(Tokyo, the most engineered city in the world; click to enlarge.)Islam Fallen, India Fallen, China Fallen, but Japan Standing
There is one interesting Islamic empire in history that existed from 1299 to 1922 to prevent Western powers from invading and colonizing the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire)
It is not only geopolitics implications but also religious implications what the fall of the Ottoman Islamic Empire in the early 20th century counts.
Or from the opposite direction, we have to see that new economy launched and deployed following the industrial revolution in Europe broke the barrier of religion that had been set up, intensified, and maintained since 1492 by holy grace:
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When Christopher Columbus first journeyed to the Bahamas in 1492, the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith, an economic power that extended over three continents. Modern Ottoman studies think that the change in relations between the Ottomans and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in the significance of the land routes to the East as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself...
Within the social and political system they were living in Ottoman administrators could not have comprehended or seen the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
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Up until the nineteenth century, European feelings towards the world of Islam was always a complex mix of respect, awe and fear. In the middle ages Islam had even come so far as to threaten the very existence of Christianity in Europe. However, the technological advances of the Industrial revolution meant that European powers had long ceased to see the Middle Eastern countries as being any kind of threat. Instead, the Ottoman empire was seen as a very weak organisation, falling apart at the seams.
All the major European Imperialists saw opportunity in the demise of this ailing power. What is surprising is that the Ottomans lasted as long as they did in very unfavourable international waters. France, Russia and Britain were the principal beneficiaries of the gradual sheddings of territory forced upon the Ottomans over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
(Regions in Red Colonized by the U.K. before WWII)http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/mideast.htm
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At this point of history, Islam could not function effectively to cope with the modern economy developed in the European Christian Civilization based on the industrial revolution.
At this point of history, India could not function well.
At this point of history, China could not function well.
At this point of history, only the Empire of Japan could function well effectively to cope with the modern economy developed in the European Christian Civilization based on the industrial revolution, since the Empire could carry out its own industrial revolution leveraging its cultural and spiritual superiority to the West.
Accordingly, even today all the Muslims are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America.
Accordingly, even today all the Indians are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America.
Accordingly, even today all the Chinese are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America.
Hence, if even today all the Japanese are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America, it would be a perfect victory of the European Christian Civilization to the rest of the world, which America actually assumes as the new leader of the European Christian Civilization.
Yet, some Japanese have come to realize significance of Japan's existence, since New York had to suffer from the 2001 September's terror attacks and the 2008 September's financial crisis, both of which impacted on the Japanese people not only in a tangible and material manner but also in an intangible and spiritual way.
Mankind can be integrated but not under the sole hegemony of the U.S. and the European Christianity Civilization that have overwhelmed the Islamic Civilization, the Indian Civilization, and the Chinese Civilization in these centuries as symbolized by the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
It is so, since lessons of the Empire of Japan should help Japan in the 21st century play a new decisive role in history.
Indeed, the Islamic Empire in the way side, India on the infertile rock, and China among thorns could not stand against Western devils in the 20th century.
But, Japan on the good ground of its traditional culture and spiritualism could survive, while sacrificing the era of the Empire of Japan but further developing into democratic, hard-working, and peace-loving Japan of today, as Jesus Christ predicted 2000 years ago...
(To be continued...)
(Nice mélodie n'est pas nécessairement accompagnée par des mots doux, ma princesse. Oh, how dear can you do dance steps so well while so many stars are falling nowadays?
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/90105-kemekonouta.htm
Source: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/900-bgm/bgm.htm)
Luk 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luk 8:12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Luk 8:13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
Luk 8:14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Luk 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.