tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post438903773937979400..comments2023-09-25T07:01:43.067-04:00Comments on Critical Montages: Regimes and GovernmentsYoshiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11826849368615187619noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-28361709331069568662007-09-15T18:50:00.000-04:002007-09-15T18:50:00.000-04:00Cold War Orientalism sounds indeed fascinating. I...Cold War Orientalism sounds indeed fascinating. I just ordered a copy of it online, as a matter of fact.<BR/><BR/>I also ordered a copy of Client State: Japan in the American Embrace by Gavan McCormack. It seems to me that many Japanese, especially liberals and leftists, themselves have bought into this Popular Front-inspired rhetoric of liberation of Japan, which has been one of the reasons for the extraordinary stability of post-WW2 Japan as a client state (I had better explain why I think that, but that has to wait).<BR/><BR/>I'm afraid that "my people" (I am from Japan, after all, though few Japanese think like me) set a bad example, letting Washington get away with making a model out of "successful" occupation of Japan.Yoshiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11826849368615187619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-83959551239720006422007-09-15T16:33:00.000-04:002007-09-15T16:33:00.000-04:00Thanks for your reminder about the Monroe doctrine...Thanks for your reminder about the Monroe doctrine. I do academic work on the Japanese context, actually, where there was a blatant transfer of imperial holdings and imperial rhetoric (and emperors) right at 1945, and where it's easy to think that the phenomenon of American 'anti-colonialism' started at that point. <BR/><BR/>By the way, there is a very interesting book by Christina Klein ('Cold War Orientalism') about American Orientalism after WWII-she makes the argument that most of the legitimating rhetoric of Containment was borrowed from the popular front and Soviet-sponsored Friendship Associations. It's pretty fascinating reading, particularly if you know the parallel Japanese context: for example, Reader's Digest sent all this funding to the 遺族会 through humanitarian campaigns.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00915117524846012971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-7763218066174410392007-09-15T12:15:00.000-04:002007-09-15T12:15:00.000-04:00Thank you for your comments. As you say, it is in...Thank you for your comments. As you say, it is indeed difficult to deconstruct the American ideology, for Washington, unlike old empires like the British and Japanese empires, denies that the USA is an empire and moreover pitches its ideology as an "anti-colonial" one, liberating oppressed nations from the enemy "regime," the pitch that dates back at least to the Monroe Doctrine. We can see that what Washington says now about Iran's influence in Iraq and Afghanistan echoes what it said about the Soviet hold over Eastern Europe and other countries in the USSR's sphere of influence.Yoshiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11826849368615187619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-32209777792964314992007-09-14T17:14:00.000-04:002007-09-14T17:14:00.000-04:00But incidentally, I'd certainly agree with your po...But incidentally, I'd certainly agree with your point that the usage of the term reflects a degree of consent to the actions of the Bush, er, administration.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00915117524846012971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-66012552134578608092007-09-14T16:58:00.000-04:002007-09-14T16:58:00.000-04:00Hi-I've been reading the blog for a while but want...Hi-I've been reading the blog for a while but wanted to pipe up. <BR/><BR/>I've been thinking about this whole issue, too. <BR/>I'm not sure the use of the term 'regime' is just about manpiulating domestic hegemony. Remember that in the Cold War, 'regime' always indicated the USSR as a shadowy power that stood over and above state sovereignty, so that the 'Soviet Regime' could be considered to encompass, say, Poland while still basically indicating the will of Moscow. There's a whole juridical logic to that claim, and I'm not sure that supporting national sovereignty in principle can counter it. Hasn't the US government presented victory in the Cold War as, among other things, a victory of national self-determination in central asia and eastern europe?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00915117524846012971noreply@blogger.com