Japanese militarization...we play with forces we don't understand. Read about Yukio Mishima.

pics via fujisan-ni-noboru-hinode tumblr page.

The above Tumblr Page has me on a new mission after reading a bit about Yukio Mishima.

First I must learn more about this guy.

Second I must rethink my views about how to contain China.  To put things plainly I have to wonder if US participation isn't making things a bit easier for China in the Pacific.

I speak often about China's militarism.  I warn about the things that I've read on Chinese boards and how they have a martial spirit that should have us on almost a war footing and getting ready for a fight.

I've talked about how the S. Koreans view Japan as a greater threat than China and how the Chinese worry more about the Japanese than they do the US.

But I've never put it all together.

Then I read just a snippet about this guy.  I recall some of the stuff that I've read on Japanese boards and I realized something.

Japan has a martial spirit that scares the entire region.

If the US were to simply step out the way.  Stop acting as big brother and attempting to "guide" the region as it always has I have to wonder if we wouldn't have a better outcome.  Don't get me wrong.  We would probably see a bigger uptick in incidents between countries we consider allies.  The Japanese and S. Koreans would definitely become engaged in naval skirmishes, Vietnam would lose their shit, and Singapore would undoubtedly become alarmed at the rapid militarization that we would see.

But at the same time we could see China's activities virtually halted in light of a resurgent Japan and we could better allocate our forces and marshall our strength toward actively ASSISTING their efforts against our common foe and referee fights between our allies.

Our relations with the Japanese, S. Koreans and others in the region would be more adult like.  Instead of playing massive power we would instead fall into the roll of partnership...real partnerships instead of shouldering the whole load ourselves.

Yukio Mishima had the wrong idea when it came to putting a new emperor in charge of Japan, but a greater role for Japan in defense of itself?  I think he might have been onto something.