DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Was I wrong to do this? I have no regrets

**verybigf** · 09-21-2012, 10:52 PM

LOL that always makes me laugh. Most Americans don't know that we actually at war with Thailand during WWII. After Pearl Harbor, Thailand was instructed by Japan to declare war on the US and they did. Their embassy in Washington DC was simply afraid to make the statement public, and before anyone realized it Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated.

Hey, they guys working on the bomb were smart, but it was almost four years after Pearl Harbour!

I really should check the timeline, but my impression was that within a month or so after Pearl Harbour the Japanese had occupied most of SE Asia. Apart from the technicality (?) of the war declaration, it's not clear to me what the Thai government did that was very different from, say, the French government during German occupation.

I'm slightly puzzled by some of the talk here about what constitutes colonization. To me there appears to be a substantial difference between the British Empire running the "pink bits on the map", like India or Malaya (or New Zealand!) and "close relations" with Thailand.

I don't really want to get into a discussion about modern "multinational colonization" except to say that it applies also to "developed" countries such as my own.

09-21-2012, 10:52 PM	#28
verybigf Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 572 Senior Member	LOL that always makes me laugh. Most Americans don't know that we actually at war with Thailand during WWII. After Pearl Harbor, Thailand was instructed by Japan to declare war on the US and they did. Their embassy in Washington DC was simply afraid to make the statement public, and before anyone realized it Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated. Hey, they guys working on the bomb were smart, but it was almost four years after Pearl Harbour! I really should check the timeline, but my impression was that within a month or so after Pearl Harbour the Japanese had occupied most of SE Asia. Apart from the technicality (?) of the war declaration, it's not clear to me what the Thai government did that was very different from, say, the French government during German occupation. I'm slightly puzzled by some of the talk here about what constitutes colonization. To me there appears to be a substantial difference between the British Empire running the "pink bits on the map", like India or Malaya (or New Zealand!) and "close relations" with Thailand. I don't really want to get into a discussion about modern "multinational colonization" except to say that it applies also to "developed" countries such as my own.
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