Why do people have such a problem with history?

[rockymountaindem]

Really, as a history major and an historian in training, this pisses me off.

In yet another thread on US-Japan WWII hostilities, someone (a Canadian who is always around to bash the US no matter what) said that the US provoked hostilities with Japan by cutting off the oil trade with them. At the time the US was the world's leading oil exporter (those were the days) so that was a crippling blow to oil scarce Japan.

In response to that bullshit, I posted this:

The reason we cut off Japan's oil supply was because Japan refused to withdraw from China, after the US, the League of Nations and practically everyone else in the international community demanded that they withdraw.

We put an embargo on Japan in 1941, this was after:

The illegal Japanese seizure of Manchuria in 1931
Japan's second invasion of China in 1935, and the subsequent LofN demand that they withdraw
The Rape of Nanking in 1936
The fall of Shanghai to the Japanese

This is why the US embargoed Japan. It wasn't like we did it just to spite 'em. Believe it or not, the US was standing up for the Chinese at the loss of a major marked for US goods and, as we learned, Japanese military retaliation.


End post

Now, I took a Japanese history course last year and I know whereof I speak. I did a 14 page paper on the seizure of Manchuria and a 1 hour class presentation on Japanese war crimes in China and and against Allied POWs.

Here's the thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2003064&mesg_id=2003064

[JI7]

1. imperial Japan was horrible

i wonder if this person even knows about it. of course it's easy to have a view that every bad thing in the world is a result of America.

[rockymountaindem]

2. I go to the University of Toronto.

I think some people up there, (such as this dude) think the best way to prove your Canadian patriotism is to hate on the US. The vast majority of Canadians are good friends of ours, but I've run into a few who are really hard-core anti-American.

One girl in my Intro to International Relations class discussion group was mindless doodling "I HATE America" during class one day.

[TayTay]

4. It was a feudal order, with all the problems that implies

And this was the order that Tom Cruise fought to preserve in that movie that came out about a year and a half ago, The Last Samurai.

Romanticising a punishing and cruel order that fostered abuse of power and repression of freedom doesn't help.

[JohnKleeb]

3. Jesus Christ,thast so ignorant of history

[JohnKleeb]

5. Also another thing

Okinawa and Iwo Jima are technically part of the island of Japan but Iwo Jima and Okinawa arent on the island.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Iwo_jima_location_map.png
another map added btw
Furthermore we needed to have those two islands in order to win the war in the pacific. Its a shame since so many good men died in both battles including a relative of mine.

[JI7]

6. how pathetic

the person responded to your post with a "who asked you?".

i notice they never responded to the other posters who responded with facts either.