By Theodore Shoebat
Trump just had his peace summit in Singapore, and the masses think that this is going to lead to a major peace in east Asia. But the elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring is Japan, the most powerful country in east Asia.
The Japanese government, in conjunction with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is going to send out a satellite to spy on North Korea. As we read in a report from SBS:
Japan and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have put its latest spy satellite into orbit to monitor military facilities in North Korea.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy launched an H-2A rocket carrying the government’s Information Gathering Satellite Radar 6 from the Tanegashima Space Centre on the southern island of Tanegashima, about 1000km southwest of Tokyo.
The satellite separated from the rocket about 20 minutes later after Tuesday’s launch and reached orbit, broadcaster NHK reported.
The launch was postponed on Monday due to bad weather.The government will also use the satellite to take photos of affected areas during natural disasters.
The spy satellite program was developed and introduced after a missile test-fired from North Korea in 1998 flew over Japan’s mainland, causing fears in Tokyo.
Pyongyang has ramped up its nuclear and missile programs under leader Kim Jong Un, carrying out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September and launching about 20 ballistic missiles last year alone.
So while Trump is now talking about how “We’re going to denuke North Korea”, the Japanese are going to continue spying on North Korea as though nothing is changing. Look who made the rocket for the satellite: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the very corporation that ran death camps in World War Two, and that just recently engineered Japan’s XASM supersonic anti-ship missile. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper: “The introduction of the new missile is aimed at keeping the Chinese Navy — which has been taking high-handed action in the East China Sea and other places — in check”. The missile will be carried by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s (JASDF) F-2 multirole fighter jets, a Mitsubishi license-produced variant of Lockheed Martin’s F-16.
So Japan is not interested in war, but yet it is still developing weapons for war. All of this stuff about a “peace summit” is a show that covers what the military industrial complex is conspiring.
Here is one reason why this whole story about North Korea makes me suspicious: how the change of rhetoric has shifted so quickly, from North Korea deserving of being bombed by the Japanese, now Trump has expressing reverence for Kim Jong-un, saying: “He’s a funny guy, he’s very smart, he’s a great negotiator. He loves his people, not that I’m surprised by that, but he loves his people.”
Trump, back in 2017, was the face of a major arms deal between the US and Japan, during which the president talked about how Japan is going to shoot missiles out of the sky:
“[Abe] will shoot missiles out of the sky when he completes the purchase of lots of equipment from the United States,” Trump said. “One very important thing is that Prime Minister Abe is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should. …We make the best by far … it’s a lot of jobs for us, and a lot of safety for Japan.”
Before, Trump was talking about how he would destroy North Korea if it attacks the United States:
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”
Just last month, Trump bragged about how the United States, South Korea and Japan are ready to go to war with North Korea:
“Our military is ready if necessary … Likewise, I have spoken to South Korea and Japan and they are not only ready should foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea, but they are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden — any of the costs associated by the United States in operations, if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us”
But now, Kim Jong-un has “got a great personality. He’s a funny guy, he’s very smart, he’s a great negotiator.” Who is the biggest winner in this deal? For whose benefit is this being done? I can already hear people referencing the Godfather about ‘keeping your enemies closer” and all that jargon, but lets get beyond the sentiments innately within the cult of personality that we call the office of the president, and think about the motivation behind this move of the United States in light of the history that this country has of making deals, talking diplomatically and then turning around, breaking deals, stabbing people in the back and talking completely differently as though whatever statements of peace and cooperation that were said before were never said at all. For one, the United States does not care about loyalty. The US will work with one nation if it benefits it, and screw over that same nation if it also holds an advantage for it. Just look at what the US did to Saddam. The Americans sold Iraq weapons to defeat Iran, only to years later do regime change on the same country.
The Chinese government has expressed favor towards the US-North Korea peace summit, with one Chinese media report saying:
China welcomes and supports the achievements of the meeting between the leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States, according to a statement released Tuesday by Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Why would the Chinese have favor toward this? Its possible because they think that the agreement made in the meeting between Trump and Kim-Jong-un will contain an increasingly nationalist Japan. In June of 2016, there was a meeting between the then vice-president Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping, in which Biden implied, correctly, that if China did not allow measures to keep North Korea under control to be done, then Japan would eventually go nuclear which could happen ‘overnight’:
“When I tell President Xi, you have to understand we got a guy up there in North Korea who is talking about building weapons that can strike, nuclear weapons strike the United States and not only Hawaii and Alaska, but… the mainland of the United States… And I say, so we’re going to move up our defense system, and he says no, no, no, wait a minute, my military thinks you’re going to try to circle us. …What would you do? Do you think we should stand back? …What happens if we don’t work out something together on North Korea? What happens if Japan, who could tomorrow, could go nuclear tomorrow?”
North Korea’s war rhetoric and missile firing has been, for years, the material for Japanese propaganda to increase military spending and development. So, its possible that the Chinese believe that by containing North Korea, you contain also Japanese militarism.
Which far-east Asian country will win from this? North Korea? North Korea is an impoverished country with a GDP inferior to those of Jamaica and Trinidad. As the old American saying goes, “Remember the Golden Rule! Whoever has the gold, makes the rules!” North Korea, financially speaking, does not have an advantage in this deal. What Korea is, geopolitically speaking, is an essential territory that one must control if one wants to invade China. This is where Japan comes in. Japan is the wealthiest country in Asia, and is the preponderating player in East Asia. After the Second World War, it was Japan that was chosen by the United States to back up the American greenback in East Asia. In other words, the US chose Japan to be the superpower in East Asia, not Korea.
The US had an ally in Korea, the king Gojong. But, not surprisingly, the US backstabbed Gojong when it allowed and enabled the Japanese to invade Korea. Gojong was a strong ally to Russia, and even fled to and stayed in Russia for a year after the Japanese murdered his wife on Oct. 8, 1895. During Gojong’s one year stay in Russia, the Russians were a major influence over the government in Korea and became reformers for the Korean military. Officials in the Korean military, Kim Hong-jip, Eo Yun-jung, and Yu Gil-jun, were either killed or forced to flee, and were then replaced by pro-Russian officials.
Russia’s extreme influence over Korean politics gave rise to tensions between Russia and Japan over Korea. Whoever can control Korea, can control China, and as we read in one article on the subject, “Korea was a strategic point for both Japan and Russia.” War broke out between Russia and Japan on February 8th, 1904, in what is called the Russo-Japanese War. Korea declared its neutrality over the conflict, but this did not help her. During the war, the Japanese slaughtered six thousand Russians in the Battle of Tsushima (May 27-28, 1905). This victory impressed the Americans so much that president Teddy Roosevelt said: “I was pro-Japanese before, but after my experience with the peace commissioners I am far stronger pro-Japanese than ever.”
What was the end result? The US screwed over the king of Korea, Gojong, and allowed the Japanese to invade his country by pulling out all American troops, and telling European countries to withdraw their troops from Korea as well, giving Japan the green light to take over. So here is a brief historical reality that cannot be ignored, of how double-faced American diplomacy is. In July of 1905, Roosevelt — without Congress’ approval — sent a secret cable to Tokyo authorizing the Japanese annexation of Korea. Even though Gojong desperately asked the Americans for help, it did not matter. As Roosevelt said: “Korea should be entirely within Japan’s sphere of interest.” The Japanese were “a wonderful and civilized people,” Roosevelt wrote, “entitled to stand on an absolute equality with all the other peoples of the civilized world.”
Before the Japanese took over Korea, Roosevelt went so far as to cut off relations with Korea, gave the American legation over to the Japanese, and deleted the word “Korea” from the State Department’s Record of Foreign Relations and replaced it with the heading of “Japan.” So to the Americans, Korea no longer existed.
The plan of the United States to have Japan seize Korea did not begin right in the moment of the Russo-Japanese War, but was conceived years prior to the conflict. In the year 1900, Roosevelt wrote: “I should like to see Japan have Korea.” In 1904, when Japan broke off relations with Russia, the United States put up a front of diplomacy, with Roosevelt saying that he would “maintain the strictest neutrality,” but privately he wrote, “The sympathies of the United States are entirely on Japan’s side.” So who are we to say, in light of this history, that the same thing is not happening with the Singapore peace summit? Just to show you how parallel history is with current political affairs, there is an event that reminds us of the Singapore peace summit.
In June of 1905, Roosevelt made international headlines when he invited both Russia and Japan to end the war, similarly to how Trump has invited North Korea, South Korea, Russia and Japan, for a peace summit. On the surface, this seemed like a noble move towards peace, but in private the motivation was revealed: the invitation was solely for the benefit of Japan. As Roosevelt wrote to his son:
“I have of course concealed from everyone — literally everyone — the fact that I acted in the first place on Japan’s suggestion … . Remember that you are to let no one know that in this matter of the peace negotiations I have acted at the request of Japan and that each step has been taken with Japan’s foreknowledge, and not merely with her approval but with her expressed desire.”
While Americans thought that US foreign policy was being done for a noble cause, the reality behind the curtains was one of hypocrisy. And if this motivation of boosting and strengthening Japan was kept so secretly, then who’s to say that the same thing is not happening right now, with Trump acting as a peacemaker in East Asia, when America’s record in the Far East shows — in a diplomatic context — a favoring towards the advantage of Japan? Years after Roosevelt’s invitation to Russia and Japan, a Japanese emissary to the president paraphrased the policy that Roosevelt wanted for Japan and east Asia:
“All the Asiatic nations are now faced with the urgent necessity of adjusting themselves to the present age. Japan should be their natural leader in that process, and their protector during the transition stage, much as the United States assumed the leadership of the American continent many years ago, and by means of the Monroe Doctrine, preserved the Latin American nations from European interference. The future policy of Japan towards Asiatic countries should be similar to that of the United States towards their neighbors on the American continent.”
So, the goal was to make Japan into the United States of east Asia (as opposed to Russia or China), and this was no doubt helped by the US’ trade policy with Japan in which the Americans taught the Japanese about coal energy, pushing Japan into becoming a technological powerhouse and facilitating the Meiji era during which Japan became a superpower. Japan’s position as a superpower and a US ally was further solidified by Japan’s vanquishing of the Russians. Japan being such a strong country made it an appealing entity for the US to use to control east Asia. The problem, though, was that Japan — like any sovereign country once it has been empowered by industry — was impossible to fully control, and its jingoist violence eventually imploded into the horrors of the Second World War. As historian James Bradley writes:
Roosevelt had assumed that the Japanese would stop at Korea and leave the rest of North Asia to the Americans and the British. But such a wish clashed with his notion that the Japanese should base their foreign policy on the American model of expansion across North America and, with the taking of Hawaii and the Philippines, into the Pacific. It did not take long for the Japanese to tire of the territorial restrictions placed upon them by their Anglo-American partners.
When Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto planned out the Pearl Harbor attack, he was inspired by the attack that the Japanese made upon the Russians just thirty seven years earlier. The attack was made on the Russian Navy at Port Arthur in Manchuria and, as he wrote, “favorable opportunities were gained by opening the war with a sudden attack on the main enemy fleet.” After the Japanese hit Port Arthur, the Russians protested that it was a violation of international law. But, the Americans did not really care, with Theodore Roosevelt writing to his son: “I was thoroughly well pleased with the Japanese victory, for Japan is playing our game.” Little did Americans know that they would soon feel what the Russians felt, in the attack on Peal Harbor.
And thats what the Americans are doing now: they are playing a game. Humanity is not all of a sudden more moral than we were over seventy years, or a hundred years ago (if anything we have become even more filled with blood lust). So how can one have solid faith that peace is going to be preserved, just through some diplomatic meetings? “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. ” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) Why do the Americans continue doing arms deals with the Japanese, if peace is being seen in the horizon? Just last week, in a joint press conference between Trump and Shinzo Abe, Trump mentioned how Japan has been buying billions of dollars worth of fighter jets:
The Prime Minister was telling us just moments ago that they’re buying billions and billions of dollars of additional products of all kinds — military jets, airliners from Boeing, lots of farm products. We’re going to be doing a lot more business with Japan, which is what everybody wants to see.
Does not God warn of war when He writes:
“Beat your plowshares into swords
And your pruning hooks into spears;
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” (Joel 3:10)
Is Trump wiser than God? Or are we so drunk by the cult of personality that we cannot see the truth that is right in front of us: that another world war is in the horizon?
Before the joint press conference, Trump said:
Japan buys large amounts of military equipment from us, including jet fighters and, in particular, the F-35, which is now the hottest airplane anywhere in the world. We make the best equipment in the world by far. Japan is a big buyer.
Humanity is not experiencing an evolution towards a peace and harmony mentality. Rather, we are heading towards an apocalyptic consciences, in which nationalism, jingoism, militarism and racial pride are becoming more and more common and accepted. If we are heading towards the apocalypse (and we certainly are), then how can we have so much faith on politicians — who have their own material goals — to prevent mankind from sprinting towards another world conflict?
We look at the news and think that things are really happening towards peace. But the reality is, human beings have never truly worked towards such a monumental degree of harmony. To believe that world peace is attainable, is to deny the sin nature that is innate within us all. What the move by Trump could be is America isolating itself from East Asia, in order to enable Japan to take further political leverage in east Asia, similar to what Roosevelt did in 1905.