Japan is softening its opposition to the
use of military force, and the Bush administration
couldn't be happier.
Sixty-one years ago,
the United States dropped an atom bomb on
Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, the US
dropped another one on Nagasaki. Ever since, the
Japanese have been committed to nuclear abolition
and a pacifist constitution.
But North
Korea's recent fireworks - seven missiles
test-launched early last month - have illuminated
a different Japan. In its desire to become a
"normal" country and counter potential attacks
from countries such as North Korea, Japan is
rapidly changing its constitution, its principles
and its military capabilities.
Some
Japanese politicians have even broached the taboo
subject of Japan acquiring its own nuclear
arsenal, much to the horror of a
generation that absorbed the
"never again" lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A major shift in Japanese attitudes came
in 1998, when North Korea launched its first
long-range rocket over Japan. It didn't take long
for Japan to unveil its new thinking. In 1999,
going on the offensive for the first time since
World War II, Japan's Self-Defense Force fired on
vessels suspected of being North Korean spy ships.
And new dramatic offensive capabilities
are on the horizon. Japan is acquiring an
in-flight refueling capability so that its air
force can conduct long-range bombing missions.
The United States has done everything to
encourage Japan to break out of its constitutional
stance of pacifism. During the Bush
administration, Japan has become one of the closet
US allies - a Great Britain of Asia. It provided
logistical support for the US war against the
Taliban and peacekeepers for the war in Iraq.
In December 2004, the diet - Japan's
parliament - passed new defense guidelines that
modified a longstanding ban on arms exports so
that the government could fully cooperate with the
United States on missile defense.
North
Korea's missile launches have only accelerated
this trend. Leading Japanese government spokesman
Shinzo Abe raised the possibility of launching a
preemptive strike against North Korea's missile
capacity.
Both Abe and Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi support revising Article 9 of
the constitution, which bars the military from
participating in war. Meanwhile, the United States
has expedited the first-time transfer of the
advanced anti-missile PAC-3 system to Japan.
Even if constrained by its constitution,
Japan's military capacity has been "normal" for
some time. Japan spends more on defense than any
other country with the exception of the United
States, Russia and China. It has a quarter of a
million people in its armed forces. It has an
overall level of technology surpassed only by that
of the United States.
Perhaps the most
troubling part of Japan's military renaissance is
the potential for Japan to become a member of the
nuclear club. Tokyo has plenty of nuclear material
and the technology to weaponize it. Japan
reportedly could produce an arsenal of nuclear
weapons in as little as six months.
If
North Korea officially goes nuclear, Japan may
well follow, driving a stake through the heart of
the non-proliferation regime.
Every year
in August, thousands of Japanese and foreign
visitors gather in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to mourn
the victims of the atomic bombs, decry the nuclear
arms race and call for peaceful alternatives to
conflict.
Unfortunately, those who
commemorate the world's only nuclear attack now
must make their voices heard closer to home.
The rising sun appears to be rising again.
And that's not good news for world peace.
John Feffer is co-director of
Foreign Policy In Focus at the International
Relations Center. He wrote this for the
Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal
commentary affiliated with The Progressive
magazine.
