Hi Fionn, just to pick up a point in your 1210 post of 16 Feb, the way in which the established power structure (this is not an area I'm familiar with but from memory there were /are five major industrial/ power consortia including what is now Mitsubishi) in Japan was supported by America after the war is an object lesson in the real politik that underlies and will instantly replace, the nationalistic propoganda that all nations are fed in 'time of crisis'. Again from memory, MacArthur to his credit opposed this policy and advocated the breakup of all these organisations, but was overrulled by Washington who needed a quickly rebuilt economy to act as a barrier against their personal bete noir, communism. Essentially the same argument that it appears was the deciding factor in the decision to drop the atom bombs.

Pete M