madamoiselle blobois wrote:
> 
> superoutland@aol.com (SuperOutland) wrote in message news:<e91ad9af.0403252139.53078b8c@posting.google.com>...
> > I've heard it quoted that MAcarthur said "the japanese should be
> > treated like they're 12 year old".
> >
> > This may be a paraphrase of his speech, in which compared to the
> > "modern germany" japan was a "12 year old boy".
> >
> > However, it is clear that Macarthur somehow though of japanese as
> > being immature, and probably not solely to them not being modern or
> > even and enemy because i do not believe he made similar remarks about
> > Koreans or Chinese.  Or his duties as an administrator, for I do not
> > believe he made similar remarks about the people of the Phillipines.
> >
> >
> >
> > I just want to know your opinions on why you think this, both japanese
> > and otherwise.
> 
> mccarthur, when he returned to the US, gave an account of what he did
> in japan to the congressional committee.
> mccarthur compared the japanese with the germans. he said japanese
> were less guilty than the germans because whereas germans belonged to
> a mature and advanced culture and should have known better, japan
> during the military era had been like a 'boy of thirteen'.
> 

That's a use of simile. It shows MacArthur's "Eurocentric" 
perception of the political maturity of Japan. 

Japan was pretty much purely feudal ( in the Japanese variations of 
that ) up to the 1800ish time frame. MacArthur being a 19th century
balance of power man, that looks like a 12th century system. I 
wouldn't be at all surprised if that was not the math exactly. 

Of course, Japan had made a different sort of art out of feudalism,
and his remark probably also referred to the sort of naeivete 
associated with Bushido. There was a lock of culture shock 
associated with Bushido - Murkins/Europeans hadn't encountered 
much of that sort of thing before. 

In fairness, not nearly as much was known of Japan by Westerners,
then.

> it was a condescending but was said to explain the rise of japanese
> militarism, not to insult the japanese. japanese did feel insulted
> however.
> 

It's a stupid thing for a statesman to say in quotable form, because
it's easy to take out of context.  

> read john dower's 'embracing defeat'.  good book and it's all there.


--
Les Cargill