Shinzo Abe Legacy
Quora by Zayne Chu to a question “Do you think Shinzo Abe was shot by Chinese agents?”
The Chinese generally don’t like Shinzo Abe. I think there is no doubt about that. But it is not in China’s interest to assassinate Abe.
Shinzo Abe was a representative of the right-wing conservative faction in Japan. His grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was one of the Class A war criminals who led the war of aggression against China during World War II.
Nobusuke Kishi was once called the “Monster of Manchuria.” He was the Deputy PM of the puppet Manchukuo. His hands were stained with the blood of the Chinese people.
His main “performance”:
He cultivated opium poppy on a large scale and monopolized the opium trade in Northeast China, becoming the second largest source of revenue for the Puppet Manchukuo after tariff revenue. He personally brought tons of opium to Shanghai to trade, and together with the Japanese army stationed in Shanghai, he made huge profits.
He vigorously promoted the “Manchuria and Mongolia pioneering group” to immigrate to Northeast China, forcibly occupying the land and villages of Chinese farmers, causing a large number of Chinese families to lose their land and homes, to be displaced, freeze to death and starve to death.
During his stay in Manchuria, he also actively organized comfort stations for the Kwantung Army, forcibly recruited or deceived Chinese and Korean women as comfort women for the Japanese army to vent their animal desires…
He formed the infamous Unit 731 to conduct bacterial experiments on living people, and the main funds were raised by him. It can be said that he is one of the main planners of Unit 731.
Because of his numerous crimes, he was greatly appreciated by the Japanese military. After returning to Japan at the end of 1939, he served as the Minister of Commerce and Industry in the Japanese Cabinet.
Since then, Nobusuke Kishi made greater efforts to be loyal to Japanese fascist regime, firmly supported the launching of the Pacific War, signed the declaration of war against the United States, and become the most capable cabinet member of Hideki Tojo’s wartime cabinet.
Under the full operation of Nobusuke Kishi, coal, grain and iron ore plundered from China and oil, rubber, wood, copper and other strategic resources plundered from Southeast Asia were continuously transported to Japan, which became the driving force of Japan’s crazy war machine.
At this time, Nobusuke Kishi has changed from the “Monster of Manchuria” to the “Monster of the Shōwa era“.
After Japan’s defeat, Nobusuke Kishi was listed as a Class A war criminal, but because Hirohito knelt down and licked MacArthur, comfort stations were set up all over Japan, MacArthur was very happy, and finally Nobusuke Kishi was “acquitted”.
Nobusuke Kishi thought he could not escape death, but he did not expect to be “acquitted” by the Americans. He was grateful to the United States when he came out of his cell. He just wanted to lick MacArthur’s ass and show his loyalty all the time. MacArthur immediately said when he saw Nobusuke Kishi’s attitude: Yes, we can rest assured of you, and the Japanese government will hand it over to you in the future.
In this way, Nobusuke Kishi pledged his infinite allegiance to MacArthur and his oath of allegiance to the United States.
In the process of kneeling and licking the United States, fruitful results have been achieved.
His greatest “merit” was the vigorous push for the “Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan” under his leadership, which asserted that the United States must defend Japan and that Japan must be defended by the United States – ultimately making Japan a vassal state of the United States.
The Abe family has a long-standing tradition of ideological anti-communism and pro-Americanism. Because of this, the Abe family is considered “loyal” by Americans. This is why the family not only escaped due trial and liquidation, but also held high positions in Japanese politics for a long time with the support of the United States.
Shinzo Abe certainly did not like the Chinese from the bottom of his heart. Much of this “dislike” stems not from a conflict of interest, but from a Nazi-like racial superiority mentality inherent in Japanese gentry families. In other words, they did not consider the Chinese as “human beings” who had the right to be their equals.
This explains why people like Abe have no sense of reflection about the war of aggression against China. Not only was he not ashamed of it, but he was proud of it. Fundamentally, he did not believe that Japan lost to China in World War II, but to the United States. There was nothing wrong with the war, it was wrong to lose. Therefore, his main task was to reflect on why he “lost”, rather than reflecting on the war itself. This was the core logic of Abe’s diplomacy with China and the United States.
Once we bring this nationalistic “blue-blooded aristocrat” mentality into Abe’s career, many of his seemingly contradictory actions were naturally understandable.
This “aristocratic mentality” required Abe to think of the interests of Japan, or the “Yamato people”. He was ambitious and idealistic. This had led him to the path of pragmatism. When it was time to give in, he would give in. When it was time to be tough, his heartfelt arrogance and his long-accumulated family power behind him made him not so easy to be controlled.
He have had three main goals in his career. The first was to stabilize Japan’s sinking economy. The method was the so-called “Abe economics”, which was actually the localization of debt. Debt expansion was used to ease Japan’s chronic deflation and boost consumption and exports. Second, it was to try to normalize the country, to amend the peace constitution and strengthen Japan’s military power.
Third, Japan should try to become a “chess player” instead of a “chess piece” in the game between China and the United States. At worst, it should not become a “chessboard”. In fact, under many constraints, Abe has shown enough ability and wisdom. His achievements in these three points were not good, but definitely not bad either. There was clearly some reasons why he had been the longest serving and relatively successful Japanese Prime Minister since the war. He was also qualified enough.
To accomplish all three, he clearly needed the support of both China and the United States. Even though these policies were essentially in conflict with the interests of China and the United States. Therefore, this had prompted Abe to constantly “walk the tightrope” between China and the United States.
Abe first became prime minister in 2006, when the downward pressure on Japan’s economy showed no sign of easing. This prompted the young Shinzo Abe to embark on a path of seeking China’s support. He was keen to strengthen cooperation with China economically and attract Chinese tourists.
During this time he has shown ample goodwill toward China and South Korea. At the same time, he has successfully upgraded the Defense Agency to the Defense Ministry. These actions made the Americans doubt his loyalty. Therefore, according to the rule of “pro-China will die” in Japanese politics, Abe, who is not yet “mature”, can only accept the fate of stepping down.
After becoming prime minister for the second time in 2012, Abe had become smarter. In diplomacy with China, he had shown an increasingly tough stance. This included paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine as prime minister, provoking the conflict over the Diaoyu Islands, and actively claiming that he was willing to “defend Taiwan”…
At the same time, he had maintained a soft stance toward the United States and had shown a surprisingly attentive attitude in his dealings with Trump.
Interestingly, even with such poor relations with China on the surface, he still managed to promote the official entry into force of the RCEP and to maintain the stability of the Sino-Japanese private capital exchange to the maximum extent.
We need to understand one basic reality. That is that Japan is still not a “normal country” with full and independent sovereignty. American influence on Japan is inevitable and all-encompassing. The pro-China faction in Japanese politics cannot survive in such an environment. Even if they emerge, they will be quickly purged. Therefore, the two major forces that exist in Japan at the diplomatic level are both pro-US and anti-China.
But the logic of operation is not the same. The aristocratic gentry, led by Shinzo Abe, have deep roots in power. They are more likely to think and make decisions with the interests of Japan as their priority. Their “pro-US, anti-China” approach is more a “gesture” than a substance. It is in their interest to remain neutral most of the time.
The bureaucratic elite, represented by the current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, is not firmly rooted in power, and must rely more on the U.S. for stability in power, even if the will of the U.S. is often contrary to Japan’s core interests. They can only fall more fully to the United States.
That is, for China, even if we dislike Shinzo Abe, he was still the “least bad” choice for China. In contrast, we would prefer not to deal with the “new elite” represented by Fumio Kishida, who puts U.S. interests first.
In fact, from China’s point of view, we don’t care anyway. With the dramatic change in the power balance in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has in fact long since lost the right to be a “chess player”. Currently, Japan’s economic crisis is far more severe than any other developed economy in the world. With the dollar interest rate increase spread, the yen is appearing unprecedented devaluation.
At the same time, the Japanese do not dare to solve the problem by raising interest rates. Once interest rates are raised, Japan’s debt crisis will explode completely. With this in mind, an externally-oriented manufacturing economy with no resources to speak of actually has a continuous trade deficit…
This makes people doubt the future of Japan. And the powerful Fumio Kishida is bound to tie Japan more firmly to the U.S. chariot. If he succumbs to the Americans’ eagerness to ease the pressure on the domestic economy, he will continue to “sacrifice” Japan to the U.S. blood transfusion. I can only say, good luck to them…
The fact that the assassin of Shinzo Abe was a socially marginalized person does not bode well for Japan. This in itself is a socialized reaction to Japan’s economic woes over the years. Such an “assassin” may be an isolated case, but such a “marginalized” person is clearly not.
Of course, I must emphasize that economically speaking only, as a member of East Asia, we still want Japan to remain stable. A collapse of the Japanese economy is certainly not in China’s interest. It is equally inevitable that we will be affected. For Southeast Asian countries that are also in the RCEP and hold large amounts of yen assets, the outlook is even less promising. I heard that the Japanese Shinto religion has a tradition of treating dead people as “gods”. Let’s hope that the spirit of former Prime Minister Abe will bless his country.
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Joel Huan
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