2nd Civil War: Battle for America : Max von Schuler

2nd Civil War: Battle for America

Max von Schuler

Heart Publishers, 2017

Reviewed by Tadashi Hama

For Japanese people who want to understand why Americans do the things that they do, it is best is hear an explanation from an actual American, rather than a Japanese commentator. The local commentator may have an advanced degree in journalism or spent a few years in the US as a government official, but it is not likely that they spent a significant amount of time with average Americans, neither government employees nor intellectuals. For most Japanese people, however, it not easy to listen to an American, as listening to English is about as difficult as speaking it. What is most difficult, though, is finding an American who will speak his or her mind—someone willing to state the true state of affairs even though they may be “politically incorrect”. The fact is that there are few Americans who will state the obvious, such as unrestricted immigration leads to cultural destruction of the receiving country or that the liberals who are murderous in their hate of President Donald Trump are bent on fundamentally changing American culture. There are probably even fewer Americans who will point out that these same liberals, in pursuit of their beliefs, are precipitating another American civil war.

While author Max von Schuler has lived in Japan for over 40 years, he is well informed of what is going on back in his American homeland—and very dismayed. He reflects on the leftist intelligentsia high-jacking of American institutions, including schools and the mass media, when he was growing up in the 1960s and on their ongoing erasing of American history. Conservative Americans are now fighting back against further erosion of their traditional America. Indeed, von Schuler suggests that the current war of words between traditional-minded Americans and those who want to radically transform America into a totalitarian state will escalate to a shooting war. Von Schuler states that Japan will get caught in the aftermath and suffer—if it does not prepare itself.

The Japanese people, especially the younger generations, have wholeheartedly embraced American culture, but there appears to be little understanding of the Americans who created that highly prized culture. If Japanese people fully understood past and current American attitudes that formed the basis of today’s American culture, then perhaps the Japanese would be a little more discriminating in embracing American or any other alien culture. In fact, von Schuler describes the flaws that most people tend to overlook when thinking about America and Americans. Perhaps the Japanese will come to better appreciate their own culture when they take a look behind the veil.

A peoples’ culture is embedded in their history. In America, however, von Schuler points out that many Americans have started to (loudly) reject their own history by applying modern, politically correct standards and replacing it with an entirely artificial history. A good example the book gives is the current elevation of former slave Harriet Tubman, who helped slaves escape from the South, to a status above president. She has been placed above her contemporaries Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, men who actually made decisions which “shaped events” and “decided the fate” of the US and the Confederate States. In Lincoln’s case, his leadership through the American Civil War cost him his life. In contrast, von Schuler points out, Tubman merely “reacted” to events. Though noble as she was, she did not have the fate of millions of her countrymen in her hands. Nonetheless, “in today’s social climate in America, the overwhelming emphasis” in schools is now placed on her and “other people like her.” Outside of classrooms, leftists and radical Blacks are trying to erase history by tearing down statues of prominent Confederate leaders from the Civil War and banning Confederate flags because the South “was evil”. Von Schuler relates that next will be memorials to the Founding Fathers, such as George Washington “because he owned slaves.” Observes von Schuler, concerning the on-going transformation, “Traditional Communist tactics call for rewrites and revisions of history, and that is what these Marxists are doing here.” Furthermore, von Schuler points out that the current craze of destroying history and replacing it with an artificial one “resembles” the “Cultural Revolution” of Mao’s China and this would not be an exaggeration at all. One need only compare the objectives of the Chinese Communists and the American Left and extent to which both groups will go to in order to achieve their goals—what difference is there? The goal of those espousing politically correct history is a complete overhaul of America, the “destruction of present American society.”

Regarding American history, one can also point out that only one point of view is acceptable regarding World War II, especially the “Pacific War,” in that Japan was evil and that the US fought a “Good War” for the sake of “freedom and democracy”. The proliferation of so-called “comfort women” memorials in the US demonstrates how Americans have, without hesitation, bought into their own mythical history. In fact, von Schuler insists that it is now “impossible” to get Americans to accept an alternate view—even if it is true—as Americans are absorbed in finding “some wrong doing somewhere” with others so that America shines in the best possible light. Perhaps this is why, when talking about Japanese military “comfort women,” Americans avoid talking about their own troops using prostitutes in every country in which they are stationed and when condemning the Imperial Japanese Army for its “massacres,” Americans ignore their own troops murdering prisoners and noncombatants.

In fact, what is really not said aloud but von Schuler raises is that Americans have always utilized violence to enact change—“inevitably,” Americans “resort to violence, and mass killings”. The Greater East Asia War, von Schuler goes on, was due to an American need to forcibly change Japan into “something the same as America,” that America could not accept “Japan as it is.” This may sound overly broad or sweeping, and readers could cite more mundane reasons behind the Greater East Asia War, such as Japan-US economic competition, Japanese ambition to overthrow European colonialism in Asia and American pretenses to liberal internationalism. However, do these explain the thorough fire-bombing of Japan and the use of not one but two nuclear weapons against Japanese civilians? Would these explain the forcing of Japan to accept American troops, the gutting of traditional Japanese institutions that have lasted for hundreds of years and, upon the pretext of justice, the hanging of so-called war criminals for “crimes against peace,” a truly Orwellian charge?

In America, these fundamental changes to culture stoke strong feelings in traditional Americans. It was traditionalists who did not like the direction in which America was headed and put Donald Trump in the White House. Von Schuler highlights the recent riots and shootings between traditional Americans and the “Marxists” and readers may have heard of them. Americans, we are told, “cannot co-exist with themselves,” so it is unlikely that compromise will end the current troubles in the US or that it will end peacefully.

As earlier alluded to, Japan will not escape the socio-economic collapse of the US unscathed. Before that day arrives, von Shuler suggests strengthening the Self Defense Forces and increasing ties with Russia, as Japan will not be able to depend on the US for protection, and reviving agriculture, as Japan will not be able to depend on the US for food either. However, the most important step that Japan needs to take is to inoculate itself from American ideas. Von Schuler states that “too many people believe that any kind of philosophy or idea coming out of America is wonderful.” For example, leftists, both within and outside of Japan, constantly deride Japan for not taking in more non-Japanese speaking immigrants and not making Japan more “diverse”. Diversity, leftists claim, is “wonderful”. However, the inevitable effects of diversity in the US are plain for all to see: immigrant crime and terrorism, an immigrant underclass that is totally dependent on government subsidies and racial segregation of city neighborhoods. There are whole American cities in which much or most of the people are unable to use English. Given the effects of “diversity” in the US, one could be forgiven in suspecting that Japanese leftists want to see the same results in Japan. Perhaps as an inevitable consequence, Japan has adopted Western-style “hate speech laws” because the population is becoming more non-Japanese. Rather than promoting a culture based on the Japanese people and their history, the Japanese intelligentsia feels it is more important to protect “minority” rights and to silence dissent. Japan has also adopted Western business practices, such as putting individual gain ahead of what is best for the company and more or less discarded the traditional for-life worker-employee relationship. When the US collapses, so will other states that have internalized American philosophies and ideas.

By reading the current book and listening to Americans who oppose the Marxists agenda for the US, perhaps the Japanese will come to realize that Japanese Marxists and their “progressive” allies have the same vision for Japan, the transformation of Japan into another People’s Republic, wherein a fabricated history is forced upon the people, dissent is not tolerated and everyone, regardless of ability or virtue, is equal. The book urges Japanese people to reflect on Japanese ideas and history, and take a Japanese path, rather than follow America down a suicidal path. While prospects for the future of the US are grim, they need not be for Japan.