Kublai Khan

By Paul Cameron Brown

The Japanese are coming! Now there's a fresh twist and just when Pearl Harbor seemed poised to become another Asiamerindian household word amid electronics, megavision and technological hoopla. Surprise. They're outslugging us. We're cannon fodder amidst cunning economic wiles. The "sneaky" Yellow Peril (updated and given a newer "slant" from that 19th century prejudicial posturing) has gone awry. No death march at Bataan. No G.I. blues. Old Cornpipes General MacArthur at ease; Inchon still years away. Where is Emperor Tojo when we need him? Who remembers the Aryans of the East? A Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere? Is SEATO still intact? If Korea, Formosa, Singapore and Hong Kong are "little Japans" does that mean we're to become, by default, the new coolies? Tha land of the Rising Sun is broader than a battleship listing in heavy seas-it's the New world Order. Is North America being prepared as hewers of grain and drawers of petroleum? Alas, co-existence brings dilemmas: the Toyota outwits even a "K" car. And them outpacing our GNP at 6% per annum. It's enough to rethink the whole scheme of things. They're obviously in the forefront of the New Economic Policy. More than just "Nippon"-that's simply a bad press release from the dark days of a misunderstood, but euphemistically labelled "second global conflict". Rubber and fibre sanctions will do it every lime. The Arizona and Oklahoma will testify to that. Feudal Japan would never have tolerated it, either. Who's to say the Samurai are caught up in splilting hairs? Admiral Perry should have stayed out of Tokyo Bay. The Earthquake of 1923 just made things worse. Land's End means more than Manchuria and resources. Industry and wily opportunism have broader vistas. The Kuril Islands are a No Man's Land hut so are the Ainus, a primordial white race of Asia. What's red and white and comes in with the tide? America. Compared to the Japanese miracle, it's all washed up. It's hard to contemplate N.Y.C. as a suburb of Osaka, but try. The Japanese believe in communal bathing, so will North Americans when the recession hits full stride. Remember, shower with a friend. Japan is a land of aura. Of mystery. Genghis Khan never got there in one piece but sent his legions anyway. Flotsam and jetsam. A bully vanquished. 1066 in reverse. Britain was the workshop of the Victorian world. Japan is the Britain of the universe. The whole cosmos is borrowing her tricks. No one does things so efficiently. No one has developed cooperation to such a fine "T". Nowhere is individualism shepherded to the goal of the "greater good". Pierre Trudeau would be pleased. "To each his own according to his worth." Sounds impressive. Does that mean Jaffa oranges are safe to eat-mercury and cyanide poisoning notwithstanding. Will the Levant acknowledge the supremacy of the Orient? What's new about mulberry leaves? Are silk worms interlopers, too? Shogun is too realistic for the narrow orchestration of facts. The difference? They play to win. Hands down, Kirin makes a wonderful beer. Sushi bars are all the rage. Leyte Gulf was more than a tempura explosion, Corning Ware or "Made in Japan" labels produced in bulk. Coral Gardens is a real and legitimate extension of the Rice Factory idea. Cipangu. As you like, what you will. No race has undergone a swifter transformation in the world's eye. They deserve more than groping admiration. They deserve our admirals, too. Who else outfoxed military victory reversing it from the insides cadaver out? The peter principle enshrined. The victors don't enjoy the spoils. The Lion's Share is as it should.