Sarah Paine: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Was it a mistake to demilitarize Japan after the war? A couple of things: One is, look, they did become an ally afterwards, and if they did have a military, they could have helped us in the Korean War. The outcome might have been different with military help. Yeah, it was the secret part. They were the ones who knew about de-mining. So we had a big military drawdown after the end of World War II, and the Navy really got cut back because it was going to be all nuclear weapons, and the Air Force was going to deliver, so the Navy didn't get a whole bunch of things that it cared about, including minesweepers. So when the North Koreans are throwing a lot of mines around, it's Japanese that are helping. It was secret; that's why you don't know about it. It's not your fault. It came out in research that's recent. Another thing, when MacArthur does his Incheon landings, it's very tricky because the tides are, I don't know how many feet, like 30-foot tides. It's enormous. So you can really get stuck on mud flats if you don't time that right and know where you’re going. Who are the pilots to bring it all in? It's Japanese. And also, they did- they’ve always had a self-defense force, and they have a very competent navy. It's called a Self-Defense Force, but anybody else would call it a navy. But that then fits in with what the Constitution says we're supposed to have. But why is it a mistake to demilitarize Japan? Another reason is they had a vested interest in making sure the Communists don't take over in China. They could have provided some amount of support. If the Nationalists, it's obvious the Nationalists are going to lose, at that point maybe they would have decided to support the Nationalists against the Communists.…

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