In several parts of the world, a relentless campaign of infowar has instilled in the local population a fear of China that is unmerited by the facts.. By the victory they have given to the Liberal Democratic Party, Japanese voters have shown they are unafraid of China.
School and college textbooks in China claim as fact that it was the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that was instrumental in defeating the Japanese during World War II. The fact is that the canny peasant mind of Chairman Mao Zedong understood that the Allied forces, especially the US, was on track to defeat Japan one way or another. Mao came up with the slogan “when enemy advances, we retreat” to explain his tactics in the war against Japan. He, therefore, avoided pitched battles with the Japanese forces, save for a few instances when it was to either fight or die without resistance.
It was the rival of the Communist Party of China (commonly known as the CCP), the Kuomintang led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek that did almost all the fighting against China. However, by charming and wooing authors and journalists such as Edgar Snow, Mao succeeded through them in giving a story that it was the fearless PLA that did most of the fighting. Unlike the dour Chiang Kai-Shek, Mao could turn on the charm at short notice, and he did so in an admirable manner.
The reports from China written by fawning and open admirers of Mao convinced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to give large stocks of weapons to the PLA. In contrast, KMT forces were treated in a much less generous way. The local US Commander Joseph Stillwell (known as Vinegar Joe behind his back by his subordinates), often called Chiang “Mr Peanut”. Small wonder that the glamourous Mrs Chiang, Soong Mei-Ling, lobbied incessantly in Washington for his removal. She succeeded only in the closing phases of the conflict.
In the meantime, Mao was sitting in his Yenan retreat, keeping intact his men and weapons for the war between the KMT forces and the PLA. After four years of conflict, Mao succeeded in driving Chiang across to Taiwan, proclaiming on the ramparts of Tiananmen on October 1, 1949 that “the Chinese people have stood up”. As indeed they had outlasted the brutality of the Japanese forces who occupied much of their land.
The pillage committed by the Japanese forces generated in the people of China a hatred for Japan that has yet to be quenched. The comic books read avidly by young school kids in China depict in nightmarish form the Japanese forces. The model international citizen behaviour of Japan after World War II has yet to generate any change in either curricula or comics. All this is being noticed by the people of Japan.
The immense infowar machine of the CCP in Japan was pressed into service to depict LDP leader Sanae Takaich as a warmonger, who’s coming to power as Prime Minister of Japan would “inevitably” spell war with China. Voters in Japan have shown that they care nothing at all for such threats by voting to office the LDP led by Sanae Takaichi to the Japanese Diet or Parliament with a substantial majority. Rather than subdue Japanese voters by the relentless CCP infowar campaign against Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the cacophony has had the opposite effect. The nightmare scenario of Japanese militarism returning in force.
From the ancient roaming Samurai (warriors) known as Ronin to centuries later the fierce combat capabilities of the Japanese army, fierce, aggressive militarism had been alive and well.
The Japanese armed forces made short shrift to the great European empires of the day, the British, French and Dutch. They took Singapore in a humiliating manner, with the British general Sir Percival having to meekly surrender Fortress Singapore. The British guns were trained towards the seas, but the Japanese attacked by land, from what was then known as Malaya. The French suffered defeat after defeat, including the rout of French forces in Vietnam and of Dutch forces in Indonesia.
It took two atom bombs, dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to force Japan to surrender on condition that the Chrysanthemum throne occupied by Emperor Hirohito would be spared. The French, British and Dutch wanted to throw away the agreement and put Emperor Hirohito on trial for war crimes, together with other “war criminals” such as Commander Hideki Tojo. The US side under General Dougles MacArthur refused, and honoured the agreement. To this day, the Japanese are grateful for that gesture by the US. When in Japan, this columnist saw the Imperial Palace, of course from afar, but although he waited over an hour, could not get sight of the Emperor.
The Japanese have once more stood up and stood tall by refusing to bow down to the threats of war by China. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a protege of Shinzo Abe, who calmly but tenaciously showed the Chinese they could not subdue him into submission the way they had with some of the predecessors of Abe San. Now in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi the Japanese have shown their pride is alive and strong.
Abe San was killed by an assassin who was addicted to social media, where the CCP planted the view that Abe San was a danger to Japan, and would cause war. Prime Minister Takaichi needs to be careful about her security. Taiwan has now got a champion being Head of Government in Tokyo (Edo). Prime Minister Takaichi is close to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te and has repeatedly affirmed her support for a free Taiwan.
The PLA advances only where there is no resistance, but when they meet resistance, as they did in Galwan in India brief years ago, they flinch and falter, and finally fail. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has found an able partner in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as he looks to the next phase of Operation Sindoor, which will surely come.
Victory through the next phase of Operation Sindoor will assure victory for the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha polls, just as victory in Kargil gave Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his coalition a safe winning margin in the Lok Sabha polls. With Sanae Takaichi winning big in Japan, Asia is seeing a shift that is Advantage Democracy over Authoritarianism.
Good news indeed for those who support democracy everywhere, including in course of time in China, with its ancient traditions and noble history.
