A (not-so) brief subjective history by Zack

March 1st, 2007
Yesterday was our last day of formal indoctrination class. We received a very interesting history brief on Japan and learned a lot of stuff that we'd like to share with you. Sasebo City was founded in the early 1880's as a Naval Base for the Japanese Navy. There is a building right outside this internet cafe that housed the leadership of the Imperial Navy and took a major roll in planning the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Talk about living history, right? The harbor is surrounded by mountains on all side except for the bay facing south that leads out to sea. It is very defendable and also very close to the Republic of Korea and mainland Asia.
Okay, so Japan's foreign policy back then was that of exclusion.They didn't want anything to do with outsiders and were perfectly content to be isolated from the rest of the world. By the end of the 19th Century, Europe was carving up the rest of the world as it's own and forced itself upon Japan. The Shoguns (ruling Lords) had become weaker than previous years and were amazed at the industrialization forced upon them by the American, British, Dutch, French, etc... neighbors. In keeping with the spirit of Imperialism, Japan built a fleet of it's own and took a port city in Korea to claim as her own. Great Britian, one of Japan's major trading partners, scolded Japan saying that only Eastern European Countries could expand. After all, in this high and mighty age, Japan was viewed as "uncivilized" by Europe. So Japan withdrew back to their land and were astonished when Britian awarded the land to Russia. That sparked the Russo-Japanese war in which the Japanese soundly beat the Russians and established themselves as a major player. They never forgot the imperialist nature of their trading partners and would become imperialists themselves before too long.
In the 20th century, the world destroyed itself through actions of the 1st World War. Japan sat that one out but in the 1930's began taking land from their traditional enemies, the Chinese and Koreans. By the 1940's the world was alarmed at how fast the Japanese had grown technologically. Germany and Japan entered a strategic alliance in 1940 becoming the Axis Powers. With the British and Dutch financially and militarily weak from the first world war, Japan had no problem capitalizing on that weakness by targeting their lands(mostly in China and the Phillipennes) to expand their Empire the way America (Puerto Rice, Phillipenes) and Europe (most of Africa and Asia) did decades earlier.
After defeating the Japanese, the US rewrote their constitution making it illegal for their forces to have any offensive military at all. In the 1960's we entered an alliance with them declaring an attack on Japanese soil would be considered the same as an attack on America. In return, they let us build bases all over their lands to protect them from any aggressors and also use their islands as the most forward deployed area of operations we have in the Asian theater. We coexist together peacfully today as Allies and friends.
In the ancient days, the Japanese followed a caste system very similiar to the one of present day India. The "Samauri" or Warrior class was charged with defending the people. Now, Samauri have been outlawed for centuries as an attempt by the Emperor to Westernize his people, The Japanese people see the United States Navy as the Samauri of old. With limited military powers of their own, they rely on us to protect them and look to us with a deep sense of respect and honor for that position.