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Japan: America's Imperial Proxy
Japan subordinates its own interests in service to American imperialism
by Stephen Lendman
On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. On September 2, WW II officially ended. Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu's formalized it aboard the USS Missouri. Both dates signify VJ (Victory over Japan) or VP (Victory in the Pacific) Day.
End of war meant occupation. General Douglas MacArthur became military governor. He ruled a conquered state.
To this day, 67 years later, Japan remains occupied. A US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) stipulates terms under which American forces remain and operate.
In his book "The Sorrows of Empire," Chalmers Johnson described SOFAs as follows:
"America's foreign military enclaves, though structurally, legally, and conceptually different from colonies, are themselves something like microcolonies in that they are completely beyond the jurisdiction of the occupied nation.""The US virtually always negotiates a 'status of forces agreement' (SOFA) with the ostensibly independent 'host' nation" - a modern day version of 19th century China's "extraterritoriality" granting foreigners charged with crimes the 'right' to be tried by his (or her) own government under his (or her) own national law."
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