townhall.com By Mark Lewis
The following quote is a bit lengthy, but please read it through. It is a brilliant and tragic analysis:
“The History of Japan is an unfinished drama in which three acts have been played. The first, barring the primitive and legendary centuries, is classical Buddhist Japan (522-1603 A.D.), suddenly civilized by China and Korea, refined and softened by religion, and creating the historical masterpieces of Japanese literature and art.
The second is the feudal and peaceful Japan of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), isolated and self-contained, seeking no alien territory and no external trade, content with agriculture, and wedded to art and philosophy. The third act is modern Japan, opened up in 1853 by an American fleet, forced by conditions within and without to trade and industry, seeking foreign materials and markets, fighting wars of irrepressible expansion, imitating the imperialistic ardor and methods of the West, and threatening both the ascendancy of the white race and the peace of the world.
By every historical precedent, the next act will be war. The Japanese have studied our civilization carefully in order to absorb its values and surpass it. Perhaps we should be wise to study their civilization as patiently as they have studied ours, so that when a crisis comes that must issue either in war or understanding, we may be capable of understanding.” (Will Durant, “Our Oriental Heritage,” Chapter 28)…
