Scott Reynolds wrote:

> I know that John is one of those people who has been taught to believe
> -- or perhaps has taught himself to believe -- that the British empire
> represents the greatest wrong ever committed in the history of mankind.
> It is interesting to ask oneself, however, why today there is a
> Commonwealth of Nations of which Britain and several former British
> colonies are members, but no Japanese Commonwealth (or perhaps the term
> should be Co-prosperity Sphere).

Funnily enough, despite what you see as my loathing for the villainies
perpetrated by my country, I raised the same point in my reply to Masayuki
before reading this.

I think empires tend to be at their worst in their early days, but on the
whole the only way the imperialists sell their policies to the folks back
home is by pretending to do some good. Take a look at Japanese magazines,
newspapers, etc., of the 1930s for ample evidence that Japan was no
exception.

Now, that can keep going as a form of doublethink for just so long, but
sooner or later the word's going to trickle back from the colonies to the
citizens of the occupying country. Then the pressure comes onto the
government to ensure that the reality starts to match up to the hype.

If Japan's empire had had a couple of hundred years to establish itself and
develop it is possible that it would have actually become (at least in part)
the enlightening, liberating force that it pretended to be. After all, there
were signs of liberal, benign administrations in some areas (e.g.,
Singapore) even in the early days.

I don't say it *would* have happened like that, but the converse scenario -
that of the British Empire collapsing a hundred years or more sooner than it
did - is clear; Britain would have left a bad taste in people's mouths, and
history would have written it off as a demonic scourge. It was mainly in its
later days that it could be classed as having had a benign effect.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com