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a historian of the japanese reconstruction spoke to my history seminar this fall. he was contacted by some neo-con think tank to talk about how "easy" it would be to reconstruct a country like iraq. he told them (and us) these few little facts.
1. post-war japan was devastated in a way that iraq, even w/ sanctions, never came close to. after the carpet bombing (the conventional munitions and the firebombing even more than the nukes) the average civilian was so damn tired of even thinking about war that resistance ceased. starvation was the only alternative to accepting american rule. does this sound like contemporary iraq?
2. no japanese person was ever charged with harming an american soldier. there are no recorded major incidents of americans being harmed by japanese nationals during reconstruction. does this sound like contemporary iraq?
3. other stuff i forget.
ustwo...i'd like to hear how you think this is an apt comparison. do you think that this history of reconstructing iraq is similar to that of japan? if so, how do you compensate for the serious differences in the situations?
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-John 3:16
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