＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Addition on 3/19/2022> Ukrainian President Zelensky’s call for support by using the “attack on Pearl Harbor” as an example in the U.S. Congress on 3/16 is completely misguided and a misrecognition of history.
President Zelensky asked members of the U.S. Congress to “remember that the United States was attacked from the air and innocent civilians were killed,” citing the World War II attacks on Pearl Harbor and the simultaneous terrorist attacks in which the United States was attacked.
Some protested on the Internet, saying, “As a Japanese, I am displeased and very disappointed that the attack on Pearl Harbor was mentioned alongside 9/11,” “I doubt the insight of Japanese politicians to allow him to address the Japanese Congress,” and “The attack on Pearl Harbor did not target civilians, so it is inappropriate to talk about it as being similar to 9/11. It is natural that some people protested on the Internet.
In addition to the substantive ultimatum “Hull Note,” the U.S. knew through code breaking that there would be an “attack on Pearl Harbor,” and it was an attack on a military base, not a civilian target.
The U.S. claim that they were “cheated by Japan” was “propaganda” (“fake” as it is often called today) to inflame anti-Japanese sentiment among Americans.
I believe that the Japanese government should clearly protest against President Zelensky’s erroneous historical perceptions before his March 23 speech to the Diet in Japan.
It is important to look back at past history in order to understand recent developments by China in the Pacific Ocean and the East and South China Seas that are “stepping stones before military action.
In this issue, I would like to consider the causes of the Pacific War, the truth about the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the declaration of war.
１．Causes of the Pacific War
The Pacific War is generally understood as “a war of aggression in which Japan, a latecomer to the Western imperialist powers, became militarized and advanced into the Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, to secure resources after the Manchurian Incident and the Japan-China Incident, which were followed by economic sanctions, including an oil embargo.
However, this is the “self-flagellation” view of history” instilled in Japan by GHQ with the “logic of the victor. Even now, the mass media continues to brainwash the public with its “self-flagellation” view of history, refusing to face the truth of history.
The Meiji Era’s policy of “wealth, power, and military might” rapidly brought Japan up to par with the Western powers. After the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, Japan became one of the “Eight Great Powers” (Austro-Hungarian Empire, British Empire, Russian Empire, German Empire, Kingdom of Italy, French Republic, United States of America, and Empire of Japan).
And after World War I, as a victorious country, it became one of the world’s five major military powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Italy).
However, the United States replaced the exhausted European nations and became the world’s largest creditor nation, surpassing the United Kingdom. In the international order system in the East Asia-Pacific region (Washington System) established at the “Washington Conference” (1921-1922) after World War I, the U.S. and the Western powers sought to thoroughly weaken the military power of the rising Japan by putting up a joint front.
The Four-Party Treaty dissolved the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and the Nine-Party Treaty forced Japan to return to China its interests in Shandong Province, which it had taken from Germany. The U.S. then launched a strategy to thoroughly hunt down and isolate Japan through an oil embargo.
In order to secure its interests in China, Japan rebelled against the “Washington System” and withdrew from the League of Nations, leading to an all-out war with the U.S. and Britain. Japan may have fallen into the “Thucydides Trap.
The term “Thucydides’ trap” was coined by American political scientist Graham Allison (1940- ) in reference to the ancient Athenian historian Thucydides (c. 460 BC – 395 BC).
＜「トゥキディデスの罠」＞
＜トゥキディデス＞
Thucydides refers to the structural tensions and long-standing war (the Peloponnesian War) between Sparta and Athens some 2,400 years ago. The term refers to “the phenomenon of a clash between a traditional hegemonic state and an emerging state to the point where war is inevitable.
The current U.S.-China confrontation, too, between the U.S., a conventional hegemonic power, and China, which is rapidly becoming a hegemonic power, could be said to be exactly in this “Thucydides’ Trap” situation.
２．Attack on Pearl Harbor and Declaration of War
By the way, it is often said that “the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii” by the Japanese military on December 8, 1941 took place before the declaration of war, but what was the truth?
Initially, the Japanese government intended to abide by the Hague Convention, which was concluded at an international conference held at the Hague in the Netherlands and ratified by Japan in 1912. The treaty stipulates that “clear prior notice is required for the commencement of war.
It is said that the delay in this notification was due to “incompetence by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
In 1994, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a report stating that the delay in notifying the United States of the declaration of war was due to “negligence of duties by staff at the Japanese Embassy.”
Specifically, it seems that the Japanese Embassy in Washington at that time was extremely lax in its recognition of the international situation. Counselor Sadao Iguchi, who was in charge of operations, had urged embassy staff to return home on the evening of the 6th, the day before, instead of taking emergency measures to have everyone stand by. On the other hand, he had invited several embassy staff members to a Chinese restaurant where they enjoyed drinking and eating until late at night. As a result, the ultimatum was delayed.
As a result, the “start of war without a declaration of war” worsened Japan’s image. Japan gave the U.S. material to advertise as a “deceitful Japan” and a “sneaky Japan.
In fact, on November 26, 1941, the U.S. handed Japanese Ambassador Nomura an “ultimatum” called the “Hull Note,” which contained unreasonable demands.
This was “akin to a declaration of war” and could be called “a substantive declaration of war. It was a “substantive declaration of war,” and it was intended to provoke Japan to make the “first attack.
However, the U.S. immediately deciphered the secret telegrams of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the coded telegrams notifying the start of the war against the U.S., and the attack on Pearl Harbor was detected in advance. The U.S. had left the battleship Arizona and other vessels anchored at Pearl Harbor and U.S. soldiers to be attacked, and the U.S. justified its participation in the war by raising the war spirits of the U.S. public and promoting anti-Japanese propaganda.
It was a decision made by then President Franklin Roosevelt. The president wanted to help Britain, which was then at war with Germany, but the majority of the public was of the opinion that they did not want to get involved in a European war (Monroeism).
However, the attack on Pearl Harbor was the catalyst that changed American public opinion and led to the U.S. entry into World War II. It was a very cowardly move by President Roosevelt.
American Academy Award-winning director Frank Capra (1897-1991) produced the “Why We Fight” series (1942-1945).
These were war-mongering propaganda films hostile to Japan.
In this sense, North Korea’s violent confrontation with the U.S., repeated missile launches and nuclear tests, and its near outburst resembles the situation on the eve of the Pacific War in Japan.
International political scientist Itsuki Fujii stated that in a May 1946 meeting between U.S. President Hoover and GHQ Supreme Commander MacArthur, “They agreed that the Pacific War was not started by Japan, but by the American ‘madman, President Roosevelt’ who started the war between Japan and the United States.
Hamilton Fish, an American soldier and politician, expressed a similar view in his book “Roosevelt’s Responsibility for Starting the War: The Man the President Fears Most”. I have written an article about this before.