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Old 10-20-2011, 10:28 PM   #23
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Re: Transmission, Inheritance, Emulation 20

Hello Mr Harrington,

A few comments.

Quote:
Scott Harrington wrote: View Post
Mr. Goldsbury,

Regarding your bringing in different views regarding the American Revolutionary War, it was very interesting but left out several points underlying the ‘revolt' which has similarities to Japan and Ueshiba's Aikido.
PAG. It was my intention to discuss three different biographies of the same person, written to general 'western' historical standards, and then compare them with the three different biographies of Morihei Ueshiba. It was never my intention to offer a general analysis of the American War of Independence. Since I could not find three different biographies, it had to be three different scholarly treatments, with gaps, biases etc, of the same episode.

Quote:
Scott Harrington wrote: View Post
And the players who set this up such as the Black Dragon Society and Ryohei Uchida (and other names and others) as mentioned by Ellis Amdur were instigators and subverters. Ueshiba's Aikibudo and Kano's Judo (there's an important subject that needs to be looked at with his connection to Uchida) fit in to those looking for power, these instructors' arts a kind of a Muscular Shinto (a takeoff on Roosevelt's Muscular Christianity when he was not practicing jujutsu).

Is Japan's self deception singular? Far from it. I remember seeing in Harper's Ferry, sight of John Brown's failed uprising to overcome slavery, a historical marker praising the south's "peculiar institution." It is still there today.

As Ueshiba went from teaching at the Nakano Spy School in the 30's to teaching High School students in the 50's one can guess which side the history was slanted by both his son, students, and a whole country.

Scott Harrington
PAG. Sure. Until you look at the constraints of prewar and wartime Japanese history-writing, you wonder how some Japanese historians could have written what they did. But then you have this tradition of historical fiction, coupled with Narita Ryuichi's idea that straight history writing and writing historical fiction are pretty much the same as a plausible narrative, so there are clearly certain respectable precedents.

As for radical Shinto ultranationalism, please wait for TIE 22. It's on its way.

Best wishes,

PAG

P A Goldsbury
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