Democracy with a gun : America and the policy of force / Fumio Matsuo ; translated by David Reese.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Matsuo, Fumio, 1933-2019.

Contributor:

Reese, David, 1958-

Standardized Title:

Jū o motsu minshu shugi. English

Language:

English

Japanese

Subjects (All):

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Politics and government.

United States--Foreign relations.

International relations.

Democracy--United States.

Democracy.

Physical Description:

295 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, Calif. : Stone Bridge Press, 2007.

Language Note:

Translated from the Japanese.

Summary:

Drawing on the author's experiences growing up in wartime Japan and his forty years covering the United States, Democracy with a Gun traces America's current position as the world's sole superpower. Discussions of influential American leaders, the Second Amendment, the Civil War, the dropping of the atomic bomb, the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, and aggressive foreign policies suggest a nation willing to act unilaterally to secure, and impose, its lofty goals of peace and freedom. This timely and important work offers a perspective from abroad rarely provided by the usual media pundits.

Contents:

Preface: To My American Readers 9

Prologue: An Encounter as "Enemies" 15

Face-to-Face with Doolittle's Raiders 15

Saved by a "Defective Breadbasket" 18

Why Did We Fight the United States? 21

A Nation Close and Yet So Far 23

1 A Decoration for General LeMay 25

My Encounter with the LeMay Attack 25

A Rapid Rise to the Top 27

Nighttime Indiscriminate Incendiary Bombing 29

The Biggest Firecracker 32

McNamara's Confession 34

Bombers over Atomic Bombs 37

Behavior Bordering on Rebellion 38

Toward the Brink of Nuclear War 41

The War LeMay Wanted 42

The Disparity with Dresden 45

2 The DNA of the Use of Force 49

The Banner of the Second Amendment 49

An Amendment Unchanged for More Than 210 Years 51

Americans Oblivious of Gandhi 54

Ambiguity in Textbook Interpretations 56

The Supreme Court Avoids the Issue 58

The NRA-Supported Bush Administration 60

More Guns, Less Crime 61

The Conversion of Professor Tribe 64

3 Birth from "Disorder" 69

A Bundle of Compromises 69

The Second Amendment as Fait Accompli 71

The Dignity of State Rights 74

Secession from England 76

The Birth of the "Well-Regulated Militia" 77

The Bill of Rights Revived 79

The Foresight of Adam Smith 81

4 Of the Mayflower's Origin 85

A Democracy with No Model 85

Virginia's Survival by Tobacco 88

The Signing of the Mayflower Compact 90

A Solid Bond among Three Leaders 92

The Significance of the Robinson Letter 95

An Armed Group of a Sort 96

Peace and Friendship Treaty with Native Americans 99

The Rise of Boston 100

The Last Days of Plymouth 102

The Role of the Great Awakening 103

Many Kinds of People 105

5 Faith in Manifest Destiny 107

The Glorification of Plymouth 107

"Actors on a Most Conspicuous Theatre" 108

The Empire of Liberty 111

Facing the Pacific 113

The Truth behind the Monroe Doctrine 114

A Sun That Doesn't Set 116

"Armed with the Plough and the Rifle" 118

De Facto Discrimination 120

The Civil War as the Starting Block 122

6 Discrimination and Exclusion 125

A Nation Founded on Discrimination 125

The Underground Railroad 126

The Underdog South 129

Discrimination against Blacks Is Tantamount to the Gas Chambers 130

A Population Unchanged after Four Centuries 132

A Record of Slaughter 134

The Use of Biological Weapons 136

A Scrapped Treaty 138

Days of Managing Casinos 140

Schwarzenegger Seizes the Opportunity 142

7 The Standing Army and Multiracial Power 145

The Philosophy behind the Rejection of a Standing Army 145

The DNA of Washington's Democracy 147

The Withering Militia 149

What Would George Washington Think? 152

Forty Percent Minorities and Women 154

Frank Self-Criticism 156

Affirmative Action: The Supreme Imperative 159

An Encounter with Mr. Edmond 161

The Afterglow of the Black Power Movement 163

Considering Matsui and Ichiro 166

8 The 1968 Watershed 169

Johnson's Tragedy 169

The Emergence of the "Best and the Brightest" 172

The Shrewdness of Ho Chi Minh 174

A Pale Victory 176

The Self-Destruction of the Liberals 177

Kennedy's War 180

Opening the Door to China-The Kansas City Speech 183

The Vietnamization Exit 186

The "Southern Strategy" Scenario 188

Digging His Own Grave 190

The Wounds in the Democratic Party 191

My Time with Professor Riesman 192

Proof of the Watershed 202

9 The Real Neoconservatives 204

A Test in Nation-Building 204

Exuberance Revisited 207

An Encounter with the Project for the New American Century 209

The Responsibilities of the Empire of Liberty 211

The New "Best and the Brightest" 214

Powell's Watchdog 216

A Breakaway Liberal Group 219

Cool Kristol Senior 220

The Shadow of Manifest Destiny 222

10 Counterattack and Exit 226

The President's Tug of War 226

Early to Bed, Early to Rise 227

Comparison with the Berlin Airlift 229

The Existence of the Liberal Hawks 231

The Deep Psychology of Counterattack 233

A Matter of Expediency or Theology? 236

Expedient Unilateralism 239

A Look at Self-Centeredness 240

A Dreary Deactivation Ceremony in Saigon 241

The Abandoned South Vietnamese Regime 243

The Defense Secretary versus the Neoconservatives 244

A Glimpse of the "Exit" Strategy 246

The Reagan Sense of Security 248

Alert Blue Eyes 250

Encounters with Cheney and Rumsfeld 252

"Don't Underestimate Reagan" 254

Epilogue: Can There Be Another "Dresden Reconciliation"? 256

Faces from Fifty-Four Nations 256

A Visit to Scrooby 258

England-A Country with No Second Amendment 260

President Rice? 262

A Return to Herzog's Speech 264

Differences with Germany 267

The "Historical Issue" Is Now 269

Ignoring the Dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 271

Shock at Chiran 273.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-287) and index.

ISBN:

9781933330464

1933330465

OCLC:

154704463