The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (W W Norton & Company; 1998)

HISTORY GONE WRONG? 421

Arab house some years earlier, the women prepared the meal, but
did not serve or even appear; the host received and served his guests.
Two worlds.
There remains a common thread: Japanese society also has its
testosteronic bravado and taste for violence. Japan has a long history
of wars of aggression and oppression, all of them justified by national
necessity. Nothing has done more to propel Japan. Nothing has
done so much to set it back.