1/Let's revisit my post from January 6, 2021: "Japanese lessons for the American coup".
In this post, I went through Japan's history of rightist coup attempts in the 1930s, and what lessons America can learn from this history.
noahpinion.substack.com/p/japanese-les…
In this post, I went through Japan's history of rightist coup attempts in the 1930s, and what lessons America can learn from this history.
noahpinion.substack.com/p/japanese-les…
2/Japan had five significant coup attempts in the 1930s.
All failed to topple the government.
But in the end, they forced the government to do what the coup perpetrators wanted -- invade and attempt to conquer the rest of Asia.
All failed to topple the government.
But in the end, they forced the government to do what the coup perpetrators wanted -- invade and attempt to conquer the rest of Asia.
3/In the post, I go through all 5 coup attempts. But the best direct comparison for America's 1/6 coup attempt is the March Incident of 1931.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Inc…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Inc…
4/Why is this the best direct comparison?
Because of how shambolic and pathetic the coup attempt was.
The idea was to have right-wingers start a riot at the national legislature, after which (they hoped) the military would be forced to declare martial law.
Because of how shambolic and pathetic the coup attempt was.
The idea was to have right-wingers start a riot at the national legislature, after which (they hoped) the military would be forced to declare martial law.
5/The coup attempt was funded by a right-wing member of the legislature, and they hoped to institute the right-wing War Minister as head of government.
6/The whole plot was stupid and pathetic and never would have worked. It failed because the plotters failed to start a riot of sufficient size, and were arrested.
That's it. That was the whole coup attempt.
That's it. That was the whole coup attempt.
7/So this is the first lesson America can take from the March Incident of 1931: A coup attempt doesn't have to have an actual chance of succeeding in order to be a coup attempt. In fact, it can be some doomed, half-assed, pathetic crap. It's still a coup attempt.
8/The second lesson is that if you don't harshly punish the people who try to carry out a coup attempt -- even a shambolic, doomed, pathetic coup attempt -- they are encouraged to try again.
9/Japan kept dishing out only slap-on-the-wrist sentences to the people carrying out these coup attempts.
The reason being that they didn't want to run afoul of the country's right wing.
The reason being that they didn't want to run afoul of the country's right wing.
10/As a result of these light punishments, the coup attempts continued, becoming bigger and bolder over time until the final one nearly managed to overthrow the government.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_…
11/Here is an article about how much we've been punishing the perpetrators of the 1/6 coup attempt.
washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/…
washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/…
12/But in fact, ALL the 1930s Japanese coup attempts failed.
What happened was that the coup attempts pressured the leadership into making disastrous decisions to appease the country's right wing -- decisions that led directly to the destruction of the Japanese Empire.
What happened was that the coup attempts pressured the leadership into making disastrous decisions to appease the country's right wing -- decisions that led directly to the destruction of the Japanese Empire.
13/1930s Japan is a country we definitely do not want to emulate.
So we had better learn the lessons of history, and not repeat it.
(end)
noahpinion.substack.com/p/japanese-les…
So we had better learn the lessons of history, and not repeat it.
(end)
noahpinion.substack.com/p/japanese-les…
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