From: dickhoff@NERO.WUSTL.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong
Subject: Who was 'tricked'?(Re: An Open Letter to...)
Date: 20 Aug 92 16:48:25 GMT


In article <92Aug20.101620edt.135@orasis.vis.toronto.edu> liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu) writes:
[Deleted for brevity]
>>Did Japan know that China was on the same side as US and its allies 50 years  
>>ago? 
>>Carl
>The US was not at China's side in 1931, nor 1935, nor 1937, nor 1938.
>and Japan knew that very very well.  It's invasion of China, and Nazi's
>invovlment in Spanish Civil War were all done in the silent consent
>of officially "neutral" position of the US, Britian, and France.  
>Uncle Sam was selling oil and metal to Japan for its tanks and planes,
>and making a lot of money.  Only until 1940 things start to change. 
>The British was almost on Japan's side in the beginning.  The rest of
>the country stayed neutral by not shipping china any weapon, but selling
>the materials to Japan so that its war machine continue to run.  
[Deleted for brevity]

Well said.  It seems today many Chinese don't know what was real attitude
of West towards the invasion of China by Japanese before Pearl Harbour. 
Look, even today some West people are so indifferent towards Japanese's 
atrocity to Chinese people in WWII, what makes some of Chinese folks think 
U.S. as well as other Western nations were on the Chinese side before Pearl
Harbor?

Lao Mao once "thanked" some Japanese for the revival of CCP by the Japanese
invasion in China.  Stupid Mao "thanked" the wrong persons.  If he really
wanted to "thank" somebody, he should "thank" Hitler.  It was Hitler who 
screwed up the whole Western world just to the right point that Nazi
German itself was also screwed up.  It is not that bad for all opressed
nations.

Without Hitler, many nations would still be colonies even today.  Without
Hitler, the world would not be like today.  Without Hitler, Lao Mao would
spend the rest of his life in caves in YanAn. I admit these words are not
political correct; but that is what I honestly feel.

Today some Japanese say they were "tricked" into WWII.  In fact, they don't
say they were "tricked" into Sino-Japan war; they only say Japan was "tricked"
into Pacific War.  These words reflects a popular sentiments in today's
Japanese people that had Japanese stayed out of WWII, just like Spanish
fascist dictator Franco, they could have well kept at least Taiwan, Korean
and Manchuria under their control.  Are you folks, Chinese and Korean, aware
of this?

And besides, at first glance, the word "tricked" seems to make some sense.
For a rational person, it is irrational to think that a small country like
Japan would ever attack a mighty giant country like U.S..

Wrong!  Ambitious Japanese imperialists were not rational; they were gamblers.
At the end of 1941, Nazi German's troop had advanced to the suburban of Moscow. 
It seemed to Japanese imperialists that Russia was on the verge of collapse.
Had Russia been finished, there was no doubt that the next target of Hitler
would have been U.S.  With the whole European continent under control, many
people tended to believe that Nazi German could beat U.S., presumbly U.S.
had not had A-bomb.  

Unlike "coward" Mussolini, who stabed France on the back only after Nazi 
German entered Paris, "brave" Japanese sneak attacked Pearl Harbour just
before the time at which Japanese imperialists thought that Hitler was
going to take care of U.S.  So at the final victorious day of Axis countries
conquerring the world, Japanese imperialists could "proudly" say they
had contributed as much as Nazi German had in this "glorious" cause
of conquerring the world.

Fortunately to the people loving freedom, Russia didn't collapse; and
the trend of the war turned against Axis.  Japanese imperialists
found they lost the gamble. And they lost all they had conquered since
later last century and this is very good to the people in other East
Asia nations.

Today some Japanese try to cover this real essence of Japanese motivation 
of sneak attacking Pearl Harbour.  They whine that Japanese was "tricked"
into Pacific War?  Who will buy this?

_________________

T.T.Wu