Japan "did the opposite" largely with the encouragement of the US post-1947. "Reverse Course" and all that--why continue prosecuting war criminals when you need to Fight Communism and can use them to strengthen Japan's government? Welcome back, Kishi Nobusuke!
If I‘m understanding this correctly, the red scare contributed to war criminals being let go because the US and Japan decided war crimes were more acceptable than wanting socialism/communism? And Japan used war criminals to consolidate capitalist power?
Well when I teach it there's a bit more nuance to it, but basically, yes. The flip side of that is how absurdly mishandled the entire Tokyo Trials were. It's entirely reasonable to argue both "the US was too harsh" and "the US was too lenient" and have both statements be correct. It was a mess.
Man there are certain things you just can't unlearn and one of them is that the "natural party of government" of Japan, a country of 100+ million people, was founded with a briefcase full of CIA cash handed to a war criminal. Oh yeah, we really give a shit about "democracy." Always have.
"The Liberal Democratic Party is not Liberal, Democratic, or a party. Discuss"
Christ at 30-something I'm one of the younger people to be able to get that reference lol
To be fair, that's about as long as I've been using it about the LDP
Same thing happened in russia, whose first independent political party was the far right, antisemitic Liberal Democratic Party, set up by the KGB.