>actually-existing capitalism depends heavily on fossil fuels, but does
>capitalism in general? though capitalism is amazingly inflexible on issues
>of preserving class privilege and dictatorship, it is also amazingly
>flexible when it comes to adapting to disaster (like that of the 1930s).
>
>Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
I have no idea what "capitalism in general" is supposed to mean. This is
the same kind of intellectual exercise as asking whether capitalism
requires slavery. Perhaps if we phrase the question in terms of whether
capitalism REQUIRED slavery (or oil) rather than whether it REQUIRES it,
we'd be better off. We only know the historical capitalism that has
existed--trying to come up with hypothetical examples of another capitalism
of our imagination seems besides the point.
The Guardian (London), December 2, 1991
In defence of Pearl Harbor: John Casey argues that Japan's attack 50 years
ago on the US fleet was prompted by fear
By JOHN CASEY
After the Meiji restoration of 1868 which swept away feudal Japan, the
Japanese set themselves to become a modern, westernised, industrial power.
They assumed this included acquiring overseas territory - or at least
influence - to protect their supply of raw materials.
The Japanese came to think that they had vital interests in Manchuria, and
gradually expanded their presence, building railways, and bringing in
millions of Japanese and Korean immigrants. Japanese 'special interests' in
Manchuria were officially recognised by the Americans in 1915. The Japanese
were obsessed by the idea that they were a major industrial power with
hardly any natural resources, always at the mercy of foreign powers.
Japan depended for its survival on free and open international trade.
However, with the slump of 1929, the US and the imperial powers erected
ever higher tariff walls, which effectively excluded Japanese exports from
Europe, the US and Britain. Japan responded by increasing its trade in the
Near and Far East. But in due course Japanese exports were kept out of all
the countries which the Western powers controlled - the Philippines,
Indo-China, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaya, Burma and India.
If you read accounts of debates in various Japanese cabinets in the years
leading up to the Pacific war, you are left in no doubt that the Japanese
really did fear encirclement. With the restraints on Japanese trade
increasing, Japan became preoccupied with its position in Manchuria, and
eventually began to expand into China proper. The Americans responded with
their 'open door policy' - which essentially meant that the Western
industrial powers could not be denied the right to share the rich pickings
available in Manchuria.
By 1940 the Americans were openly saying that war with Japan was
inevitable. They helped to make this prediction come true when, in that
same year, they placed an embargo on aviation fuel, which Japan could
obtain from no other source. The Americans stepped up their aid to Chiang
Kai-shek in his struggle with Japan. In September 1940 Japanese troops
entered Indo-China, as a step towards ensuring the supply of petroleum from
the Dutch East Indies. In 1941 the US announced a total embargo on oil
supplies to Japan.
Louis Proyect
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