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Japanese troops finally on the
march
By J Sean Curtin
On
Wednesday, a snow-swept airport on Japan's rugged
northern island of Hokkaido became the starting point
for a historic journey. The dispatch of Japanese troops
to Iraq will lead to Japan's military re-emergence on
the world stage after almost six decades of exile.
However, the country is deeply divided over sending its
men into a war zone and the issue has become one of the
most politically divisive of recent years.
If
history were fussy about its venues, the remote city of
Asahikawa would still be a largely anonymous place.
However, this far-flung outpost is currently at the
heart of the Iraq-dispatch debate. The relatively small
city is the second-largest on the vast island territory
of Hokkaido. Asahikawa serves as the base and
headquarters for the 2nd Division of Japan's Ground
Self-Defense Force (GSDF).
About 150 of
Asahikawa's military personnel are destined to become
some of the first Japanese soldiers to be sent into an
active combat zone since the country's defeat in World
War II. They were to leave on Friday. A 10-man advance
party set off from Asahikawa on Wednesday for war-torn
Iraq via stopovers in Tokyo and Kuwait. They will
prepare the way for deployment of the main force, which
is to arrive in Kuwait City on Saturday and then travel
overland to the southern Iraqi city of Samawa.
Harsh winds cut into the onlookers who came to
watch the advance team's departure from snow-battered
Asahikawa Airport. A father of one of the troops, who
declined to be named, summed up his feelings: "I hope
they will be safe, we are thinking of them." Despite his
show of support for the troops, the man seemed uncertain
about the wisdom of sending them.
Kunio Sasaki,
a local politician for the opposition Democratic Party
of Japan, explained the mood in the city: "In Asahikawa
a lot of people have confused feelings about the
dispatch. While many people are against the deployment,
they are for the troops. They are very worried about the
safety of the men once they get to Iraq."
Ryoji
Yamauchi, president of Asahikawa University, observed:
"Asahikawa, and Japan as a whole, is divided on the
issue. It is rather like the situation in England. The
majority of British people were against the war, but
worried about the safety of their troops on the
battlefield. In Asahikawa, people don't want our men to
go to Iraq, but if they do go, they will support them.
They think to do otherwise would be unpatriotic."
Both men's assessments match national opinion
surveys which indicate that Japan is deeply divided over
the issue. The latest NHK survey shows that 51 percent
of people are against the troop dispatch, while 42
percent support it. Most of those who oppose the move do
so because they think Iraq is too dangerous a place to
send the GSDF, whose actions are restricted by Japan's
war-renouncing constitution.
Analyzing the troop
deployment from a different perspective, Yamauchi
comments: "You have to understand the GSDF dispatch in
the context of Japanese nationalism. The ultra-right is
growing in strength, and sending the troops is very much
in tune with their neo-nationalist vision of Japan. They
are using this issue and the abduction of Japanese
citizens by North Korea as a justification for creating
a more militaristic Japan and abolishing Japan's
war-renouncing constitution. [US President George W]
Bush and [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair just have
no understanding of the Japanese neo-nationalists'
agenda."
Izumi Karasawa, who lives near the GSDF
base, expressed the feelings of many ordinary residents:
"Why are we sending troops to Iraq? Under the
constitution, dispatching Japanese troops to a war zone
is illegal. I feel really angry about [Prime Minister
Junichiro] Koizumi violating the constitution."
The NHK poll for January showed that 82 percent
of respondents do not believe that Koizumi has given a
sufficient explanation as to why the troops are being
sent. Junichi Fujiwara, a professor at a women's college
in Asahikawa, is in no doubt why Koizumi is dispatching
the military. "The only reason Japan is sending troops
is because President Bush has told Koizumi to do it."
Fujiwara added: "I think most people are against the
troop dispatch because Iraq is just too dangerous at the
moment."
David Long, a longtime foreign resident
of Asahikawa, who lives near the GSDF base, expressed
the mixed view held by many Japanese who support the
dispatch. "The troops should go as they are soldiers and
it is their duty to obey orders. Having said that, I do
not actually think the order to send them should have
been given in the first place. Japan has already pledged
vast sums of money towards Iraqi reconstruction. I do
not see why we have to spend even more taxpayers' money
on sending troops."
Keiko Yamauchi, a former
Social Democratic Party lawmaker for Hokkaido and an
Asahikawa resident, said: "As a lawmaker, I have been to
Iraq twice. I can tell you from my own experience there
that what the Iraqi children need is medicine, not
machine-guns. The Japanese military should definitely
not be sent to Iraq. The American-led occupation should
end immediately and the United Nations should take over
control."
Even though doubts about sending the
troops are held by many people, support for Koizumi has
gone up over the past month. His ratings jumped eight
points to 54 percent in the most recent survey. This
would appear to indicate that even though the majority
of people are against the dispatch, Koizumi's popularity
will allow him to deploy the troops fully. The only
thing that could derail this plan is troop casualties.
In an attempt to avoid this, Koizumi has taken every
conceivable precaution to protect the soldiers, who will
be living in virtual fortress-like conditions.
After attending a sending-off ceremony in Tokyo,
the Asahikawa advance team and 20 other GSDF personnel
headed for Narita airport. They were all to depart
Friday evening on a commercial flight bound for Kuwait.
Thus, despite a great many reservations, Japan has taken
another step along the road to dismantling the
restrictions imposed on it after its defeat in World War
II, and Koizumi is nearer his goal of establishing Japan
as a more assertive player on the world stage.
J Sean Curtin is a GLOCOM fellow at the
Tokyo-based Japanese Institute of Global
Communications.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
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