🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Mar7.045031.13940@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> apple!rins.ryukoku.ac.jp!will writes:
<I received the following by email, with a request to post it. I find the
<anti-Japanese sentiments expressed here personally deeply offensive, and
<the world view warped beyond all contact with reality. I just despise
<censorship even more than the attitudes expressed here, and feel the
<author has the right to answer my public posting in a public forum.

That you have concluded that the article is "anti-Japanese", and that
you are thus moved to be "deeply offended" may be a commentary on the
real problem the author describes.

Also, it would appear that the author has a considerable advantage on
anyone who has neither worked nor lived for a period in Japan.  His
resulting views should be listened to with greater care, if only because
that view has been shaped by direct experience, not distant idealization.

<the world view warped beyond all contact with reality. I just despise

Unless you have personally lived for some period in a non-Western society,
it is, by definition, *your* world view that is certain to be "warped".
Your certainty about what you "despise" would suggest that you've never
had that experience - at all.

It is interesting that of those Westerners who *have* lived and worked in
Japan, a very large number of them come away struck by the sense that there
are some very serious threats posed by Japanese trade and industrial policy,
and that these threats do *not* originate solely from the ability of the
Japanese to do the job better. The facts they cite about how the Japanese
operate will be cold comfort to those who refuse to believe that they are
endangered. These concerns have been expressed even by news correspondents
who live and report out of Japan.

To cite a recent example, there was a program presented on C-SPAN showing
an interview with American reporters who have lived and worked in Japan
for periods of time ranging from 1.5-18 years.  Brian Lamb, at the end of
the interview, asked what each of the reporters was most struck by when
they returned to the U.S. to visit.

The first reporter to respond said "I am struck by how little awareness
there is by Americans of just what they are up against - that the threat
from Japan is getting almost no meaningful response from Americans, who
tend to discount how great that threat really is.  They simply don't
understand, and continue to live in blissful ignorance.", or words to that
effect.  (C-SPAN furnishes transcripts, if anyone would like to go check
this out, since I do *not* claim to remember the precise phrasing).

When polled, *all* of the other (4?) reporters agreed that this was also
what most struck them upon re-visiting the U.S.

You may want to consider that if you believe that someone is trying to
do you in, and they really *are*, then that belief rests not in paranoia,
ethnocentrism, racism, or a need to "bash".

If someone is trying to do you in, and you refuse to accept that this
is even a possibility, then Darwin will once again be proven right.

I lived in Japan when I was quite young, and found the Japanese people
to be some of the most intelligent, kind, and graceful I've ever been
privileged to know.  Their traditional cultural values impress me to
this day, and I respect them greatly.  If anyone ever had ample cause to
idealize that people, then certainly it is I.

But I also recognize that among those values is stoic perseverence and
dedication to a long-term goal. The Japanese take the long view, unlike
Americans, and fully recognize that winning the *important* battles
determines the outcome of the long-term campaign. And "winning" is a
big deal, whatever their current Constitution may say.

Before becoming "deeply offended", one might do well to gather a few
confirmable facts, which facts may disturb comfortable - and dangerous -
assumptions about a dedicated adversary who demonstrates mastery of the
tools of hegimony.

Patrick Moynihan: "We are each entitled to our own opinion, but *no one*
is entitled to his own *facts*."
____________
bud@mtek.com
"The aggressor is a man of peace. He wants nothing more than to march into
           a neighboring country unresisted." - Clausewitz