Petr - Interesting stuff there about Japan. I'm not surprised they were in a state of shock when presented with an American style constitution.

After all, you have to imagine what it would be like if your nation (let's say the USA) fought in a huge war of several years duration...had most of its cities bombed into wreckage, and its Navy sunk...was then forced to surrender unconditionally in an elaborate ceremony to its foreign opponents, on a battleship moored in the Potomac River within sight of the White House (which would at that point be occupied by foreign troops)...and was then informed that the victors had a whole new governmental system plan all worked out for the USA, a much better one than you have had in the past....and if you will just sit down and listen, they will tell you how it's all going to be done.

Are we talking about a mild state of shock here...or a total state of indescribable dumfounded disbelief???

Think about it.

Specially in a country that has never before in history surrendered to anyone or even thought of doing so.

Would there be resentment in the USA about this a generation or two later. Hmmmm? I wonder.

I am drawing up this little scenario not to attack what you said in any way...what you said was interesting.

But it is always useful to put yourself in the other guys shoes when considering such things.

Just as the Japanese may have a hard time relating to people still being upset about the horrific atrocities their military forces committed in China and elsewhere...the Americans may have a hard time understanding why they are resented for striding like a colossus into other cultures and replacing other people's customs and ways with their own, as if it were God's will that it should so be done.

This is the blindness and complacency of great political and military powers. All of them.

- LH