Arguably they started out by reacting against the Europeans colonizing other parts of Asia, esp. after the Russo-Japanese War. Still, they ended up doing some pretty godawful things while they were at it.
At one point I was flipping through a book at the library about the growth of Japanese nationalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including some writings by Katsura, or Kido as he became known instead. There was some other guy was was arguing that maybe these Westerners had some good ideas like steam power and heavy artillery, but this whole "science" thing about all people being descended from monkeys and the sun being a big ball of fire were obvious nonsense-- after all, everyone (in Japan at the time) knew that they and they alone were descended from the goddess Amaterasu, and everyone else on earth was of lesser birth and should be trampled underfoot.
(OTOH, it's still common to hear people of Chinese descent offhandedly mutter that *they* (i.e., China) originated all the really worthwhile culture in Asia, and all of their neighbors like the Korean and Japanese are just stupid barbarians who more-or-less ineptly tried to copy them. Ah, the delights of tradition.)
And to round out the general character-bashing for this post, before WWII, MacArthur was noted for disbanding the "Bonus Army" (a group of WWI veterans and their families who camped out near Washington DC in hopes of cashing in their service bonds from the government, during the early part of the Great Depression). Various men, women, and children were tear-gassed, bayoneted, and generally kicked around, and their tents and shanties were burned.
no subject
At one point I was flipping through a book at the library about the growth of Japanese nationalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including some writings by Katsura, or Kido as he became known instead. There was some other guy was was arguing that maybe these Westerners had some good ideas like steam power and heavy artillery, but this whole "science" thing about all people being descended from monkeys and the sun being a big ball of fire were obvious nonsense-- after all, everyone (in Japan at the time) knew that they and they alone were descended from the goddess Amaterasu, and everyone else on earth was of lesser birth and should be trampled underfoot.
(OTOH, it's still common to hear people of Chinese descent offhandedly mutter that *they* (i.e., China) originated all the really worthwhile culture in Asia, and all of their neighbors like the Korean and Japanese are just stupid barbarians who more-or-less ineptly tried to copy them. Ah, the delights of tradition.)
And to round out the general character-bashing for this post, before WWII, MacArthur was noted for disbanding the "Bonus Army" (a group of WWI veterans and their families who camped out near Washington DC in hopes of cashing in their service bonds from the government, during the early part of the Great Depression). Various men, women, and children were tear-gassed, bayoneted, and generally kicked around, and their tents and shanties were burned.
Yay patriotism. Rah.