Among other things such as the us expansion into the pacific and the oil embargo. But holy shit, love learning about history not taught in schools, very eye opening.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I had no clue about this. Japan's role in WWII that I learned in school was basically one day Japan rolled out of bed and decided to join the axis and do some imperialism.

    • Pezevenk [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Yes, that is actually very much what they did, only they didn't "start" then, they were already doing it before for decades because they were a literal empire. I swear, if people start defending imperial Japan from a woke perspective I'm gonna lose it.

      • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I'm not defending them, at all, merely commenting that my USA education always painted us the good guy and our actions existing in a vacuum.

        • Pezevenk [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          There was no more context in regards to this particular subject that somehow makes it different. Yes, true, it didn't come out of nowhere because they were already an imperialist country. Perhaps if a large number of things had gone different they wouldn't have sided with the Nazis, and they'd still be around oppressing Chinese, Koreans etc in the areas they already held. Maybe they'd have gotten a few more places too.

          • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            And I agree, Japan has arguably been an imperialist country for centuries dating back to like their warring states period and whatnot.

    • SerLava [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      I learned in school that Japan had no choice but to attack us, because they needed our oil or else they wouldn't be able to do war anymore.

      This was in like 2004, for context

      Uh

      So anyway, they could have just stopped committing genocide actually, but nobody cares about that because the victims were Chinese

      Giving them oil would have been aiding yet another genocide, basically its own war crime, might as well manufacture Zyklon B

      Japan definitely only did imperialism because of the West, but it doesn't absolve them of much of anything - a soladaristic fight against imperial domination would have looked quiiiiiite a bit different.

    • Nikoli [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      Me too. Love how we skipped the history, just like we skipped the history leading to 9-11.

  • ElGosso [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    This wasn't Japan trying to do the right thing - I mean they were literally hiring Americans to set up the same kind of schools to assimilate the Ainu that they had run for Native Americans at the exact same time - it was them trying to score points on the diplomatic stage to integrate themselves with the more powerful West.

    Do you really think a country that was actually serious about racial equality would join a war on the side of the Nazis 20 years later? Come on

  • dinklesplein [any, he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    imperial japan leant on 'asian brotherhood' a shittonne to try and gain support from the same people they were massacring and raping

    issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding war criminal nobusuke kishi. you do not, under any circumstances, 'gotta hand it to them'

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Every time you learn something new about US foreign policy it makes you hate the evil empire more than you did before.

    :amerikkka: