Read the latest news and updates on Japan’s military.
About the Issue:
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution reads:
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. 2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
In the aftermath of World War II, Japan’s new pacifist constitution renounced the right to wage war and maintain military forces. Instead, Japan created the Self-Defense Forces with a strictly defensive mandate.
In recent years, though, the line between defense and offense has blurred. In 2004, Japan sent its Ground Self-Defense Forces to Iraq — the first deployment of Japanese soldiers in an active combat zone in over 60 years.
With North Korea test-launching ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan and China’s economic and military expansion, Japan has started reconsidering its regional strategy.
Today, Japan has a $40 billion military budget, the fifth largest in the world.
About the Film:
Japan’s About-Face is a remarkable window into the shifting role of the military in post-war Japanese society.
WIDE ANGLE has acquired unprecedented access to the National Defense Academy, Japan’s “West Point.” We follow Defense Academy cadets preparing for a future that may involve overseas deployment, and meet with a group of peace activists — some of them atom bomb survivors — on a grueling two month, 750-mile protest march from Hiroshima to Tokyo. We also witness joint maneuvers with the U.S. Marine Corps, a surveillance flight over the Sea of Japan, and the DDH Hyuga — the first Japanese aircraft carrier built since WWII.
Japan’s About-Face offers new insight into the future of Asian geopolitics.
I understand the feelings that some Chinese might feel towards Japan. But that was a LONG time ago. The government of Japan is not the ultranationalists of the 1930’s. Hence Japan will not have a war of aggression that they had during WW2. I think the real threat is the unchecked and under reported rise of China’s military. I think that Japan has every right to defend itself.
Wayne Parker is correct – this constant berating that Japan has to take for its past is misplaced and counterproductive. Look at all the damage Britian, France, and the Dutch caused in East Asia, long before Japan ever sent a single soldier there, and no one’s telling those countries that they can’t have a military. If totalitarian states like China and North Korea are armed (and they are!), then free and democratic Japan certainly should be.
The “gene of militarism” can be found in all human societies. To suggest that it is unique to the Japanese is naive, and more than a little racist.
Hi,
I just watched this online and I will email the url of the video for some of my Japanese English students to watch. I wonder if a Japanese language version of this is available in some form in Japan?
I have read all your comments and I think all of you have some legitimate point or another. But I would like for us to look at Japan from this perspective that people even nations make mistakes and I think they can learn from it. If anyone denies that point I would like to point to the mistakes of the previous generations of Americans of wiping out the natives, enslaving people of other races and wiping Heroshima and Nagasaki off the face of the map. I believe these were mistakes made by the previous generations of American that is still hard for us, in this generation, to admit as mistakes. But has the USA been a force for good in recent times (specifically, after WWII)? I believe the answer is resoundingly YES. Though we uses some questionable means to achieve our ends of winning the cold-war. This is what I want any American to think about when looking back to the issue of Pearl Harbor, however painful the memories may be. I would also wish that other Asians will look at the big picture of the present stategic map of Asia.
1) Japan is a democratic country
2) China is a Communist country
3) Japan has substansial technological, industrial, and manufacturing capital
4) China has some but not as much as it wants.
5) China has shown that it would like to become a superpower one day (a communist country)
6) The USA is the only country providing Nuclear deterrance for its allies in Asia.
7) If for any reason the USA is no longer able to properly propect its allies, specifically Japan, S.Korea and Taiwan. Those countries can be blackmailed into a stategic alliance by either China, Russia or N.Korea
This would mean that their technological, industrial, manufacturing and monitary infrastructure will go to strenghtening a peer-competitor (Russia or China) which is not democratic and may be hostile to the USA, its other neighbors and the world.
Also, I think that many Japaneese haven’t truely considered the geopolitical picture and realized that their country may be in a precarious position not only visa-ve N.Korea, but with the issue of China and Russia.
Their country is also not a member of NATO, so the nuclear deterrence provided by the USA is not as strong as the one provided for Western Europe. Where there was a policy of Nuclear sharing (if a war occurs the USA will transfer Tactical weapons to NATO countires). Even still, the UK and France still opted to build their own minimal nuclear deterrance.
What I am saying is this, the Japanese people can not wish these problems away and the idea that if Japan remains peaceful it will not have enemies does not stand up to the test of history. Sweden, Norway and Finland were neutral at the onset of WWII and Hitler still attacked and occupies them because of their industrial infrastructure.
Japan and the other East Asian powers should not allow themselves to become a case study of what a wealthy, economically powerful country should not do.
I personally believe that the Democratic countries in Asia should be armed to the fullest extent, not just because of the shortterm problem that North korea poses, but the longer term problem posed by China and Russia.
I recently spent a year in Japan teaching English. The debate over changing Article 9 of the Constitution was quite lively. However, I got the distinct impression that my students had no idea that Japan has the fifth largest defense budget in the world. I did not. Your program certainly helped me understand just how far the country has moved in its very real struggle with this issue. This is a real struggle for the Japanese young and old. They remember all to well how WWII ended. Since I taught in Hiroshima, my students were probably even more sensitive to this matter.
The Japanese are a very hard working and pragmatic people and will determine what course will best serve their interests. They have a rich history and culture to draw upon. I hope they choose to create and maintain a strong military to counter the increasing power of some of their neighbors. However, I’m not sure they will choose that course.
In any case, your program was great!
Thank you.
If China stepped forward and forgave Japan’s invasion, then the situation in Northeast Asia would improve greatly. It’s unfortunate that for such a large and powerful nation with a rich history, China has a heart of a chichken.
Japan sees an insecure neighbor who is arming up quickly. When the time comes for China to replace the US as the wealthiest and the strongest on Earth, will it start harassing Japan and chipping away on Japan’s territory? As the defense minister said, there has to be a deterrence.
Mr. Rodriguez, Steve, and Ricecake have made some fundamental errors in their comments and made remarks that make them evidently bias against China. As a historian, I feel a need to point out the need to keep the facts straight. The Empire of Japan waged a war of annihilation and conquest against its Asian neighbors, starting in 1937, in order to expand its borders and gather resources needed for sustaining its growing population. The Empire used a variety of methods to prop up its reasons for military aggression by using false pretenses like the bombing of a railway in Manchuria and the Dragon bridge near Beijing. These facades weren’t accepted as legitimate reasons by the League of Nations – thus the Japanese Government to withdraw due to the unsatisfactory results. Over the many years leading up to the end of WWII, the Japanese military treated their fellow Asians in the most inhumane way; a good example of Japanese brutality and the most infamous war crime is the Nanjing Massacre, where well over 250,000 Chinese civilians were senselessly murdered by Japanese troops, who had been given strong resistance during their campaign to conquer China. Japan committed similar crimes throughout Asia, including, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other places across the Pacific Rim. Therefore it’s not very surprising for Asian countries like China and South Korea to have strong fear and objections to remilitarizing Japan. It occurs to me that Japan could have gotten all the things that they set their eyes on without war and arms. The attitude of Ricecake and Steve (who are obviously Japanese) are misplaced and ignorant when they put any blame on their country’s victims – in addition they represent the attitude of most Japanese people whom refuse to recognize the past crimes they committed.
in addition to adam kaffers’ comment, it should be noted that japan has engaged in conquests of china and korea as early as the 1590’s, not just 1937. it should also be noted that at the end of these invasions that took place in the 1590’s, korea suffered the most loss including scholars, tradesmen, and scientists who were captured and taken to japan. much of korean culture and technology were assimilated by the japanese, these included pottery, textiles, medicine, and smelting.
Adam Kaffers, I’ve never stated any facts on the history other than that Japan invaded China, so you needn’t correct any errors on my part. What Japan did during the early parts of the twentieth century is unjustifiable, but it baffles me that you label me as an ignorant Japanese; somehow I sense a rather strong conviction and a bias in your attitude.
Also, if you are a historian, then you are not doing a good job at that; Japan has given numerous apologies over the invasion of its Asian neighbors, and it is open about its past wrongdoings.
And your claim about most Japanese who “refuse to recognize the past crimes they committed” is stupid, because it’s not them who committed the crimes; it’s their ancestors. And you completely fail to back up your accusation against the Japanese people by providing no evidence whatsoever, contrarily to how you brought up the whole history of Japan’s past barbarism.
ed, I would point out that Yuan China, along with Korea, invaded Japan in the thirteenth century; and they even did it twice. Both of their attempts failed, though.
Apology for their war crimes:
German way of Apology Dec. 7, 1970
http://www2.facinghistory.org/Campus/Memorials.nsf/0/DC396F572BD4D99F85256FA80055E9B1
Japanese way of Apology Aug. 15, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/world/asia/16japan.html
War Crimes ??? NOT by Japan’s Standards
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2006021644468
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, one of the strongest candidates for the next Japanese Prime Minister, and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso have claimed that Japanese Class-A war criminals are not actually criminals according to Japanese civil law…….