japan in 1945 and the early postwar
years.  We occupied the country and controlled it completely.  We managed the
rebuilding of their government and the writing of their constitution and
could have dictated any terms we desired.  We arranged for them to build in
anti-military provisions (understandable in the post-WWII mood but which
then left us responsible for paying for and providing for their defense
during the Cold War) but we foolishly and stupidly failed to build in
simple constitutional and cultural provisions to prevent Japan from EVER
erecting any formal or informal barriers or impediments or restrictions to
the import of any and all US goods. 

I wonder why identifying the persons responsible for this crucial failure
is so studiously avoided?  Could it be that people now in power feel they
owe a debt to their predecessors who so completely and utterly failed to
foresee the world we now live in, where Japan is a great industrial force? 
Just *who* was in charge and played the critical roles and let this mess
develop? I think the real guilty parties were people at a level lower
than Truman and MacArthur; they were just figureheads.

I recall reading about the debate over Japan's reconstruction, but only
in general terms. There were a wide range of views expressed at the time.
Some people wanted to integrate Japan under the umbrella of the US, going
so far as to suggest that Japan become a US state. Even if we hadn't
gone that far, wouldn't we be better off today if Japan had been made 
a US territory like Puerto Rico? Or, if extending national sovereignty
so far would have been unacceptably imperialist, at least the Japanese
constitution could have been worded so as to make the US and Japan
totally-free-trade partners, with no customs or duties or barriers in
either direction. Again, if that had happened, wouldn't we be better
off today? So, why wasn't it done? Who dropped the ball in 1945/6/7?
What were their motivations? What did they expect that their actions at
the time would produce, and why did they believe that?

To the academics out there: this seems to be an excellent topic for a
thesis, and an eventual book. Has someone already written it? I'd like to
read it if it exists. If it doesn't, it needs to be written _now_,
before any more of the parties involved at the time die off and their
unwritten knowledge dies with them. Unfortunately, it's probably too
late to get all the needed facts to identify just *who* screwed up and
gave us this mess we've been forced to live in, but I sure would like to
see that they and their descendants get the same opprobrium that Benedict
Arnold got -- they've done a lot more damage, after all...

Bitterly, Will
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.privacy