I love your channel and content, but I think it's funny that you always say AMERICA instead of US when you're talking about democracies and imperialism. I guess some roots run too deep.
And before someone says something, even according to the UN, America is a continent. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_geoscheme It just feels weird the way you use these terms when you're talking about these subjects. It simply doesn't fit. It feels like I'm watching a documentary on CNN or Fox News. Anyway, doesn't matter...
The world of the 1940s (and by extension the early 1950s) was comprehensively shaped by international conflict. Growing pains during the period of re-construction (late 1950-60s) were inevitable and equally widely felt.
Comparing this to the videos of how machines and human systems learn, we can see there's a tradeoff but we could overcome it with "good memory". Stationary algorithms aren't smart, and we'll die as a species if we steadfastly stay at the gates of this golden age instead of coming right through on an age of love for all life and truth. We could learn!
23:15 This segment about unavoidable tradeoffs reminded me of a quote from a famous Japanese sci-fi series: "A good autocracy might be better than even a good democracy, but a bad democracy is far better than a bad autocracy." -Yang Wen-li, from 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes' by Yoshiki Tanaka.
Haven't read the novels, but I've rewatched the OVA several times. Love it. Though I think some people give it more credit than it deserves for presenting autocracy vs democracy on an even playing field, when I think the story quite clearly argues that democracy is preferable. The lasting through-line, the underlying critique of democracy is always primarily that it can decline into autocracy, like with the first emperor Goldenbaum. Meaning, the bad thing with democracy is that it can turn into autocracy, which isn't really a criticism of democracy itself. Also, when portraying Reinhard as a good autocrat, he is done so by adopting democratic ideals, if not the democratic political structure. He seemingly listens to the needs of the people and adopt progressive legislation (such as less censorship and more free speech), and he defers to expert ministers in matter he himself isn't an expert rather than imposing his leadership. The good thing with autocracy, LOGH argues, is that it can kinda be like a democracy if the leader is good. All of this isn't necessarily my views or my arguments on the matter, but it's just what I perceive are the viewpoints and arguments that LOGH presents (but I think they are eloquent - especially for a space opera). I enjoyed this video overall, but I think he dropped the ball at the end, presenting a stability vs wide horizons causality that I honestly think lacks real world applicability - he even gave an example with Russia contradicting it and I would add China to that list seeing its drastic economic changes in the latest decades. Though politics nowadays seem tumultuous in many western democracies (and they are), in general it seems that democracies are historically speaking more stable than autocracies IMO, and autocracies are just by their nature more susceptible to sudden change given that fewer individuals need to change their minds (or be changed outright) to change society. And in real life, those changes in autocratic countries are seldom of the kind Reinhard espouses...
As a Japanese, I felt the explanation is too simplifized and dualistic. People who are called "Protests" or "New Japan" in this video were actually instigated and organized by radical communists who want to start a revolution with violence. Most rebel unions ironically mimiced old Japanese army organization system to use their force, so they also had "Old Japan" aspect. All of them didn't follow western "Democracy and Freedom" ideology at least. Moreover, many Japanese had been suffered from consciousness of guilty about WWⅡ especially post-war era. Then some of them were absorbed in "Anti Japan" ideology and did devastating terolisim although they were also Japanese. You can simply understand it "Confused age", but I'd like to share more complicated background.
Every foreigner wants to fabricate Japanese history and culture 😂. The whole entire country of Japan and its people is like a fan-fiction for foreigners, especially westerners. Its almost like a fetish at this point.
My grandparents grew up in the 60s in Japan. And I never understood why they were so… solemn and felt very isolated. The more I look into the historical development of post-war Japan, the more I realize what my family had to endure up until this point. Edit: Okay, y'all, calm the fuck down lmao. My family in Japan were and are native to Okinawa, it was a heavily rural and militarized location used by both Imperial Japan and the United States. Before and during the early parts of the American occupation, they were farmers. Despite my Japanese ancestry, I was born in America and consider myself American. American troops landing in Okinawa saved my family from starving in tunnels underneath their family well, my grandmother's kimono is preserved in the local Himeyuri Peace Museum, a shrine there dedicated to the young students who suffered mistreatment and depravity from being conscripted into a war they had no hand in. My grandmother was six during the invasion and was around her twenties during the time period of the video. My great-grandfather died in the defense of Okinawa, I did not know him, I don't know why he fought, I cannot say what he believed or didn't. I in no way endorse the Sino-Japanese War, the occupation of Korea, and the use of women as objects for male 'comfort'. It was a horrible time, orchestrated by horrible men, yet unfortunately carried out by people like you and me. I get the sentiments but y'all starting to sound like Curtis LeMay down there, lmfao.
I hope you use better sources than this for your information, unless this as complex as you can handle otherwise as we used to say go for it. Ever think about just asking them? They should still be knocking about, unless they were screwed by poor genes.
@@james-faulkner it's possible he can't because they ARE still alive, but some people just don't talk about hard times, trying to keep it in the past. - the soldier who saw and did heinous things in war, and now says war is hell and tells his kids and grandkids to never enlist, but refuses to go into details, hoping if he keeps it in the past, it will haunt him slightly less often. - the japanese citizen who was rendered homeless and did desperate things to survive the aftermath of the A-bombs or the firebombings that destroyed their home - the holocaust survivor with a number on their arm that won't talk about the concentration camp, but wakes up screaming in a mix of yiddish and german at night, because they dreamt it was still 1942. (this one's personal. my great aunt survived the camps, but the things they did to her broke her completely and she never really left that camp mentally, it haunted her like it was yesterday, right up until the day we had to put her in the ground. she never spoke about it by choice, the only things we knew about her time in the camp was what we could make out of her incohent screaming when she would wake up in the middle of the night. and i'm glad that's all we know. i know just enough yiddish and german to get the jist of the horrors she relived in her midnight panic attacks, and i don't want to know any more than that.) - the man who was lost at sea and had to resort to cannibalism to survive, and never talks about it, but hoards food in his attic for the rest of his life as a result of his trauma. some people wear their scars out in the open, some people bury them deep...either for their own sake, or for yours. going from being a "warrior empire" to being bombed into the stone age and then dealing with the political, social, and economic strains of the next 20 years while being essentially completely rebuilt under the guidance of your former enemy, sounds to me like something some people might choose to leave in the past 'where it belongs'. this period from 1945 to 1960 is also the height of certain unpleasant leftovers from the war, like the way surviving kamikaze pilots were treated, often considered cowards and traitors because they were supposed to die to protect japan, and now japan is burning and they return home in one piece, sometimes even their own families treated them like ghosts and just pretended they weren't even there. if your father or uncle was a surviving kamikaze and for decades your family acted like he was already dead and told you to ignore him, and your last memory of him is him laying alone on his deathbed and none of your family seemed to even care, that might be something you want to leave in the past. some people handle their traumas by just bottling it up.
@@kingace6186actually, the CIA ended up being VERY successful. They actually funneled cash into LDP election campaigns for years, guaranteeing their political dominance.
Only because he was politically useful. Unfortunately, most Japanese war criminals got off scott free or were pardoned after the war, like the entirety of Unit 731.
The thumbnail drew me in, the details and knowledge kept me interested, and seeing you cite your sources out after I finished watching was the cherry on top.
This was so interesting! I always thought Japan was a perfect democracy after WW2 and then started an economic miracle. But what really happened is wild.
Japan has been a one party state since 1955. Albeit that same one party government are the ones who Industrialized and built Japan into a powerhouse, it struggles to even be called a democracy.
@@miladmoradi9987 😂 oh yeah, that so chief? Ask the villagers in inner China/Russia, who live on $5 a week and no toilets whether they’d trade their life for that “one state” country which leads in nearly every important metric, but military.
It was the other way around, less supports came first, then when the assassination happened, people suddenly feel less restraint to speak about it as the event had brought out the most hateful people.
The US allowed war criminals to stay in power to the point many of them are still revered today. Ironically, this is why Japan still believes they are the victim in WWII.
It's also all the weebs saying Japan is a victim for only surrendering after Nagasaki instead of blaming Japan for prolonging the total war it started which plenty of its people supported.
The usa does not care about crime or Justice just power and money. Look no further than our politicians.You wanna look at World War 2?We hired most of the scientists and weapons creators and human Experimenters, look through our own history. Theres also the Tuskegee man. The CIA's heart attack gone the f. B. I killing Martin Luther king. Mk ultra. Fast and furious operation the list is endless
then lets discuss the role the uk played in establishing the cia in america so that they could forever remain in covert control of it and use it to rebuild the british empire
This video was kind of an over simplification that feels really biased. How the parties were described was weird, breaking them into red and blue or good and bad, even though their values and positions were different from the contemporary understanding of these parties. The meaning of 'democrat' especially changes a lot depending on context.
I’ve always wanted to see a video in the post war Japan. Like the student revolutions, the assasinations, and just… SO MANY REVOLUTION ATTEMPTS it’s such an overlooked but interesting aspect of Japan
This is a great video about 1960, but a rather limited view of Japan's recent political history because although it is true that 1960 was a decisive year, protest and revolutionary ideas continued throughout the decade, climaxing in 1968, like most other similar movements around the world. There's also the fact that the fascist tendencies of Japan weren't extinguished after the war, hell in 1970 Yukio Mishima attempted a rather miserable failed coup, and apologia for the attrocities committed by Imperial Japan continues to this day. Political assassination, infamously, has happened as recently as the Shinzo Abe's murder in 2022, so yeah, it is rather reductive to say that after 1960 Japan chose stability and that was that.
_'climaxing in 1968'_ I think later than that. It was the torture and murder of 14 United Red Army members by their comrades, culminating in the Asama-Sanso incident in 1972 viewed by 90% of the public on TV, that shifted public perception, especially amongst their same-age peers. Thereafter criminal activities were perpetrated mostly overseas by a variety of leftwing militant groups such as the Red Army and the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front.
_'climaxing in 1968'_ I think later than that. It was the deaths of 14 United Red Army members at their comrades' hands, culminating in the Asama-Sanso incident in 1972 viewed by 90% of the public on TV, that shifted public perception, especially amongst their same-age peers. Thereafter criminal activities were perpetrated mostly overseas by a variety of leftwing militant groups such as the Red Army and the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front.
@@gagamba9198 you're completely right, radical political action went on into the 1970's. I referenced 1968 thinking just in terms of mass political action, thanks for complementing the info. @hayaokakizaki4463 I don't think that disqualifies the incident as political in nature, the perpetrator felt personal annimosity towards Abe beucase of what the Church of Unification did to his mom, but also said that he allowed the church too much influence in government.
Great video on how Japanese politics got to how it is today. Boring, technocratic, and probably the true embodiment of what an End of History truly looks likes. My grandma was a university student during the Anpo protests as a right-winger, but many of her friends dropped out of university and devoted themselves to left-wing politics. One of them got pregnant and then become disillusioned with politics altogether. My grandfather who was quite conservative until his death did vote against the LDP once out of complete disgust for them, he would only do this again in the 90s. Also, at the time it seemed like the socialist parties were the party of small businesses as he was a factory owner while the LDP was the party conglomerates. And in the late 60s and 70s, there was a wave of left-wing student protests which were incredibly violent. My mother's tutor from UTokyo got sent to prison for throwing a molotov at a police officer. Also during this time one of the most notorious terrorist groups in the world came from Japan. And the political infighting within the Japanese left was so bad that I think it was not until the early 2000s when there wasn't at least one person who was injured or killed from sectarianism. And I am sure a lot of people here visited Narita airport which probably represents some of the best things about Japan, but it was the battleground of a years long battle between an unusual alliance of farmers who did not want to give up their land and leftists against Japanese riot police and construction workers which got incredibly violent. There is quiet a few footage you can find of the "Sanrizuka" movement on TH-cam that shows just how crazy things got. But if anyone is interested in literature from the 1960s, check out the short stories "Seventeen" and "Death of Political Youth" by Oe Kenzaburo. It is based off of the guy who murdered Inejiro Asanuma. Some of the most intense literature I have ever read.
Oh man, the battles over Narita were absolutely insane, that would be another wonderful topic for someone to make a video on. Japan's left is interesting in that to a large degree it suffered from the anti-communist needs of the United States enforcing crack downs (Though the LDP was obviously more than happy to comply...) but also the in-fighting that you mentioned really never allowed the left to crystalize behind a single candidate. It was always individual issues and the protests were always popular but could never really transition into actual electoral success. Though actually I guess "leftist infighting" isn't a rare thing...
In what way is Japanese politics technocratic? Everything I've seen suggested that elderly (the majority) Japanese policy makers lag far behind in adopting the use of technology. In 2019 the nation's cyber minister admitted to having never used a computer. The proliferation of using paper versus digital storage is something you come to notice right away when you need to do anything regarding official documents. In some local governments, floppy discs are still being used.
@@clockhandedtechnocratic does not mean they will be tech savvy. It just means authority is given to "professionals" and "experts", doesn't matter if they are actually one.
Being able to explain very complex things in such a concise and simple way while also sneaking in a Warhammer reference has got to be a new intellectual milestone.
You're kidding right? Here are the facts. To the author I wrote: You started strong: good research, analysis, and commentary. But then you quickly slid into the pit of Right Wing bias when you described the events of the late 1940's and early fifties as violent demonstrations perpetrated by the Left. Even though you had already indicated, which was true, that the VAST majority of Japanese people wanted to keep the Constitution as is, and equally did not want any excuse for Japan's Nationalists to retool the country for re-expansion and war. And what violence was instigated in those early protests were false flag machinations conducted by the foot soldiers of the LDP (then and now) the YAKUZA. Because along with all those politicians released from jail in the late forties, over 20,000 Yakuza were released as well. The US State Department had decided that whatever befell the Japanese people at the hands of these ruthless thugs (who were the main instigators of both exapansion into Korea in the early part of the twentieth century and China in the thirties) it was 'worth' it to keep China contained. Finshing with your conclusion of violence/horizons/freedom/stability wrapped up in such broad and simplistic terms was ridiculous and further proves the Right Wing bias of this presentation. Lastly, the assassin in 1960 was paid for by the Yakuza. And those criminal enablers and fixers for the LDP still roam quiet Japanese streets to this day in their deliberatly menacing black vans blasting out their threats and propaganda all in cahoots with, not their LDP masters, but their LDP stooges. With everything from Labor racketeering, the 90's economic crisis, and even the Fukushima disaster, all down to the way the Yakuza puppet masters have manipulated the poor Japanese people since the late 1940's. The USA was complicit in all the corruption by continuing to tolerate and support this evil via their own crime gang known as the CIA since the first war criminal and the first Yakuza were released from prison in the late 1940's. Your failure to acknowledge any of the above renders this video useless on any level.
Crazy how people never took a glance on how Cold War affect Japan. Hell, even this one topped how chaotic Asia with the Cold War mania all around, even on the Blue Turfm
Oh I don’t think current Japan would be able to do anything this courageous like this generation in the 60’s did, but we’re also decently governed right now so 🤷♂️ hopefully our politicians remember the past enough to keep corruption and personal ambition to a minimum
It's not that they're incapable, it's that they are undermotivated. The goverment simply adopts the talking points of serious demonstrations, like Ikeda did in 1960; it also happened with the environmentalist demonstrations of the 70s, and suddenly Japan became obsessed with clean air and water.
thats from an exoticization lens, where people who arent western are seen as fundamentally different and incapable of doing thinks like "normal" westerners
Crazy fact: Isoroku Yamamoto, the Naval Admiral who orchestrated the Pearl Harbor Attacks, and who was in charge of the entire Japanese Navy for the majority of WWII... Was a student at Harvard University in Massachusetts, USA. before the war...
Really not that crazy. The only people who could go to university in Japan during those times were the society’s higher ups that came from wealthy families.
No more compliments to be made mate. Fucking stunning production you talented fuck! Amazing quality! Informational! Good sources! Cohesive! I've been subscribed to you since the beginning of your channel, and I absolutely love how you treat your channel and videos. Top tier content and well researched.
@@WhatDemocracy Mate they didn't state that. Japanese had been invading countries all around East Asia before the Pearl Harbor attacks even happened. And they killed A LOT of people.
Important sidenote about Ikeda: The GDP of Japan would have doubled even without Ikeda's policies. Ikeda, as an economist himself, had befriended nearly all of the macroeconomists--who were the only ones capable of predicting GDP growth--in Japan. Therefore most Japanese citizens had no way of knowing that Japan's GDP = Japanese citizens' average profit would increase due to the economy growth rate post-war. Ikeda was hailed as a genius, but in reality he just made a promise that citizens thought would be impossible, and won the election. Edit: This video was fantastic. It is kind of sad that although what Kishi tried to do in changing the treaty was in fact beneficial for Japan's safety, the fact that Kishi was doing it was enough to cause a mass protest.
Look, it's fine if you're a communist or socialist. Just say "I am a communist/socialist and I would like to impose communism/socialism on Japan and other countries". The framing of this video is plainly biased, but not in a pro or anti-America sense. On the one hand, the author is very openly praising America's imposition, _on pain of nuclear annihilation_ , an essentially socialist government and constitution, even going so far as to cite a notorious passage written by a 22 year old Jewish woman, who shortly after only narrowly escaped charges of communist subversion by US military intelligence (seriously, look it up). The author also praises the destruction of Japan's wartime government, it's leaders, and its institutions. And then a moment later it's lamented as a terrible, dark turn of fate for Japan when the US allows them to re-build on the condition that they be more anti-communist. The message is obvious to those who are paying attention: "it's good when America makes other countries socialist or communist. It's bad when the opposite is true."
It is also very generalistic and focuses a lot on specific events in a short period of time , lacking proper context and wide-viewed sight. One single or two single events might not be representative of the period in time those events ocurred. Also broad context helps understand the bigger.picture.
Wow! Thank you creating this great video!! I've heard these names mentioned from time to time throughout my life but never payed attention to what they stood for. Now I know. Very educating and very interesting. Once again, thank you!
As a companion, similar analysis but for Canadian democracy, specifically the Charlottetown and Meech accord event, Quebec separatism and how powerful is the Canadian Prime Minister.
I loved this. Idk why but I shed a tear when Ikeda decided to give his rival a eulogy instead of taking the advantage and pressing his party's agenda. That's what we need more these days. We have to be more compassionate and respectful of one another regardless of political beliefs. Japan is probably the most peaceful country in the world, certainly in Asia. But it also isnt a pushover in dealing with other countries. Its something we can all learn from.
Spectacles, Nexpo, fern, lemmino and Imperial are creating pieces of art for us to watch for free. The level of content is unrivalled by standard tv from those 5 and many more. A collab of those 5 would be an insaneeeeee series/video
Hoog helped the channel in the early days in a big way. Imperial is a friend. Would love to get acquainted with the others. Any collab would be great fun. Honored to be compared to them :)
@@spectacles-dm how could I forget Hoog! Truly you are a master at your choice of creation. Don’t know how it would be done but people like you should be given the funds to produce docuseries on Netflix/Amazon
It still baffles me, how Muricans will consider dropping those two nukes on civillians as something "Japan did". The refusal to take responsibility and admit that it was an atrocity in itself is astounding everytime I run into that sentiment.
It was a one time decision by a very new President relying on advisors who all wanted it tested. And USSR invasion of Japan would have been a bloodbath, but USA expected a million dead. If there was no other way to force a surrender and avoid a continued land war devastating China and Korea...
@@mallarielove Most of the times this is discussed with an American, they'll without hesitation say something like "the Japanese were monsters, _they t0rtur3d prisoners and k1lled babies_ !!!" ...like the nukes somehow only k1lled adults and like dy1ng from radiation poisoning isn't one of the most horrible ways to d1e. The hypocrisy on this subject is inconcievable.
Very well-research. I learn a lot from this. My only criticism with this video is a flaw in its conclusion, 23:30. That is not the Left-Right political spectrum (the X-axis) of a political compass. That is the Up-Down political spectrum (the Y axis) to measure civil order. The Up half represents authority based politics, and the Down half represents individual based politics. The examples this video used were two political extremes: Authoritarianism ("far-up" lol) and Libertarianism ("far-down" lol). It's important not to confuse the two axes. Because the Left-Right spectrum is meant to measure priority: egalitarian values vs hierarchical values. The Japanese LDP under Kishi was authoritarian AND militaristic. The JSP under Asanuma was constitutionalist AND revolutionary socialists. Two complex extremes. So it is not possible to accurately lump them in basic spectrum. You have to use a political compass. +The LDP under Ikeda was transformed to constitutional liberalism, a moderate solution. At least, that's how I gauge it.
I was bugged by this too. It felt like details were being left out and patted the back of liberal democracy too much. I enjoyed most of the vid, but a little more nuance could've been implemented at the end
Love the channel. AnyDesk is really good btw. I moved on to my own hosted environment (zero-trust), but if you dont want to build your own RDP (or like) server, their protocol is solid and service works very very well.
this channel makes me so happy being a history student and a graphic design and storytelling enthousiast. really makes you want to pursue youtube as a carreer path (bad idea)
Well edited, informative video. This format is consumable for people over 25 and the graphics appealing enough to keep the youth engaged long enough to sneak information into their brains before their attention wanders. Teachers, even professors, should use thisbin their classrooms
I believe that the attention, drawn to this protest movement by it humiliating Eisenhower, of the US media made the Anpo/Kishi protests a KEY model for US protests on civil rights and then Vietnam, during the next decade. The corporate media being largely pro-Democrat, they had covered Ike's embarrassment, and therefore made people aware of the movement overall.
Great video. The fact that you framed the matter in terms of trade-offs is refreshing. Perhaps its the economist in me, but I find that government policy is not really about solutions, but trade-offs, despite what many politians and idealists presume.
This is the kind of political history I would never learn about if it wasn't for you guys. Love this channel. Can't wait to give a snobby lecture about Japanese politics to my friends in a bar.
Hopefully you never run into anyone who knows what their talking about. As a regular traveler to asia with family their, this is all slanted to a liberal socialist western view based on very recent modern politics. It also takes 0 account of the hypersonic differences between western Anglo pro distant liberal sensibilities and tolerances vs cino confucianism atheism and homogeneity. His ending is by far the biggest give away his head is up his ass. As Asians will always pick safety over freedom. As it’s a cultural and societal Theme. Unlike Americans they are not rabid individualists. They are conformists by nature. The time when freedom and opportunity outrage safety will never come. Otherwise Yukio Mishima wouldn’t be dead. Oh, I guess he forgot that part of the 1960-70’s of japanes politics😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 This is the skibidi toilet equivalent of cino poli-sci. Go watch a Japanese person chsnnle before you try and impresses people bruh.
The idea that Japan is a democratic society really starts falling to pieces when you look into figures like Kodama Yoshio and among LDP founders like Kishi. Democracy is more than putting a piece of paper in a box.
I mean, the so called “democracy” in post war Japan was forced upon by the US. If the general population in Japan doesn’t embrace democratic cultural norms in their daily lives, its an incomplete democracy as a society. It explains why majority of Japanese people(especially the younger generations) don’t go voting during elections.
Fantastic and beautifully made video. It’s fascinating to see other versions of Japan, especially for me seeing as I live here. They certainly went for stability, narrowing individual horizons somewhat, but having an unprecedentedly peaceful society.
0:30 Why punish? When you can rebuild so they owe a debt. It is better to have you enemies owe you something in return so that carrot is always dangling in front of them but always out of reach.
"So the Us occupied japan out of the kindness of their heart, and can you believe that the japanese people was angry against the army of the country that just killed millions of innocent civilians? How savage! And they were about to become evil socialists too! Unbelievable. Luckily the US successfully imposed their government on them, and this was a good thing and not at all a barbaric injustice!" This video basically.
I was born in January 1960 Japan, and raised there during the ʻ60s, and though just a child I still vividly remember the violent protests and riots. When my fatherʻs civil service US Army job was transferred to Hawaiʻi I was sad knowing Iʻd be away from family, but also a tad relieved Iʻd be away from the craziness. I especially remember the protests when the government confiscated farmlands to build the brand new Narita Airport. Crazy times. I returned to Japan for the very first time in October of 2023, and it was a wonderful place to be, so peaceful, and friendly. I was very surprised at how much Japanese (my first language) I had retained, and recalled. Iʻm an old man now, but would like to return one more time. I am even considering retiring there. Just gotta convince my wife.
Born into Japan from an occupying foreign force that subjugated the people they had just dropped two nukes upon as a show of heinous imperial force never to be forgotten, to the point where children will go forward and act like those foreign people had been in control of them for their entire existence and always will. The devil's act is to disappear.
Fascinating mini-documentary, only interrupted by the claimed diametric opposition between "low stability" and "autocracy" at the end ... which was immediately shown to be untrue in relation to modern Russia. Still, it suggested a useful framework for understanding Japanese political history.
Exactly, the documentary overall was great. But presenting "on the left" war and chaos with opportunity, and on the right "stability" which is "amazing when everything is good" but limits opportunity seemed dishonest because it was presented like a blanked statement. It really doesn't fit the standards of the rest of the documentary.
I somehow knew very little about postwar Japan- it was rarely if ever discussed and certainly not in history classes. Even as a history nerd I knew little. Thanks for this. This was one of the most interesting TH-cam videos I have seen in some time. I am subscribing. :)
I've just discovered this channel and must congratulate Spectacles on a very well made video. I've lived in Japan for 21 years and part of the "stability" are the large corporations that control the economy like Mitsubishi, Toyota, and Hitachi. (I've worked for all three over the years). They stifle a lot of competition. Should also be noted that after the pandemic they all said they would set up regional offices but afterward that never happened and so people from the countryside have no choice but to pour into Tokyo. When I was at Hitachi they had an automotive division and a Toyota group of over 100 employees. Instead of moving the group to Toyota they still remain here in Tokyo. Ever try traveling from Tokyo to Toyota? Even if you go to Nagoya and then to Toyota the trip will take around 3 hours one way. Apply the stability vs. opportunity to the US and you can begin to understand the political change in the US which is fed up with the status quo offered by Democrats and are willing to gamble big in hopes of effecting change under trump, a false prophet.
I think you did very well with the historical parts, I'm not so sure about the conclusion though. Countries like the Nordics show you can have high stability and wide horizons at the same time. The pattern has more exceptions than cases that follow the rule and is just fundamentally not how socio-political advancement happens. Instead how educated the populace is and how many people there are has a lot more to do with it.
THIS. Also, I find it suspicious to charge the left with instability, violence, revolution (mentioning anarchy), where the right side is pictured as a serene and stable if somewhat conservative environment (but never mentioning fascism). As if fascism isn't violence, war and repression against which the left wages war to begin with. Lost all focus after that.
Uh.... You might to look at Nordic countries again lol. Sweden is very much unstable and is on the verge of being out of history for good. Danemark made a huge shift to the right, where even the leftist parties policies are branded as right wing in most of Europe. Norway is isolating itself from Europe and live on oil exploitation.
Yes. Blindly assuming that a tradeoff must be made, that democracy works is ignorance and/or brainwashed indoctrination. In our current iteration of human society all governments have operated by the principle of stateism. That pride of locality and exclusivity which all governments indoctrinate to make ppl worship the land and flag that represents it, which excuses violence onto others from different localities. I do not advocate for one world government, instead for the government to get out of our way, so that we can be free to try new ways of nurturing respect for each other.
@@mrsupremegascon "Danemark made a huge shift to the right" The apparent rise of the far-right in Europe is due to the rise of the far-left policies in the first place. Far-left views are only held by a very very _very_ tiny extreme yet loud minority. The extreme far-left policies is so extreme that it alienates virtually everyone outside of it. It makes center-left policies look like far-right ones. Vice versa. When your views are so extreme on one side, of course those outside your views look like extremists from the opposite side.
Depends what school level. Elementary? High school? Why would they teach something so specific? There are areas of study that deal with minutiae like this in higher education, but this very specific time in a very specific country's history isn't all that relevant in a general education setting.
Well... idk if the US would like this history lesson to be taught to its citizens. They're not particularly the "good guys" in this story. The CIA working with the US's best interest in mind created a conservative, fascist leaning party and propped up a war criminal, member of the elite class, that no one liked. This party then proceeded to do away with laws that were probably incredibly popular like the right to unionize and the dismantling of monopolies. While trying to create a new treaty that no one liked and everyone knew would financially help the new leader of the LDP. They also delved into a bit of fascism when they used the police force to oppress and restrict the opposition, while holding votes. Not very democratic if you ask me. Kinda reflects poorly on the US for propping up this new fascist gov. As a bit of a side note I find it really weird that the creator of this video didn't mention once how this new government the CIA propped up was legit fascist. Seems like a bit of whitewashing on his part, a bit weird if you ask me. If they taught this in schools in the US kids would lose their idea of American exceptionalism. This idea of American exceptionalism is a major playing factor in US propaganda and brainwashing. If the US didn't care about that we could learn the most interesting things about US history. The only issue is that in a lot of the interesting history that the US is involved in the US tends to not be the "good guy", by societal standards I guess. A pretty recent example of this is Critical Race Theory (CRT). Many politicians (or the ppl funding them) don't want it in the schooling system because it basically just teaches about the African American struggle and differences that group experiences in the US. And well, by learning about this it really shows how horrible the US gov can be. By not allowing CRT in the education system it allows the US to keep this american exceptionalism brainwashing in order. But honestly even if they told stories like this or other governments the CIA propped up around the world (there's a shit ton) many US citizens probably still wouldn't take it as the US being bad guys. I mean just look at some of the comments in this video. I feel like to understand this to the degree I explained it you'd need critical thinking which they don't teach properly in the US education system. There's a really good book called "Lies My Teacher Told Me" that goes a bit into good detail about how horrible the US education system is at teaching children. I highly recommend it. Also thanks for reading my rant. But yeah TLDR; American Propaganda is why we don't learn about cool shit like this.
The objective of the US in Japan after the war wasn't to "rebuild Japan" or to "bring democracy", but to occupy an occupying power. Taking the power of the Japanese empire and expanding the US empire on top of it. The atomic bomb was the first act of the cold war, meant to keep the soviets out of the negotiations on how to rebuild the world after the war. Then the Korean war solidified the role the US and Japan were to take in the region. What today is happening in Taiwan is a continuation of this tactic and directly related to previous Japanese occupation in the region. We are presented with Japanese society in every media as an example of what capitalism can accomplish, big economic gains for the few but a deeply alienated population exploited beneath a vassal state for the US in the end.
Well said, I hate how many of these TV-like YT channels have popped up in recent times, who shamelessly promote the official, compliant narrative of western democracy and rainbows. Instead of user created content, it feels like your watching 1000 different flavours of CNN. Totalitarian, corporate control over once free media.
what a terrible concept to argue. In one sentence you instantly defeat your own arguement in the conclusion. "you can't have high stability and wide horizons in the same system" immediately after demonstrating it's possible to have low stability and narrow horizons. If you can demonstrate that the worst is possible, you cannot argue the best is impossible. Just because perfection hasn't been achieved and that scale is a decent guideline to perceived reality, does not mean it's a hard rule.
im too low iq to understand your comment, specifically the "if you demonstrate the worst is possible, you can't argue that the best is impossible." how does that make sense?
Yeah that part really felt like someone telling me "you should be happy with the limitations of liberal democracy because having more choices would lead to that terrible terrible anarchy! 😊" Then again, they don't really try to hide their biases. Their channel description says they are big proponents of liberal democracy. It does feel weird to come to a historical documentary video and have a political opinion just hamfisted into the last couple of minutes.
oh how i love the new youtube comment system, where "sort by top" now means "we're gonna show you the most mindnumbing braindead take with 10 likes before the actual top comment"
Any device, anywhere in the world, at any time.
Get AnyDesk now at anydesk.com/spectacles
Yukio Mishima is my hero
not gonna lie, best ad integration I have seen in awhile. Will be checking this out because of your ad read!
I love your channel and content, but I think it's funny that you always say AMERICA instead of US when you're talking about democracies and imperialism. I guess some roots run too deep.
And before someone says something, even according to the UN, America is a continent. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_geoscheme
It just feels weird the way you use these terms when you're talking about these subjects. It simply doesn't fit. It feels like I'm watching a documentary on CNN or Fox News.
Anyway, doesn't matter...
scammers will love this advertisment!
The 60’s were wild wherever.
True 😂
The world of the 1940s (and by extension the early 1950s) was comprehensively shaped by international conflict. Growing pains during the period of re-construction (late 1950-60s) were inevitable and equally widely felt.
Comparing this to the videos of how machines and human systems learn, we can see there's a tradeoff but we could overcome it with "good memory". Stationary algorithms aren't smart, and we'll die as a species if we steadfastly stay at the gates of this golden age instead of coming right through on an age of love for all life and truth. We could learn!
@@jose.montojah how can we learn?
In Germany the 50s and 60s are seen as the boring decades
Fun fact Nobusuke Kishi was also the grandfather of Shinzo Abe.
Of course…
He came from a long line of monsters
... With links with the Yakuza. Like Koizumi and tons of LDP politicians.
That is disgusting.
@@kormagogthedestroyerso he’s at fault for his grandpa 😆
23:15 This segment about unavoidable tradeoffs reminded me of a quote from a famous Japanese sci-fi series:
"A good autocracy might be better than even a good democracy, but a bad democracy is far better than a bad autocracy." -Yang Wen-li, from 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes' by Yoshiki Tanaka.
Er, any guy with the name Yang Wen- Ii, is Chinese, not Japanese.
@@frenzalrhomb6919 The series was written by the Japanese author Yoshiki Tanaka. Yang Wen-li is the character in the story who says the line.
Haven't read the novels, but I've rewatched the OVA several times. Love it. Though I think some people give it more credit than it deserves for presenting autocracy vs democracy on an even playing field, when I think the story quite clearly argues that democracy is preferable. The lasting through-line, the underlying critique of democracy is always primarily that it can decline into autocracy, like with the first emperor Goldenbaum. Meaning, the bad thing with democracy is that it can turn into autocracy, which isn't really a criticism of democracy itself. Also, when portraying Reinhard as a good autocrat, he is done so by adopting democratic ideals, if not the democratic political structure. He seemingly listens to the needs of the people and adopt progressive legislation (such as less censorship and more free speech), and he defers to expert ministers in matter he himself isn't an expert rather than imposing his leadership. The good thing with autocracy, LOGH argues, is that it can kinda be like a democracy if the leader is good. All of this isn't necessarily my views or my arguments on the matter, but it's just what I perceive are the viewpoints and arguments that LOGH presents (but I think they are eloquent - especially for a space opera).
I enjoyed this video overall, but I think he dropped the ball at the end, presenting a stability vs wide horizons causality that I honestly think lacks real world applicability - he even gave an example with Russia contradicting it and I would add China to that list seeing its drastic economic changes in the latest decades. Though politics nowadays seem tumultuous in many western democracies (and they are), in general it seems that democracies are historically speaking more stable than autocracies IMO, and autocracies are just by their nature more susceptible to sudden change given that fewer individuals need to change their minds (or be changed outright) to change society. And in real life, those changes in autocratic countries are seldom of the kind Reinhard espouses...
it sounds rosy but what does the evidence say.
"A good autocracy might be better than even a good democracy"
Would Singapore fall into this category?
As a Japanese, I felt the explanation is too simplifized and dualistic. People who are called "Protests" or "New Japan" in this video were actually instigated and organized by radical communists who want to start a revolution with violence. Most rebel unions ironically mimiced old Japanese army organization system to use their force, so they also had "Old Japan" aspect. All of them didn't follow western "Democracy and Freedom" ideology at least. Moreover, many Japanese had been suffered from consciousness of guilty about WWⅡ especially post-war era. Then some of them were absorbed in "Anti Japan" ideology and did devastating terolisim although they were also Japanese. You can simply understand it "Confused age", but I'd like to share more complicated background.
I'm not born in realtime generation, so I'm glad you to point out my mistakes.
詳しい説明ありがとうございます。動画の内容分かるの凄いですね。英語聞き取れるんですか？
From 'confused' in the 60s to 'clueless' today.
Every foreigner wants to fabricate Japanese history and culture 😂. The whole entire country of Japan and its people is like a fan-fiction for foreigners, especially westerners. Its almost like a fetish at this point.
@@aoao9664 字幕読みながら見て何とか…って感じです。もっとゆったりした気持ちで聞き取れるようになりたい
my mans literally said "from ballot boxes to boxing bouts" and just went on like he didn't just say something genius
My grandparents grew up in the 60s in Japan. And I never understood why they were so… solemn and felt very isolated. The more I look into the historical development of post-war Japan, the more I realize what my family had to endure up until this point.
Edit: Okay, y'all, calm the fuck down lmao. My family in Japan were and are native to Okinawa, it was a heavily rural and militarized location used by both Imperial Japan and the United States. Before and during the early parts of the American occupation, they were farmers. Despite my Japanese ancestry, I was born in America and consider myself American. American troops landing in Okinawa saved my family from starving in tunnels underneath their family well, my grandmother's kimono is preserved in the local Himeyuri Peace Museum, a shrine there dedicated to the young students who suffered mistreatment and depravity from being conscripted into a war they had no hand in.
My grandmother was six during the invasion and was around her twenties during the time period of the video. My great-grandfather died in the defense of Okinawa, I did not know him, I don't know why he fought, I cannot say what he believed or didn't.
I in no way endorse the Sino-Japanese War, the occupation of Korea, and the use of women as objects for male 'comfort'. It was a horrible time, orchestrated by horrible men, yet unfortunately carried out by people like you and me. I get the sentiments but y'all starting to sound like Curtis LeMay down there, lmfao.
arguably just a prevalent aspect of Japanese culture.
@@SmellyBodega Lmao, maybe
I hope you use better sources than this for your information, unless this as complex as you can handle otherwise as we used to say go for it.
Ever think about just asking them? They should still be knocking about, unless they were screwed by poor genes.
famaree
@@james-faulkner it's possible he can't because they ARE still alive, but some people just don't talk about hard times, trying to keep it in the past.
- the soldier who saw and did heinous things in war, and now says war is hell and tells his kids and grandkids to never enlist, but refuses to go into details, hoping if he keeps it in the past, it will haunt him slightly less often.
- the japanese citizen who was rendered homeless and did desperate things to survive the aftermath of the A-bombs or the firebombings that destroyed their home
- the holocaust survivor with a number on their arm that won't talk about the concentration camp, but wakes up screaming in a mix of yiddish and german at night, because they dreamt it was still 1942. (this one's personal. my great aunt survived the camps, but the things they did to her broke her completely and she never really left that camp mentally, it haunted her like it was yesterday, right up until the day we had to put her in the ground. she never spoke about it by choice, the only things we knew about her time in the camp was what we could make out of her incohent screaming when she would wake up in the middle of the night. and i'm glad that's all we know. i know just enough yiddish and german to get the jist of the horrors she relived in her midnight panic attacks, and i don't want to know any more than that.)
- the man who was lost at sea and had to resort to cannibalism to survive, and never talks about it, but hoards food in his attic for the rest of his life as a result of his trauma.
some people wear their scars out in the open, some people bury them deep...either for their own sake, or for yours. going from being a "warrior empire" to being bombed into the stone age and then dealing with the political, social, and economic strains of the next 20 years while being essentially completely rebuilt under the guidance of your former enemy, sounds to me like something some people might choose to leave in the past 'where it belongs'.
this period from 1945 to 1960 is also the height of certain unpleasant leftovers from the war, like the way surviving kamikaze pilots were treated, often considered cowards and traitors because they were supposed to die to protect japan, and now japan is burning and they return home in one piece, sometimes even their own families treated them like ghosts and just pretended they weren't even there.
if your father or uncle was a surviving kamikaze and for decades your family acted like he was already dead and told you to ignore him, and your last memory of him is him laying alone on his deathbed and none of your family seemed to even care, that might be something you want to leave in the past.
some people handle their traumas by just bottling it up.
CIA: Don't worry, we'll control Japan
CIA trying to control Japan:
it's worked out so far
@@ultimategamer876 Japan is an immovable aircraft carrier against the Soviet Union during the cold war
CIA failed hard. Good thing that Ikeda moderated his party.
@@kingace6186actually, the CIA ended up being VERY successful. They actually funneled cash into LDP election campaigns for years, guaranteeing their political dominance.
@@kingace6186 Anime is a direct result of CIA meddling in Japan. Look up Operation Mockingbird and MK Ultra.
Though he was arrested and jailed, Kishi was not charged, tried, or convicted of _anything_ .
he was too useful to let waste
the historical record exists, a conviction isn't needed
@@hnnnggh that barely makes sense. and mostly because we're talking about dead people
This is true for almost all Japanese officials after the war unfortunately
Only because he was politically useful. Unfortunately, most Japanese war criminals got off scott free or were pardoned after the war, like the entirety of Unit 731.
The thumbnail drew me in, the details and knowledge kept me interested, and seeing you cite your sources out after I finished watching was the cherry on top.
"uncensored on patreon" it's ok bud I've seen it a dozen times back when the internet was free.
Good times, man. Good times.
When we had websites like liquidgeneration
This was so interesting! I always thought Japan was a perfect democracy after WW2 and then started an economic miracle. But what really happened is wild.
Japan has been a one party state since 1955. Albeit that same one party government are the ones who Industrialized and built Japan into a powerhouse, it struggles to even be called a democracy.
Gotta look into Korea too, if the nazis were left wing military state Korea was a right wing one
@@miladmoradi9987 East asia and democracy dont go well together it seems.
@@miladmoradi9987then why were the LDP voted out of power in 2009?
@@miladmoradi9987 😂 oh yeah, that so chief? Ask the villagers in inner China/Russia, who live on $5 a week and no toilets whether they’d trade their life for that “one state” country which leads in nearly every important metric, but military.
Interesting how that assassination and the assassination of shinzo abe both ended with less support for the one assassinated
Cowardice?
Isn't that the whole point?
It was the other way around, less supports came first, then when the assassination happened, people suddenly feel less restraint to speak about it as the event had brought out the most hateful people.
Or perhaps he was the source of the friction that blocked reasonable social compromise.
Was Shinzo Abe not well supported before? I thought that he was well admired
The US allowed war criminals to stay in power to the point many of them are still revered today. Ironically, this is why Japan still believes they are the victim in WWII.
It's also all the weebs saying Japan is a victim for only surrendering after Nagasaki instead of blaming Japan for prolonging the total war it started which plenty of its people supported.
The usa does not care about crime or Justice just power and money. Look no further than our politicians.You wanna look at World War 2?We hired most of the scientists and weapons creators and human Experimenters, look through our own history. Theres also the Tuskegee man. The CIA's heart attack gone the f. B. I killing Martin Luther king. Mk ultra. Fast and furious operation the list is endless
@@BlubberBuddha Their neighbours would like to have plenty of words with you...
lets discuss how the uk killed more people in india during ww2 than germans killed europeans/minorities in europe.
then lets discuss the role the uk played in establishing the cia in america so that they could forever remain in covert control of it and use it to rebuild the british empire
This video was kind of an over simplification that feels really biased. How the parties were described was weird, breaking them into red and blue or good and bad, even though their values and positions were different from the contemporary understanding of these parties. The meaning of 'democrat' especially changes a lot depending on context.
Channels like this make me want to start my own channel to talk about similar, niche topics. This is some really polished work man. Love it.
I’ve always wanted to see a video in the post war Japan. Like the student revolutions, the assasinations, and just… SO MANY REVOLUTION ATTEMPTS it’s such an overlooked but interesting aspect of Japan
Can’t lie I had just a
Place: …
Place, Japan: !!!
Place 😐
Place Japan 😍
@@FictionHubZA
Place :)
Place, Japan :)
(He is mesmerized by the beauty of this world)
People who don’t get it
👇
@@historysuit9418*People who get it but hate the joke because it's personally offended people who like Japan and anime
@@adfi5316how is it offending webs
this reeks of CIA
100%
Exactly what I was thinking.
It was the 60's.
Everything did.
I just saw the intro and was about to post same thing
The video says as much regarding the combination of liberal and democratic parties
Thanks!
Some of thr best voice-over work I've ever heard on YT. Well done, subscribed 😎
This is a great video about 1960, but a rather limited view of Japan's recent political history because although it is true that 1960 was a decisive year, protest and revolutionary ideas continued throughout the decade, climaxing in 1968, like most other similar movements around the world. There's also the fact that the fascist tendencies of Japan weren't extinguished after the war, hell in 1970 Yukio Mishima attempted a rather miserable failed coup, and apologia for the attrocities committed by Imperial Japan continues to this day. Political assassination, infamously, has happened as recently as the Shinzo Abe's murder in 2022, so yeah, it is rather reductive to say that after 1960 Japan chose stability and that was that.
Good point indeed
_'climaxing in 1968'_
I think later than that. It was the torture and murder of 14 United Red Army members by their comrades, culminating in the Asama-Sanso incident in 1972 viewed by 90% of the public on TV, that shifted public perception, especially amongst their same-age peers. Thereafter criminal activities were perpetrated mostly overseas by a variety of leftwing militant groups such as the Red Army and the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front.
_'climaxing in 1968'_
I think later than that. It was the deaths of 14 United Red Army members at their comrades' hands, culminating in the Asama-Sanso incident in 1972 viewed by 90% of the public on TV, that shifted public perception, especially amongst their same-age peers. Thereafter criminal activities were perpetrated mostly overseas by a variety of leftwing militant groups such as the Red Army and the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front.
Shinzo Abe was unalived because he broke bread with a cult, not because the guy who unalived him disagreed with Abe's policies.
@@gagamba9198 you're completely right, radical political action went on into the 1970's. I referenced 1968 thinking just in terms of mass political action, thanks for complementing the info.
@hayaokakizaki4463 I don't think that disqualifies the incident as political in nature, the perpetrator felt personal annimosity towards Abe beucase of what the Church of Unification did to his mom, but also said that he allowed the church too much influence in government.
Great video on how Japanese politics got to how it is today. Boring, technocratic, and probably the true embodiment of what an End of History truly looks likes.
My grandma was a university student during the Anpo protests as a right-winger, but many of her friends dropped out of university and devoted themselves to left-wing politics. One of them got pregnant and then become disillusioned with politics altogether.
My grandfather who was quite conservative until his death did vote against the LDP once out of complete disgust for them, he would only do this again in the 90s. Also, at the time it seemed like the socialist parties were the party of small businesses as he was a factory owner while the LDP was the party conglomerates.
And in the late 60s and 70s, there was a wave of left-wing student protests which were incredibly violent. My mother's tutor from UTokyo got sent to prison for throwing a molotov at a police officer. Also during this time one of the most notorious terrorist groups in the world came from Japan. And the political infighting within the Japanese left was so bad that I think it was not until the early 2000s when there wasn't at least one person who was injured or killed from sectarianism.
And I am sure a lot of people here visited Narita airport which probably represents some of the best things about Japan, but it was the battleground of a years long battle between an unusual alliance of farmers who did not want to give up their land and leftists against Japanese riot police and construction workers which got incredibly violent. There is quiet a few footage you can find of the "Sanrizuka" movement on TH-cam that shows just how crazy things got.
But if anyone is interested in literature from the 1960s, check out the short stories "Seventeen" and "Death of Political Youth" by Oe Kenzaburo. It is based off of the guy who murdered Inejiro Asanuma. Some of the most intense literature I have ever read.
Thanks for your amazingly thoughtful comment.
Oh man, the battles over Narita were absolutely insane, that would be another wonderful topic for someone to make a video on.
Japan's left is interesting in that to a large degree it suffered from the anti-communist needs of the United States enforcing crack downs (Though the LDP was obviously more than happy to comply...) but also the in-fighting that you mentioned really never allowed the left to crystalize behind a single candidate. It was always individual issues and the protests were always popular but could never really transition into actual electoral success. Though actually I guess "leftist infighting" isn't a rare thing...
In what way is Japanese politics technocratic? Everything I've seen suggested that elderly (the majority) Japanese policy makers lag far behind in adopting the use of technology. In 2019 the nation's cyber minister admitted to having never used a computer. The proliferation of using paper versus digital storage is something you come to notice right away when you need to do anything regarding official documents. In some local governments, floppy discs are still being used.
@@clockhandedtechnocratic does not mean they will be tech savvy. It just means authority is given to "professionals" and "experts", doesn't matter if they are actually one.
@@clockhanded You could've just googled what a Technocracy is but noooooo
Being able to explain very complex things in such a concise and simple way while also sneaking in a Warhammer reference has got to be a new intellectual milestone.
I was about to say...
Kind of like tism...
Aot
It ain't.
You're kidding right?
Here are the facts.
To the author I wrote:
You started strong: good research, analysis, and commentary. But then you quickly slid into the pit of Right Wing bias when you described the events of the late 1940's and early fifties as violent demonstrations perpetrated by the Left. Even though you had already indicated, which was true, that the VAST majority of Japanese people wanted to keep the Constitution as is, and equally did not want any excuse for Japan's Nationalists to retool the country for re-expansion and war.
And what violence was instigated in those early protests were false flag machinations conducted by the foot soldiers of the LDP (then and now) the YAKUZA.
Because along with all those politicians released from jail in the late forties, over 20,000 Yakuza were released as well. The US State Department had decided that whatever befell the Japanese people at the hands of these ruthless thugs (who were the main instigators of both exapansion into Korea in the early part of the twentieth century and China in the thirties) it was 'worth' it to keep China contained.
Finshing with your conclusion of violence/horizons/freedom/stability wrapped up in such broad and simplistic terms was ridiculous and further proves the Right Wing bias of this presentation.
Lastly, the assassin in 1960 was paid for by the Yakuza. And those criminal enablers and fixers for the LDP still roam quiet Japanese streets to this day in their deliberatly menacing black vans blasting out their threats and propaganda all in cahoots with, not their LDP masters, but their LDP stooges. With everything from Labor racketeering, the 90's economic crisis, and even the Fukushima disaster, all down to the way the Yakuza puppet masters have manipulated the poor Japanese people since the late 1940's.
The USA was complicit in all the corruption by continuing to tolerate and support this evil via their own crime gang known as the CIA since the first war criminal and the first Yakuza were released from prison in the late 1940's.
Your failure to acknowledge any of the above renders this video useless on any level.
A well sourced, well structured, interesting video with great visuals! Wow!
Very cool video. I always appreciate when I learn something I didn’t even know I should know about.
Incredible. You guys are my favorite channel. So happy that finally you got the recognition you deserve!!
Great video. Very well produced and educational. +1 for the “Greetings from Kansas City” t-shirt!
Except story about Marie Antoinette and problems to make difference between socialism and communism.
AMAZING FUCKING WORK. LOVING THIS CHANNEL
THANK YOU VERY FUCKING MUCH :DDD
@@spectacles-dm💀
@@spectacles-dm💀
Agree
It's so aggressive I love it
Damn, you are good at these videos. Very well done~
Amazing job on the video, content and quality. Nice work Specs
Crazy how people never took a glance on how Cold War affect Japan. Hell, even this one topped how chaotic Asia with the Cold War mania all around, even on the Blue Turfm
Yknow, I'd always assumed that Japanese people were just sort of culturally unable to do protests or demonstrations. Glad to know i was wrong.
Well... they probably are now
Oh I don’t think current Japan would be able to do anything this courageous like this generation in the 60’s did, but we’re also decently governed right now so 🤷♂️ hopefully our politicians remember the past enough to keep corruption and personal ambition to a minimum
It's not that they're incapable, it's that they are undermotivated. The goverment simply adopts the talking points of serious demonstrations, like Ikeda did in 1960; it also happened with the environmentalist demonstrations of the 70s, and suddenly Japan became obsessed with clean air and water.
i'm sorry what? Do you know anything about Japan?
thats from an exoticization lens, where people who arent western are seen as fundamentally different and incapable of doing thinks like "normal" westerners
11:15 This is literally the Gigachad vs Virgin meme.
Mewing vs Mouth breathing
lmao ikr
The Virgin Communist VS The CHAD Right Wing Extremist
Was looking for this comment lmao
I've watch enough DBZ to know Mr. Satan when I see him.
Crazy fact: Isoroku Yamamoto, the Naval Admiral who orchestrated the Pearl Harbor Attacks, and who was in charge of the entire Japanese Navy for the majority of WWII... Was a student at Harvard University in Massachusetts, USA. before the war...
Japan has and always was a rich capitalist country, ww2 was a calculated decisions that ultimately worked out in japan favor.
Almost every dictator is history was given a western education even in the current day.
Really not that crazy. The only people who could go to university in Japan during those times were the society’s higher ups that came from wealthy families.
@@DAC936He wasn’t a dictator he was just an admiral
@@tannercollins9863 I don't see how WW2 worked out in Japan's favor at all
this was an amazing video. Thank you for your view on this. So much to unpack here.
No more compliments to be made mate. Fucking stunning production you talented fuck! Amazing quality! Informational! Good sources! Cohesive! I've been subscribed to you since the beginning of your channel, and I absolutely love how you treat your channel and videos. Top tier content and well researched.
@@WhatDemocracy Mate they didn't state that. Japanese had been invading countries all around East Asia before the Pearl Harbor attacks even happened. And they killed A LOT of people.
Those playing card graphics alone are works of art! I agree, the video looks fantastic
Too many unjustified labels attributed to the people involved
I guess the bias are hard to hide
No fucking cussing goddamn it SHIT!
I recently became a subscriber and think this video proves you deserve more views! It was very professional in its presentation.
My god this is an amazing channel. Keep up the amazing work!
Important sidenote about Ikeda: The GDP of Japan would have doubled even without Ikeda's policies. Ikeda, as an economist himself, had befriended nearly all of the macroeconomists--who were the only ones capable of predicting GDP growth--in Japan. Therefore most Japanese citizens had no way of knowing that Japan's GDP = Japanese citizens' average profit would increase due to the economy growth rate post-war. Ikeda was hailed as a genius, but in reality he just made a promise that citizens thought would be impossible, and won the election.
Edit: This video was fantastic. It is kind of sad that although what Kishi tried to do in changing the treaty was in fact beneficial for Japan's safety, the fact that Kishi was doing it was enough to cause a mass protest.
Look, it's fine if you're a communist or socialist. Just say "I am a communist/socialist and I would like to impose communism/socialism on Japan and other countries".
The framing of this video is plainly biased, but not in a pro or anti-America sense. On the one hand, the author is very openly praising America's imposition, _on pain of nuclear annihilation_ , an essentially socialist government and constitution, even going so far as to cite a notorious passage written by a 22 year old Jewish woman, who shortly after only narrowly escaped charges of communist subversion by US military intelligence (seriously, look it up). The author also praises the destruction of Japan's wartime government, it's leaders, and its institutions. And then a moment later it's lamented as a terrible, dark turn of fate for Japan when the US allows them to re-build on the condition that they be more anti-communist. The message is obvious to those who are paying attention: "it's good when America makes other countries socialist or communist. It's bad when the opposite is true."
america has never and will never make another country communist
spectacular, never thought a youtuber could be this concise
It’s Wikipedia pop history
It is also very generalistic and focuses a lot on specific events in a short period of time , lacking proper context and wide-viewed sight. One single or two single events might not be representative of the period in time those events ocurred. Also broad context helps understand the bigger.picture.
Here's a comment to boost this video. Love your work, keep it up!!!!
But is this Japans JFK mystery?
Wow! Thank you creating this great video!! I've heard these names mentioned from time to time throughout my life but never payed attention to what they stood for. Now I know. Very educating and very interesting. Once again, thank you!
wow, this is really well done. Super informative.
Great video, loved the writing around 19:30
This video was so good, i really apreciate it, well done.
As a companion, similar analysis but for Canadian democracy, specifically the Charlottetown and Meech accord event, Quebec separatism and how powerful is the Canadian Prime Minister.
Yes good analogy.
I loved this. Idk why but I shed a tear when Ikeda decided to give his rival a eulogy instead of taking the advantage and pressing his party's agenda. That's what we need more these days. We have to be more compassionate and respectful of one another regardless of political beliefs. Japan is probably the most peaceful country in the world, certainly in Asia. But it also isnt a pushover in dealing with other countries. Its something we can all learn from.
The editing on this video is insane. Congrats
This video is super well-made and structured. Sick!
Thats hot
Thanks for the thoughtful video
Spectacles, Nexpo, fern, lemmino and Imperial are creating pieces of art for us to watch for free. The level of content is unrivalled by standard tv from those 5 and many more. A collab of those 5 would be an insaneeeeee series/video
Hoog helped the channel in the early days in a big way. Imperial is a friend. Would love to get acquainted with the others. Any collab would be great fun.
Honored to be compared to them :)
@@spectacles-dm how could I forget Hoog! Truly you are a master at your choice of creation. Don’t know how it would be done but people like you should be given the funds to produce docuseries on Netflix/Amazon
Barely Sociable and Kento Bento cannot be ignored here…
Insane how well made this video is. BRAVO!
It still baffles me, how Muricans will consider dropping those two nukes on civillians as something "Japan did". The refusal to take responsibility and admit that it was an atrocity in itself is astounding everytime I run into that sentiment.
The idea that America's hand was forced is still extremely common in history classes today.
It was a one time decision by a very new President relying on advisors who all wanted it tested. And USSR invasion of Japan would have been a bloodbath, but USA expected a million dead. If there was no other way to force a surrender and avoid a continued land war devastating China and Korea...
the fact they think they’re any better than japan is delusional. they taught them that lmao
@@mallarielove Most of the times this is discussed with an American, they'll without hesitation say something like "the Japanese were monsters, _they t0rtur3d prisoners and k1lled babies_ !!!"
...like the nukes somehow only k1lled adults and like dy1ng from radiation poisoning isn't one of the most horrible ways to d1e. The hypocrisy on this subject is inconcievable.
Who says that?
Very well-research. I learn a lot from this. My only criticism with this video is a flaw in its conclusion, 23:30. That is not the Left-Right political spectrum (the X-axis) of a political compass. That is the Up-Down political spectrum (the Y axis) to measure civil order. The Up half represents authority based politics, and the Down half represents individual based politics. The examples this video used were two political extremes: Authoritarianism ("far-up" lol) and Libertarianism ("far-down" lol). It's important not to confuse the two axes. Because the Left-Right spectrum is meant to measure priority: egalitarian values vs hierarchical values.
The Japanese LDP under Kishi was authoritarian AND militaristic. The JSP under Asanuma was constitutionalist AND revolutionary socialists. Two complex extremes. So it is not possible to accurately lump them in basic spectrum. You have to use a political compass.
+The LDP under Ikeda was transformed to constitutional liberalism, a moderate solution. At least, that's how I gauge it.
I was bugged by this too. It felt like details were being left out and patted the back of liberal democracy too much. I enjoyed most of the vid, but a little more nuance could've been implemented at the end
Definitely felt like a left wing westerner's perspective of left-right politics being ham-fisted onto the narrative of post war Japan.
This is a phenomenal video. Thanks!
Very distinct topic i was always curious thx
Absolutely loved this breakdown and your narration as well. Thank you for such a well made and informative video. Much appreciated!
Love the channel. AnyDesk is really good btw. I moved on to my own hosted environment (zero-trust), but if you dont want to build your own RDP (or like) server, their protocol is solid and service works very very well.
Nice video dude
this channel makes me so happy being a history student and a graphic design and storytelling enthousiast. really makes you want to pursue youtube as a carreer path (bad idea)
Good choice of topic and thumbnail!
Amazing work sir , great editing and story telling interesting subject 10\10
I don’t know how the world survived the 60’s
ive been waiting for this vid
Well edited, informative video. This format is consumable for people over 25 and the graphics appealing enough to keep the youth engaged long enough to sneak information into their brains before their attention wanders. Teachers, even professors, should use thisbin their classrooms
Your work is on par with the top channels in this niche 👍
Very interesting topic, and really good vid mate subbed 🍻
I believe that the attention, drawn to this protest movement by it humiliating Eisenhower, of the US media made the Anpo/Kishi protests a KEY model for US protests on civil rights and then Vietnam, during the next decade.
The corporate media being largely pro-Democrat, they had covered Ike's embarrassment, and therefore made people aware of the movement overall.
Great video. The fact that you framed the matter in terms of trade-offs is refreshing. Perhaps its the economist in me, but I find that government policy is not really about solutions, but trade-offs, despite what many politians and idealists presume.
This is the kind of political history I would never learn about if it wasn't for you guys. Love this channel. Can't wait to give a snobby lecture about Japanese politics to my friends in a bar.
That is what we're here for! Thanks for tuning in :)
Hopefully you never run into anyone who knows what their talking about. As a regular traveler to asia with family their, this is all slanted to a liberal socialist western view based on very recent modern politics.
It also takes 0 account of the hypersonic differences between western Anglo pro distant liberal sensibilities and tolerances vs cino confucianism atheism and homogeneity.
His ending is by far the biggest give away his head is up his ass.
As Asians will always pick safety over freedom. As it’s a cultural and societal
Theme. Unlike Americans they are not rabid individualists.
They are conformists by nature.
The time when freedom and opportunity outrage safety will never come.
Otherwise Yukio Mishima wouldn’t be dead. Oh, I guess he forgot that part of the 1960-70’s of japanes politics😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
This is the skibidi toilet equivalent of cino poli-sci.
Go watch a Japanese person chsnnle before you try and impresses people bruh.
The idea that Japan is a democratic society really starts falling to pieces when you look into figures like Kodama Yoshio and among LDP founders like Kishi. Democracy is more than putting a piece of paper in a box.
Japan doesn't need democracy
I mean, the so called “democracy” in post war Japan was forced upon by the US. If the general population in Japan doesn’t embrace democratic cultural norms in their daily lives, its an incomplete democracy as a society. It explains why majority of Japanese people(especially the younger generations) don’t go voting during elections.
Excellent presentation! I like how the information is presented in a concise and pointed manner, keep it up!
Fantastic and beautifully made video. It’s fascinating to see other versions of Japan, especially for me seeing as I live here. They certainly went for stability, narrowing individual horizons somewhat, but having an unprecedentedly peaceful society.
I am so happy I discovered this channel with the last video. This one is amazing.
What a video. Keep it up lad !
leaving the keywords of the quote a few seconds after the rest disappears is such a cool thing
18:16 omg i just shed a tear...this was beautiful! what a legend! i bow before you
This was great!
Thanks for putting it together.
0:30 Why punish? When you can rebuild so they owe a debt. It is better to have you enemies owe you something in return so that carrot is always dangling in front of them but always out of reach.
Yeh. Dont work in the Middle East and Afghanistan 1990 to 2024
Idk bc they suprise attacked and killed millions of our civilians
"So the Us occupied japan out of the kindness of their heart, and can you believe that the japanese people was angry against the army of the country that just killed millions of innocent civilians? How savage! And they were about to become evil socialists too! Unbelievable. Luckily the US successfully imposed their government on them, and this was a good thing and not at all a barbaric injustice!"
This video basically.
Whoever wrote that conclusion should re-examine how seriously they engage with politics.
Thank you for making this video. Lots of information that explains why things are as they are.
I was born in January 1960 Japan, and raised there during the ʻ60s, and though just a child I still vividly remember the violent protests and riots. When my fatherʻs civil service US Army job was transferred to Hawaiʻi I was sad knowing Iʻd be away from family, but also a tad relieved Iʻd be away from the craziness. I especially remember the protests when the government confiscated farmlands to build the brand new Narita Airport. Crazy times. I returned to Japan for the very first time in October of 2023, and it was a wonderful place to be, so peaceful, and friendly. I was very surprised at how much Japanese (my first language) I had retained, and recalled. Iʻm an old man now, but would like to return one more time. I am even considering retiring there. Just gotta convince my wife.
Born into Japan from an occupying foreign force that subjugated the people they had just dropped two nukes upon as a show of heinous imperial force never to be forgotten, to the point where children will go forward and act like those foreign people had been in control of them for their entire existence and always will. The devil's act is to disappear.
3:48 "suddenly" you speak as if it took 15 years for the USSR be relevant internationally, they won the war in Europe.
commie sympathizer?
Judging how great japan is i didnt expect this to be pro commie harris. I mean pro communism
Magatards allergic to history as usual
Don't you have a minority group to accuse of eating people's pets or something weirdo
Fascinating mini-documentary, only interrupted by the claimed diametric opposition between "low stability" and "autocracy" at the end ... which was immediately shown to be untrue in relation to modern Russia. Still, it suggested a useful framework for understanding Japanese political history.
Exactly, the documentary overall was great. But presenting "on the left" war and chaos with opportunity, and on the right "stability" which is "amazing when everything is good" but limits opportunity seemed dishonest because it was presented like a blanked statement.
It really doesn't fit the standards of the rest of the documentary.
I somehow knew very little about postwar Japan- it was rarely if ever discussed and certainly not in history classes. Even as a history nerd I knew little. Thanks for this. This was one of the most interesting TH-cam videos I have seen in some time. I am subscribing. :)
I've just discovered this channel and must congratulate Spectacles on a very well made video. I've lived in Japan for 21 years and part of the "stability" are the large corporations that control the economy like Mitsubishi, Toyota, and Hitachi. (I've worked for all three over the years). They stifle a lot of competition. Should also be noted that after the pandemic they all said they would set up regional offices but afterward that never happened and so people from the countryside have no choice but to pour into Tokyo. When I was at Hitachi they had an automotive division and a Toyota group of over 100 employees. Instead of moving the group to Toyota they still remain here in Tokyo. Ever try traveling from Tokyo to Toyota? Even if you go to Nagoya and then to Toyota the trip will take around 3 hours one way.
Apply the stability vs. opportunity to the US and you can begin to understand the political change in the US which is fed up with the status quo offered by Democrats and are willing to gamble big in hopes of effecting change under trump, a false prophet.
I think you did very well with the historical parts, I'm not so sure about the conclusion though. Countries like the Nordics show you can have high stability and wide horizons at the same time. The pattern has more exceptions than cases that follow the rule and is just fundamentally not how socio-political advancement happens. Instead how educated the populace is and how many people there are has a lot more to do with it.
THIS. Also, I find it suspicious to charge the left with instability, violence, revolution (mentioning anarchy), where the right side is pictured as a serene and stable if somewhat conservative environment (but never mentioning fascism). As if fascism isn't violence, war and repression against which the left wages war to begin with. Lost all focus after that.
Uh.... You might to look at Nordic countries again lol.
Sweden is very much unstable and is on the verge of being out of history for good.
Danemark made a huge shift to the right, where even the leftist parties policies are branded as right wing in most of Europe.
Norway is isolating itself from Europe and live on oil exploitation.
Yes. Blindly assuming that a tradeoff must be made, that democracy works is ignorance and/or brainwashed indoctrination. In our current iteration of human society all governments have operated by the principle of stateism. That pride of locality and exclusivity which all governments indoctrinate to make ppl worship the land and flag that represents it, which excuses violence onto others from different localities. I do not advocate for one world government, instead for the government to get out of our way, so that we can be free to try new ways of nurturing respect for each other.
The Nordics. 😂😂😂
@@mrsupremegascon
"Danemark made a huge shift to the right"
The apparent rise of the far-right in Europe is due to the rise of the far-left policies in the first place. Far-left views are only held by a very very _very_ tiny extreme yet loud minority. The extreme far-left policies is so extreme that it alienates virtually everyone outside of it. It makes center-left policies look like far-right ones. Vice versa. When your views are so extreme on one side, of course those outside your views look like extremists from the opposite side.
crazy how the school cirriculum is allergic to teaching anything actually intresting
For Drones of Work rather than free thinkers
If they tought you interesting things then Americans wold find out how truly terrible America (the ruling class) has been throughout history
learning about slavery and civil war era was important.
illegal immigration might lead this country down the same path.
Depends what school level. Elementary? High school? Why would they teach something so specific? There are areas of study that deal with minutiae like this in higher education, but this very specific time in a very specific country's history isn't all that relevant in a general education setting.
Well... idk if the US would like this history lesson to be taught to its citizens. They're not particularly the "good guys" in this story. The CIA working with the US's best interest in mind created a conservative, fascist leaning party and propped up a war criminal, member of the elite class, that no one liked. This party then proceeded to do away with laws that were probably incredibly popular like the right to unionize and the dismantling of monopolies. While trying to create a new treaty that no one liked and everyone knew would financially help the new leader of the LDP. They also delved into a bit of fascism when they used the police force to oppress and restrict the opposition, while holding votes. Not very democratic if you ask me. Kinda reflects poorly on the US for propping up this new fascist gov. As a bit of a side note I find it really weird that the creator of this video didn't mention once how this new government the CIA propped up was legit fascist. Seems like a bit of whitewashing on his part, a bit weird if you ask me.
If they taught this in schools in the US kids would lose their idea of American exceptionalism. This idea of American exceptionalism is a major playing factor in US propaganda and brainwashing. If the US didn't care about that we could learn the most interesting things about US history. The only issue is that in a lot of the interesting history that the US is involved in the US tends to not be the "good guy", by societal standards I guess. A pretty recent example of this is Critical Race Theory (CRT). Many politicians (or the ppl funding them) don't want it in the schooling system because it basically just teaches about the African American struggle and differences that group experiences in the US. And well, by learning about this it really shows how horrible the US gov can be. By not allowing CRT in the education system it allows the US to keep this american exceptionalism brainwashing in order.
But honestly even if they told stories like this or other governments the CIA propped up around the world (there's a shit ton) many US citizens probably still wouldn't take it as the US being bad guys. I mean just look at some of the comments in this video. I feel like to understand this to the degree I explained it you'd need critical thinking which they don't teach properly in the US education system. There's a really good book called "Lies My Teacher Told Me" that goes a bit into good detail about how horrible the US education system is at teaching children. I highly recommend it. Also thanks for reading my rant. But yeah TLDR; American Propaganda is why we don't learn about cool shit like this.
You fooled me into thinking this was a history video
Yeah, that thesis at the end was a hard turn
What is it?
This was an awesome video! Thanks for making it.
FASCINATING! Glad I stumbled upon this. Subscribed!
The objective of the US in Japan after the war wasn't to "rebuild Japan" or to "bring democracy", but to occupy an occupying power. Taking the power of the Japanese empire and expanding the US empire on top of it. The atomic bomb was the first act of the cold war, meant to keep the soviets out of the negotiations on how to rebuild the world after the war. Then the Korean war solidified the role the US and Japan were to take in the region. What today is happening in Taiwan is a continuation of this tactic and directly related to previous Japanese occupation in the region. We are presented with Japanese society in every media as an example of what capitalism can accomplish, big economic gains for the few but a deeply alienated population exploited beneath a vassal state for the US in the end.
Another "This channel has no content" Russian or CCP government propaganda worker.
Well said, I hate how many of these TV-like YT channels have popped up in recent times, who shamelessly promote the official, compliant narrative of western democracy and rainbows. Instead of user created content, it feels like your watching 1000 different flavours of CNN. Totalitarian, corporate control over once free media.
I enjoyed the video. But you misspelled "constitution" multiple times. "revise the constition!"
what a terrible concept to argue. In one sentence you instantly defeat your own arguement in the conclusion. "you can't have high stability and wide horizons in the same system" immediately after demonstrating it's possible to have low stability and narrow horizons. If you can demonstrate that the worst is possible, you cannot argue the best is impossible. Just because perfection hasn't been achieved and that scale is a decent guideline to perceived reality, does not mean it's a hard rule.
im too low iq to understand your comment, specifically the "if you demonstrate the worst is possible, you can't argue that the best is impossible." how does that make sense?
Yeah that part really felt like someone telling me "you should be happy with the limitations of liberal democracy because having more choices would lead to that terrible terrible anarchy! 😊"
Then again, they don't really try to hide their biases. Their channel description says they are big proponents of liberal democracy. It does feel weird to come to a historical documentary video and have a political opinion just hamfisted into the last couple of minutes.
oh how i love the new youtube comment system, where "sort by top" now means "we're gonna show you the most mindnumbing braindead take with 10 likes before the actual top comment"
What an excellent presentation on a not so well known subject. Subscribed!