Aug. 15 marks the 69th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The tragic memories of the war are fading as the number of survivors is dwindling and more than 100 million of the Japanese are people born after the war. Amid weathering of wartime memories, the government formally reinterpreted the Constitution, overturning its core principle of pacifism to pave the way for the Self-Defense Forces to exercise military power abroad. Many people, including those who experienced war, have expressed concerns over the current social conditions which they say resemble the time when the war was looming. On the day commemorating the end of war, we should heed their messages and have the pacifist principle etched into our minds.
In July, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration made a Cabinet decision to reinterpret the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, which bans use of force overseas, and allow Japan to take military action by exercising the right to collective self-defense. The government and the Liberal Democratic Party plan to submit bills to revise related laws including the Self-Defense Force law at the ordinary Diet session next year.
In a press conference announcing the Cabinet decision, Abe stated that the move will further reduce the possibility for Japan to get involved in war, stressing that Japan will never again be engaged in war. Abe passionately declared that the tragedy of war should never be repeated.
However, it is clear that the Abe administration forcibly reinterpreted the Article 9 to enable at least partial use of the right of collective self-defense, unlike previous governments which maintained it prohibits Japan from exercising the right. The move could let Japan make a shift from a country which “desire peace for all time,” as stated in the preface of the Constitution, to one which can wage war.
Now is the time to listen to the voices of people who were deeply involved in World War II and suffered severely.
In the Nagasaki Peace Declaration presented on Saturday, Aug. 9, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called for the abolition of nuclear weapons and, at the same time, expressed concerns over the debate on the right to collective self-defense, speaking on behalf of the people of Nagasaki, the city which suffered an atomic bombing.
“The oath prescribed in the Japanese Constitution that Japan shall renounce war is the founding principle for post-war Japan and Nagasaki,” Taue said. “However, the rushed debate over collective self-defense has given rise to the concern that this principle is wavering.”
“I urgently request that the Japanese government take serious heed of these distressed voices,” Taue said, a rare move for a mayor to refer to a country’s security policy in a peace declaration.
The Japan Agricultural News has run a three-part series “Working to feed the hungry – the summer 69 years after the war” through Thursday, Aug 14, on the lifestyle page. Farmers in their 80s and 90s, who were interviewed in the series, talked about their experiences of being forced to work their hearts out during the war to provide food for the Japanese people, while facing hunger and death themselves. They all hoped for peace to continue and expressed worries over increasing signs of Japan moving towards war.
An 84-year-old man from Nagano Prefecture received training at the Volunteer Pioneer Youth Army of Manchuria and Mongolia and went to former Manchuria in 1945. When the war ended, he was put in a concentration camp in Soviet-occupied Manchuria with his colleagues, experienced an attack by Chinese and saw a Soviet soldier shoot his friend to death. He said he feels deep concern over the government’s series of actions beginning with the establishment of the state secrets law. Since he has experienced a similar trend before the war, he says he is always trying to make young people understand the signs of war, because he never wants to see war break out again.
We must bring together such voices against war and stir up public opinion to say no to government policies which could lead the country into war. We must take to heart that media have a significant role in doing so.
(Aug. 15, 2014)