Comments by "Jim Luebke" (@jimluebke3869) on "Japan: Could The World's Oldest Surviving Monarchy Collapse? | Asia's Monarchies | Real Royalty" video.

  1. Reasons Japan has remained pacifistic: 1) War hurt them very badly 2) They saw themselves as responsible 3) They knew the United States would protect them They've announced that any Chinese move against Taiwan would be "an existential threat", which their Constitution still allows them to defend against.
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  2. I'm curious -- was Hirohito's Mickey Mouse watch his idea, or MacArthur's? Most of the time an emperor's clothing is deeply meaningful. It's the kind of a shackle you might put on an emperor. He wore it more regularly than his regalia. Also, at the time Mickey Mouse was symbol of resourcefulness, friendliness, and a lack of pretentiousness, if you remember the oldest cartoons. Hello Kitty is a symbol of harmlessness, cute and so quiet as to have no mouth at all. This has been pointed out as symbolic of postwar Japan, as well. Just curious if the Mickey Mouse had a similar sort of meaning.
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  3. As an American, I'm happy I don't have to pay taxes to a royal house of some kind, and that there isn't any royal house telling me what to do. As long as there isn't a legal or tax burden royals place on their country, why shouldn't a country like Japan keep their royalty on as a kind of curator of the country's heritage? If America had a king or emperor whose only job was to run the Smithsonian Institution, recognizing and encouraging what was excellent about the country (and to call our politicians to account every so often), that might actually be appropriate and worthwhile. If another country wanted to run things that way, it wouldn't be so bad.
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