As far as Japan becoming a peaceful country I'm afraid my respnonse is going to play into the hands of some of the more aggressive elements in this discussion.
After Admiral Perry visited Japan in the 1854 the Japanese came to the realization quickly that they had to catch up or get run over. Under the Meiji governement, they literally sent emmissaries to every country in the world with one order: "Find the best the country has to offer, find out everything you can about it, come back here, and set it up".
And they did, copying school sytems, military, economic etc. To the point where if you want the best German beer in the world, you should go to Japan to get it because they are still brewing it exactly the way the Germans were THEN.
Anyhow, modernizing Japan meant becoming an industrial nation and Japan has essentially NO natural resources upon which to build such a nation. So from very early on, she became and imperialist power. And it didn't take long, kicking Russia's butt in 1905. By WWII she was building her empire throughout South and Southeast Asia and the rest I would guess is more or less well-known.
We dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Douglass McArthur personally oversaw the forced creation of a democratic / capitalist system and the U.S. wrote Japan's constitution for them, Article 9 stating that Japan is not allowed to build or maintain an army or navy of offensive size or nature.
This constitution remains in effect today with Japan having an army of defense only. Japan has had to survive trade; for us old enough to remember the flood of "Made In Japan" stickers on every thing in the late 60's through the 70's.
So, long and short of it I'm afraid, is we "smacked them into it". Having said that however, there is a very weak comparison between Islam and Japan in that regard.
The post war solutions to Japan allowed Japan a peaceful option to get what she wanted in the first place and was likely only possible after the war. All the great powers were trading with their own colonial empires for the raw materials they needed to make things for themselves. Prior to the dissolution of those empires, Japan would have been nothing more than a street-corner pencil hawker with few interested buyers.
Once those empires were gone, Japan became an expert at taking what we invented, making it better and cheaper and selling it back to us and negotiating for the raw materials from us and our former colonies. (when I use "us" in this context, I mean the "western nations generally") Suffice it to say, these conditions do not apply to any Islamic nation.
Tad
Patriotism: Supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it. M. Twain
