Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4) (Ender Quartet)

can be sure everyone on this world, at least, remembers that ancient story. Anyway, Japan locked itself away on an island, and at first refused to deal with Europeans when they came. But then an American fleet forcibly opened Japan to foreign trade, and then the Japanese made up for lost time. The Meiji Restoration led to Japan trying to industrialize and Westernize itself -- and once again a new set of strings made the puppet dance, says Hikari. Only once again, the wrong lessons were learned. Since the Europeans at the time were imperialists, dividing up Africa and Asia among them, Japan decided it wanted a piece of the imperial pie. There was China, the old puppetmaster. So there was an invasion --"
    "We were taught of this invasion on Path," said Wang-mu.
    "I'm surprised they taught any history more recent than the Mongol invasion," said Peter.
    "The Japanese were finally stopped when the Americans dropped the first nuclear weapons on two Japanese cities."
    "The equivalent, in those days, of the Little Doctor. The irresistible, total weapon. The Japanese soon came to regard these nuclear weapons as a kind of badge of pride: We were the first people ever to have been attacked by nuclear weapons. It had become a kind of permanent grievance, which wasn't a bad thing, really, because that was part of their impetus to found and populate many colonies, so that they would never be a helpless island nation again. But then along comes Aimaina Hikari, and he says -- by the way, his name is self-chosen, it's the name he used to sign his first book. It means 'Ambiguous Light.'"
    "How gnomic," said Wang-mu.
    Peter grinned. "Oh, tell him that , he'll be so proud. Anyway, in his first book, he says, The Japanese learned the wrong lesson. Those nuclear bombs cut the strings. Japan was utterly prostrate. The proud old government was destroyed, the emperor became a figurehead, democracy came to Japan, and then wealth and great power."
    "The bombs were a blessing, then?" asked Wang-mu doubtfully.
    "No, no, not at all. He thinks the wealth of Japan destroyed the people's soul. They adopted the destroyer as their father. They became America's bastard child, blasted into existence by American bombs. Puppets again."
    "Then what does he have to do with the Necessarians?"
    "Japan was bombed, he says, precisely because they were already too European. They treated China as the Europeans treated America, selfishly and brutally. But the Japanese ancestors could not bear to see their children become such beasts. So just as the gods of Japan sent a Divine Wind to stop the Chinese fleet, so the gods sent the American bombs to stop Japan from becoming an imperialist state like the Europeans. The Japanese response should have been to bear the American occupation and then, when it was over, to become purely Japanese again, chastened and whole. The title of his book was, Not Too Late ."
    "And I'll bet the Necessarians use the American bombing of Japan as another example of striking with maximum force and speed."
    "No Japanese would have dared to praise the American bombing until Hikari made it possible to see the bombing, not as Japan's victimization, but as the gods' attempt at redemption of the people."
    "So you're saying that the Necessarians respect him enough that if he changed his mind, they would change theirs -- but he won't change his mind, because he believes the bombing of Japan was a divine gift?"
    "We're hoping he will change his mind," said Peter, "or our trip will be a failure. The thing is, there's no chance he'll be open to direct persuasion from us, and Jane can't tell from his writings what or who it is who might influence him. We have to talk to him to find out where to go next -- so maybe we can change their mind."
    "This is really complicated, isn't it?" said Wang-mu.
    "Which is why I didn't think it was worth explaining it to you. What exactly are you going to do with this information? Enter into a discussion of the subtleties of history with an analytical philosopher of the first rank, like Hikari?"
    "I'm going to listen," said Wang-mu.
    "That's what you were going to do before," said Peter.
    "But now I will know who it is I'm listening to."
    "Jane thinks it was a mistake for me to tell you, because now you'll be interpreting everything he says in light of what Jane and I already think we know."
    "Tell Jane that the only people who ever prize purity of ignorance are those who profit from a monopoly on knowledge."
    Peter