History REcycled -- Then and Now

Then — Facing pressure from America's Navy in 1853, Japan rapidly industrialized and militarized during the Meiji Restoration starting in 1868. After the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Japan suppressed Korean culture. FYI- 'Sino' means Chinese or relating to China.

Now —China opened its economy and turned toward capitalism in 1978. In 2014, it began suppressing the Muslim Uyghurs in its far West.

Then — During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan crushed the Russian Navy and secured Manchuria --home of the Manchus, ‘outsiders’ who created China's Qing last dynasty the Qing. 

Now — China is currently 'warring' with nearly all its southern coastal neighbors trying to claim nearly all the South China Sea and in defiance of the international laws of the sea. 

Then — Japan started WWII in 1937 when the Marco Polo Bridge Incident stated the Second Sino-Japanese War and led up to the Nanjing Massacre — the Rape of Nanjing. 

Now —Much talk is currently circling around the rumor that China has 'openly' said it hopes to take Taiwan by 2027.

Then — Germans and Adolf Hitler longed for their former Baltic Sea port Danzig and to reclaim 'their former eastern Prussian lands.' They said the Poles were weak people, and they wanted to return all German speakers to the fatherland, starting with the ones in the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. 

Now —Vladimir Putin dreamed about getting the ports on and near Crimea back and to reclaim 'Russia's southern borderlands.'  He said the Ukrainians don't have a culture, and he invaded Ukraine under the pretense of returning the Russian speakers in the Donetsk and Luhansk to the motherland.

Then —Adolf Hitler spent much of WWII: thinking about 'good' art (in defiance of degenerate art), collecting art during the war (also called the Rape of Europe), competing with Hermann Göring to collect the most and best art (especially from Jews), and planning/dreaming about building a massive art museum at the center of his new capital city to be called Germania.

Now —Vladimir Putin has spent the last two decades: thinking about 'great' wine, collecting wine during the wars around the Black Sea (some of the world's fanciest and oldest vintages in Crimea), producing expensive wines (at Chateau Divnomorskoe), and creating a massive "Wine City" in Gelendzhik, Russia near his palace by the village of Praskoveyevka.

Then —Before World War II, the US was avoiding agreements and internationalism, shirking responsibility, and avoiding alliances. 

Now —Today, America is avoiding agreements and internationalism, shirking its responsibilities, and damaging its alliances.

Then and now, militarized autocracy was on the rise in Asia and Europe.

With the same ingredients, can we get a different cake?