RE: Diplomacy that will live in Infamy

On the eve of the 68th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, an op-ed piece in today's NYT's takes a fresh look at the history behind the surprise attack. The conventional wisdom has long held that a series of events, during the decade of the 1930's, climaxed with the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequent Pacific War. Therefore, any search for the causes of the conflict typically confines itself to that time period. Not so with this writer's approach to the subject. In his essay, James Bradley, looks much further back to both an earlier conflict, and a different President Roosevelt. Mr Bradley, who informs us that his father fought in the Pacific War, offers an original theory to explain just why the Japanese took those fateful steps that led to a brutal war, and ultimate disaster, for the Japanese Empire.

Mr. Bradley's points to the role that President Theodore Roosevelt played as possible instigator, and eventual mediator, in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. That President Roosevelt sided with the Japanese, who launched the war with a surprise attack on the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur, was not a secret. However, what was not clear at the time was the fact that Roosevelt was conducting secret diplomacy that both encouraged, and rewarded, Japan for it's aggression. The American president was an open admirer of the Japanese even going so far as to state that "The Japanese, on the other hand, were “a wonderful and civilized people,” entitled to stand on an absolute equality with all the other peoples of the civilized world.”. To say that Roosevelt's sentiments were a minority view at the time would be a distinct understatement. The Japanese humbling of the Russians was looked upon in the west as a welcome check on the Tsar's ambitions in Asia, but accepting them as fully equal to the white races was something else entirely.

And that brings us to the crux of the matter. No matter how hard the Japanese worked to emulate the western powers, they could never hope to be viewed as anything approaching equals. Even a cursory reading of the period in question quickly reveals an almost virulent racism. Calling them "Yellow Monkeys" might just be one of the kinder descriptions you are liable to come across. It is not too much of a stretch to surmise that the Japanese were laboring under a massive inferiority complex that manifested itself in behavior that shocked and offended western sensibilities. Obviously, it is impossible to know if Japan might have taken another course if the enlightened attitude of President Roosevelt had caught on in the west, but it is worth considering.

Here is the link to Mr. Bradley's essay...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06bradley.html?hp=&pagewanted=all