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The Forum > Article Comments > For Japan 2020 vision really is hindsight > Comments

For Japan 2020 vision really is hindsight : Comments

By Tom Clifford, published 3/4/2014

Abe has vowed to push for a wholesale revision of the Japanese constitution to be enacted before the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

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A good article. Constitutional changes in Japan that open the way to a remilitarised Japan should be of major concern to Australia.

A Japan more likely to have a larger military will be of even greater concern to China and also South Korea that both see Japan as a traditional invader. Hence growing anti-Japan instability in northeast Asia may be a dangerous feature of future decades.

If constitutional changes lead the way to a nuclear armed Japan tension would obviously be dangerously high.

On a more positive tack Japan may be an increasing powerful strategic partner for Australia.

Japan may also be a future source of weapons that Australia might be able to purchase. The major weakness of the Collins submarine remains the propulsion system. Japan may have a technological solution - the propulsion system in its 4,000 ton Soryu submarine class - that might by useful for Australia's future submarines.

see http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/japans-soryu-class-submarine.html

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Thursday, 3 April 2014 11:42:37 AM
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By the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said "I think Japan will have completely restored its status and been making great contributions to peace and stability in the region and the world”
And as the author pointed out, not only is Abe “exposed early to the ultra-conservative viewpoint at the knees of his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi” who not only “committed atrocities” in WWII but he was “never tried as a war criminal after World War II” just as NO Japanese war criminals were. Even worse the Japanese people and culture makes no address of these dark days nor do they even begin to criticise the offenders. In fact as the author notes this “Nobusuke Kishi” (grandfather of Japanese current leader) was actually allowed to be a Japanese Prime Minister years later.

In this light I would ask Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister Abe, that if he really is serious about wanting his soon to be revised Japan to make “great contributions to peace and stability” then why doesn’t he start by condemning his own grandfather, and condemning Japan itself for allowing itself to ignore its own history and these dark and evil past actions and the people who perpetrated them.

That might go some little way towards appeasing those who are wary of a militarised Japan.
Consider that no mass Japanese citizenry protests or even public debate has been in play regarding this “constitution” issue to “re-militarise” Japan; no call for Japan to first address its sins the way the world forced the Germans to do post WWII.
And yes, imagine the powder-keg in the Asian region with a China superpower, India Superpower, South Korea power and militarised (western aligned), North Korea as Chinese insane puppet and add to this a Japan with a US comparible military (considering their budget size would allow this).

Ka Boombbbbb . .
Posted by Matthew S, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 7:05:25 PM
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For some reason we scholars, policy analysts, and journalists seem unable to see Japan as normal. No matter what Japan does, people view it through the lens of extremes....Japan's foreign policy is also cast in extremes. Japan is not a pacifist, but nor is it aggressive and militarist....It is a normal middle power....Those who cast Japan in these extremes overlook the cenral role that Japan can play in the East Asian balance of power (Jennifer Lind of Dartmouth College/Japan, the Never Normal, Asia Unbound/the Council on Foreign Relations. http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/?p=9725)

The British Forces can go to a distant overseas land and engage in battles there but the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are so constructed and composed as to fight in Japan's vicinities and also as to fight to their best maximum abilities only in conjunction and cooperation with the US Forces; it is as if a Japanese soldier has a rifle without a sighting device; he has got to borrow it from a US soldier if he intends to fire his rifle.

All East Asian countries, excepting China, North Korea and perhaps South Korea too, want Japan to play a more active role, political and military only in coordination with the United States.

Abe's grandfather, Kish, was nationalistic but he was not indicted at the Tokyo International Tribunal. Why he was arrested but not indicted was that the United States did not know what to do and where to begin from, before beginning the tribunal, such as what decisions were made that led to the war and who made the decisions and who said what and when, and who was responsible to what etc., and so it started to spread a very big net and arrest every minister of the Tojo Cabinet including the most dovish anti-war Foreign Minister Togo (not Tojo). You could not have hanged Kish simply because he was a Tojo's minster or simply because he was nationalistc. Incidentally, Kish had a hand in the fall of Tojo in the summer of 1943.
Posted by Michi, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 11:10:34 PM
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Mr. Clifford seems to be in an erroneous idea, too often an idea, about the militarist Japan of the 1930s. I would hope, if he is interested, that he would read Yoshimichi Moriyama's four comments to Alistair Burnett/War Drums in East Asia: Back to European Future?/Feb.11, 2014/ www.yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/war-drums-asia-back-european-future.
Posted by Michi, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 11:21:14 PM
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Correction:
I said in my first comment the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are so constructed.... I had wanted to say "not so constructed..."

In my second comment, the Tojo cabinet fell in the summer of 1944, not 1943.
Posted by Michi, Thursday, 10 April 2014 10:43:00 AM
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I was confused. The Japanese Self-Defense Forces can effectively engage in battles only in Japan's propinquity.

The presence of the US Forces is desired by East Asian countries, but the United States cannot fulfil what is expected of it without efficient and effective supplementary assistance. Either Australia or Japan or the two countries together can give the needed assistance.

I heard that a small number of Chinese top leaders met secretly last autumn and arrived at the three conclusions. The first conclusion was "We will not make war on Japan." The second was "The Japanese do not have the guts to take on us." The third was "We will continue to try to strike a devisive wedge in the US-Japanese relations."
The first and the second were admirable decisions but the third was bad because China was attempting the impossible. It would have been perfect if they had decided that they would not make war with the United States and the Americans did not have the guts to take on and fight us.
Posted by Michi, Friday, 11 April 2014 10:59:38 PM
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