I’m not saying that things were hunky-dory by any stretch, but looking at the horror stories from most of the world, Japan seems tonhave been considerably less fucked over. Why?

  • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    I have never seen anybody call Japan – as in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu – a former colony. Ainu Mosir and Ruuchuu are areas which are continually being colonized by Japan and the United States, but Japan itself is better described as a vassal of the United States.

    As I understand it (I could be wrong), the reason why basically boils down to that Japan itself was a fascistic genocidal empire, and so as their empire crumbled, they could be groomed into a useful bulwark against the USSR and Japan’s own recently-liberated colonies, using the same methods of treat-giving that also worked in Europe.

    The colonizer mindset itself remains alive and well in Japan.