You can't defend yourself against the local bully, with your hands tied behind your back; other than say, pleading guilty to, bringing your jaw into forceful contact with his fist, or your tortured trembling testicles, into even more forceful contact with his knee.
The Chinese are fairly spitting chips, because they wanted to remain unchallenged and able to expand where they wanted, or annex any territory they wanted, as very small bites too small to bring the international world, into their backyard and boxing their ears!?
So who are the barbarians, taking other nations' territories, and completely ignoring their human rights, or murdering unarmed civilians, who dare practice a non sanctioned religion or meditation; or cross borders, if only to alert others, to what some very powerful people are or were doing in the name of nationhood?
Any atrocity remains an atrocity, whether committed in conflict or so-called peacetime, or inside alleged national borders!
I'm gland the Japanese, our allies, have taken the self imposed handcuffs off, and and now taking a far more aggressive posture, and able to defend their interests outside their borders, where that's appropriate.
Someone has to be able to stand up, and say to the territory gobbling Chinese, thus far and no further!
Moreover, we venerate our war dead, even where we now finally admit, we were in the wrong, and in the wrong war, for all the wrong reasons! So why shouldn't the Japanese?
And who else was bombed into submission by nuclear weapons, rather than more honorable conventional warfare?
Surely they, our WW1 allies and current allies, have a greater right to venerate their war dead than any other nation on the planet, given what they were asked to finally endure!
Even as a peace treaty, and or, a cease fire, was on the table?
One notes, our infantry, also have a rising sun emblem, as their hat badge!
We who always see our defense force as honorable warriors, should be able to honor other honorable warriors, conferring the same rights, even on those we fought against?
Rhrosty

I recall someone saying some 40 years ago that the Eagle & the Bear will eventually unite against China. Is that time approaching now ?

Given the harassment the Eagle is currently doling out to the Bear, not to mention to the Peacock and myriad others, I think it far more likely that the Bear and the Dragon will unite against the Eagle.

My thoughts exactly, Rhrosty.

>>You can't defend yourself against the local bully, with your hands tied behind your back; other than say, pleading guilty to, bringing your jaw into forceful contact with his fist, or your tortured trembling testicles, into even more forceful contact with his knee.<<

It is close to seventy years since Japan was the bad boy of Asia. Does the author believe that it should be another i) five ii) ten iii) fifty, iv) hundred v) thousand years before a sovereign nation is once again allowed to defend themselves in the same manner as practically every other country in the world?

Seventy - effectively three generations - is reasonable, in my view.

Well, 70 years on & who are the bad boys now ? Those who told us then that the Japanese & Germans were bad. Look at how they manage everything. The bad boys of then are laughing at them. Some masses simply have no foresight whatsoever.

Rhrosty,

"And who else was bombed into submission by nuclear weapons, rather than more honorable conventional warfare?"

An "honourable invasion" of the Japanese home islands could haven resulted in hundreds of thousands of Allied casualties and perhaps millions of Japanese civilians, what's honourable about that?

Also the 'reinterpretation' of the Japanese constitution seems rather sinister, I'm sure the Koreans and Chinese won't take a sanguine view of the development. Are you sure that the Japanese are formally our allies? Whatever China's real or perceived threats to East Asia, a bellicose Japan is very bad news indeed, any incident between Japan and China has the potential to involve the US, then its loyal little ally, Australia.